Rapid expansion of data and communications needs required this Electronics Company to undertake a major upgrade of its Monoblock Duplexer product line. Due to the accelerated timelines and critical nature of this project the management team wanted the most efficient, effective and robust design possible.

A DFSS (Design for Six Sigma) team was commissioned to design and development the new product. They began by understanding the Voice of the Customer and Business Requirement and rapidly translated these into the required product specification. Data-driven decisions identified the optimal design. Appropriate input-output factors were modeled and specified to ensure a robust design with appropriate tolerances. As a result of the team’s efforts:

– The Monoblock Duplexer was upgraded to the new improved product configuration.

– Team’s activity proceeded more effectively and efficiently using tools, such as VOC, IPO diagram, DOE and other DFSS tools.

Typically, DFSS has provided at least a one sigma gain in quality at launch over previous designs. This is a major improvement over other methodologies. Additionally, DFSS conservatively decreases time to market by at least 25%. A more typically seen reduction in time to market is 25%-40%. Cost savings due to total resources utilized, which is highly correlated to time, is in the 20%-40% range.

This project yielded a $724,000 benefit in annualized ROI better than estimates of their traditional design approach.