Design for
Six Sigma ( DFSS )

Do you know that nearly 30,000 new products are introduced each year and 95% of them fail? Although it may sound shocking at first, that is the harsh reality. Too often new products are doomed from the start due to technical problems, poor market research, insufficient marketing efforts, or simply, bad timing.

Companies often use a hit-and-miss approach when launching new processes, products or services. However, as Eric Ries argues in his book ‘The Lean Startup’, innovation should follow a structured, scientific approach. Design for Six Sigma (DFSS) offers exactly that, in the form of the DMADV (Define-Measure-Analyze-Design-Validate) cycle. DFSS is a structured methodology for designing and implementing any innovation. It focuses much of the effort in the early stages of development, by first carefully formulating the business or customer problem that needs to be solved, then thoroughly understanding customer needs and translating them to specific design requirements. Then, the next step is to generate different design concepts to meet customer needs (through creative thinking methods such as TRIZ) and choose the best one. After that, the best solution is developed into further detail and later – piloted at a small scale. Finally, the new solution is implemented and the process is sustained – procedures, monitoring and control plans are established to make sure the results are sustainable in the long run.

Design for Six Sigma is a very flexible methodology that can be adapted to use with any innovation – regardless of whether you are implementing a new process (or redesigning an existing one), or developing a new product or service, you can benefit greatly from the structured approach and practical tools this methodology provides.