If Everything was 99% “It works right”

So, Six Sigma equates to 99.99966% accurate.

But, why would anyone ever need that level of accuracy? After all, isn’t 98% or even 99% ‘accurate’ as close to perfection as we could ever expect? If our grades in school had been that good, we surely would have been in the top of any class.

That’s true when we are talking about people. We are human and humans inevitably make mistakes. When the question is focused on how ‘good’ we expect things to be that we use in our daily lives, though, a different quality standard emerges.

Here are some examples of what 99% quality, or as my daughter would say “It works right”,
would look like:

· 5,000 incorrect surgical operations per week
· Unsafe drinking water for 15 minutes per day
· 20,000 wrong prescriptions per year
· 2 short or long landings at most major airports per day
· No electricity for 7 hours per month

At that level of ‘quality’, I would have an accident commuting to work every other month.

99% = 3.5 Sigma = not good enough !