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.
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