Six Sigma is a breakthrough strategy usually presented as a four step improvement process: Measure, Analyze, Improve and Control (MAIC). This plan relies on the collection of statistically valid data to determine process variability, baseline performances, improvements and reliability.

A process achieving Six Sigma will have only 3.4 defects for every million opportunities. Most processes in the world run between 3 and 4 sigma. A Six Sigma process/product can also be likened to a Cp (capability) value of 2. The classic description of Cp is to imagine a car (process of product) parking into a garage (critical specification). If the car just fits into the garage, you have a Cp value just larger than 1 (and 3 sigma process). If the garage is twice as wide as the car, then your Cp value is 2 (a 6 sigma process).

Six Sigma’s goal is the near elimination of defects from any process, product or service-far beyond where virtually all companies are currently operating. Six Sigma is a business system with many statistical aspects, and it naturally fits the business systems of our company. It is an operational system that speeds up improvement by getting the right projects conducted in the right way. It drives out fear by making employees agents of change rather than resisters to change.

The Six Sigma system of quality control was first institutionalized by Motorola Inc. and popularized by companies such as GE and AlliedSignal Inc. It measures performance of each project or process by sigma, a statistical unit of measure that reflects process capability. While most companies use three or four sigma as the norm for quality control, achieving six sigma yields a failure rate of 3.4 defects per million products, or a success rate of 99.99966%—close to perfect quality.

Three sigma on the other hand allow 67,000 defects per million to slip by. What all of these initiatives mean to us at Sabritec is that by utilizing our group synergies we can improve the way we manufacture our products which will ultimately result in delivering to our customers defect free products on time with the lowest cost.