By incorporating customer-focused objectives and metrics to drive continuous improvement-and by implementing proven accountability and rewards programs-Six Sigma quality objectives aspire to reach a three-parts-per-million error ratio at a 99.9996% incidence. This article provides an actionable approach to how a zero-injury culture can be driven by adopting the same tools and tactics of product quality's Six Sigma methodology.
Is safety given the same commitment as product quality? Are employees accountable for their own safety? Is safety excellence imbedded into the company psyche? These are the fundamental questions that are driving today's safety revolution.
In much the same way total quality management made significant strides during the 1980s, industrial safety is poised for its own transformation.
The Six Sigma tools are nonproprietary, with a growing number of documented references to their statistical origin.1 The unique aspect of this article is not the Six Sigma tools. Rather, it is the documentation of their practical application to safety.
Like all innovations, Six Sigma had the perspective of the great thinkers of manufacturing and production. Although the concept originated with a group of Motorola engineers during the mid-1980s, Six Sigma includes the theory and logic of quality pioneers such as W.E. Deming, Joseph Juran and Philip Crosby to address the age-old question: "Is the effort to achieve quality dependent on detecting and fixing defects? Or can quality be achieved by preventing defects through manufacturing controls and product design?"
At the core of Six Sigma is improvement in effectiveness and efficiency. Its core pursuit is perfection-a never-ending dissatisfaction with current performance. But what separates Six Sigma from conventional quality concepts is its focus on communicating measurable error ratios. By incorporating customer-focused objectives and metrics to drive continuous improvement-and by establishing processes that are so robust to ensure defects rarely occur-Six Sigma quality objectives aspire to reach a three-parts-per-million error ratio at a 99.9996% incidence.
Statistically, Six Sigma variations are the standard deviation around the mean, represented by the Greek symbol sigma s.
Today's Six Sigma quality community includes certification that incorporates formal instruction, performance standards, and applying a wide range of analytical problem-solving tools, such as Pareto charts, process maps and fishbone diagrams. Its mastery borrows martial arts vernacular (e.g., black belt, sensei, etc.) to define levels of understanding and performance.
What Six Sigma did for quality is about to occur in industrial safety. The same desire to eliminate product mistakes is at work to reduce injury rates. In this parallel journey there are six levels, or Six Sigmas, in safety. Each "sigma control" builds on the previous level until the sixth sigma-a zero-injury culture-is attained.
One sigma is set in the era of the three E's of safety: engineer, educate and enforce. The tools for these rudimentary safety mechanics include work orders, safety rules, injury investigations, and compliance programs.
