Corporate executives constantly look for ways to improve their business processes to deliver top-notch products and services. The more competitive a market becomes, the more companies are driven towards improving their existing systems, which is how 6 Sigma originated.
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What Is Six Sigma?
This quality engineering method is designed to reduce the number of defects in a manufacturing or service-related business, but it works in any industry. The goal is to have less than one defect per every million opportunities.
In other words, less than 3.4 errors per million processes or products. This quality assurance system goes by many names, including the Six Sigma system, Six Sigma methodology, or 6 Sigma.
How Has It Been Developed?
Motorola originally developed the concept in 1986, and it has since spread across the corporate world, being used by major organizations such as GE and numerous others. It works by differentiating between the common causes of defects (sometimes called special causes) and the rare causes of defects (sometimes called assignable causes).
Special causes are usually more significant issues that you can’t control, while assignable causes are more minor problems within your reach. To avoid these rare defects from occurring, you need a quality assurance system in place to ensure they don’t get through the cracks.
How Can It Be Used?
The methodology can be used in any business looking to produce a high-quality product or service for its customers. It is not just limited to manufacturing and production.
Conversely, it can also benefit companies in the IT industry, financial services, healthcare providers, and many others. The more competitive a process-based business market gets, the more beneficial an independent quality assurance system becomes.
How Does It Affect Customers?
When companies focus on improving their quality assurance systems, they usually have a better product for customers. Ultimately, this can increase customer satisfaction and retention rates, which is always beneficial to any business.
The ultimate goal of this quality assurance system is to develop processes capable of making near-perfect products and services, which almost any company would be interested in.
What Is the Difference Between Six Sigma And Other Quality Assurance Systems?
This system focuses on the quality of materials, whereas other systems focus on external features such as delivery dates or budgets.
Since this system creates for businesses that produce material objects, it only makes sense that its focus is on the parts of the system that are most important to those specific kinds of businesses.
How Can It Benefit Your Business?
There are many ways the quality engineering system can benefit your business, especially if it is not currently using some quality assurance system. The first step is recognizing what causes defects in your company.
You need to have a firm grasp on this information before you can start implementing the changes that will lead to fewer errors and better products overall.
Identify Issues
Quality engineering requires a company first to identify its specific problems and then provide the methodology required to implement some solution. Once you’ve implemented that solution, it is monitored closely to maintain quality levels at their best possible level.
Save Money
The system also helps save money by focusing on prevention rather than inspection. Businesses usually spend some money checking their products after they have been produced, but going through a Six Sigma system helps avoid those expenditures on the front end.
You don’t need to spend extra money or waste materials on checking intrinsically perfect parts because you first worked with suppliers and contractors to make sure the parts are as close to perfect as possible before they entered your systems.
Competitive Advantage
In a competitive market, a quality assurance system can provide an edge over other similar businesses that might not have a formalized method of checking the quality of their products.
Quality engineering is a type of industry standard that other companies will recognize and respect, which could help you grow your business as more customers choose to leave those businesses with low-quality levels behind.
The quality assurance system can be beneficial for any organization, but it is beneficial for companies whose bottom line relies on the quality of their materials. As you might imagine by its name, quality engineering is all about minimizing defects so that customers can get a high-quality product without having to deal with any problems.
Wrapping Up
With the increased focus on brand reputation and marketability, companies have been working harder to develop ways to maintain or even improve their status in the marketplace. 6 Sigma is one of many quality assurance systems that can help businesses achieve those goals by providing a new perspective on generating more profits.
