ISSN: 2226-3624
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The Six Sigma approach can be utilized to enhance the new product prototyping process at the ABC Stationery and the current paper is focused on the Define stage of the DMAIC framework. This stage is aimed at determining the main issues, learning customer requirements and defining the scope of the project before proceeding with the analysis. The research found three key problems to the prototyping process, which include, long process duration, poor process visibility, and lack of roles and responsibilities. The key of them is the long prototyping cycle, which may also take as long as 14 weeks to complete and postpones the product testing, introduction in the market and accommodation to market trends. Moreover, poor accountability and ineffective reporting also result in communication failures and siloing of departments. SIPOC diagrams, process maps and Voice of the Customer (VOC) tools were utilised to apprehend internal customer expectations and project scope definition. The results of the 30 stakeholders revealed that there is a necessity to achieve a better efficiency level in Preparation and Part Readiness stages, and enhance the reporting visibility in Build and Test stages. These results can serve as a basis of the further improvement of stages of DMAIC.
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