Design for Six Sigma (DFSS) is a separate and emerging discipline related to Six Sigma quality processes. The tools and order used in Six Sigma require a process to be in place and functioning. DFSS has a different objective, that of determining the needs of customers and the business, and driving those needs into the product solution created. DFSS is relevant to the complex system/product synthesis phase, especially in the context of unprecedented system development. Contrasted with this is the traditional DMAIC Six Sigma process, as it is usually practiced, which is focused on evolutionary and Continuous improvement manufacturing or service process development. DMAIC Six Sigma usually occurs after initial system or product design and development has largely completed. In this way, DMAIC Six Sigma as practiced is usually consumed with solving existing manufacturing or service process problems (e.g., fire fighting). The often used six sigma symbol Six Sigma is a methodology to manage process variations that cause defects, defined as unacceptable deviation from the mean or target; and to systematically work towards managing variation to eliminate those defects[1]. The objective of Six Sigma is to deliver high performance, reliability... Continuous improvement is a phrase suggesting that a process or product should always get better as knowledge about it and experience with it accumulates over time. ...

DFSS seeks to avoid manufacturing/service process problems by using systems engineering techniques to avoid process problems at the outset (e.g., fire prevention). These techniques include tools and processes to predict, model and simulate the product delivery system (the processes/tools, personnel and organization, training, facilities, and logistics to produce the product/service) as well as the analysis of the developing system life cycle itself to ensure customer satisfaction with the proposed system design solution. In this way, DFSS is closely related to Systems engineering, Operations research (solving the Knapsack problem), Systems architecting and Concurrent engineering. DFSS is largely a design activity requiring specialized tools including: Quality function deployment, Axiomatic design, TRIZ, Design for X, Design of experiments (DOE), Taguchi methods, Tolerance design, and the Response surface methodology. While these tools are sometimes used in the classic DMAIC Six Sigma process, they are uniquely used by DFSS to analyze new and unprecedented systems/products. A graphical flowchart of common DFSS tools can be seen at DFSS Roadmap. Systems engineering is an interdisciplinary approach and means for enabling the realization and deployment of successful systems. ... Operations research, operational research, or simply OR is an interdisciplinary science which deploys scientific methods like mathematical modeling, statistics, and algorithms to decision making in complex real world problems which are concerned with coordination and execution of the operations within an organization. ... The knapsack problem is a problem in combinatorial optimization. ... Product Lifecycle Management or PLM is a term used for the process of managing the entire lifecycle of a product from its conception, through design and manufacture to service and disposal. ... QFD House of Quality for Enterprise Product Development Processes Quality function deployment or QFD is a flexible and comprehensive group decision making technique used in product or service development, brand marketing, and product management. ... Axiomatic design is system design methodology using matrix methods to systematically analyze the transformation of customer needs into functional requirements, design parameters, and process variables. ... TRIZ, (pronounced [triz]), is a Russian acronym for Teoriya Resheniya Izobretatelskikh Zadatch (Теория решения изобретательских задач), a Theory of solving inventive problems or Theory of inventive problems solving (TIPS) (less known as Theory of Solving Inventors Problems), developed by Genrich Altshuller and his colleagues since 1946. ... This article or section may be confusing or unclear for some readers, and should be edited to rectify this. ... The first statistician to consider a methodology for the design of experiments was Sir Ronald A. Fisher. ... Taguchi methods are statistical methods developed largely by Genichi Taguchi to improve the quality of manufactured goods. ... Response surface methodology (RSM for short) explores the relationships between several explanatory variables and one or more response variables. ...

Proponents of DMAIC techniques might claim that DFSS falls under the general rubric of Six Sigma. It is often seen that the tools used for DFSS techniques vary widely from those used for DMAIC Six Sigma. In particular, DMAIC practitioners often use new or existing mechanical drawings and manufacturing process instructions as the originating information to perform their analysis, while DFSS practitioners often use system simulations and parametric system design/analysis tools to predict both cost and performance of candidate system architectures. While it can be claimed that two processes are similar, in practice the working medium differs enough so that DFSS requires different tool sets in order to perform its system design tasks. DMAIC Six Sigma may still be used during depth-first plunges into the system architecture analysis and for "back end" Six Sigma processes; DFSS provides system design processes used in front-end complex system designs.

References

• Subir Chowdhury, The Power of Design for Six Sigma, Dearborn Trade, 2002, ISBN 0-7931-6060-X

• Subir Chowdhury, Design for Six Sigma, Dearborn Trade, 2002, ISBN 0-7931-5224-0

• Yang & El Haik, Design for Six Sigma, McGraw-Hill, 2003, ISBN 0-07-141208-5

• Stamatis, Six Sigma and Beyond: Design for Six Sigma, Volume VI, CRC Press, 2002, ISBN 1-57444-315-1

Define,Identify, Measure

• ==External links==*

• http://www.spcpress.com/ink_pdfs/The%20Final%206%20Sigma%20Zone.pdf