What is Six Sigma?
The Six Sigma methodology, developed in 1986 by Motorola, is a company-wide technique to achieve breakthroughs in productivity gains and in-cycle time reduction. Motorola's creation of the original formula led them to unprecedented growth, profitability, and recognition with the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award in 1999. Six Sigma is a highly disciplined process that helps us focus on developing and delivering near-perfect products and services.
Why "Sigma"? The word is a statistical term that measures how far a given process deviates from perfection. The central idea behind Six Sigma is that if you can measure how many "defects" you have in a process, you can systematically figure out how to eliminate them and get as close to "zero defects" as possible. To achieve Six Sigma Quality, a process must produce no more than 3.4 defects per million opportunities. An "opportunity" is defined as a chance for nonconformance, or not meeting the required specifications. This means we need to be nearly flawless in executing our key processes.
The Six Sigma road map provides businesses with the tools to improve the sigma capability of their processes - leading to defect reduction and great improvement in profits. Companies with an effective infrastructure that remains consistent with the classic Six Sigma system realize dramatic income improvements - often shortly after implementation.
Benefits of Six Sigma