Applying Design for Six Sigma to Software and Hardware Systems (paperback) - Softcover

Maass, Eric

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0133359468 ISBN 13: 9780133359466

Publisher: Prentice Hall, 2009

Synopsis

The Practical, Example-Rich Guide to Building Better Systems, Software, and Hardware with DFSS

Design for Six Sigma (DFSS) offers engineers powerful opportunities to develop more successful systems, software, hardware, and processes. In Applying Design for Six Sigma to Software and Hardware Systems , two leading experts offer a realistic, step-by-step process for succeeding with DFSS. Their clear, start-to-finish roadmap is designed for successfully developing complex high-technology products and systems that require both software and hardware development.

Drawing on their unsurpassed experience leading Six Sigma at Motorola, the authors cover the entire project lifecycle, from business case through scheduling, customer-driven requirements gathering through execution. They provide real-world examples for applying their techniques to software alone, hardware alone, and systems composed of both. Product developers will find proven job aids and specific guidance about what teams and team members need to do at every stage.

Using this book’s integrated, systems approach, marketers, software professionals, and hardware developers can converge all their efforts on what really matters: addressing the customer’s true needs.

Learn how to

• Ensure that your entire team shares a solid understanding of customer needs
• Define measurable critical parameters that reflect customer requirements
• Thoroughly assess business case risk and opportunity in the context of product roadmaps and portfolios
• Prioritize development decisions and scheduling in the face of resource constraints
• Flow critical parameters down to quantifiable, verifiable requirements for every sub-process, subsystem, and component
• Use predictive engineering and advanced optimization to build products that robustly handle variations in manufacturing and usage
• Verify system capabilities and reliability based on pilots or early production samples
• Master new statistical techniques for ensuring that supply chains deliver on time, with minimal inventory
• Choose the right DFSS tools, using the authors’ step-by-step flowchart

If you’re an engineer involved in developing any new technology solution, this book will help you reflect the real Voice of the Customer, achieve better results faster, and eliminate fingerpointing.

About the Web Site  The accompanying Web site, sigmaexperts.com/dfss, provides an interactive DFSS flowchart, templates, exercises, examples, and tools.

About this title

About the Author

Eric Maass has thirty years of experience with Motorola, ranging from research and development through manufacturing, to director of operations for a $160 million business and director of design and systems engineering for Motorola’s RF Products Division. Dr.Maass was a cofounder of the Six Sigma methods at Motorola, and was a key advocate for the focus on variance reduction; his article on a “Strategy to Reduce Variance” was published in 1987, the year that Motorola announced Six Sigma. He codeveloped a patented method for multiple response optimization that has resulted in over 60 first-pass successful new products, and most recently has been the lead Master Black Belt for Design for Six Sigma at Motorola. He coauthored the Handbook of Fiber Optic Data Communication and a variety of chapters in books and articles ranging from concept selection to augmentation of design of experiments to multiple response optimization to advanced decision-making methods. Dr. Maass’s other accomplishments include driving the turnaround of the Logic Division from “virtual chapter 11” to second-most profitable division (of 22 divisions) in two years, and he also won the contract for Freescale Semiconductor’s largest customer, Qualcomm. Dr. Maass has a rather diverse educational background, with a B.A. in biological sciences, an M.S. in chemical and biomedical engineering, a Ph.D. in industrial engineering, and nearly thirty years’ experience in electrical engineering. Dr. Maass is currently consulting with and advising several companies and institutions including Motorola, Arizona State University, Oracle, and Eaton.

Patricia McNair is the director of Motorola’s software Design for Six Sigma program and a Certified Six Sigma Master Black Belt. She served as cochair of the Software Development Consortium and program director of the Motorola Six Sigma Software Academy. She travels internationally to various countries including France, England, China, Singapore, India, Malaysia, Brazil, and many others for consulting and training of Motorola engineers.
    She spent more than twenty-five years in software and systems engineering roles including systems engineering manager, design engineer manager, architect and requirements lead, senior process manager, certified SEI instructor for the introduction to CMMI, certified Six Sigma black belt, and authorized SEI CBA IPI lead assessor for various companies such as Motorola, GE Healthcare, and IBM Federal Systems, where she worked through and managed all phases of a software development life cycle, from requirement gathering, design, development, and implementation, to production and support.
    She has served as an adjunct professor at De Paul University in Chicago, the State University of New York at Binghamton, and at the University of Phoenix.
    She holds an M.S. in computer science from the State University of New York at Binghamton and an MBA from the Lake Forest Graduate School of Management.

