Initial Year Sales of New Product: $2.8 million
Description of Problem
This project took place at a company that develops and manufactures complex polymer mixtures which are then manufactured as parts. A new product needed to be developed to improve a current product in terms of product performance and to reduce a seasonal high scrap rate. The company is a leader in their market, but during summer months the polymer parts they manufactured experienced high scrap and rework rates, requiring personnel to work overtime to make enough parts to fulfill orders. While projects were ongoing to identify and fix this problem in existing products, new products were being demanded by their customers. This particular product, if successful, showed great promise in expanding a current market sector. The company decided to use our Design for Six Sigma (DFSS) methodology.