Six Sigma Terminology Activity - A name process, function, or task that occurs over time and has recognizable

results. Activities combine to form business processes

Baseline - The current condition (formally reviewed and agreed upon) that exists in a
situation, usually used to differentiate between a current and a future representation. This serves as the basis for further Bench Marking and development.

Benchmarking - A structured approach for identifying the best practices from

industry and government, and comparing and adapting them to the organization's operations. Such an approach is aimed at identifying more efficient and effective processes for achieving intended results, and suggesting ambitious goals for program output, product/service quality, and process improvement.

Best practice - A way or method of accomplishing a business function or process that

is considered to be superior to all other known methods.

Black Belt - The leader of the team responsible for applying the Six Sigma process Block Diagram - The block diagram is a simple pictorial representation of a
system/sub systems linked to illustrate the relationships between components/subsystems

Business process - A collection of activities that work together to produce a defined

set of products and services. All business processes in an enterprise exist to fulfill the mission of the enterprise. Business processes must be related in some way to mission objectives.

Champion- Person responsible for the logistical and business aspects of a Six Sigma
project. Champions select and scope projects that are aligned with the corporate strategy, choose and mentor the right people for the project, and remove barriers to ensure the highest levels of success.

Characteristic - A definable or measurable feature of a process, product, or variable. Continuous Improvement - Action taken to find ways in improve processes,
decrease variation , decrease costs, and improve effectiveness of the organization.

Cost of poor quality (COPQ) - The costs incurred by producing products or

services of poor quality. These costs usually include the cost of inspection, rework, duplicate work, scrapping rejects, replacements and refunds, complaints, and loss of 1

customers and reputation. These costs are grouped under Internal and External Failure Cost, Appraisal Cost and Prevention Cost.

Customer - The receiver of an output of a process, either internal or external to the

organization. Can be a person, department, company, etc.

Dashboard- A set of metrics, usually not more than five or six, that provide an "at-aglance" summary of a Six Sigma project's status. Every participant in a Six Sigma deployment -- from the CEO to a factory floor worker -- should have his or her own dashboard with function- and level-appropriate data summaries.

Defect - An error in construction of a product or service that renders it unusable; an

error that causes a product or service to not meet customer requirements

Defective A product or service having one or more defects. DMAIC The Define, Measure, Analyse, Improve and Control Phases of problem
solving in Six Sigma.

DPU - defects per unit DPMO - defects per million opportunities Gage Repeatability and Reproducibility (GageR&R ) - A statistical tool that
measures the amount of variation in the measurement system contributed by the device used, the people taking the measurement, the interaction between the device and the person and the error due to repeat observations for the same device and person.

GreenBelt- An individual who supports the implementation and application of Six

Sigma tools by way of participation on project teams.

KPI Key Performance Indicators Master BlackBelt- A teacher and mentor of Black Belts. Provides support, reviews
projects, and undertakes larger scale projects.

Measurement Assignment of qualitative or quantitative values to parameters of a

process or to characteristics of the output of the process.

Non-Conformance - Product or material or activity which does not conform to the

customer specifications and/or requirements or laid down procedures. Sometimes used interchangeably with non-conformity

Performance Measure - An indicator that can be used to evaluate quality, cost, or

cycle time characteristics of an activity or process usually against a target or standard.

Problem - Some undesirable symptom, effect or phenomena which causes poor

performance in terms of quality, productivity, cost, variation, cycle time etc.

ProblemSolving- The process of solving problems; the isolation, improvement and

control of those conditions which generate or facilitate the creation of undesirable symptoms.

Process Any activity or group of activity consisting of one or more of the resources material, men, methods, machines and environment and which produces some output for use of internal or external customers.

Process Flow Chart - A graphical representation showing all of the steps/activities

of a process in natural sequence using various symbols for different kind of activities, start and end.

ProcessManagement- The cycle of continuous review, re-examination and renewal of

fundamental work processes that contribute to an organization's performance and productivity. Itself a continual process, process management must at all times challenge a process' fit with other processes, and may result in radical change to work methods and practices.

ProcessSpread- The range of values which a given process characteristic displays;

this particular term most often applies to the range but may also encompass the variance. The spread may be based on a set of data collected at a specific point in time or may reflect the variability across a given amount of time.

Project- Formulating a problem as a task for detailed planned action for deriving
possible solutions to the problem.

Sigma Has two distinct meaning - a statistical unit of measure for variation which
reflects process capability and a statistical measure of the goodness of the process as to how much ppm defects are expected from the process.

Six Sigma - Sigma is a letter in the Greek alphabet. The term "sigma" is used to
designate the spread about the mean (average) of any process or procedure. For a business or manufacturing process, the sigma value is a metric that indicates how well that process is performing. The higher the sigma value, the better. Sigma measures the capability of the process to perform defect-free-work. A defect is anything that results in customer dissatisfaction. Sigma is a statistical unit of measure which reflects process capability. The sigma scale of measure is perfectly correlated to such characteristics as defects-per-unit, parts-per million defective, and the probability of a failure/error. Meaning no more than 3.4 parts per Million.

StatisticalProcessControl- The application of statistical methods and procedures

relative to a process and a given set of standards

Validation - Establishing proof based on factual information that a design, product, or

process created or modified as a part of the improvement activities will perform to yield expected results.

Variation- Any quantifiable difference between individual measurements; such

differences can be

Voice Of The Business The stated mission, goals and business objectives of an
organization. This collection of specific, documented statements of intent are the guidelines by which linkages are established between Six Sigma projects and targeted levels of improvement. The Voice of the Business should outline exactly what it is the business does, as well as how the business intents to accomplish its mission. Combined with the Voice of the Customer, the Voice of the Business plays an important role in defining potential Six Sigma projects.

Voice Of The Customer A systematic, institutionalized approach for eliciting and

analyzing customers requirements, expectations, level of satisfaction and areas of concern. Typically, a Voice of the Customer effort includes facilitated focus groups, individual interviews, surveys. The Voice of the Customer is a key data source in the Project Selection process.

YellowBelt- A Yellow Belt is any employee who has received introductory training in
the fundamentals of Six Sigma. The Yellow Belt gathers data, participates in problemsolving exercises and adds their personal experiences to the exploration process. Yellow Belts should have basic high school level math and reading skills.

Z-Scores- The Z score calculated based on a set of data from any process, indicates
how far, in each direction the individual readings are expected to deviate from its distribution mean, expressed in units of the standard deviation. The z score is derived using the standard normal table and is the basis for calculation of the sigma rating of the process.