Designing Products and Processes Using Six Sigma

This five-day course takes a hands-on, measurement-oriented approach to product development, providing participants with a toolkit of analysis methods and leveraging industry best practices, such as the Design-for-Six-Sigma methodology of DMADV (Define, Measure, Analyze, Design, Verify) and CMMI High Maturity. This course builds upon basic statistical concepts from the Improving Process Performance Using Six Sigma course. More advanced and powerful analytical methods are introduced through short lectures and extensive hands-on practice sessions using problems traditionally faced by new product development teams. Participants learn a framework in the form of tools, methods, and practices for analyzing data to make more informed business decisions about project management (quality, schedule, and cost) and process and product performance. The ways in which these quality measurement practices relate to improvement models such as the Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) are also discussed.

Who should attend?

• Product Development Leaders (Systems, Hardware, Software)
• Those who need a working knowledge of CMMI high maturity measurement practices used to drive performance improvement in both process and product design:
• CMMI instructors
• Lead Appraisers for SCAMPI Class A appraisals
• Team leaders for SCAMPI Class B&C appraisals
• Members of engineering process groups, quality improvement groups, process action teams, or appraisal teams

Topics

• Industry best practices for measurement-oriented product development
• Design-for-Six-Sigma methodology of DMADV (Define, Measure, Analyze, Design, Verify)
• CMMI High Maturity and quality measurement practices
• Basic statistical concepts and analytical methods
• Tools, methods, and practices for data analysis for project management

Objectives

• implement a variety of measurement techniques to dramatically improve requirements engineering and solution selection
• use advanced measurement techniques to model uncertainty and predict cost and schedule performance
• select and implement uncertainty models and advanced statistics to anticipate, predict, understand, and test process and product quality
• understand basic process modeling and simulation concepts
• use modern design of experiments and optimization techniques for robust product design

Prerequisites

Before registering for this course, participants must

• complete the Improving Process Performance Using Six Sigma (IPPSS) course or possess equivalent knowledge approved by the SEI SEMA team. All requests for waivers of the IPPSS class must be submitted to sema-courses@sei.cmu.edu
  2 months prior to the start of the course. The request for waiver must include proof of the following for review by the SEMA team: educational background, professional development courses, and measurement and Six Sigma work experience.

Before attending this course, participants must

• install student copies of a number of software tools outlined in the pre-course student letter (statistics package, Monte Carlo simulation tool, process modeling tool, and a reliability growth modeling tool)

Students must bring a personal computer equipped with

• Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional with Service Pack 3, Windows XP Home Edition with Service Pack 2, Windows XP Professional with Service Pack 2, or Windows Vista (tested on Windows Vista Enterprise, Business, Home Premium, and Home Basic editions)
• Microsoft Excel 2000, 2002 (XP), 2003, or 2007
• Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0 or later
• Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 (or 3.0 with Windows XP versions or Vista)
• Pentium-equivalent microprocessor (800 MHz or faster)
• at least 512 MB of RAM
• at least 88 MB of hard disk space for .NET Framework 2.0 and another 58 MB for .NET Framework 3.0 (if not already installed) and at least 400 MB for additional applications to be installed. (Note: Each of the first two components listed requires approximately twice the given amount of disk space during installation.)
• CD-ROM drive or USB port
• video graphics adapter and monitor with at least 1024x768 resolution
• Adobe Acrobat Reader 6.0 or later

Please note: Beta versions of Microsoft Office Products are not supported.

Materials

Participants will receive a course notebook with copies of the course slides.

Schedule

This 5-day course meets at the following times:
Days 1-4, 8:30 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. (U.S. locations)
Day 5, 8:30 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. (U.S. locations)

Days 1-4, 9:00 a.m. - 5:30 p.m. (non-U.S. locations)
Day 5, 9:00 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. (non-U.S. locations)