Six Sigma

INTRODUCTION

What is Six Sigma?

Its a methodology to manage process variations that cause defects, defined as unacceptable deviation from the mean or target; and to systematically work towards managing variation to eliminate those defects. The objective of Six Sigma, is to deliver world class performance, reliability and value to the end customer.” It was “originally defined as the metric for measuring defects and improving quality” that “has now grown beyond defect control”.

• A transformational quality methodology which works towards process improvement and continuous enhancement of the process.

• Six Sigma is a quality assurance method that helps in managing the variations in a production process that cause defects and to develop ways to overcome those defects.

The term "Six Sigma" is widely used to refer to all of the following:

• A structured method for improving business processes. This method, called DMAIC (define, measure, analyze, improve, and control), is supported by an assortment of statistical tools.

• A statistical measurement of how well a business process is performing. A process that performs at "Six Sigma" produces only 3.4 defects out of every million opportunities to produce a defect. Processes that perform at lower sigma levels (such as one sigma or four sigma) produce more defects per million opportunities. It is possible for a process to perform at an even higher level (and thus have even fewer defects), but Six Sigma has become popular as the standard for excellent process performance.

• An organizational mindset in which people make decisions based on data, look for root causes of problems, define defects based on customer rather than internal requirements, seek to control variation, track leading indicators of problems to prevent them from happening, etc.

ORIGIN

Six Sigma was originally developed as a set of practices designed to improve manufacturing processes and eliminate defects, but its application was...