Design for Six Sigma, its Potential Effect on Weight in Modern Military Aircraft

Six Sigma is one of the current quality tools that is being introduced in to the design and manufacture
of products. The paper starts by introducing the reader to Design for Six Sigma (DFSS), on which the
concept is based and the key stages within the DFSS process. The goal of DFSS is to reduce the
amount of variation in the design so that fewer defects are seen in manufacturing. To reduce variation
and defects in a product the designed tolerance and the manufacturing process capability need to be
increased. However, there is little current published research on the effect that this would have on the
overall assembled product and the customer requirements in modern military aircraft. One of the most
crucial customer requirements within the military aircraft industry is that of weight. This research
identifies the potential risk associated with meeting the customer requirements if variation reduction is
implemented into the design. The findings in this research indicate that there could be potential issues,
including excessive costs to the long term customer requirements.