Six Sigma, 6σ The ideas behind the Six Sigma concept arose from a realisation that technology changes the way we should think about quality and especially about manufacturing non-conformance rates. When automated processes are responsible for much of current manufacturing, quality levels should be very high. Thus, a change was required in the way organisations think about what is acceptable in terms of non-conformance to agreed quality levels. That change was to move from expressing and measuring quality levels in percentages, or parts per hundred to one of adopting parts per million or even parts per billion. From this concept and statistical underpinning Six Sigma has developed into a highly disciplined process used to help an organisation focus on developing and delivering near-perfect products and services. The basic approach is to identify and evaluate a defect, analyse the causes, make improvements, and then control those improvements. Many of the tools of Six Sigma (and