Six Sigma at Motorola

On January 15, 1987, Galvin launched a long term quality program, called "The Six Sigma Quality Program," with the goal of achieving no more than 3.4 defective parts per million. The Corporate Policy Committee of Motorola updated its quality goal to "Improve product and service quality ten times by 1989, and at least one hundred fold by 1991." It aimed at achieving Six Sigma quality by 1992. Galvin initiated measures to develop a culture that focused on continuous improvement to assure total customer satisfaction. He said, "There is only one ultimate goal: zero defects in everything we do." The new quality standard was used in all products, processes, services and administration.

Six Sigma was originally created as a continuous quality management and quality improvement technique (Refer Table IV for differences between Six Sigma and Quality Management) but over a period of time, it evolved into a new way of doing business. In the fifteen years after its launch, Motorola transformed its initial approach of counting defects in product manufacturing to managing variation and systematically improving not just manufacturing but all its business processes. Most importantly, by 2002, Motorola transformed Six Sigma from a tool for improving product quality to an overall business improvement methodology...