Designing Six Sigma Quality into a RWD IRS Driveline System for Improved Vehicle-Level NVH Performance

This paper discusses a Design For Six Sigma (DFSS) approach to a driveline system NVH design process as used on a RWD IRS (Independent Rear Suspension) vehicle program. It is shown how this approach helped understand the ways variability in the driveline system (mount properties and locations) affected output to the rest of the vehicle. A series of CAE and DFSS tools were used to deliver a distribution that described the vehicle Driveline Roughness performance, to identify the critical control factors that affected the performance, and to reduce the response sensitivity to variability of these critical factors. Other driveline issues were factored into the process indirectly.