The Six Sigma Quality

Globalisation and instant access to information, products and services have changed the way our customers conduct business. Today's competitive environment leaves no room for error. We must satisfy our customers and relentlessly look for new ways to exceed their expectations. This is why Six Sigma Quality has become a part of our culture.

What is Six Sigma?

First, what it is not. It is not a secret society, a slogan or a cliché. Six Sigma is a highly disciplined process that helps us focus on developing and delivering near-perfect products and services.

Why “Sigma”? The word is a statistical term that measures how far a given process deviates from perfection. The central idea behind Six Sigma is that if you can measure how many "defects" you have in a process, you can systematically figure out how to eliminate them and get as close to "zero defects" as possible. To reach Six Sigma Quality, there must not be more than 3.4 defects per one million opportunities in any given process. An “opportunity” refers to a possible non-conformity or a differentiation from the required specifications. This means that we must attain a level of maximum quality when carrying out our key processes.

Key concepts of Six Sigma

Six Sigma revolves around a few key concepts:

• Critical to Quality: Attributes most important to the customer.

• Defect: Failing to deliver what the customer wants.

• Process capacity: What your process can deliver.

• Variation: What the customer sees and feels.

• Stable operations: Ensuring consistent processes to improve what the customer sees and feels.

• Design for Six Sigma: Designing to meet customer needs and process capability.