Six Sigma

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INTRODUCTION TO SIX SIGMA FOR TECHNICAL PROCESSES

Product and Technology Portfolio Definition

Research and Technology Development

Strategic

Inbound R&TD and Design Engineering

Post-Launch Production and Service Support Engineering

Technical Processes

Operational

Tactical
Product Commercialization

Outbound Production and Service Support Engineering

ISBN:0-536-59485-6

Six Sigma for Technical Processes: An Overview for R&D Executives, Technical Leaders, and Engineering Managers, by Clyde M. Creveling. Published by Prentice Hall. Copyright © 2007 by Pearson Education, Inc.

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SIX SIGMA FOR TECHNICAL PROCESSES

Setting the Stage for Growth
Product and technology portfolio planning, research and technology development (R&TD), productcommercialization, post-launch production and service support engineering, and Six Sigma … is there a link? Can technical professionals successfully integrate the tools, methods, and best practices of Six Sigma into their day-to-day work? The answer is, yes—but you have to understand how Six Sigma is evolving in technical processes to make the connection. The original 13 or so tools of Six Sigma growconsiderably when your work is focused on preventing problems instead of reacting to them. Certainly, design and manufacturing engineering professionals have proven that Six Sigma works well in their processes. DFSS has become an accepted approach to enhancing the capability to commercialize new products. The DMAIC process has been used to improve existing designs and the processes that make them in manycompanies across the world. A fairly large number of companies use DFSS in their day-to-day commercialization activities, called standard work, to enhance design team performance and provide optimal production and service support engineering. A few companies—very few—have a thriving culture of using a form of DFSS in their advanced technology development and research processes. We call it Six Sigmafor R&TD or Technology Development for Six Sigma (TDFSS). The work done in this environment produces robust and tunable technologies: platforms and modular designs that enable multigenerational product families to reach their strategic financial growth entitlement (potential). This discipline enhances their capability to maximize growth in terms of ongoing revenue generation from innovation withintheir core technical processes. In this book, technical processes include technology portfolio architecting, R&TD, product commercialization, and post-launch engineering work. Two distinct categories now exist in which you can
ISBN: 0-536-59485-6

Six Sigma for Technical Processes: An Overview for R&D Executives, Technical Leaders, and Engineering Managers, by Clyde M. Creveling. Published byPrentice Hall. Copyright © 2007 by Pearson Education, Inc.

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INTRODUCTION TO SIX SIGMA FOR TECHNICAL PROCESSES

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classify Six Sigma applications for technology portfolio architecting, R&TD, product commercialization, and post-launch engineering. The older category involves using DMAIC Six Sigma and Lean methods to correct problems and increase flow in existing technicalprocesses—quick, “emergency” action. The new category involves enabling and enhancing technical processes to prevent problems before they become an issue. Our goal is to use Six Sigma on a sustained basis to become consistent and predictable at conducting value-adding tasks during technology portfolio architecting, R&TD, commercialization, and post-launch engineering support. The shift in the SixSigma paradigm that this book addresses comes from reacting to problems created by rushing technologies into design and products into the market, to prevent problems, by design, through proactively planning work. Paraphrasing what Albert Einstein has stated, “We cannot solve our problems by approaching them with the same state of mind we had when we first created them.” That is why many see...