Six Sigma and the Evolution of Statistical Management Methods

Six-Sigma: the Evolution of 100 Years of Business Improvement Methodology by Ronald D. Snee.

The article includes a nice very quick summary of the development of statistical methods to aid management improvement in the last 100 years. Then the article gives a good overview of Six Sigma.

There are four aspects of the Six-Sigma method...

First, Six-Sigma places a clear focus on getting bottomline results...

Next, Six-Sigma builds on improvement methods that have been shown to be effective and integrates the human and process elements of improvement...

The third key characteristic of Six-Sigma is that it sequences and links the improvement tools into an overall approach...

The fourth key characteristic is that Six-Sigma creates an infrastructure of
Champions, Master Black Belts (MBB), Black Belts (BB) and Green Belts (GB) that
lead, deploy and implement the approach...

Six-Sigma is based on the scientific method, utilising statistical thinking and methods (Hoerl and Snee, 2002). Statistical thinking, therefore, is fundamental to the methodology because Six-Sigma is action-oriented, focuses on processes used to serve customers, and defect reduction through variation reduction and improvement goals.

And the article closes with a case study.