Six Sigma Rankings

Six Sigma rankings are efficiencies ratings used by certain companies to encourage product efficiency and overall accountability of employees. The Six Sigma system was developed by the Motorola Corporation in 1981, and fully developed by 1986. After the stellar success of Motorola in the 1990's, other corporations began adopting the "6 Sigma" method.

What Is Six Sigma?

The idea behind Six Sigma is to focus on eliminating "product defects", which is defined as any output by the corporation that doesn't meet customer expectations. Even output processes that might lead the company to produce lower than customer specifications is considered a defect. The Six Sigma Rating system measures how many defects per million processes occur.

The higher up the Sigma ranking scale, the more efficient and productive your company is. Only when you reach 99.99966% efficiency is your company said to have achieved a Six Sigma ranking. Lesser quality rankings would be 5-Sigma, 4-Sigma, 3-Sigma and so on. There is actually a 7-Sigma level, but most companies prefer to hold their processes to the traditional Six Sigma ranking system.

6 Sigma Rankings

Below are the efficiency requirements for various Sigma levels, including a breakdown of percent defective processes and its inverse, the percentage yield.

Sigma - 69% Defective - 31% Yield
Sigma - 31% Defective - 69% Yield
Sigma - 6.7% Defective - 93.3% Yield
Sigma - 0.62% Defective - 99.38% Yield
Sigma - 0.023% Defective - 99.977% Yield
Sigma - 0.00034% Defective - 99.99966% Yield
Sigma - 0.0000019% Defective - 99.9999981% Yield

Six Sigma Implementation Roles

Some assume that the martial arts-themed belt roles in the Six Sigma Method are the Six Sigma rankings, and in many ways they can be described to be as such. As a general means of assigning roles in Six Sigma implementation at the corporate level, as well as a general knowledge rating of Six Sigma principles, the belt ratings indicate the key roles in a corporations adoption of Six Sigma ratings.

Below are the various Six Sigma roles, according to the belt ratings (and other terminology).

Yellow Belt - These people are trained in basic Six Sigma management techniques. They work with the black belts in basic applications of Six Sigma, and are closest of the implementers to the work itself.
Green Belt - Six Sigma implementation becomes part of the job responsibilities, usually under the guidance of a black belt.
Black Belt - Devoting 100 percent of their time to Six Sigma, these individuals apply the method to specific projects for the corporation. While those over them identify projects to be worked on, the black belts are focused specifically on execution of the Six Sigma principles.
Master Black Belt - Masters guide black belts and green belts, acting as workplace coaches. They work to ensure constant use of Six Sigma methods.
Champion - Drawn from the upper management, Six Sigma "champions" work to integrate and implement the method throughout the organization. Champions act as mentors to individual black belts.
Executive Leadership - Including the CEO and other top managements of the firm, these individuals work on the overall vision behind Six Sigma implementation, giving the resources and encouragement to the other ranks in improving the rankings and finding breakthroughs.

Do Six Sigma Rankings Work?

Six Sigma Belts, Roles and Ranks Six Sigma is somewhat controversial among corporations and business experts. Six Sigma has become a cottage industry, with business consultants implementing Six Sigma principles in a host of corporations, including Boeing, Amazon.com, Bank of America, Deere & Company, Sears, Raytheon, Samsung Group, Nortel, Hertz, Xerox, General Electric and Lockheed Martin - just to name a few.

In fact, the United States Army, Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps have implemented Six Sigma principles. Therefore, there are a number of highly respected and successful organizations that use Six Sigma techniques to run and improve their organizations.

The Case Against Six Sigma

At the same time, others have argued that Six Sigma isn't that innovative, pointing to earlier efficiency methods like quality control, Zero Defects and TCM. These people point out that Six Sigma uses many of the same principles, but has more colorful designations (the belt rating system) for those implementing the method.

Some experts argue that Six Sigma stifles innovation in the companies using it, or has stifled innovation in many companies that use it in the past. For instance, Fortune Magazine pointed out that, of 58 leading companies that used Six Sigma programs in their study, 91% of those companies trailed the S&P 500 over the coming years. Fortune's conclusion was that Six Sigma is good at what it does - efficiency specifically - but this often becomes details oriented, failing to focus enough on the big picture of innovation.

Others argue that no one method can be used to determine efficiency for all industries, pointing out that efficiency rankings for artificial hearts might follow a different standard than for direct mail advertising, for instance. Some have even indicated that Six Sigma programs have become a cottage industry, with Six Sigma consultants not always knowing as much about their own method as they let on.

Six Sigma Process

Businesses need standards of efficiency. Businesses need certain employees that focus the rest of the company on those standards, and holds people accountable. Six Sigma is a program that does just that; whether your company is best suited to use Six Sigma, or some other method, is best left to your judgment.

There are plenty of brilliant people who have chosen Six Sigma for them. There are plenty of brilliant people who argue against the Six Sigma rankings. That indicates to me that Six Sigma works, in the right situation and with the right people implementing it. That also indicates to me that Six Sigma isn't universal in its effectiveness, and therefore it won't work for each business equally well.

In fact, it might harm certain businesses, especially if the wrong people implement the Six Sigma process.

With most companies, finding good people is the real trick. Some of the complaints with Six Sigma might be the result of 6 Sigma's popularity, and the fact there might be more demand for Six Sigma expertise, than there is skilled Six Sigma consultants. Some failures of the system are attributed to bad Six Sigma consultants, in other words.

In the end, it's a judgment call for you and your top management. Learn as much about Six Sigma as you possibly can, read both the pros and cons, then make your decision to use Six Sigma rankings or not based on the sum total of your business knowledge.