Enabling Six Sigma Design Through Characteristic Lifecycle Management

Integration of design intent with process capability is fundamental to mission assurance. Inability to achieve such integration during product development means costly and protracted production transition, quality escapes, even system failures. This proposal addresses feasibility of a system for real-time, quantitative information, linking design requirements to the manufacturing processes that must deliver those requirements-starting early in product development, progressing over the development process lifecycle, providing continuous understanding of product maturity. Design for Six Sigma (DFSS) seeks process capability data and integrates it with design to link product expectations and process capability. To realize the DFSS vision, knowledge must be captured early in product development; it must be quantifiable and at a level of detail to define product/process relationships. Renaissance Services proposes an electronic system, bringing intelligence to the documentation of design requirements and process capability at a fundamental level: individual characteristics defined by geometries, dimensions, materials, and process/performance specifications. This system-Characteristic Lifecycle Management-can be applied from the beginning of product development and continuously refined, ensuring design intent and process capability are understood, dramatically enhancing design-to-production transition. This will improve development cycle times, increase quality, and improve producibility/productivity, substantially enhancing mission assurance for all products essential to MDA.