Is there a need for a new process model in product development when implementing DFSS?

Design for Six Sigma (DFSS) is a management concept fostering continuous improvement and structuring of organizations´ product development processes and their included activities. Traditionally this concept is described based on the three perspectives of processes, roles and product development methods. However, most companies working with product development are not new in the product development field. They have a tradition of developing products and thus, already an existing product development process. Therefore, the question arises whether there is a need for another concept introducing a process structure for the product development field. It is also questionable if the provided process structures in DFSS contribute with something new. This article presents an analysis of seven companies, longtime DFSS adopters as well as non-DFSS organizations, from the perspective of how well their product development process resembles the ones advocated in DFSS with the purpose to find out if there is a need for a development process structure in DFSS or if that is common sense and a pre-requisite that already exists in mature developing organizations.