Design for Six Sigma
The Revolutionary Process for
Achieving Extraordinary Profits
By Subir Chowdhury
Financial Times / Pearson Education
September 2003
ISBN: 0273662694
184 Pages, 6 1/4" x 9 1/2"
$72.50 Hardcover
OUT OF PRINT
Six Sigma -- the management strategy Jack Welch attributes GE's phenomenal success to -- is being implemented by many leading organizations looking for dramatic profit increases and improved customer satisfaction. But Six Sigma in production is less than half the story -- Six Sigma in design is where the money is.
If you change a product after it is launched it will cost you 1,000 times more than if you made those changes during the design stage. Subir Chowdhury, the leading quality expert who introduced Six Sigma to the UK in his last book, has done it again. The current book attacks a company's problems at the product development stage and presents a revolutionary five-step process that takes a company all the way to Six Sigma.
Contents
The opening explains how so many of our worst disasters – from the Challenger
tragedy to the Firestone recall – could have been easily avoided with a great
focus on quality at every turn. It goes on to show how Design for Six Sigma
(DFSS) can solve them.
Chapter-1: Introduction This chapter, naturally enough, is an introduction
to DFSS, but also includes a brief review of its predecessor, Six Sigma, and
explains how DFSS is fundamentally different. The kernal here is that Six
Sigma works to repair a problem at its source (instead of just patching holes)
while DFSS takes it one step farther back, to design flawless products and
processes in the first place. Part-I People Power of DFSS
Chapter-2: DFSS Implementation Strategy In Chapter Two we learn how DFSS is
implemented, which in itself is a rigorous and crucial process. You never
get a second chance to make a first impression, as they say, so a good roll-out
of DFSS is vital to its success, especially among employees who might have
grown weary of so many quality and management initiatives over the years.
Chapter-3: People Roles in DFSS Because DFSS, like Six Sigma, depends on the
creation of many new roles for each employee involved, this chapter takes
the time to explain all of them: what they are, what they do, and how they’re
trained. This is more than just renaming things, however, ecause – as any
good football coach knows – the key to success for any team is for each player
to have a clear, specific job, the accountability to make sure it’s done right
and the rewards for doing so. Part-II Process Power of DFSS
Chapter-4: Identify and Define Opportunity Now we’re getting to the crux of
the biscuit, as they say. This chapter covers the first two steps of the five-step
DFSS process – namely, Identifying the Project and Defining the Opportunity.
(The others are Develop concept, Optimize and Verify – which spells out IDDOV.)
The goal of this phase is to identify what the customer wants and define the
requirements of a product or process that will satisfy their needs. Because
all future activities of the Project will build on the foundations established
in this phase, its importance cannot be overemphasized. A small mistake here
will have ripple effects and grow into ugly results down the road, like kinking
the branch of a sapling to watch it become a deformed arm of an otherwise
mighty oak. Care must be taken to do the job right, from the outset.
Chapter-5: Develop Concepts A maxim for investigative journalists is: Follow
the money. Our guiding principle for Phase II will be: follow the deliverables.
The most important deliverable from Phase II is a design concept that not
only has the best chance to meet customer requirements, but is also free of
failure potential.
Chapter-6: Optimize Design This is where things get really interesting, because
this phase moves us from simply taking in information to making decisions
about the information we have, and taking action to create something special.
Now that we have all our ingredients on the kitchen counter, it’s time to
start cooking. We are now ready to optimize the design using Robust Design,
a concept as familiar as it is misunderstood. After Robust Design is completed,
Tolerance Design will follow to optimize tolerances to achieve the highest
quality at the lowest possible cost.
Chapter-7: Verify Design In this phase we will verify the design, validate
our process, establish process controls, complete a formal cost-benefit analysis
and "capture" the lessons learned for future endeavors. Needless to say, this
phase is a busy one. It is also one of the most rewarding, as we get to see
the puzzle take shape, and begin to reap the fruits of our efforts.
Author
Subir Chowdhury is Executive Vice President at the American Supplier Institute
(ASI), an international consulting and training firm for Six Sigma and quality.
Prior to ASI, he served as a quality management consultant at General Motors
Corporation. Hailed by the New York Times as a 'Leading Quality Expert,' he
has received numerous international awards for his leadership in quality management
and major contributions to the automotive industry. He has also written several
other books including The Power of Six Sigma, Management 21C
and The Talent Era (published by Financial Times Prentice Hall).
Reviews
"Chowdhury effectively communciates how to turn Six Sigma strategy into a
breakthrough performance." Dave B Burritt, Six Sigma Champion, Caterpillar
Inc. "Design for Six Sigma will help your company greatly increase its competitive
strength." Rob Lindner, Vice President, Corporate Quality, Sunbeam Corporation
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