Assessment of design for six sigma and new product development implementation

Successful implementation of Design for Six Sigma and New Product Development involves best practices in Management, Infrastructure, Teams and resources and Metrics.


In partnership with NeuraMetrics, Dr. Vinny Sastri has designed a New Product Assessment tool that enables companies to evaluate the effectiveness and long term viability of their existing product development process and identify areas for improvement. It takes into account four major factors – Management, Infrastructure, Teams/Resources and Metrics. These four factors have been established from numerous surveys and studies to be critical to the success and effectiveness of an organization’s new product development process.  Management criteria include commitment, leadership and engagement. Infrastructure takes into account the existence of a corporate-wide standardized process, use of collaborative software, effective communication between functions, continuous improvement and a market focused process. The section on resources and teams deals with resource management, team effectiveness, team empowerment and skills and training. The fourth factor Metrics assesses whether an organization has appropriate quality, financial, organic growth and process effectiveness metrics.


The Opportunity Matrix (based on industry best practices) enables an organization to identify which areas of the new product development process are working well and what specific areas need improvement

How good are you at developing new products?

What if…


Every employee, customer and /or vendor could confidentially tell management what they are really doing and why

Information could be captured with minimal disruption in the workplace in a very short cycle time

The information could be instantly processed, sorted and compared to best practices, standards or customer requirements

Dashboards & graphical displays were available and could be configured to see & compare relevant information

The information was always available, consistently displayed and easy to update

Would this enable better decisions, planning and prioritization?

Could this reduce the risk of failed programs, initiatives or decisions?

Could this help save money & customers for New Product Development?

The next few entries for this blog will discuss developming new products.  This is an essential for any manufacturer no matter what industry you are in or what product you are developing.  We hope that this helps you understand the value of assessing your process and mitigating the issues uncovered before you launch the process

Breaking Down Barriers for Improved Communication

Utiliworks Insight reveals behavioral data from the web-based surveys that are taken by an audience of executives, managers and front line personnel. A unique software engine is used to interpret and present the data, allowing utilities to:


• Evaluate performance

• Determine improvement opportunities

• Identify long-term business risks

• Understand specific performance gaps

• Recognize workforce productivity based on direct employee input

...Resulting in major cost savings and improved performance

See: http://www.utiliworks.com/

Benefits of assessing a utility using Utiliworks Insight

Our utility assessment product reveals behavioral data from the web-based surveys that are taken by an audience of executives, managers and front line personnel. A unique software engine is used to interpret and present the data, allowing utilities to Evaluate performance, Determine improvement opportunities, Identify long-term business risks, Understand specific performance gaps, and Recognize workforce productivity based on direct employee input...Resulting in major cost savings and improved performance

Why Assess a Utility

You can now prioritize and address identified gaps against a specific recognized set of Best Practices developed over years of experience in the Utilities industry. Correction of the weaknesses identified by the assessment will lead to improved business outcomes with “Business Intelligence that is Strategic and Actionable”. Mediation of these weaknesses will allow a utility to (a) Determine major areas for improvement and create strategic impressions that drive the development of improvement actions (b) Identify strengths that can be used for strategic advantage or cost-effective replication of successes (c) baseline against internal standards or benchmark against industry standards to characterize progress in corrective endeavors (d) perform efficient and comprehensive assessments at a fraction of consultant-based cost (e) eliminate workplace disruption (f) and realize higher reliability conclusions by getting direct input from a large base of knowledgeable respondents. The assessment that has been developed for this market was designed in partnership with UtiliWorks Inc. a Baton Rouge, LA based professional services company that helps utility clients assess, design, procure and deploy advanced metering systems. Together, our people and processes will lower your AMI project risk and create predictable outcomes in an environment of serious change. For more information about our alliance partner please visit http://www.utiliworks.com/InsightBrochure.pdf