{"id":30976,"date":"2019-02-24T14:38:28","date_gmt":"2019-02-24T14:38:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.dvirc.org\/insights\/six-sigma-reduce-costs-increases-customer-satisfaction\/"},"modified":"2023-03-08T14:05:39","modified_gmt":"2023-03-08T14:05:39","slug":"six-sigma-reduce-costs-increases-customer-satisfaction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dvirc.org\/insights\/six-sigma-reduce-costs-increases-customer-satisfaction\/","title":{"rendered":"Six Sigma \u2013 Reduce Costs, Increases Customer Satisfaction"},"content":{"rendered":"
Six Sigma is similar to Lean manufacturing in that it aims to improve processes; while Lean is about eliminating waste, though, Six Sigma is a means of reducing variation.<\/p>\n
In essence, Six Sigma is a measurement of process capability. Six Sigma\u2014or six standard deviations\u2014equates to 3.4 Defects Per Million Opportunities (\u201cDPMO\u201d). Although Six Sigma is the goal, you may not get there, and it may not apply to each and every business process. Airlines are better than Six Sigma in terms of fatalities per million passengers, for instance, although baggage handling is not Six Sigma. You have to weigh the inherent practicality. What is the market willing to pay for? A ticket on an airline that was Six Sigma compliant for baggage would be prohibitively expensive.<\/p>\n
One of the key Six Sigma concepts is \u201cY = f(x).\u201d If Y is the output we\u2019re interested in, then X represents the inputs in the process. With Six Sigma, in order to get the result you want, you need to focus on the critical inputs. If you want to bake a cake, then Y is the quality of that cake. That quality, though, will be dependent on the ingredients and the process used to transform those ingredients. In Six Sigma, you focus on the inputs more than the \u201cgood cake\u201d result.<\/p>\n