Review

“New products are critical for growth and sustainable returns. This book is a comprehensive outline and practical reference that has wide applications to development programs both simple and complex. I am surprised by the number of organizations that rely on ‘tribal knowledge’ and outdated processes for new product development. Applying Design for Six Sigma to Software and Hardware Systems details the tools and the roadmap used by those organizations that are outpacing their competitors.”
—Ralph Quinsey, President and Chief Executive Officer,
TriQuint Semiconductor

“Applying Design for Six Sigma to Software and Hardware Systems is a must-read for anyone involved with product development. The book is very well structured, with systematic tools and guidance. There are several examples and case studies that help illustrate the concepts, and it is easy to read and provides several methods to apply for success. Finally, a great DFSS book covering both hardware and software—the right way.”
—Sam Khoury, Senior Program Manager,
General Dynamics C4 Systems

“Eric and Patricia generously share their vast technical experience in Applying Design for Six Sigma to Software and Hardware Systems. This book is filled with real-world, practical examples that make it interesting to read and easy to apply. I especially appreciate the historical perspective on the genesis of Six Sigma and evolution of DFSS from someone who was part of that process from the beginning. Many detailed flowcharts provide a useful framework for implementation of DFSS. This much-needed book fills a gap in DFSS literature and I highly recommend it. Anyone involved in designing high-tech products, in particular those with significant hardware and software components, will find it to be a very valuable resource.”
—Robert Shemenski, Jr.,
Achieving Competitive Excellence (ACE) Discipline Chief at Pratt & Whitney and Adjunct Professor of DFSS at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

“As deep as it is clear, the book is a tour-de-force of innovative, practical applications of Design for Six Sigma, and should be on every Master Black Belt’s bookshelf.”
—Matthew Barney, Ph.D., Vice President, Leadership Development,
Infosys Technologies, Ltd.

“Out of many books about Design for Six Sigma, here is a book that is based on extensive empirical evidence and a book that focuses on specific actions that middle managers, institutional leaders, and front-line supervisors can take to make their DFSS deployment as well as actual projects better today. This book challenges beliefs of earlier perception with powerful experience and strong tools used in such a way that the individual stages and maturity of companies are respected and still challenge performance rate.”
—Nina Schwartz, MBB,
Director, Six Sigma Excellence

“The book provides a comprehensive treatment of DFFS for hardware and software systems. By describing, in detail, common objections and misconceptions about DFSS and by providing the tools required to measure progress and track risks, this book is an invaluable tool to anyone keen on building superior-quality hardware and software systems.”
—Sudhakar Ramakrishna, Corporate Vice President,
Motorola Wireless Broadband Access Solutions and Software Operations

“It’s a must read for anyone who wants to achieve success and cultural institutionalization. I was responsible for deploying DFSS to more than one thousand global technology personnel at Honeywell (for both hardware, software, and HW/SW integrated solutions) and this book would have made my job much easier. Many of the concepts for success and failure are ones that I experienced firsthand. This is the first DFSS book with an approach for both software and hardware integrated systems. It’s refreshing to see a book that addresses the aspect of requirements flow down as well as aligning the procurement processes with suppliers. This book is not only theoretical but also practical, allowing the reader access to tools and templates for implementing each step of the DFSS lifecycle. The approach to risk management is the most comprehensive that I’ve seen that actually characterizes what one would experience in a real development situation and not just from a theoretical perspective. It’s clear that the authors have compiled years of practice, experience, and consultation into this excellent book on DFSS.”
—Morris Daniely, Director for Global Quality,
Honeywell Process Solutions

Edition details

• Publisher: Prentice Hall
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 0133359468
• ISBN 13: 9780133359466
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 456