While DFSS, or Design for Six Sigma, is technically considered a completely different process approach to business management and process or product improvement, it still relies on many of the same principles of traditional Six Sigma Training. Taking the time to differentiate between the two can prove to be a bit challenging, but the ultimate difference is that DFSS is designed to handle new products and processes that are not already in place, while Six Sigma Process is specifically designed to renovate existing processes and products to improve their quality and functionality.

DFSS, as it stands, skips a lot of the basic parts of the traditional Six Sigma Process simply due to the irrelevant nature of them. For example, there is no need to do an analysis or measurement of the current process or product because there isn’t one. Compiling data to forecast what outcomes will occur as a result of the new product or process, however, can still prove to be a very useful tool in determining the worthiness of creating that product or process. If you look at it from another perspective, it can be surmised that DFSS is designed for front-end system designs while DMAIC Six Sigma focuses more on back end processes and improving existing structures.

This investigation into the various differences between traditional Six Sigma Methodology and Design for Six Sigma leads many to question the origins of DFSS. Historically speaking, the process was created mostly out of need during the traditional Six Sigma Process. Many teams found that they couldn’t surpass three or four sigma without having to do a complete redesign of the product or process in question. This led them to create a new method of analyzing the effectiveness of new designs that is known today as DFSS. Software Engineering is the main application that beckoned for this new concept of analysis, although it has since been applied across many different disciplines.

While DFSS has many different practices from that of traditional Six Sigma Training and methodology, many will still argue that it falls into the same classification as its predecessor. Therefore, that leaves many feeling that the separation of DFSS from the Six Sigma DMAIC process is not true and complete, because the two are still so interlinked in basic format and concept. Regardless of these opinions, DFSS clearly has a different objective and uses different tools, which is why it is a separate entity and not one of the many categories of traditional Six Sigma Training or processes.