Six sigma

Introduction

A quality improvement approach designed to reduce variation, cost & defects, developed to improve industrial manufacturing, since adapted for healthcare.. The name derives from a statistical measure indicating the number of standard deviations from the mean in which no production defects occur. The process tends to focus on quality control in each step rather than overall system function & efficiency

More general terms

• continuous quality improvement (CQI) or total quality management (TQM)

More specific terms

• Define Measure Analyze Improve Control (DMAIC) process

Additional terms

• Plan Do Study Act (PDSA) cycle

Components

• Define Measure Analyze Improve Control (DMAIC) process