Six Sigma
Six Sigma is a set of practices that are used to improve the quality of a product. It was created in 1986 by Bill Smith, who was a senior engineer at Motorola. By using Six Sigma, a company attempts to reduce variation in the process outputs, control, measure and improve manufacturing and business processes, and that success with Six Sigma is achieved by commitment of everyone in the company. To reach Six Sigma, a process in a company must produce no more than 3.4 defects per million opportunities. The definition of a defect is something that is not within the customer's specifications. It is called Six Sigma because sigma is the standard deviation and if one is six standard deviations from the mean process and specification limit, then there should be no items that are defects.
To achieve the goal of Six Sigma, companies create methodologies. There are many different types of methodologies that are use to achieve it. There are two key methodologies that are used, which are DMAIC and DMADV. DMAIC stands for define, measure, analyze, improve and control. The company must define the improvement goals for the company. The company must measure current processes to compare with future processes. The company must analyze relationships and make sure that all factors have been considered. The company must improve processes and relationships and the company must control the processes to make sure things are corrected before they become defects. DMADV stands for define, measure, analyze, design, and verify. The define, measure and analyze steps are the same as the first methodology but design and verify are different. The company must design the process that will be used to meet the customers' needs. The company must also verify the designs ...