DMADV is a process defined by Motorola as part of their Six Sigma management philosophy. DMADV is applied to new processes to make sure that they achieve Six Sigma quality. Six Sigma sets extremely ambitious goals to minimize the occurrence of flaws in products and services.

The letters in the abbreviation DMADV stand for "define, measure, analyze, design, verify," the steps in the ordered process. Those steps can be summarized as follows.

• Define: State the problem, specify the customer set, identify the goals, and outline the target process.
• Measure: Decide what parameters need to be quantified, work out the best way to measure them, collect the necessary data, and carry out the measurements by experiment.
• Analyze: Identify performance goals and determine how process inputs are likely to affect process outputs.
• Design: Work out details, optimize the methods, run simulations if necessary, and plan for design verification.
• Verify: Check the design to be sure it was set up according to plan, conduct trials of the processes to make sure that they work, and begin production or sales.

The other Six Sigma process is called Sigma DMAIC, which stands for "define, measure, analyze, improve, control." This set of steps scrutinizes existing processes that are known to fall short of Six Sigma requirements. All Six Sigma processes are executed by Six Sigma experts designated according to "belt color," using a scheme similar to the ones used in martial arts.

12 Sep 2012