Page 32 - Six Sigma for electronics design and manufacturing

The Nature of Six Sigma and Its Connectivity to Other Quality Tools
For a company aiming to design products with the lowest possible num-
ber of defects, traditional three-sigma designs are completely inade-
quate. Accordingly in 1987, Motorola engineers were required to create
all new designs with plus or minus six sigma tolerance limits, given
that the sigma is that of a world-class part or process in the first place.
This marked the start of Motorola’s Six Sigma process and its adoption
of robust design as one capable of withstanding twice the normal varia-
tion of a process.
Early in 1987, Bob Galvin, the CEO of Motorola and head of its
Operating/Policy Committee, committed the corporation to a plan 3
that would determine quality goals of 10 times improvement by
1989, 100 times improvement by 1991, and six sigma capability by
1992. At that time, no one in the company knew how to achieve the
six sigma goal, but, in their drive for quality, they committed the
company to reach the six sigma defect rate of just 3.4 defective parts
per million (PPM) in each step of their processes. By 1992, they met
these goals for the most part. At several Motorola facilities, they
even exceeded six sigma capability in some products and processes.
On average, however, their manufacturing operations by 1992 were
at about 5.4 sigma capability, or 40 defective PPM—somewhat short
of their original goal.
The six sigma effort at Motorola has led to a reduction of in-process
defects in manufacturing by 150 times from 1987 to 1992. This
amounts to total savings of $2.2 billion since the beginning of the six
sigma program. Richard Buetow, Motorola’s Director of Quality, com-
mented that six sigma reduced defects by 99.7% and had saved the
company $11 billion for the nine-year period from 1987 to 1996.
Today, Motorola has reached its goal of six sigma. The complexity of
new technology has resulted in a continued pressure to maintain this
high level of quality. As product complexity continues to increase—
such as semiconductor chips with billions of devices and trillions of in-
structions per second—it will be essential that Motorola master the
process of producing quality at a parts-per-billion level. That is quite
a challenge. One part per billion is equivalent to one second in 31
years!
Therefore, Motorola expanded the six sigma program in 1992 and
beyond to achieve the following:
1. Continue their efforts to achieve six sigma results, and beyond, in
everything they do
2. Change metrics from parts per million to parts per billion (PPB)
3. Go forward with a goal of 10 times reduction in defects every 2
years