Today’s hyper-competitive business environment is creating a need for even more new products, new services, and new processes. Design for Six Sigma (DFSS) offers a generalized and effective approach for designing new products and services from the ground up. One of the more popular DFSS methodologies is define, measure, analyze, design, verify (DMADV).

Unfortunately, DFSS doesn’t address how new ideas are generated in the first place nor does it offer a framework for creating a sustainable innovation process. The innovation or ideation process starts much earlier in the typical DMADV process. See figure 1.

Figure 1

The focus of this article is two-fold: first, discuss innovation and its importance to an organization. Second, present a suggested approach for developing and implementing a sustainable innovation process in your own company.

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