Six Sigma was first established in the 1980s, by a team of consultants that were hired to help improve quality at Motorola.The story of Six Sigma’s origin started in a place where good stories rarely begin: a board room, in a manager’s meeting.In the eighties, a group of Motorola executives were discussing, among other things, quality assurance and control, when Art Sundry, who worked closely with then-COO John F. Mitchell on quality concerns, yelled, “Our quality stinks!” He did this repeatedly. Interestingly enough, his tirade wasn’t punished; he was rewarded for speaking his mind. he was given full control over quality matters within Motorola.Sundry’s greatest contribution to Six Sigma came when he hired outside consultants: Bill Smith and Dr. Mikel J. Harry. Together, Smith and Harry came up with the Six Sigma concept for quality control improvement using the foundational Lean principles created by W. Edwards Deming, Joseph Juran, Philip Crosby, Kaoru Ishikawa, and Genichi Taguchi.Edwards Deming:Considered the godfather of Lean manufacturingInvented the Plan Do Check Act (PDCA) model, which is the basis for Six Sigma’s DMAIC cycleJoseph Juran:Developed the Pareto principle (aka the 80/20 principle), which states that 80% of quality improvement is possible by fixing 20% of problemsEncouraged looking at quality from customer’s point of view, which shifted the way companies evaluated QAPhilip Crosby:QA pioneer who dictated that quality should be defined by conformance to requirements, not as exceeding customer expectationsFrom this idea, he posited that quality should be measured by cost of non-conformanceKaoru Isikawa:Theorist who created the fishbone diagram, which carefully measures cause and effectExpanded Deming’s PDCA model and put emphasis on using other quality-assurance tools, such as: control charts, run charts, histograms, Pareto charts, and flow chartsGenichi Taguchi:As an engineer and statistician, Taguchi discovered that external disturbances such as noise impacts the quality of your productHe coined Quality Loss Function theory, which is used to quantify the decrease in the perceived value of customers Similar Questions What are Six Sigma principles?Who developed Six Sigma?Who can do Six Sigma?What is the history of Six Sigma?Is Six Sigma Lean?What are the benefits of Six Sigma?Why is Lean Six Sigma important?Can Six Sigma improve quality?How is Six Sigma different from Kaizen?Additional Resources DMAIC CycleWhat is DFSS (Six Sigma)?Lean versus Six Sigma: Which is better for your business?Six SigmaSix Sigma Principles

When was Six Sigma developed?

Six Sigma

Six Sigma was first established in the 1980s, by a team of consultants that were hired to help improve quality at Motorola.

The story of Six Sigma’s origin started in a place where good stories rarely begin: a board room, in a manager’s meeting.

In the eighties, a group of Motorola executives were discussing, among other things, quality assurance and control, when Art Sundry, who worked closely with then-COO John F. Mitchell on quality concerns, yelled, “Our quality stinks!” He did this repeatedly. Interestingly enough, his tirade wasn’t punished; he was rewarded for speaking his mind. he was given full control over quality matters within Motorola.

Sundry’s greatest contribution to Six Sigma came when he hired outside consultants: Bill Smith and Dr. Mikel J. Harry. Together, Smith and Harry came up with the Six Sigma concept for quality control improvement using the foundational Lean principles created by W. Edwards Deming, Joseph Juran, Philip Crosby, Kaoru Ishikawa, and Genichi Taguchi.

Edwards Deming:

Considered the godfather of Lean manufacturing
Invented the Plan Do Check Act (PDCA) model, which is the basis for Six Sigma’s DMAIC cycle

Joseph Juran:

Developed the Pareto principle (aka the 80/20 principle), which states that 80% of quality improvement is possible by fixing 20% of problems
Encouraged looking at quality from customer’s point of view, which shifted the way companies evaluated QA

Philip Crosby:

QA pioneer who dictated that quality should be defined by conformance to requirements, not as exceeding customer expectations
From this idea, he posited that quality should be measured by cost of non-conformance

Kaoru Isikawa:

Theorist who created the fishbone diagram, which carefully measures cause and effect
Expanded Deming’s PDCA model and put emphasis on using other quality-assurance tools, such as: control charts, run charts, histograms, Pareto charts, and flow charts

Genichi Taguchi:

As an engineer and statistician, Taguchi discovered that external disturbances such as noise impacts the quality of your product
He coined Quality Loss Function theory, which is used to quantify the decrease in the perceived value of customers