The Six Sigma and Life beyond

Six Sigma is a set of tools and techniques/strategies for process improvement originally developed by Motorola in 1985… Six Sigma seeks to improve the quality of process outputs by identifying and removing the causes of defects (errors) and minimizing variability in manufacturing and business processes. It uses a set of quality management methods, including statistical methods, and creates a special infrastructure of people within the organization ("Champions", "Black Belts", "Green Belts", "Yellow Belts", etc.) who are experts in the methods. Each Six Sigma project carried out within an organization follows a defined sequence of steps and has quantified value targets, for example; process cycle time reduction, customer satisfaction, reduction in pollution, cost reduction and/or profit increase.

The term Six Sigma originated from terminology associated with manufacturing, specifically terms associated with statistical modeling of manufacturing processes. The maturity of a manufacturing process can be described by a sigma rating indicating its yield or the percentage of defect-free products it creates. A six sigma process is one in which 99.99966% of the products manufactured are statistically expected to be free of defects (3.4 defects per million).

(Source: Wikipedia)

Meg’s point of view

Six sigma is the highest standard of perfection to be categorized in manufacturing business. Imagine if a machine can produce one million units of product and the defect is about 3.4 units, it’s very insignificant, isn’t it?

Understanding six sigma somehow led me to conclude that even machines are also prone to errors. The good thing about it is that people keep on improving. One sigma (691,462 defects per million) up to six sigma in manufacturing is really tough to achieve yet some companies successfully attained it. It’s very challenging.

The same goes with human, people also prone to errors and mistakes but it will never lessen their value if we are able to look far beyond his/her worth.  Relationship is more important. Realizing that people commit mistakes and we have to forgive them for that however, in court cases forgiveness is not a license to commit the same mistakes again. The same is true for couples, ideally the reason they forgive each other is that to make someone error free again as the Bible says Love keeps no record of wrongs (1st Corinthians 13:5). Actually, this approach is best practice for couples to stay closer and stronger as they keep the relationship improving and growing.

What makes machine and human different from each other? Isn’t it the HEART. Heart makes people alive, without it he or she cannot feel any senses. Our heart is the main and central circulatory system in our body. Every beat of our heart is a gift because once it stops, everything is over. Any dead body is considered a thing that can be burned, decomposed or buried. If human is without a heart, he or she is like a machine or robot that can be set or pre-programmed. Controlled. People with heart have freedom and I believe… that’s a good thing about being a human. If everyone is too perfect, no one needs each other anymore. Better say, our God made us so imperfect to be perfect in helping and encouraging one another. God Himself is too wonderful. 

He is just simply amazing! =)