SmartBiz IT Research Library

Six Sigma is one of the primary quality initiatives of our time. In today's rapidly changing and difficult business environment, Six Sigma helps organizations gain improvements in process and product quality. Their success lies in the ability to tie project results directly to improved customer satisfaction ratings and bottom line savings.

The name Six Sigma is taken from the approach's statistical roots. If a product or process achieves a Six Sigma level of consistency, then it is experiencing only 3.4 defects per million opportunities (DPMO). In other words, Six Sigma products and processes are 99.99966% consistent. Such impressive results are realized because Six Sigma projects follow a proven, five-phased approach known by the acronym "DMAIC":

• Define the problem area in objective terms
• Measure the performance of products and processes
• Analyze the problems to identify root causes
• Improve the results by redesigning processes and reducing variation
• Control the processes to ensure the improvements are permanent