Identification.
The Recognize and Define phases fall under this category, in which companies begin to understand the fundamental concepts of Six Sigma and recognize the Breakthrough Strategy as a problem-solving methodology with a unique set of tools. These phases allow companies to recognize how their processes affect profitability, then define what the critical-to-business processes are. The key component for companies to address in these two phases is variation across processes — how much of an impact variation has on results in terms of cost, cycle time and defect rates.