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8/1/2025
Six Sigma Methodology Explained
Bisk Amplified
August 1, 2025
You could pick and choose from an endless number of methods to attempt to improve productivity and efficiency in an organization, but how much time is wasted doing that? What if there was a complete and proven methodology that could improve all aspects of an organization’s performance?
The answer is Six Sigma.
Six Sigma is a system used by organizations to become more efficient through streamlining processes in a data-driven approach. Six Sigma works to reduce any kind of inefficient variations and eliminates defects and unproductive processes. Six Sigma is based on tried-and-true methods extending back to the 1980s when it was developed and used by Motorola for use on the factory floor. Since then, this method has extended into every kind of industry.
Okay, so Six Sigma has been around for a few decades. What makes it so valuable?
Six Sigma is a system of tools and techniques for solving many of the problems organizations face. Through the application of collected data, Six Sigma can offer the right tool to meet even the most entrenched challenges, methods to find the roots for product and service issues, and paths forward to develop and test the right solution.
Without a clear desired result that benefits the organization, Six Sigma wouldn’t be as vital to today’s industries. The importance of Six Sigma is what it can ultimately provide for an organization. We can see this through Six Sigma’s goals:
Through its implementation, Six Sigma:
Six Sigma is not limited to the organization's benefit. Without a data-driven system, an organization wastes time, energy, and resources on trial and error in finding the best methods for furthering its goals. With the use of data-backed methods, an organization that follows Six Sigma helps create a sustainable environment, which benefits not only the health of the company, but also the community and people that built up that organization.
Defects are everywhere, but the sign of any good system is how it reduces them without impacting the quality or efficiency of the organization. Six Sigma creates a process that reduces any kind of defects within the organization to no more than 3.4 defects per million opportunities (DPMO). How smooth is that operation?
That equals to 99.99966% of all projects and activities within the organization being defect-free.
Wait, how is that possible?
Six Sigma isn’t pulling your leg. It creates a framework for leadership to utilize a process in which there is a continuous improvement to their operations, including identifying areas where there are hangups and inefficiencies in the organization’s process system, and ultimately finding methods to remove those defects.
So, find any bottle-neck areas in our workflow. Sounds easy enough, right?
It may sound straightforward, but remember, Six Sigma aims to achieve a 3.4 DPMO. Understanding and streamlining a complex organization can become incredibly complicated.
What makes Six Sigma special is not just how it can drastically improve an organization’s processes, but how multifunctional the system can be. There isn’t just one meaning to Six Sigma. How?
If you’re a business leader, Six Sigma is a framework to rethink how to better run your organization, how to become more competitive in the marketplace, and how to satisfy clients and customers with better products and services.
If you’re in HR, Six Sigma can be a quality metric you can use to help your team strive to be the best it can be, all the while raising morale, efficiency, and coordination.
For others, Six Sigma is more than a tool—it’s a philosophy. With Six Sigma in mind, you can take a step back and see the organization and all the work that goes into operating it as something that can be defined, measured, analyzed, improved, and controlled. With such a top-down view of the organization, the tools provided by Six Sigma can profoundly change not only the efficiency of an organization, but also how it perceives itself as it grows and improves.
Let’s break down what makes Sig Sigma such a powerful tool by looking at its methodologies, DMAIC and DMADV.
What is DMAIC? It is an acronym standing for:
What is DMADV? Like DMAIC, it is also an acronym standing for:
In general, DMAIC is the preferred method for improving existing processes that are not performing to desired standards or have room for enhancement. DMADV is used for creating new processes or products from scratch, or for redesigning an existing process that has been consistently failing to meet standards.
It’s one thing to talk about Six Sigma abstractly, but how does it impact an organization in the real world?
Six Sigma wasn’t created as a theory removed from the realities of business operations, but instead was crafted and perfected on the factory floors at Motorola in 1986 and, later, as a central component of operations at General Electric. But it isn’t limited to public agencies and nonprofit organizations—the US Department of Defense has adopted aspects of Six Sigma to improve efficiencies throughout the different branches of the military.
As you utilize the Six Sigma system, you will find that it has levels similar to martial arts—they even utilize a belt ranking system inspired by the system used by karate. But no matter where you start, you will find that Six Sigma is a tool, a process, a philosophy, and a proven way forward for your organization.
