5.4L design
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5.4L design
6-Sigma Helps Improve New F-150 Engine
By John Fossen
DEARBORN, Mich., Aug. 27, 2003 (FCN) -- Ford Powertrain engineers who developed the new 5.4-liter, three-valve V-8 engine in the 2004 Ford F-150 used the Design for 6-Sigma (DFSS) process to achieve customer demands for increased performance.
“It takes some tools we already have and puts them in a framework that focuses on the problem at hand and on the real issues and measureables,” said Eric Ladner, a Green Belt in Powertrain Operations. “The main thing is that it forces you to translate that customer attribute and translate it into an engineering attribute.”
F-150 customers wanted increased fuel economy and horsepower, two seemingly conflicting objectives. Through DFSS, the Powertrain team concentrated on those attributes early in the design process.
“This is an excellent way of looking at design,” said Tachih Chou, another Powertrain Green Belt. “This helped us look at the details and fundamental physics in an unconventional way. It’s different. I personally benefited a lot from it.”
In the end, the team exceeded its own expectations. The 5.4-liter three-valve engine is more powerful than the 5.4-liter two-valve it is replacing, up from 260 hp to 300 hp, and is 5 percent to 7 percent more fuel efficient.
“In this case, DFSS allowed us to establish the critical factors that drive what the customers cared the most about -- performance and fuel economy -- and how we can derive that out of our engine designs,” explained Louise Goeser, vice president, Ford Quality.
DFSS is a Product Development process that translates the Voice Of The Customer into a design while quantifying the design's risk. It uses statistical tools to understand and control key dimensions that deliver critical customer attributes.
More than 200 DFSS projects have been completed since Ford began deploying Consumer Driven 6-Sigma in 2000, and another 150 projects currently are in the works.
Worldwide, Consumer Driven 6-Sigma has made significant improvements in Things Gone Wrong (TGW) and has saved Ford more than $1 billion since its inception in 2000. In fact, Black Belts have already exceeded their waste elimination objectives for 2003.
By John Fossen
DEARBORN, Mich., Aug. 27, 2003 (FCN) -- Ford Powertrain engineers who developed the new 5.4-liter, three-valve V-8 engine in the 2004 Ford F-150 used the Design for 6-Sigma (DFSS) process to achieve customer demands for increased performance.
“It takes some tools we already have and puts them in a framework that focuses on the problem at hand and on the real issues and measureables,” said Eric Ladner, a Green Belt in Powertrain Operations. “The main thing is that it forces you to translate that customer attribute and translate it into an engineering attribute.”
F-150 customers wanted increased fuel economy and horsepower, two seemingly conflicting objectives. Through DFSS, the Powertrain team concentrated on those attributes early in the design process.
“This is an excellent way of looking at design,” said Tachih Chou, another Powertrain Green Belt. “This helped us look at the details and fundamental physics in an unconventional way. It’s different. I personally benefited a lot from it.”
In the end, the team exceeded its own expectations. The 5.4-liter three-valve engine is more powerful than the 5.4-liter two-valve it is replacing, up from 260 hp to 300 hp, and is 5 percent to 7 percent more fuel efficient.
“In this case, DFSS allowed us to establish the critical factors that drive what the customers cared the most about -- performance and fuel economy -- and how we can derive that out of our engine designs,” explained Louise Goeser, vice president, Ford Quality.
DFSS is a Product Development process that translates the Voice Of The Customer into a design while quantifying the design's risk. It uses statistical tools to understand and control key dimensions that deliver critical customer attributes.
More than 200 DFSS projects have been completed since Ford began deploying Consumer Driven 6-Sigma in 2000, and another 150 projects currently are in the works.
Worldwide, Consumer Driven 6-Sigma has made significant improvements in Things Gone Wrong (TGW) and has saved Ford more than $1 billion since its inception in 2000. In fact, Black Belts have already exceeded their waste elimination objectives for 2003.