A few years ago, I did some consulting and training for a manufacturing company. Components of their products were made from metal castings with some precision requirements below a thousandth of an inch. The company had some trouble achieving these tough product targets and I was there to help.
Now put yourself in the management of this operation as you read, and ask yourself, "What would I do?"
Technology products are often evaluated on their "ease of use" as though this concept is universal. The deeper issue, however, is the degree to which a customer finds a company easy or hard to to business with.
I can't tell you the number of times that I have taken the 'executive' facility tour only to see something surprising offered as their "statistical process control"!
It's a control chart, demanding attention, loudly proclaiming that the process is 'out of control'. However, the machinery still turns and product continues to be packaged and shipped.
You may have never heard of, or thought about such a notion as "The Threshold of perception". In fact, for thousands of years this idea would have been inaccessible to all but a few people. In order to grasp the threshold, one must see it move!
There are things that are too small for the human eye to see, but they exist. When one has seen a magnifying glass 'push back' the threshold, the principle is established. It is then easy to imagine that increases in magnification will reveal still more unseen things.
"Six-sigma" anywhere in the title of a book, article or website is guaranteed to draw attention. Businesses are urgently asking "What's our sigma?", knowing only that "6" is supposedly "good", and unsure of what is "bad". If you don't know a +6 from a -12 "sigma" then read this now, and don't make a "six-sigma" mistake.
RISK
