Introduction To Six Sigma

We are taught to think of our organization as a lot of boxes stacked into a pyramid with the CEO at the top and the surfs at the bottom. It was built on the structure of the Roman army two thousand years ago. It is far more useful to think of organizations in terms of three items:

• Inputs
• Processes
• Outputs

Inputs are the new materials. That may include supplies that are needed to make a widget or information needed by your team. Processes are the things you do to the input. Outputs are the products or services that go to the customer.

The customer can be the outside people who actually buy the service or product. However, it could also be the people with your organization who need the output of your team to do what they need to do. At its simplest level, supplies and information flow into your part of the organization. You and your team do stuff with these materials or with that information and there is some output. That is the atomic structure of all business organizations.