Why is six sigma used

For instance, if the business objective is to be a cost leader in the market, Six Sigma can improve internal processes, increase yields, eliminate waste and gain or maintain lowest cost supplier agreements.

Suppliers have a major influence on whether a company has a defect ratio of less than 3. Six Sigma can reduce the risk of defects by potentially decreasing the number of suppliers or supply points in the chain.

For the least amount of defects, executives should drive Six Sigma improvements as far up the supply chain as possible.

Whether their aim is to improve production, customer service or resource management, the methodologies of Six Sigma can assist all organizations in identifying critical operation flaws and develop improved business practices. Home Methodology. What Is An A3? Business Management Six Sigma. Staff — September 2, Improved Customer Retention All businesses want to attract new customers as well as retain the ones they already have.

While most people associate Six Sigma with manufacturing, the methodology is applicable to every type of process in any industry. In all settings, organizations use Six Sigma to set up a management system that systematically identifies errors and provides methods for eliminating them.

People develop expertise in Six Sigma by earning belts at each level of accomplishment. In the 19th century, German mathematician and physicist Carl Fredrich Gauss developed the bell curve.

By creating the concept of what a normal distribution looks like, the bell curve became an early tool for finding errors and defects in a process. Motorola engineer Bill Smith eventually became one of the pioneers of modern Six Sigma , creating many of the methodologies still associated with Six Sigma in the late s.

The system is influenced by, but different than, other management improvement strategies of the time, including Total Quality Management and Zero Defects. Experts credit Shewhart with first developing the idea that any part of process that deviates three sigma from the mean requires improvement. One sigma is one standard deviation. The goal is to use continuous process improvement and refine processes until they produce stable and predictable results.

Six Sigma is a data-driven methodology that provides tools and techniques to define and evaluate each step of a process. It provides methods to improve efficiencies in a business structure, improve the quality of the process and increase the bottom-line profit. One of the reasons why implementation of Six Sigma is important is that it helps in reducing defects. Room for continuous improvement. Last but not the least, employees trained in Six Sigma processes have the necessary tools and skills to identify problem or bottleneck areas that camps down production or performance.

This process helps employees to identify areas of improvement and work towards it continuously. At the end, it helps in improving existing services or products and assists with development of new high quality products.

Learn about other project management concepts in the Project Management Glossary. How many people will use Workzone? What is Six Sigma and why is it important? See it in Action. By Kirstin Miller.