BNET Business Dictionary
Business Definition for: Six Sigma
- a data-driven method for achieving near perfect quality. Sigma is the Greek letter used to denote standard deviation, or the measure of variation from the mean, which in production terms is used to imply a defect. The greater the number of sigmas, the fewer the defects. In true Six Sigma environments, companies operate at a quality level of six standard deviations from the mean, or at a defect level of 3.4 per million. Six Sigma analysis can be focused upon any part of production or service activities, and has a strong emphasis on statistical analysis in design, manufacturing, and customer-oriented activities. It is based on statistical tools and techniques of quality management developed by Joseph Juran. It was pioneered in the United States by Motorola, and subsequently became much more popular in the 1990s after its adoption by General Electric under Jack Welch.
Additional Resources
- The Cult of Six Sigma |BTalk Australia
- (24min 37) Six Sigma is a business improvement pioneered by Motorola, embraced by General Electric and now used by many large corporations throughout the world. Today on BTalk Australia Phil Dobbie talks to Alan Skinner, a six sigma "black belt" from the Faculty of Business at the...
- Blog posts 2008-07-24
- Pursuing Perfection in Healthcare With Six Sigma
- "This paper is intended to help executives and other professionals in healthcare tap into the power of Six Sigma.It contains a brief overview of Six Sigma, a discussion on the impact and dynamics of problems facing health care organizations and the results obtainable through Six Sigma implementation. The fundamental objective...
- White papers 2003-01-01
- Digital Six Sigma: Integrating Continuous Improvement, With Continuous Change, With Continuous Learning
- Six Sigma is a widely practiced leadership framework and management methodology that drives business improvement. As a quality method, Six Sigma has always undergone development in the marketplace, first with Design for Six Sigma, now with New Six Sigma, and soon with Digital Six Sigma. Six Sigma is in fact...
- White papers 2003-06-15
- Digital Six Sigma Integrating Continuous Improvement, With Continuous Change, With Continuous Learning
- Six Sigma is a widely practiced leadership framework and management methodology that drives business improvement. As a quality method, Six Sigma has always undergone development in the marketplace, first with Design For Six Sigma, now with New Six Sigma, and soon with Digital Six Sigma. Six Sigma is in fact...
- White papers 2003-12-02
- Executive Summary: Deploying Six Sigma to Bolster Business Processes and the Bottom Line
- Six Sigma is the fastest growing business management system, credited with saving billions of dollars for companies during the past 10 years. Developed by Motorola in the mid-1980s, Six Sigma became well known after General Electric's Jack Welch made it a central focus of GE's business strategy in 1995. The...
- White papers 2003-01-01
- Choosing a Six Sigma project
- As the name of article states how to choose six sigma project, here are some questions to help technical communicators choose projects that can utilize their particular skills and satisfy the rigors of the Six Sigma processes. Some come to Six Sigma, others have Six Sigma thrust upon them. This...
- White papers 2002-01-17
- The Six Sigma Method and Design of Experiments
- Six Sigma is becoming a proven approach for businesses and organizations to improve their performance. The spectrum of companies actively engaging in Six Sigma today is wide from industrials. Once the organization has created their own vision of Six Sigma, the business leaders need to define their organization's objectives in...
- White papers 2003-01-01
- Six Sigma Survey : Big Success...But What About The Other 98 Percent?
- Six Sigma has greatly affected the businesses that have embraced it, producing incredible cost savings, and waste reduction. A Six Sigma Survey takes a snapshot of who's using Six Sigma and, with the help of some notable Six Sigma experts, focuses on the state of Six Sigma and where it...
- White papers 2003-01-01
- Managing Teams and Six Sigma
- Managing a Six Sigma team is a considerable responsibility. Six Sigma is a team process and requires cooperation at many levels. No one person can manage a Six Sigma project on their own. Just as it is the organization that benefits from Six Sigma, it is the organization that truly...
- White papers
- Why Six Sigma?
- 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. A company's performance is measured by the sigma level of their business processes. In fact, Six...
- White papers 2003-01-01
- Implementing Six Sigma
- "The article focuses on question : How can you make quality part of the culture, not just the procedure? Six Sigma was developed originally by Motorola to pursue the target : completely satisfying customer needs profitably. Six Sigma describes the criteria as proven box of powerful tools and strict...
- White papers 2000-01-01
- Six Sigma and the Evolution of Quality in Product Development
- All models are wrong but some are useful. Quality in product development began with attempts to inspect quality into products or services either in the process domain scrap and rework, the design domain verification tests and durability failures or the customer domain warranty costs and complaints. Six-sigma encompasses almost all...
- White papers 2001-11-01
- Does Six Sigma Work in Smaller Companies?
- The article tries to illustrate the happenings and features of different level of Six-Sigma. Most companies today operate at a Sigma Level between three sigma and four sigma, where the cost of quality is 15 to 25% of revenue. As the company moves to Six Sigma Quality Levels, their Cost...
- White papers 2003-01-01
- Six Sigma Projects Yield Significant Improvements In Strategic Business Areas
- Six Sigma project description and details are very brief for two reasons. Firstly confidential agreements with all of clients and secondly these are intended only for concept not all of the details of a six sigma project. All six sigma projects were major strategic business issues for the organizations involved....
- Case studies 2003-01-01
- Want More Profits? Implement Six Sigma
- Based on benchmarking data, about 26% of organizations either have a formal six sigma program implemented and in place, or are pursuing six sigma as a strategic improvement program. The benchmarking data also shows that this slow adoption trend is changing rapidly. This article explains future of six sigma. Six...
- White papers 2003-01-01
- The Role of Human Resources (HR) in Six Sigma
- Chances are you've heard of Six Sigma, perhaps in connection with General Electric, the company that made it popular in the 1990s. You may even know that Six Sigma uses statistical techniques to improve processes in both manufacturing and service industries. But did you know there is an important role...
- White papers 2003-01-01
- Six Sigma: Enabling Your Business Strategy
- As many organizations have realized, Six Sigma is more than a quality initiative. It is a structured approach for creating common goals and accelerating learning across organizational boundaries. Appropriately applied, the Six Sigma methodology will help one develop and implement a business strategy that will meet organizational objectives. Improving business...
- White papers 2002-08-01
- Six Sigma" methodology and Statistica
- Six Sigma is a well structured, data-driven methodology for eliminating defects, waste, or quality control problems of all kinds in manufacturing, service delivery, management, and other business activities. Six Sigma methodology is based on the combination of well established statistical quality control techniques, simple and advanced data analysis methods, and...
- White papers 2003-01-01
- Six Sigma and technical communication
- What's going on is a commitment by many companies to something called Six Sigma. Six Sigma is a disciplined, data-driven approach aimed at near-elimination of defects from every product, process, and transaction. Six Sigma's goal is breakthrough knowledge leading to demonstrated process improvements. These improvements enable companies to do things...
- White papers 2001-12-15
- Six Sigma: Raising the Bar
- Six Sigma relies on the voice of the consumer to set the standard of acceptable performance. Six Sigma has a systematic approach to both validate data and to focus on the critical few inputs that will have the greatest potential to effect meaningful improvement. What exactly is so different about...
- White papers 2003-01-01
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