Research on product reliability improvement by using DMAIC process: A case study of cold cathode fluorescent lamp

Abstract

Purpose

Define, measure, analyze, improve and control (DMAIC) and define, measure, analyze, design and verify (DMADV) are two Six Sigma methodologies that improve quality in a process or product. In general, if the product design improvement in reliability cannot satisfy the failure‐free performance of Six Sigma, the DMADV process is used to create or redesign new product designs. However, the original function may be affected, and the product development cycle time may be enhanced due to a redesigned process. This paper aims to propose a new procedure to combine the reliability parameter and critical to quality (CTQ) to improve a product's reliability and to reduce the number of engineering changes without redesigning.

Design/methodology/approach

The study influences the failure parameter to find out the mean time to failure (MTTF) tree and utilizes the DMAIC process for improvement. It is important to maintain the function while improving time. This study looks at a cold cathode fluorescent lamp (CCFL) case.

Findings

The CCFL case uses the DMAIC process finds that important root cause improvement can increase MTTF twofold.

Originality/value

The paper provides useful information on product reliability improvement using the DMAIC process.

Citation

Cheng, C. and Kuan, C. (2012), "Research on product reliability improvement by using DMAIC process: A case study of cold cathode fluorescent lamp", Asian Journal on Quality, Vol. 13 No. 1, pp. 67-76. https://doi.org/10.1108/15982681211237833