Six Sigma
Six Sigma is a process improvement effort designed to increase productivity and reduce costs. Regardless of the way it is used within your organization, Six Sigma means data driven decision making. In its most simple sense, Six Sigma is a highly disciplined approach to decision making that helps people focus on improving processes to make them as near perfect as possible. The term “Six Sigma” relates to the number of mathematical defects in a process. Six Sigma is focused on systematic elimination of the defects so they can get as close to “zero defects” as possible. Six Sigma ensures that internal processes are running at optimum efficiency.
Sigma , is the symbol for standard deviation. It is a measure of variance. The goal of Six Sigma is to reduce variation so there are no more than +/- six standard deviations (Six Sigma) between the mean and the nearest specification limit. When a process is operating at Six Sigma, no more than 3.4 “defects” per million opportunities are produced.
Below mentioned tables elaborates the different level of sigma and its impact on defects.
| 6 Sigma |
3.4 defects |
| 5 Sigma |
230 defects |
| 4 Sigma |
6,210 defects |
| 3 Sigma |
66,800 defects |
| 2 Sigma |
308,000 defects |
| 1 Sigma |
690,000 defects |
