Design for Six Sigma: In Technology and Product Development

Chapter 6. Product Design Using Design For Six Sigma

The use of phases and gates to manage the timing and flow of product commercialization projects has shown strong results in many companies. Some skeptics contend that such approaches limit creativity, constrain the early discovery of problems, and hold back the speedy launch of new products. We have found that companies with such spokespeople possess some common and repeatable traits:

1. A single personality or a small clique of insiders claims to represent the voice of the customer. This driving influence is used to define new product concepts and requirements in relatively ambiguous terms that slowly enable the development team to "back themselves into a corner" to a default system architecture ...