Page 210 - Six Sigma for electronics design and manufacturing

% Based on 100 at Concept Stage
120
100
80
60
40 Six Sigma Quality and Manufacturing Costs of Electronics Products 177
20
0
Concept Design Prototype Beta Production

Figure 6.3 Cost history of an electronic product based on the concept stage.

manufactured, either in the company’s own facilities or in the glob-
al supply chain.
Cost history of the product. The costs of the product can be identi-
fied in terms of labor, material, overhead, depreciation on capital,
NRE tooling, quality, and administration costs. These costs can be
tracked over the design as well as the production phases of the
product to show impact of design changes and investment in au-
tomation. An example of the cost history of an electronic product
based on the concept stage is given in Figure 6.3
Volume sensitivity of the product. Depending on forecast accuracy
and upside potential, several levels of automation and manufactur-
ing strategies can be used to estimate product costs. An example of
the volume sensitivity in the typical cost percentages of a consumer
electronic product is given in Figure 6.4.

6.2 The Quality and Cost Relationship
The impact of using quality metrics such as six sigma is that they de-
velop a good accounting of defect causes in the product but do not
show the impact of the cost to the company. Several attempts to link
the two elements of quality and cost were developed. The quality loss
function (QLF) is one of the tools attempting to link quality and cost.