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Six Sigma for Electronics Design and Manufacturing
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peatability and reproducibility (GR&R) is an excellent tool to quantify
these variations in measurements. A more detailed analysis of GR&R
is given in Chapter 5.
1.13 Conclusions
Six sigma encompasses all the elements necessary for ensuring high-
quality design and manufacturing. It draws from the historical per-
spective of quality, starting with three sigma design and statistical
quality control, and moves forward to doubling the quality to six sig-
ma and bringing these quality methods into systems for product de-
sign as well as manufacturing.
This chapter presented a historical perspective on quality tools and
techniques and how they relate to six sigma. These methods have
been used by world class companies to produce new products, aiming
at the greatest customer satisfaction, with high quality and low cost.
Six sigma is a requisite for companies developing new products, and
must be used to develop aggressive but achievable goals of improving
new product quality at lower costs, and with high serviceability and
customer satisfaction. Examples of executive comments on six sigma
were quoted from two companies that pioneered six sigma: Motorola
and General Electric.
The techniques presented in this chapter included tools that one
might think are independent of each other and six sigma, such as
quality function deployment (QFD), design for manufacture (DFM)
and design of experiments (DoE). This chapter showed how they are
an integral part of the six sigma efforts. The use of these tools is in-
dispensable in reaching six sigma quality, and will be discussed in
greater detail in subsequent chapters.
Other quality planning techniques such as process mapping and
failure mode and effects analysis (FMEA) were discussed. They are
used for documenting and studying the potential defects of a system,
process, or new product design and manufacturing. They can help in
creating the environment in which quality is more proactive, allowing
engineers and designers to search for ways to reduce defects by creat-
ing a methodology to prioritize potential problems and then resolve
them. Finally, gauge repeatability and reproducibility (GR&R) was
introduced in terms of its use in determining sources of measurement
variability due to operators or measuring equipment. This is an im-
portant tool in communication between the company and its manufac-
turing and supply chain to resolve measurement problems.
The techniques, tools, and methodologies of six sigma are meant to
augment the traditional R&D development and manufacturing pro-
cess in terms of making it more responsive to customer needs.