What is Six Sigma?

Six Sigma is a set of methods and tools to help businesses manage quality and improve their processes, products or services. Six Sigma aims to improve quality by finding defects (i.e. any outcomes that does not meet customer expectations), determining their root causes, and addressing the root causes to increase the consistency and accuracy of process results.

With the aim of achieving near perfect outputs, Six Sigma employs statistical methods to detect problems and improve processes. By eliminating the occurrences of defective outcomes or any activities that trigger unnecessary rework, the quality, timeliness and efficiency of product delivery improves.

Six Sigma focused on measurable operational goals, especially financial metrics. These goals are commonly achieved through data-driven decisions, based on data collected from the processes.

Six Sigma is also embraced more holistically as a means of driving cultural transformation in the direction of structured problem solving and data-driven decision making.

Some improvement opportunities that are suitable for Six Sigma methodology:

• Processes that have inconsistent results.

• Problems that have unknown root causes.

• Processes that have multiple “operational variations” making them mistake-prone for inexperienced team members.

  … just to name a few.