Defect-free Products through Integrated Design and Control

This paper describes the role of integrated design and control, together with six-sigma methodology, for the manufacture of virtually defect-free products. As will be shown, this can be achieved by utilizing statistical tools to quantify quality and more importantly, loss of quality and its cost. These tools assist in identifying the main sources of product variance, which are then eliminated or attenuated by appropriate integrated design of the manufacturing process and its control system. The design of an espresso machine is used as an example to illustrate the integrated approach.