Preface 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.
