Industrial Engineering & Manufacturing vocabulary · Six Sigma and Statistics
Six Sigma
Meaning in industrial engineering & manufacturing, with examples
/ˌsɪks ˈsɪɡmə/nounCore term
In industrial engineering & manufacturing, Six Sigma means: A data-driven method for improving processes by reducing variation and defects, aiming for no more than 3.4 defects per million opportunities.
In Turkish: Altı Sigma
How it is used
Developed at Motorola in the 1980s and made famous by General Electric. Projects follow the DMAIC steps, and people are trained to belt levels such as Yellow, Green and Black Belt. Many companies combine it with lean as 'Lean Six Sigma'.
Example sentences
She is a certified Six Sigma Black Belt and leads our biggest quality projects.
This Six Sigma project cut paint defects by 70% in six months.
Common collocations
Six Sigma project
Lean Six Sigma
Six Sigma Green Belt
Six Sigma methodology
Related terms
DMAICThe five-phase roadmap of a Six Sigma project: Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve and Control.
variationThe natural differences between the results of the same process, for example small changes in the diameter of parts made on the same machine.
DPMOShort for defects per million opportunities: the number of defects divided by the total number of chances for a defect, multiplied by one million.
process capabilityHow well a stable process can produce parts within the specification limits, usually expressed with indices such as Cp and Cpk.
standard deviationA number that shows how widely values are spread around their average; a small standard deviation means the results are close together. Its symbol is σ (sigma).
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