Quality Function Deployment in Continuous Improvement

Abstract

Six Sigma is a customer focused continuous improvement strategy and discipline that minimizes defects. It is a philosophy to promote excellence in all business processes with aggressive target goals. Six Sigma is a five phase methodology for continuous improvement which uses a metric based on standard deviation. It is also a statistic which describes the amount of variation in a process. Six Sigma is focused on customer satisfaction and cost reduction by reducing variation in processes. At the core of the method, Six Sigma utilizes a discipline that strives to minimize defects and variation of critical variables towards an achievement of 3.4 defects per million opportunities in product design, production, and administrative processes. Customer satisfaction and cost reduction can be realized by reducing variation in processes that produce products and services which they use. While focused on reducing variation, the Six Sigma methodology uses a well-defined problem solving approach with the application of statistical tools. The methodology uses five phases including DefineMeasure-Analyze-Improve-Control (DMAIC). The purpose of the five phases are to define the problem, measure the process performance, analyze the process for root causes, improve the process by eliminating or reducing root causes, and control the improved process to hold the gains. The goals of Six Sigma include developing a world-class culture, developing leaders, and supporting long-range objectives. There are numerous benefits of Six Sigma including a stronger knowledge of products and processes, a reduction in defects, an increased customer satisfaction level that generates business growth and improves profitability, an increased communication and teamwork, and a common set of tools. Six Sigma is commonly credited to Bill Smith, an engineer at Motorola, who coined the term in 1984. The concept was originally developed as a safety margin of fifty percent in design for product performance specifications. This safety margin was equivalent to a Six Sigma level of capability. Since it’s first introduction, Six Sigma has continued to evolve over time and has been adopted throughout the world as a standard business practice. In order to achieve Six Sigma, an organization must understand the customer’s wants and needs, also known as the voice of the customer (VOC). The voice of the customer is defined as the identification, structuring, and prioritization of customer needs. Within the Six Sigma DMAIC methodology, gathering the voice of the customer falls within the define phase. This enables the team to fully understand the customer’s expectations at the beginning of