Quality

ISO
The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) is a worldwide federation of national standards bodies from some 140 countries, one from each country.

ISO is a non-governmental organization established in 1947. The mission of ISO is to promote the development of standardization and related activities in the world with a view to facilitating the international exchange of goods and services, and to developing cooperation in the spheres of intellectual, scientific, technological and economic activity.

ISO's work results in international agreements which are published as International Standards.

QS-9000
Daimler Chrysler, Ford Motor Company and General Motors developed the Quality System Requirements (QS-9000) as a means to combine their individual supplier quality requirements into a commonized quality standard for the automotive industry. QS-9000 is a set of quality system requirements for suppliers of production materials, production or service parts, or heat treating, plating, painting and other finishing services directly to OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) customers that subscribe to the document. While QS-9000 only applies to automotive suppliers, it does not apply to all suppliers of the Big Three.

QS-9000 is based on the 1994 edition of ISO 9001 (see italicized text in QS-9000), and contains additional requirements that are particular to the automotive industry. Nearly 800,000 copies in nine languages have been distributed in at least 63 countries.

The Daimler Chrysler, Ford Motor Company and General Motors Supplier Quality Requirements Task Force (SQRTF) is responsible for the authorship and content of QS-9000 and related reference manuals, and sets all policies and procedures for the worldwide QS-9000 program. AIAG acts in an administrative support role for manual distribution and training for the Daimler Chrysler, Ford Motor Company and General Motors SQRTF.

Six Sigma
Six Sigma at many organizations simply means a measure of quality that strives for near perfection. Six Sigma is a disciplined, data-driven approach and methodology for eliminating defects (driving towards six sigmas between lower and upper specification limits) in any process -- from manufacturing to transactional and from product to service.

The statistical representation of Six Sigma describes quantitatively how a process is performing. To achieve Six Sigma, a process must not produce more than 3.4 defects per million opportunities. A Six Sigma defect is defined as anything outside of customer specifications. A Six Sigma opportunity is then the total quantity of chances for a defect. Process sigma can easily be calculated using a Six Sigma calculator.

The fundamental objective of the Six Sigma methodology is the implementation of a measurement-based strategy that focuses on process improvement and variation reduction through the application of Six Sigma improvement projects. This is accomplished through the use of two Six Sigma sub-methodologies: DMAIC and DMADV. The Six Sigma DMAIC process (define, measure, analyze, improve, control) is an improvement system for existing processes falling below specification and looking for incremental improvement. The Six Sigma DMADV process (define, measure, analyze, design, verify) is an improvement system used to develop new processes or products at Six Sigma quality levels. It can also be employed if a current process requires more than just incremental improvement. Both Six Sigma processes are executed by Six Sigma Green Belts and Six Sigma Black Belts, and are overseen by Six Sigma Master Black Belts.

According to the Six Sigma Academy, Black Belts save companies approximately $230,000 per project and can complete four to 6 projects per year. General Electric, one of the most successful companies implementing Six Sigma, has estimated benefits on the order of $10 billion during the first five years of implementation. GE first began Six Sigma in 1995.

Many frameworks exist for implementing the Six Sigma methodology. Six Sigma Consultants all over the world have developed proprietary methodologies for implementing Six Sigma quality, based on the similar change management philosophies and applications of tools.

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