Six Sigma Metrics

Six Sigma Metrics

One of the most important differentiating features that has Six Sigma is the measure of performance in a process, it must be flexible and must be adapted to all kinds of process, it does not matter if it is a manufacturing process or providing a service or a management process. The main feature that must have this measure is that it can be easily expressed in economic terms. Almost all metrics that are being used in Six Sigma are based on defects or failures that occur in processes.

There are several advantages when considering measurements in defects [6], some of which are:

• Simplicity: Anyone can understand the difference between "good" and "bad", and associate it with "good" and "poor" or "success" and "failure".

• Consistent:

Understanding these concepts allow team members to collect and analyze data in a more efficient and consistent way.

• Unit: it is an item that is in the process or at the end of the process. Items can be manufactured, batch products, samples in a continuous process a transaction, or services that are provided to internal or external customers [22]. Examples include: a washing machine, an insurance policy, a transaction in a bank, an invoice or document in an administrative process, a transaction with the credit card, a medical diagnosis or prescription or a sale.

• Defect: any failure in the provision of a service or in a transaction in an administrative process or product out of specification [22]. Some examples are: the length of a piece out of specification, an error in the insurance policy, a poorly formulated prescription, loss of a reservation or a bad revised document.

• Defect per opportunity: it is the possibility that a product or service has a failure or

To understand a little more detail the defect per opportunity, consider a simple example: Mary is in the area of national marketing and among its activities is to call domestic customers. to call them, she has to dial 10 digits. Vivian works in international trade and has to call international customers and has to dial 11 digits. Suppose the data show that both Mary and Vivian make a mistake every 200 calls, both have an equal failure rate, but from the point of view of Six Sigma Vivian has more opportunities to make a mistake when she makes a call to a customer, because she marks more