Six Sigma is about numbers. Six Sigma produces a flood of data about your process that are critical to your success. If you don’t measure it and understand what you are measuring, you can’t manage it. Six Sigma’s clear strength is a data-driven analysis and decision-making process not someone’s opinion or gut feeling.
The value of statistical analysis cannot be underestimated. Through an analysis of all of that data, you begin to understand your process and develop methodologies to identify and implement the right solutions to improve your process. Statistical evaluation of the data identifies key areas which can have an adverse effect on product quality if not controlled. Once you have identified these key areas you can focus your process improvement efforts
Given the importance of intelligently handling all of this data, you need to find an efficient and powerful method of crunching the numbers. Naturally, you want to avoid the drudgery of manual calculations and save a whole lot of time by using a statistical software application. You may be tempted to use Excel or another spreadsheet application as a calculator and database to store...