Welcome to the session introduction to six sigma. The objectives of this session are to understand the origins of Six Sigma methods to define what is six sigma and sigma levels to learn key concepts of Six Sigma, to understand the methodology, and how it can be applied to quality improvement projects, and to identify Six Sigma focus areas and application. Let's talk about the origins of six sigma. In the past, crafts were the main source of production. production was manual, slow but also unique and was based on the individual skills and not perfect tools. Quality was assured by the Craftsman himself with mass production things moved on from Focusing on high production volumes of standardized goods that had interchangeable parts.
It was quite a progress from craftsmanship in terms of effectiveness and speed. Quality for the product was assured through inspection, that is whether a product meets certain criteria with quality coming on stage and more and more companies realizing the need to work with quality principles, not only after their products are produced, but before and during production. This means that understanding the processes themselves has become more and more important. Process Management Process variation design process controls have become the focus on production activities in recent times. Quality is assured through solid processes that are stable and deliver as designed. Let's look at some of the names On the screen with Ellie Whitney the quality revolution began in 1798.
In order to secure a government contract to manufacture 10,000 guns, Whitney came up with the idea of interchangeable parts. Dr. Shirt worked with Western Electric from 1918 to 1924, where he introduced control charts. He also created the cycle plan do study act, Edward Deming was instrumental in the reconstruction of Japan after the Second World War with Egypt to Yoda, who was the former CEO of Toyota pioneered in the 1940s and 1950s. What today is known as lean. Let's now look at the Six Sigma timeline and get an understanding of the evolution of six sigma over time.
The concept of standard deviation is an important one in six sigma and it was defined in the 19th century by girls. And it actually goes a little further back from that. If we look backwards in time into the late 1800s actually, we had Frederick Taylor and terroristic think the division of labor which gave rise to a lot of the things that we would call today six sigma. In the 1920s, Henry Ford and Walter short as well as others worked on the development link to six sigma. In the 1940s. There was an enormous need to support military manufacturing in the US.
And this is where standard statistical process control appeared from the works of water short. After the Second World War, Dr. Deming and Dr. Joseph Duran and their work in Japan led to the development of quality as a competitor differentiator for the Japanese industry. It was Miko curry and crew working With Motorola and General Electric in the 80s, who began to turn six sigma into a brand and increase the awareness around how Six Sigma can be implemented in many different industries. There are some key improvement concepts that have been developed over the years. And back in the early 20s, we had what is called the plan do study act cycle. Then as we move on into the 60s and 70s work on statistical process control was done by the Japanese, your union of scientists, and the engineers who perfected the methodology and then adopting total quality management in the 80s.
Moving later into the late 80s and early 90s, we had the integration of ISO 9000 with total quality management and the development of the Baldrige Criteria for performance excellence. We will look at the details of beaudry to work in The moment we already mentioned PDSA that plan do study act cycle. So, the idea is that this is a cycle of continuous improvement to improve processes. We also mentioned statistical process control. And this is the idea of setting upper and lower control limits and then tracking actual attribute data and then reacting to processes. During the 1990s, the ISO 9000 standard was developed.
And this is where the quality assured companies really made part of the criteria for doing business in a way to win recognition and credibility with customers. We already looked at about three to work. It was an important step in the progress of quality adoption. So the evolution of Six Sigma, as we know it today, is widely credited to the work done in by Motorola and General Electric, Miko, hurry, and today Many other prominent quality leaders were involved with. The Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award is presented annually by the President of the United States, two organizations that demonstrate quality and performance excellence. Three awards may be given annually in each of the six categories, manufacturing service company, small business, education, healthcare, and nonprofit.
The Malcolm Baldrige Award was established by the US Congress in 1987. For manufacturers service businesses and small businesses. The Baldrige Criteria was assigned to raise awareness of quality management and recognize us companies that have implemented successful quality management systems. The education and health care kit calories were added in 1999 a government and nonprofit category was added in 2007. The Baldrige Award is named after the late Secretary of Commerce Malcolm Baldrige, an advocate of quality management. The US Commerce Department's National Institute of Standards and Technology, manage the award and the Sq American Society for Quality administers the award.
Organizations that apply for the Baldrige Award are judged by an independent board of examiners. recipients are selected based on achievement and improvement in seven areas known as the Baldrige Criteria for performance excellence. Number one is leadership. That is how upper management leads the organization and how the organization leads within the community. The next one is strategy how your organization establishes and plans to implement strategic direction. The third criteria is customers how the organization builds and maintains strong lasting relationships with the customers.
Category number four is measurement, analysis and knowledge management. That is how your organization uses data to support key processes and manage performance. The fifth one is workforce, how your organization empowers and evolves its workforce. The next one is operations, how the organization designs manages and improves key processes. And last one is results how the organization performs in terms of customer satisfaction, finance, human resources, supplier and partner performance, operations, governance and social responsibility and how your organization compares to its competitors.