Six Sigma was pioneered by Bill Smith at Motorola in 1986[1]. Originally, it was defined[2] as a metric for measuring defects and improving quality; and a methodology to reduce defect levels below 3.4 Defects Per (one) Million Opportunities (DPMO). Six Sigma is a registered service mark and trademark of Motorola, Inc[3]. Motorola has reported over US$17 billion in savings[4] from Six Sigma to date.
AlliedSignal and General Electric became early adopters of Six Sigma, with GE reporting benefits of more than US$300 million during its first year of application[5]. Their CEOs, Larry Bossidy and Jack Welch played a vital role in popularizing Six Sigma. Other major organizations who claim to have benefited from Six Sigma implementation are Ford, Cummins, Caterpillar, Microsoft, Raytheon, Quest Diagnostics, Seagate Technology, Siemens, SKF, Merrill Lynch, Lear, 3M and many more.
Why did the psychiatrist finally give up on trying to help the Six Sigma Black Belts?
They kept regressing.
Q: A forensics expert walks into a room with a bunch of dead Six Sigma Black Belts who show no visible signs of injury. What's the first thing he should check for?
A: Poisson distribution.
Q: What type of control chart do you use for tracking drug testing that uses urine samples?
A: p Chart.
Q: What did the Black Belt say when people complained of the intermittent stench emitted from the wastewater treatment facility?
A: Shift happens!
3 statisticians go deer hunting. They creep out through the brush and find a good place to hunker down.
Soon, a big buck walks up and the first statistician hops up and shoots! Misses 10 feet to the right.
The second statistician hops up and shoots, missing 10 feet to the left!
The third statistician jumps up and yells, "We got him!"
Q: How many Black Belts does it take to change a light bulb?
A: It doesn't matter. By the time the team completed the Cpk, CTQ, R&R, QFD, DOE, 5S and SPC, it was daytime again and the customer didn't need the light bulb any more.
In general, we can distinguish 5 stages in the development of a project:
Not all projects will visit every stage as projects can be terminated before they reach completion. Some projects probably don't have the planning and/or the monitoring. Some projects will go through steps 2, 3 and 4 multiple times.
Project management covers four parts:
· time,
· cost,
· quality,
· safety.
To keep control over the project from the beginning of the project all the way
to its natural conclusion, a project manager uses a number of techniques:
project planning, earned value, risk management, scheduling, process
improvement.