WHAT IS SIX SIGMA? (Lean Manufacturing)

This section provides a 10,000 foot overview of Six Sigma. Subsequent sections

elaborate and provide additional information on tools and techniques.

Six Sigma is a rigorous, focused and highly effective implementation of proven

quality principles and techniques. Incorporating elements from the work

of many quality pioneers, Six Sigma aims for virtually error free business performance.

Sigma, s, is a letter in the Greek alphabet used by statisticians to measure

the variability in any process. A company’s performance is measured by

the sigma level of their business processes. Traditionally companies accepted

three or four sigma performance levels as the norm, despite the fact that these

processes created between 6,200 and 67,000 problems per million opportunities!

The Six Sigma standard of 3.4 problems per million opportunities* is a response

to the increasing expectations of customers and the increased complexity of

modern products and processes.

If you’re looking for new techniques, don’t bother. Six Sigma’s magic isn’t in

statistical or high-tech razzle-dazzle. Six Sigma relies on tried and true methods

that have been around for decades. In fact, Six Sigma discards a great deal of the complexity that characterized Total Quality Management (TQM). By one

expert’s count, there were over 400 TQM tools and techniques. Six Sigma

takes a handful of proven methods and trains a small cadre of in-house technical

leaders, known as Six Sigma Black Belts, to a high level of proficiency in the

application of these techniques. To be sure, some of the methods Black Belts

use are highly advanced, including up-to-date computer technology. But the

tools are applied within a simple performance improvement model known as

Define-Measure-Analyze-Improve-Control, or DMAIC.