A winning product has to consistently outperform its rivals by providi
ng value in today's highly competitive markets. At the heart of consis
tent value is robust design - the process of ensuring that a product w
ill perform well despite variations in raw materials, components, manu
facturing, and operating conditions. It consists of steps for identify
ing key parameters that affect the customer, analyzing to predict and
improve robustness, and measuring to confirm performance. As it exists
in AT&T's Transmission Systems Business Unit (TSBU) for hardware deve
lopment, robust design is a real, effective process. It should be used
to ensure design robustness for all designs, especially those intende
d for multi-use platforms.