Design for Six Sigma in product development at Ford Motor Company in a case study on robust exhaust manifold design

Many Design for Six Sigma approaches used throughout the industry have one critical aspect, which is the linkage between the phases of the product development process and ultimately how effectively design decisions can be influenced. Presenting a case study on robust design of exhaust manifolds, we show how transfer function knowledge is used to ensure less iterations than previously needed, satisfy program timing needs and systematically generate a robust solution. This case study uses a parametric model for Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) and experimental design techniques especially suitable for computer model responses. Meta-modelling is, in this case, the measure against resource-intensive Computer-Aided Engineering (CAE) applications. Analysing the range of all packageable alternatives, rather than just nominal parameters, allows for the assessment of robustness under the presence of noise factors, such as dimensional part-to-part variation. The outcome is a new approach in the manifold design.