INTRODUCTION TO SOFTWARE DESIGN FOR SIX SIGMA (DFSS) - Software Design for Six-Sigma: A Roadmap for Excellence - page 184

of critical to quality characteristics, concept selection, detailed design of products
and processes, and control plans. 11
To achieve this, most DFSS methodologies tend to use advanced design tools
(quality function deployment, failure modes and effects analysis, benchmarking,
axiomatic design, simulation, design of experiments, simulation, statistical optimiza-
tion, error proofing, cause- and effect-matrix, Kano analysis, Pugh matrix, and so
on). Some of these techniques are discussed in here. We selected a critical one to
cover in dedicated chapters (Chapters 12-19).

8.7.1 Sample Identify Phase DFSS Tools

Design should begin with the customer. DFSS focuses on determining what customers
require and value through a range of tools, including customer voices analysis,
Affinity diagramming, quality function deployment (QFD), 12 house of quality (HOQ),
Kano model, voice of the customer table, and analytic hierarchy process.
The VOC is a process used to capture the requirements and feedback from the
customer (internal or external) to provide the customers with the best-in-class product
(or service) quality. This process is all about being proactive and constantly inno-
vative to capture the changing requirements of the customers with time. Within any
organization, there are multiple customer voices: the procuring unit, the user, and the
supporting maintenance unit. Within any of those units, there also may be multiple
customer voices. The “voice of the customer” is the term used to describe the stated
and unstated needs or requirements of the customer. The voice of the customer can be
captured in a variety of ways: direct discussion or interviews, surveys, focus groups,
customer specifications, observation, warranty data, field reports, complaint logs,
and so on. These data are used to identify the quality attributes needed for a supplied
component or material to incorporate in the process or product.
VOC is methodology that allows a project team to record information about
customer needs in a way that captures the context of those needs to enable the team to
better understand an explicit and implicit customer requirement. For each customer
statement, the team identifies the demographic information and information about
software use. The information is categorized in terms of basic questions—what,
where, when, why, and how—that provide a context for analyzing and understanding
the customer statement.
HOQ the major matrix in QFD helps the software DFSS team member structure
his or her thinking, reach a consensus about where to focus the attention of the
organization, and communicate this information throughout the organization. This
tool helps ensure that they do not leave anything out where they identify CTQs that
are the source of customer satisfaction, at the system level, subsystem level, and
component level.
QFD is a systematic process for motivating a team to focus on their customers
to identify and resolve issues involved in providing software products, processes,

11 http://www.plm.automation.siemens.com/en us/Images/wp nx six sigma tcm1023-23275.pdf
12 See Chapter 12.