Business Key

Six Sigma helps improve product design by providing a measured value based on customer input and supplier capability.

Here are some points to keep in mind when utilizing Six Sigma to improve any product design.

Evaluate Needs

In order to design a better product, companies should concentrate their research on finding out their target customers' needs. They should also learn to separate customer needs from wants.

Surveys should also include the target market's views on current products available in the market, their outstanding features and their shortcomings. This data can then be placed in a matrix where the various features of different products along with their corresponding reviews are placed together to ultimately decipher the impact of each product on the target customers.

This will enable the business to achieve specific rankings, which can then be used during the design process.

Some important points to keep in mind during the research phase is to interview people who have used your products along with those of your competitors and ensure that these people are asked the right questions in the right manner and at the opportune time.

Keep It Neutral

Research should not lead but should instead follow. Businesses should ensure that they only interview individuals and note down their views instead of interviewing groups where some views might be twisted due to peer pressure.

Asking the target audience on their views based on the recollection of previous product usage instead of only asking for new ideas is essential, as is trying to establish a pattern by analyzing the conduct of target customers over a specific period.

This will provide an insight into the mindset of the target market - and companies will be able to paint a picture the ideal customer based on this data.

Reduce Defects

As the original mission of Six Sigma is to reduce product and service defects, ensure that your research ends with a resolve to reduce defects and increase the ease and reliability of the product combined with an efficient service backup.

This will result in fewer complaints and will positively impact sales and profits. However, this will also set a new bar for future products, which means that you will need to surpass heightened customer expectations every time you improve on an existing product or launch a new one.

Unfortunately, even though many companies launch detailed research programs and put their products through strict tests, many products do end up in the market with multiple defects and this has resulted in many customers waiting for the market to respond favorably before deciding to buy it for themselves.

This is especially true in the automotive and electronics sectors. Ensure that the new or redesigned product addresses all the issues in research before launching it.

Six Sigma can play a very important role in determining the needs the target market and ensuring that companies bring out the right product at the right time - and that too with the least number of defects, enabling the business to achieve immediate success.

Tony Jacowski is a quality analyst for The MBA Journal. Aveta Solutions - Six Sigma Online (http://www.sixsigmaonline.org) offers online six sigma training and certification classes for lean six sigma, black belts, green belts, and yellow belts.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Tony_Jacowski