six sigma

There is no 7 Sigma. 6 Sigma is used by many large companies when they rework their current corporate structre. Entergy is one company that uses 6 sigma and have found it to be very successful. It is an excellent program and if you can work yout way thorugh the program and take the courses, you can make a lot of money teaching it to others.

Six sigma is just a statistical term. It is used to represent the 6th section away from the peak of a bell curve. (likewise 7 sigma is the seventh) 6 sigma means that the goal is only one defect in millions.

IBM went through a 6 sigma phase for a while a few years ago. It is just a way of measuring quality. It seems to me that companies love these buzz words and are always looking at the latest band wagon to jump on. I have never heard of a 7 sigma.

its actually a methodology. a set of practices developed to improve processes by eliminating defects or variances in output. this could be from a product or service. envision a center line drawn from left to right. center it inside of a six segment graph with the segments drawn vertically. place a line above the center w/+3.4 and a line under center w/-3.4 you now have max and min defect levels for output at a rate of 1 million oportunities (sales or units produced). add a line above and below the center and mark them with +1.5 and -1.5 this indicates your diviation specification limit or 1.5 sigma shift which will positively impact your customer base. the six segments are the times you record any variances in mfr or svc during a given period. so you see a pattern of data which is used to keep processes on track within a variance of + or -1.4 DPMO. combine it with surveys like voice of the customer and you have data driven/customer impacted production