Design for Six Sigma (DFSS)
What is Design for Six Sigma?
In short, Design for Six Sigma (DFSS) is a fact-based approach with the customer at the heart. DFSS uses a collection of analytical tools that, when integrated into the development of new processes, products, and services, enhances your organisation’s ability to meet your customers’ desires and requirements in a timely and cost-effective manner.
Identify
Identify customer needs and convert them into technical requirements.
This phase starts by identifying your customers’ desires and needs, also known as the “Voice of Customer” (VOC). You then establish your business case, identify technical and quality requirements (CTQ variables (Critical to Quality), competitor analyses, and specification boundaries), set up a team and develop a project specification (agreements on purpose, success criteria, project deliverables, etc.). Roles and responsibilities are allocated and finally, project milestones and schedules are established.
Design
Develop the best design concept based on your customers’ desires and requirements.
The design phase emphasises your Critical to Quality criteria (CTQs), where you identify functional requirements, develop potential design concepts, evaluate various alternatives and select the most suitable based on preliminary analyses, tests, and risk assessments.
Verify
Verify that the design achieves the intended function and meets customer requirements.
The verification phase consists of testing and final approval of the design. Prototypes are tested for performance, fault conditions, reliability, and potential risks. Results are continuously shared with relevant groups, such as production and procurement, so changes and improvements in design and production processes can be planned and implemented. The phase ends with a review of results and final approval.
Optimise
Optimise and refine your design to be robust and reliable.
In this phase, tolerances are evaluated, performance predicted, and alternative designs and design elements are tested. The optimisation phase requires the use of process capacity information and a statistical approach to tolerance. Detailed design elements are developed, performance predictions are made, fault-tolerance is ensured, cost optimisation is carried out, and necessary design optimisations are performed. Finally, operations begin, for example, to create prototypes for final approval.
When designing new products, services, and processes, with DFSS you can ensure robustness in the design from the beginning and avoid errors and poor quality, which could potentially be associated with substantial costs (Cost of Poor Quality), if it is only discovered and corrected later in the development process. The DFSS approach has the advantage of covering the entire development process from the ideation phase to disposal. And always with the customer at the center.
Six Sigma definition:
“Near perfect products, services or processes for customers”
Design for Six Sigma Belts, courses and competence levels
At eye4improve, we can certify at all belt levels, and ensure that courses are tailored to match the specific competencies you and your company need.
White
Belt
Design for Six Sigma White Belt
Get a short but thorough introduction to Design for Six Sigma and the associated tools, so you are aware of and understand how a DFSS project works.
Duration: 1 day of teaching
Yellow
Belt
Design for Six Sigma Yellow Belt
Gain insight into the fundamental principles of Design for Six Sigma, so you can become an active team member in DFSS projects, and assist Green Belts and Black Belts.
Duration: 3 days of teaching
Green
Belt
Design for Six Sigma Green Belt
Gain great practical insight and become capable of leading and implementing DFSS projects within your own field or department. Green Belts often spend about 25% of their working time on this.
Duration: 13 days of teaching + work on your own practical project
Black
Belt
Design for Six Sigma Black Belt
Achieve expert level and become capable of conducting complex cross-organisational DFSS projects to ensure greater robustness in products, services, and processes. Typically a 100% resource.
Duration: 19 days of teaching + work on two specific projects
Master Black
Belt
Design for Six Sigma Master Black Belt
You will become the expert who, with great professionalism, can solve critical and complicated quality challenges, take on a strategic leadership role in the organisation, and train and coach other Green Belts and Black Belts in the method.
Duration: typically 9-11 days of teaching (final number agreed individually) + practical project and coaching of Green Belts and Black Belts
Design for Six Sigma training with eye4improve
At eye4improve, we are practitioners and place great emphasis on training practitioners who can create real results and improvements in a real context.
Throughout the training, the focus is on practice, where you apply the theory to a specific development project in your own organisation (from Green Belt level and upwards). This ensures the greatest learning outcome for you while you solve an existing challenge for your company.
After a Design for Six Sigma training course with us, you will have learned to create robust products, services, and processes in development projects (always with the customer in focus). We ensure that you are well-equipped in both theory and practice so that you can immediately make a difference to your company.
- An effective and fruitful course
- Training courses tailored to you and/or your company
- Both physical classes and online teaching
- Teaching divided into manageable modules
- Teaching by Six Sigma experts
- 1-1 Coaching (for Green Belt and Black Belt in their project course)
- Combination of theory and practical training – with both theoretical exams and presentation of your own completed project as final certification (GB and BB)
- Possibility of teaching at all belt levels
- Skills you can use in the real world
Why use Design for Six Sigma (DFSS)?
Developing new products, services, or processes is a complex discipline, as there are often no previous experiences to draw on (unlike the DMAIC approach, which operates with existing products, services, or processes).
This often leads to companies having large costs in the development and production process to troubleshoot, adjust and redesign, to achieve the quality that customers demand.
DFSS can therefore reduce expenses because it avoids the costly mistakes associated with poor quality that would otherwise only be discovered later. The cost of making changes rises exponentially during a development project’s life cycle. Therefore, it makes sense to intervene already in the design phase, where the possibilities for cost savings are greatest.
Why should you choose a DFSS training course?
At eye4improve, we are experts in Six Sigma. Both in theory and in practice. We can teach you to conduct complex development projects for your company, with results that will be noticeable on the bottom line.
We have high professional competence, are passionate about what we do, and are keen to make you good!
Experienced and skilled teachers
Our teachers all have +15 years of theoretical and practical experience in Lean and Six Sigma. They are specialists and experts in the field, as well as extremely skilled teachers who understand how to convey complex knowledge, so you subsequently have the understanding and skills to use it in practice.
Certification according to the highest standard
We certify in Lean and Six Sigma to the highest standard. We keep ourselves continuously updated, so your teaching and certification is always updated and relevant. We are thorough! To become Green Belt certified with us, you receive about 100 hours of theoretical teaching over 6 months and complete a specific project for your company within 1 year. You don’t become an expert in a weekend!
We educate practitioners
We emphasise both theory and practice in our educations. You apply the theory to a specific development project in your own organisation. This ensures the greatest learning outcome for you while you solve a real challenge for your company (Green Belt and Black Belt level).
World-class online teaching
We create our own customer-adapted teaching materials. We use examples from the real world and are happy to include selected problems from your company or your field of expertise, making it easier to understand the context. In addition, we use the teaching platform from MoreSteam, which is the leading global provider of online training, certification, and technology within Lean and Six Sigma.
An extremely competent coach from eye4improve guided me during the practical part of my LEAN Six Sigma Black Belt education. It is without a doubt thanks to him that I finished my Lean Six Sigma project and subsequently got certified Black Belt.
I found that the coach was good at listening, persistent, and often challenged me, both professionally and personally. Therefore, I would like to recommend eye4improve’s skills in both LEAN, Six Sigma, and project management.
– Michael Alsing Jensen, Project Manager, VELUX
Let’s have a chat
Do you need help and guidance for specific challenges that you and your company are facing?
Don’t hesitate to contact us for a non-binding conversation. Just fill out the form, and we will contact you.
+45 22996900
(09.00 – 17.00)
