Six Sigma Quality

The other area in quality where there is significant scope for misunderstanding is in the application of Six Sigma Quality. Some companies simply see Six Sigma Quality as a measure of quality that should just be used to strictly control the delivery of defect-free product. However this is not the view held by many organizations, such as Motorola, that have driven forward the Six Sigma Quality approach, and have gained the major benefits from it.

Rather than a random application of a quality measure, these leading companies see Six Sigma Quality as the basis of a best-in-class philosophy, and a long-term business strategy. As such, Six Sigma Quality becomes an evolutionary phase of a company's quality strategy, serving to further enhance the results of existing programs. For example, whilst Six Sigma Quality relates to all of the criteria of the EFQM excellence model, its primary impact is on the processes criterion.

The fundamental objective of this approach to Six Sigma Quality is the implementation of a measurement-based strategy that focuses on process improvement and variation reduction, often through the application of improvement projects. In this way, waste and cost are driven out of the organization as quality improves, and customer satisfaction is increased through the continuous improvement in quality.

Moreover, while efforts have concentrated on Design for Six Sigma Quality or project-based manufacturing improvements, there is a growing realization that Six Sigma Quality is effectively applicable in every process and transaction within a company. Using the common measurement index of 'defects per unit', where a unit can be virtually anything including a line of code or an administrative form, companies have started to utilize the approach to reduce defects in non-manufacturing operations.

In Six Sigma Quality, Sigma is term which indicates how well or defect free a product is. As the Sigma level grows higher, the quality of product or service is better & better. At Six Sigma Quality it is only 3.4 defects in 1 million opportunities. At 3 Sigma level the number of defects will be as high as 66807 in 1 million opportunities. In simple terms, Six Sigma involves reducing defects to 3.4 in a million. 4 Sigma & 5 Sigma represent 6210 & 233 defects respectively.