High-performance computing, Boeing &, design for Six Sigma.Although Silicon Graphics (SGI (SGI, Sunnyvale, CA, www.sgi.com) A manufacturer of workstations and servers, founded in 1982 by Jim Clark. The company was founded as Silicon Graphics, Inc., but changed to its acronym in 1999. ; Mountain View, CA) is probably most well known to the public because its computers have long been used by Hollywood for generating amazing special effects and Boeing (Chicago) is known to the public for, of course, its aircraft, SGI is a leader in technical high-performance computing, and Boeing has been selling highly technical software (e.g., such as that used as the kernels of most commercially available finite element analysis Finite element analysis (FEA) is a computer simulation technique used in engineering analysis. It uses a numerical technique called the finite element method (FEM). There are many finite element software packages, both free and proprietary. packages) for quite some time. One of the things that SGI has been promoting of late is something called multidisciplinary design optimization Multidisciplinary design optimization (MDO) is a field of engineering that uses optimization methods to solve design problems incorporating a number of disciplines. It is also known as multidisciplinary optimization and multidisciplinary system design optimization (MSDO). (MDO). Rather than relying on individual, discrete analyses of aspects of a product being developed, a step-by-step approach, MDO involves running multiple simulations and analyses such that outputs from one assessment can be used for another. Now they are ratcheting things up with their collaboration with Boeing's Phantom Works. According to Dr. Dan'l Pierce, senior manager, Mathematics 6 Engineering Analysis, with the Phantom Works, he and his colleagues have developed both software and a methodology for Design for Six Sigma The introduction to this article provides insufficient context for those unfamiliar with the subject matter. Please help [ improve the introduction] to meet Wikipedia's layout standards. You can discuss the issue on the talk page. (DFSS DFSS Design For Six Sigma DFSS Defence Force School of Signals (Australian Defence Force) DFSS Decision Frontier Solutions Suite (Informix) DFSS Dielectric Frequency Selective Surface ). So the SGI-Boeing collaboration is one that's offering DFSS/MDO consulting services and product. "Most companies understand the importance of reaching Six Sigma quality," said Larry McArthur, SGI's senior director of Manufacturing Industry Marketing." They all start with fixing the process and hit the wall at 4 to 4.5 sigma, which still presents them with 30,000 defects per million opportunities In process improvement efforts, defects per million opportunities or DPMO (or nonconformities per million opportunities (NPMO)) is a measure of process performance. It is defined as And it is because of this ROI (Return On Investment) The monetary benefits derived from having spent money on developing or revising a system. In the IT world, there are more ways to compute ROI than Carter has liver pills (and for those of you who never heard of that expression, it means a lot). that McArthur thinks the AADO/DFSS program will be of interest to executives in organizations. While multidisciplinary design optimization may be of something best understood by people with "Ph.D" on their business cards, the significant savings that Six Sigma can provide (to say nothing of the fact that former GE head Jack Welch was a proponent of it) is something that the accounting minded can bank on.--GSV |
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