The World of Private Equity
The term “private equity” evokes many emotional reactions. Many investors have made a lot of money thanks to the strategies being followed by private equity companies. However, many companies no longer exist because of these private equity funds. The investments being made by these funds is rapidly growing. Private equity funds have a lot of […]
Spare Parts Logistics
In a computer spare parts supply chain, usually the network consists of the country depot that stocks all the parts required to support the field. The number of parts in such depots run very high depending upon the volume of sales and can range from 15000 SKUs to 35000 SKUs, depending upon the model and […]
Risks Covered by the Disaster Recovery Plan
In the highly competitive world of business and marketing, Organizations are pushed to be ahead of the race and walk the talk. Customer and Market expectations are higher where in the Companies are expected to walk the talk and demonstrate their capability to live through the promises. In such situation, Organizations have had to think […]
Recording the Inputs (Xs) at Actionable Level
The 5 why method or the Root Cause analysis method that has been described in the Tools section plays an important role in determining that the X’s are recorded at actionable level. In this implementation of the 5 why tool, there is a slight variation from the standard methodology and hence it has been explained […]
Characteristics of Data – Central Tendency and Dispersion
Converting Data to Information: The goal of a six sigma project is not to produce an overwhelming amount of data that ends up intimidating the concerned people. The goal is to find out as much data as possible and convert it into meaningful information that can be used by the concerned personnel to make meaningful […]
Six Sigma is a data-based methodology to improve performance by reducing variability. It requires thorough understanding of product and process knowledge and is completely driven by customer expectations.
In other words, it is a methodology to achieve 3.4 defects per million opportunities. It can also be used to bring breakthrough improvements in the process. It focuses on the bottom-line and is a proven methodology for problem solving.
| Sigma Level | Number of defects per Million |
| 2 Sigma | 308537 |
| 3 Sigma | 66807 |
| 4 Sigma | 6210 |
| 5 Sigma | 233 |
| 6 Sigma | 3.4 |
The need for process improvements and a continuous improvement methodology like Six Sigma came into existence only due to
In the year 1980, Motorola started facing survival problems due fierce competition from Japanese companies. The CEO of Motorola - Bob Galvin was determined to overcome the competition. He challenged his organization to achieve a ten-fold improvement in performance over a period of five years. To achieve the same, strong emphasis was given to training of employees and also performing global benchmarking.
Bill Smith was a veteran engineer in Motorola and he wrote a research paper on product quality and its performance after delivery to customer. In his report he discovered that the products with fewer non-conformities (high quality) were the ones that performed well after delivery to the customer. It was accepted by everyone but the challenge that came in front of Motorola executives was to develop a solution to tackle this problem.
Mikel Harry having a doctorate from Arizona University worked with Bill Smith in developing a four-phase problem solving approach - Measure, Analyze, Improve and Control. A few years later Bob Galvin launched a long-term quality program called “The Six Sigma Quality Program” in Motorola.
Looking at the success of Motorola, many companies like Texas Instruments, Allied Signal etc started using Six Sigma methodology to bring organization-wide improvements.
In 1990’s Jack Welch launched Six Sigma in GE in a big way. He implemented Six Sigma in all areas and ensured that the entire organization participates in the initiative. He changed the performance incentives and made them based on individual’s ability and enthusiasm to take part in Six Sigma initiatives. He transformed GE to a state where Six Sigma had become the culture of the organization and not just a methodology for brining organization-wide improvements.
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The Cost of Poorly Performing Processes – Need for Six Sigma
February 12, 2025
