Six Sigma - Relevancy To High School
A CURRENT TREND IN BUSINESS:
SIX SIGMA
CAN WE AFFORD NOT TO BRING IT INTO THE CLASSROOM?
By Lisa Martin
December 8, 1998
The Pursuit of Quality
Six sigma, the most talked about defect-reduction program today, may be causing the most dramatic shift in the evolution of quality assurance in history. In today’s competitive, market-driven world, a company’s survival is dependent upon its ability to provide quality performance products accompanied by total customer satisfaction. As Motorola’s chairman of the board, Bob Galvin, puts it, “If you take care of the customer better than your competition, the business will take care of itself.” This goal can be defined as meeting or exceeding every requirement of every customer.
A Defect-Free Performance Leads to Total Customer Satisfaction
In order to achieve total customer satisfaction, companies strive for defect-free performances. An ideal, defect-free performance contains no flaw in either the product or the service provided throughout the lifetime of the product. However, since an ideal performance can never actually be reached in the real world, a method of measuring quality of performance must be established. By reducing defects, a company is able to produce more reliable products, which speeds up the design process. The net result will be satisfied customers and lower company costs. Companies are recognizing that revenues, earnings, market share, and long-term competitiveness are all dependent upon quality.
The Six Sigma Principle
Businesses are improving their profitability by reducing direct costs from focusing on quality, or by improving the sigma capability of a business. More companies are rejecting the notion that quality at any cost is an acceptable way of doing business. Cutting-edge companies are figuring out their true cost of quality and setting out to reduce it.
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