Page 37 - Six Sigma for electronics design and manufacturing

Six Sigma for Electronics Design and Manufacturing
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inspections are needed in the factory prior to delivery to the customer,
in order to deliver higher quality. Six sigma advocates the identifica-
tion of these costs during the design stage, prior to the manufacturing
release of the product, so that these costs are well understood. In ad-
dition, it has been demonstrated in six sigma programs that the cost
of changing the product in the design stage to achieve higher quality,
whether through design changes, different specifications, better man-
ufacturing methods, or alternate suppliers, are much lower than sub-
sequent testing and inspection in manufacturing. These issues are
discussed in the chapters on product testing (Chapter 4) and cost
(Chapter 6).
3. Many companies feel that the six sigma programs only work well
for large-volume, well-established, and consumer-oriented companies
such as Motorola and GE, but do not work for other industries such as
aerospace, defense, or medical, since their volumes are small or they
are more focused on maximizing the performance of products or re-
ducing the time of development projects.
There are many statistical methods that can be used to supplant
the sampling and analysis required for six sigma, allowing smaller
companies the full benefits of six sigma in product design and manu-
facturing. Six sigma methods can be used successfully to introduce
new low-volume products as well as quantifying marginal designs.
These methods will be discussed in the chapters on high and low vol-
ume (Chapter 5) and six sigma current and new products (Chapter 8).
4. Many engineers feel that six sigma is for manufacturing only,
not for product design, and that it is very difficult to accomplish and
cannot be achieved in a timely manner.
In this book, there will be many examples of using six sigma and its
associated tools, such as design of experiments (DoE), in product de-
sign. These methods can help in realizing the six sigma goals and tar-
gets in a timely and organized manner in design and manufacturing.
In addition, there are many examples where design engineers were
surprised to find out that they are already achieving six sigma in cur-
rent designs. Six sigma can also be used to flush out “gold plated” de-
signs: designs that are overly robust, beyond the six sigma limits, and
therefore costing more than required. These issues are discussed in
Chapter 7 on DoE and Chapter 8 on designing current and new prod-
ucts.
1.4 The Definitions of Six Sigma
Six sigma integrates well with all of the quality programs and trends
of the last few decades. The purpose of this section is to outline con-
ceptually where the six sigma program connects in the quality hierar-