Design for Six Sigma (DFSS)  ____

ASI Consulting Group are the pioneers of Design for Six Sigma (DFSS), being the first organization to provide a clear roadmap for the various quality tools that are used in DFSS. 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 new created product or solution. DFSS is relevant to the complex system/product synthesis phase, especially in the context of unprecedented system development. Contrasted with this is the traditional Six Sigma process, as it is usually practiced, which is focused on evolutionary and Continuous improvement manufacturing or service process development.Six Sigma usually occurs after initial system or product design and development has largely completed. Where as Six Sigma is used for solving existing manufacturing or service process problems (i.e., fire fighting), DFSS seeks to avoid manufacturing/service process problems by using systems engineering techniques to avoid process problems at the outset (i.e., fire prevention). These techniques include tools and processes to predict, model and simulate the product delivery system 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, Systems architecting and Concurrent engineering. DFSS is largely a design activity requiring specialized tools including: Quality Function Deployment (QFD), Axiomatic Design, TRIZ, Design of Experiments (DOE), Taguchi Methods / Robust Engineering, Tolerance Design, and the Response Surface Methodology. these tools 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.

DFSS, The ONLY way to achieve Six Sigma:

Design for Six Sigma was created to enhance the one factor almost every CEO has identified as the single sustainable competitive advantage: innovation. The problem is, its also one of the most difficult things to manage. DFSS shows managers how to generate more creativity from their staffs in a way that will not only preserve the integrity of the company, it will actually strengthen the company through better ideas, happier employees, and an environment that encourages growth instead of stifling it.

Design for Six Sigma provides the means to accelerate innovation. Those who excel in Design for Six Sigma will win; those who don't will face a very perilous future.

DFSS is not simply a rehash of the lessons learned in Six Sigma, but a fundamentally different methodology. DFSS complements the Six Sigma improvement methodology but takes it one step further - ferreting out the flaws of the product and the process during the design stage - not the quality control stage, or the production stage.