Variation risk management using modeling and simulation

Design and manufacturing firms are under significant pressure to simultaneously increase product complexity, reduce design cycles, decrease cost, and improve quality. A key enabler to reduce cost without sacrificing quality is the control of variation during both design and manufacturing. The best time to reduce the impact of variation is in the early stages of design. This paper presents a tool set used to identify, early in the design process, where variation will have significant impact on the final cost and quality of a product. It presents the design team with a graphical view of variation risk, enabling them to quickly identify high-risk areas. The uncertainty about process capability and risk is also quantified and presented to the user.