Enabling Six Sigma Design Through Characteristic Lifecycle Management

The integration of design intent with process capability is fundamental to mission assurance. The inability to achieve such reconciliation during product development results in protracted production transition and costly quality escapes. The project team led by Renaissance Services defined a digital solution for bringing intelligence to the documentation of design requirements and process capability at a fundamental level: individual part & process characteristics defined by geometries, dimensions, materials, and specifications. The Phase 1 focused on the capability to develop a closed loop system for the systematic capture, application, and re-use of essential characteristic level data for the SM-3 Throttleable Divert Attitude Control System (TDACS). The envisioned solution, known as EMPOWER (Enabling Manufacturing Process Optimization with Engineering Requirements), is focused on: a) Part Producibility Analysis – validating part characteristics based on manufacturing process constraints; b) Closed Loop Process Capability – comparing actual results for part characteristics versus design requirements; and, c) Manufacturing Process Control – Generating control plans linked to key process characteristics & failure modes. EMPOWER can be applied from the beginning of product development and continuously refined, ensuring design intent and process capability are reconciled, which dramatically enhances design-to-production transition.