Abstract

Despite its growing popularity, Design for Six Sigma (DFSS) is a difficult transition for most companies. Six Sigma professionals from a number of major corporations share their experiences switching from a deterministic to a probabilistic design culture. While most firms do not have DFSS firmly entrenched in the organizational culture, or have used it only in selected design groups, several have used it on every project with great success. The lessons learned from these corporations are grouped into four categories: DFSS as a growth strategy, as a means of serving customers, as a method of achieving product/process fusion, and the DFSS engineering organization. As a growth strategy, DFSS affects program profits proportionately to the amount of initial investment in design. By moving defect detection and elimination to the front of the design cycle, DFSS reverses the traditional spending profile. In customer service, DFSS brings the customer inside, creating a partnership throughout the product life cycle. The fusion of process and product technology is a key factor in successful design. The range of solutions is broadened, allowing the elimination of manufacturing defects at the design stage. Today, design groups are finding it difficult to staff projects and cope with increased design rework as older, experienced designers leave and are replaced by engineers lacking in appropriate skills and product domain knowledge. For DFSS to be successful, the culture of engineering must change. Engineers need to be part of the design team to facilitate communication at all levels of production. At the same time, career paths must be created for probabilistic design engineers as the movement continues from reactive response to prevention of problems before they occur. A sidebar article lists challenges to be considered in the implementation of DFSS in an organization.