A Brief History of Lean Six Sigma

Philip Calhoun seeks to improve efficiency wherever he is in charge. A former vice president of manufacturing at Nissan Motor Corporation, he uses various management principles to enhance operations. One principle that Philip Calhoun has made use of at his workplace is Lean Six Sigma.

The history of Lean Six Sigma began in the 1920s. Walter Shewhart developed the process control chart as a tool for quality control in the manufacturing process. He also instituted a quality measurement standard for product variation that used a three-sigma system. This development introduced quality control as a separate discipline in manufacturing.

However, the formal story of Six Sigma started in 1986. Bill Smith, an engineer with Motorola, formulated an approach to quality control that utilized some of Shewhart’s quality control techniques, including his process control chart.

This approach considered lowering manufacturing defects by reducing the production process variance and measuring defects per million opportunities rather than a thousand opportunities. It also advocated for continuous quality improvement. Smith called this approach ‘Six Sigma,’ earning him the moniker ‘The Father of Six Sigma.’

He approached his boss, Motorola CEO Bob Galvin, with this new quality improvement technique. The Six Sigma standard was accepted and adopted throughout the company in 1987. Their efforts bore fruit when they won the first Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award in 1988. This situation led to Six Sigma’s adoption by many other corporate entities and its increased popularity.