I’m sure you’ve noticed that the manufacturing industry these days are busier than ever. Almost every day (or should I say, every hour?), a new product is launched. The high-tech gadget you’re holding right now is most likely going to be obsolete tomorrow, or even hours later.
In this fast-changing world, product cycles are expected to last for just a few months. To meet these demanding requirements, you must develop products in the shortest amount of time that are safe, reliable, and competitive.
The question now is, will you rise to the challenge? Do you have the methodology?
isixsigma.com presents a standardized Design for Six Sigma roadmap for developers. This roadmap displays the sequential use of tools for the development of robust products, keeping in mind these two types of quality:
Type 1: Customer Quality – The features that customers want.
Type 2: Engineered Quality – The problems customers do not want.
Read more about this here.
I’m guessing this same roadmap is the basis of Delphi Corporation’s Steering Division, which earned them the Best Design for Six Sigma Project in the 7th Annual Six Sigma Summit in Miami. Sponsored by Sigma Breakthrough Technologies, Inc. (SBTI), Delphi Corp, Steering Division successfully executed its Manual R&P Gear Rack Rattle Elimination project.
Almost three years ago, Delphi Technologies Inc., a subsidiary of Delphi Corp., made a bold statement of single-handedly going to redefine CAD/CAM design for manufacturers. It announced two new structured CAD/CAM methodologies for manufacturing companies – Horizontal Modeling (HM) and Digital Process Design (DPD).
According to Delphi, these methodologies can be performed using existing CAD systems, and together, Horizontal Modeling and Digital Process Design can provide a:
Using these new technologies, Delphi took off from Six Sigma and lean manufacturing. Mike Richardson, Director of Engineering at Delphi Steering claimed, “As Six Sigma and lean manufacturing have illustrated for years, disciplined product delivery methodologies can have a tremendous impact on manufacturing efficiencies. While Six Sigma and lean concentrate on what’s occurring ‘downstream,’ Delphi’s structured methodologies go ‘upstream’ to provide substantial cost savings and increased productivity throughout the design-to-manufacturing cycle.”
The result:
Designers are more productive – they can complete projects faster. They can easily share their work with colleagues on a global basis and understand each other’s design intent. Design/change cycles are accelerated, lead times are reduced, and quality is improved. Design re-use is increased, waste is reduced and the team enjoys a higher level of flexibility in their project staffing. Products get to market faster and zero-defect launches have become a reality. These benefits resulted from developing a standardized product delivery methodology. Read more…
Sources:
Design fo Six Sigma Roadmap
Delphi Makes A Huge Statement And A Bold Claim
Embracing Change in a Customer-Driven World
