Six Sigma

The importance of six sigma quality in today’s business environment is substantial. “To sustain sufficient probability in today’s highly competitive market, companies have to launch processes to improve their performance” (Pillet & Maire, 2008). Manu found that “the key for most organizations to remain competitive in a high-growth and fast changing environment is strong delivery capability made possible by uniform and effective processes, structure, and discipline of planning and monitoring initiatives that translate strategy into reality”. Manu and Pillet et al. are essentially conveying the same message, implementing process improvements that allow for superior customer experiences are crucial to the effectiveness of an organization. Six Sigma and quality improvement in today’s market place allows companies many opportunities for improvement, while still delivering a quality product and superior customer service. This paper will provide the background of Six Sigma and quality improvement, the steps included in Six Sigma, pros and cons of Six Sigma as well as how Six Sigma and quality improvement are implemented within an organization. Before diving into the history of Six Sigma, it is important to point out that while Six Sigma and Project Management have similarities, there is a difference between the two disciplines.

One similarity is that both disciplines strive to reduce costs associated with operational processes. According to Michael Burkett, “the concept of reducing product complexity in an effort to reduce costs to serve has been around for years”. Another similarity of these disciplines is the focus on quality as an overarching objective. “By considering both disciplines in terms of the fundamental principles of customer focus, teamwork and continuous improvement, it can be shown that instituting a formal project methodology and instituting PM techniques, project-based organizations are fulfilling the principles of quality” (Orwig & Brennan, 2000)....