About Us

We founded MechSigma Consulting, Inc. with a mission of designing mechanical products that meet quality goals without compromising manufacturability or performance.

We began this journey at Raytheon Systems Company, formerly Texas Instruments Defense Systems & Electronics Group (TI DSEG). In 1992, TI DSEG applied for and won the prestigious Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award. As part of the Baldrige application process, TI benchmarked several companies’ best practices, including Motorola’s Six Sigma processes.

As part of the Six Sigma rollout at TI, we took the manufacturing principles of Motorola’s Six Sigma and applied them in the design world. This “Design for Six Sigma (DFSS)” implementation required us to develop mechanical design specific processes and tools that we call Mechanical Tolerancing for Six Sigma. As co-founders of Raytheon’s Mechanical Tolerancing and Performance Sigma Center for Excellence, we successfully integrated Six Sigma, DFSS and MTSS into the dimensional management processes.

Since those days, we have assisted Maurice Berrryman and Associates with implementing DFSS in several major companies. Today, we focus on the mechanical dimensional management processes, training and tools to help companies meet their performance and manufacturing objectives.

Qualifications

Paul Drake, PE, GDTP S-0176
• 40 years experience as a Mechanical Engineer
• 30 years experience in Mechanical Design for
Six Sigma (DFSS)
• Trained more than 13,000 people in GD&T
• Trained more than 2,500 people in Mechanical Tolerancing for Six Sigma
• Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology
• BA/Physics University of the South
• ASME Certified Senior Level Geometric Dimensioning and Tolerancing Professional (GDTP S-0176)
• Registered Professional Engineer (Texas), P.E. 74433
• Six Sigma Blackbelt (Texas Instruments, Inc.)
• Chair of ASME Y14.5, Dimensioning and Tolerancing subcommittee
• Member and past vice-chair of ASME Y14.5.2, Certification of GD&T Professionals subcommittee (GDTP)

Publications and Patents

Patents:

• Tolerance Analysis System, US Patent 5,581,466
• A Capability Predictor, US Patent 7,110,956 and European Patent 0811941
• Mechanical Tolerance Method, US Patent 7,024,263

Publications

• Editor and primary author of “Dimensioning and Tolerancing Handbook“ (McGraw-Hill, 1999)
• Six Sigma Optical Tolerancing, Six Sigma Blackbelt Symposium, Rochester, New York, 1998
• Auto-tolerancing on Optical Systems, International Symposium on Optical Science, Engineering, and Instrumentation, International Society for Optical Engineering, SPIE’s 42nd Annual Meeting, July/Aug. 1997
• Statistical Analysis of a Four-Bar Linkage: Producing a Six Sigma Design, TI Six Sigma – Reaching Our Goal publication, Sept. 1995
• Geometric Dimensioning and Tolerancing, International Satellite Seminar, National Technological University, June 1995

• “Classical Mechanical Tolerancing,” TI Technical Journal, Jan/Feb. 1995
• “Modeling Manufacturing Process Output as a Function of Design Features,“ First Annual TI Process Capability Conference, Oct. 1994
• Using Tolerance Analysis to Predict Defects, TI Six Sigma – Reaching Our Goal publication, Oct. 1993
• “Mechanical Tolerance Analysis of Fixed and Floating Fasteners,” TI Technical Journal, Nov./Dec. 1992
• “Tolerancing and the Manufacturing Engineer,” Manufacturing Engineering, April 2002
• “Deploying Six Sigma in Manufacturing,” Six Sigma Quality in Manufacturing, May 23, 2002