DFSS stands for ‘Design For Six Sigma’ and DMADV stands for ‘Design Measure Analyze Design Verify’; they’re both the same process.
The standard project management structure in Six Sigma is DMAIC (Design, Measure, Analyze, Improve, Control) which is the procedure to greatly improve procedures, and remove waste and issues from them. What do you do though if you need a completely redesigned or even new process or product instead of just an improved one? For that you need Design for Six Sigma or DMADV which like DMAIC has 5 standard steps to follow – Define Measure Analyze Design Verify.
Define
The Define step is essentially the same as in DMAIC (take care though – the Measure and Analyze steps are different!) – you’re defining the project problem you’re trying to solve, who the team is, and what the process you’re working with is and who you’re doing it for.
Aims summary:
- Team creation
- Choose team members
- Training of the team if requried
- Project Charter
- Overall aim of the project
- Timeframe
- Team
- Get authorisation from management
Measure
This is data collection; what are you looking to measure, how are you going to measure them and carry out the measurements. You’re looking to collect all the data on how the system currently is, and what is the situation you’re looking for.
Analyze
Analyze the data collected in the Measure stage, and match them up with the goals from the Define stage. You’re looking at how the various inputs into the system affect the outputs, and how variations in operation affect how the system works.
Design
Design is the upgraded version of the ‘Improve’ section in DMAIC. Instead of working out how you can improve the current process, you’re creating a new process from scratch, using the data that you’ve put together in the Define, Measure and Analyze steps.
Verify
The final stage is to make sure that the new structure is in place how it was intended, and is working according to plan. You can test and do trials, to check you’re getting the outputs you wanted, and proceed into production.