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Original Date: 09/14/1998
Revision Date: 01/18/2007
Information : Six Sigma Robust Design Process
Raytheon Missile Systems Company’s (RMSC’s) Product, Process, and Performance Improvement Group has begun implementing six sigma process controls into the company’s early design cycles via the Six Sigma Robust Design process. This customer-focused, quality improvement discipline is expected to provide a framework for significantly reducing defects in key products and processes. Nowadays, customers demand higher levels of product performance and quality, at a lower cost, and with greater responsiveness through reduced cycle times and added value. This process will enable RMSC to maintain its focus on these customer demands.
The goal of the Six Sigma Robust Design process is to identify design drivers that have the potential to negatively impact production and cause increased quantities of defects per unit. The process uses a methodology to predict defect rates of new design concepts, and allows design engineers to optimize the design performance prior to manufacturing. Early visibility of product performance, product yields, costs, and cycle times provides design engineers with the necessary information, thus enabling design for manufacturing, cost efficiency, and customer satisfaction. The six steps to six sigma are: identify requirements; identify critical characteristics of the product; identify the sources of variability that affect quality; establish targets and tolerances; assess first-time yield; and adjust designs and processes to meet sigma targets. These steps help the user predict process performance during all product development phases.
The Six Sigma Robust Design process also uses the SigmaCard Scorecard to provide an opportunity-and-defect-per- unit overview of a program, and the Process Capability Analysis Tool (PCAT) Set to model a process, based on cost, from a process perspective. Recent, robust-design, success stories (utilizing PCAT Set) addressed a reduction in defects per million opportunities. The result was $48.3 million in cost avoidance for RMSC’s missile programs.
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