What is Six Sigma? It is first and foremost a business process that enables companies to increase profits dramatically by streamlining operations, improving quality, and eliminating defects or mistakes in everything a company does, from filling out purchase orders to manufacturing airplane engines. While traditional quality programs have focused on detecting and correcting defects, Six Sigma encompasses something broader: It provides specific methods to re-create the process itself so that defects are never produced in the first place.

Most companies operate at a three-to-four-sigma level, where the cost of quality is roughly 20 to 30 percent of revenues. By approaching six sigma -- fewer than one defect per 3.4 million opportunities -- the cost of quality drops to less than 10 percent of sales. This is because the highest quality also results in the lowest costs. When GE reduced its costs from 20 percent of sales to less than 10 percent, it saved one billion dollars in just two years. This is money that goes directly to the bottom line. This is the reason Wall Street and corporations as diverse as AlliedSignal, Honda, Maytag, Raytheon, Texas Instruments, Canon Hitachi, Lockheed Martin, American Express, Toshiba, Du Pont, and Polaroid have embarked on corporate-wide Six Sigma programs.

Six Sigma should be of paramount importance to every forward-thinking executiveand manager determined to make their company world-class in their industry.