Calculating a Sigma Level for Quality Measurement of 3D CAD Models from Their Error Occurrence Characteristics

As more individuals and organizations participate in the complex design process of manufacturing industry, collaborative product development and management of the global supply chain have become more popular. Although the product quality concerns once focused on the manufacturing process, they are now directed at earlier stages of the design cycle where the engineering product is created as a 3D CAD model. In this paper, we describe the current state of product data quality activities in the manufacturing industry and the yardstick to measure 3D CAD data quality. Moreover we introduce a quality assurance method through the result of statistical analysis of 3D CAD models and suggest a six sigma level of CAD data quality by analyzing 76 samples provided from three Korean automotive companies.