Six Sigma is a quality improvement methodology invented at Motorola in 1980s and is a highly disciplined process improvement method that directs organizations to focus on developing and delivering near perfect products and services. Six Sigma is a statistical term that measures how far a given process deviates from perfection. The central idea behind Six Sigma is, if we are able to measure how many “defects” that exist in a process, it can be systematically figured out how to eliminate them and get close to “zero defects”.

In the year 1985, Bill Smith, a Motorola Engineer coined the term ‘Six Sigma’, and explained that Six Sigma represents 3.4 defects per million opportunities is the optimum level to balance quality and cost. It is a real-breakthrough in quality improvement process where defects are measured against millions of opportunities instead of thousands which was the basis those days.

Leading companies are applying this bottom-line enhancing strategy to every function in their organizations. In the mid 1990s, Larry Bossidy of Allied Signal and Jack Welch of GE Saw the potential in Six Sigma and applied it in their organizations which resulted in significant cost savings in progressive years. GE reports stated that Six Sigma had delivered $300 million to its bottom line in 1997, $750 million in 1998, and $2 billion in 1999.