Six Sigma
A method for removing variation, applied to a place that needed variation.
Motorola, origin of the method
1986
BusinessWeek, 3M's Innovation Crisis
cover story, 11 June 2007
Originating at Motorola in 1986 and scaled by General Electric, Six Sigma pursues defect reduction through define, measure, analyze, improve, control, supported by a belt structure of trained practitioners.
It appears here three times. As a method, it is the discipline behind the Evidence cell. As a warning, it is the 3M case: variance reduction applied to invention removes the variance invention requires. And as a business model, the belt structure is the precedent worth stealing, because it turned a statistical method into a labor market by building the credential.
What would you show an auditor, and can the system produce it without being asked?
How does tacit judgment become reusable, and who owns the loop that has to close?
Who is qualified to overrule the machine, and how would you prove it?