Bill Smith, a Motorola engineer, developed the Six Sigma programme in 1986 as a response
to the necessity for improving quality and reducing defects in their products. The CEO, Bob
Galvin, was impressed by the early successes, and under his leadership, Motorola began to apply
Six Sigma across the organization, focusing on manufacturing processes and systems. Godfrey
(2002) interviewed Bob Galvin on these early days of Six Sigma.
Motorola established Six Sigma as both an objective for the corporation and as a focal point
for process and product quality improvement efforts. The Six Sigma concept was tremendously
successful at Motorola. It has been estimated that they reduced defects on semiconductor devices
by 94% between 1987 and 1993. In recent years, Six Sigma has spread beyond Motorola and has
become a programme for improving corporate business performance by both improving quality,
reducing costs and expanding markets for products and services. Six Sigma, in some form, has
been adopted by thousands of companies both large and small.