The Sigma, is the Greek letter used to measure the variability in processes. Six Sigma is process driven methodology used for continuous improvement. Many organization around the globe use this methodology to reduce defects in their processes and to improve level of quality.

Six sigma score could be measured by their performance by the sigma level of their business processes. First of all, companies accepted four or five performance levels as the quality standard. Six sigma processes created 6210 to 66,800 defects /per million opportunities. In to the Six sigma level of 3 to 4 defects per million opportunities are reaction to increasing customer expectation. Six sigma business processes and products are becoming very complex and competitive in today’s world.

The main focus of Six Sigma is to focus on the customer first and then use facts and data based at customer requirements to get improved results. Thorough implementation of the process and the product drives the entire business and satisfy customers’ expectations with more effective way.

Six Sigma stands for Six Standard Deviations from mean. Standard Deviation is core statistical method to define how much variation exists in a set of data for the process.

Lets take a well known example,

A pizza company goes with an advertise of delivering a pizza within 30 minutes. However the pizza delivery boy fails to deliver it within 30 minutes, the customer will get free pizza. (As it’s considered as a defect on the part of the Pizza company.)

Now, If only 65% of the pizzas are delivered on time, the process will be at ‘level 2’ sigma. If 92% pizzas are delivered on time, the company’s performance is at ‘level 3’ sigma. If the company delivers 99.4% of the pizzas on time, the company’s perform once is at ‘level 4’ sigma.

If the pizza company wants to be at ‘level 6’ sigma, it has to deliver pizzas within a level of 99.9997% accuracy.

Six Sigma DPM Matrix :

A: Six Sigma Level One – 6 90 000 DPM

B: Six Sigma Level Two – 3 08 500 DPM

C: Six Sigma Level Three – 66 800 DPM

D: Six Sigma Level Four – 6 210 DPM

E: Six Sigma Level Five – 230 DPM

F: Six Sigma Level – 3 – 4 DPM

[ DPM = Defect Per Million ]

Six sigma means a process efficiency of 99.9997 %…!!

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