The Amazing Motorola Journey – Discover How Six Sigma Began!

EP213 S06

Discover the story of how Motorola pioneered Six Sigma, a cornerstone of corporate strategy and operational efficiency. This video explores Motorola’s commitment to continuous improvement and performance metrics, leading to lean Six Sigma’s development. You’ll gain insights into integrating performance metrics and operational efficiency into your organization’s strategy. The Motorola story shows the power of a culture of continuous improvement in driving business success. Learn how Motorola’s innovative approach has inspired other companies to adopt similar methodologies and how you can apply these principles for greater success. #AdvancedQualityPrograms #TheQualityGuy #SixSigma

THE CRISIS

Motorola is bleeding money. Defects cost them millions every month. Customers are walking away. Bankruptcy is a real possibility.

Then, one frustrated engineer asks a question that changes everything.

His name is Bill Smith, and his answer will save Motorola and revolutionize how the world thinks about quality.

This is the Six Sigma story.

THE PROBLEM

Every manufacturer faces the same nightmare.

You inspect for quality. You catch defects. You fix them. But you can never predict where the next problem will come from.

This is reactive, expensive, and exhausting.

Bill Smith at Motorola realized something critical that has been known since the Deming cycles were introduced to Western industry: reactive quality control was killing American competitiveness and, in a sense, continues to do so. Japanese manufacturers were outpacing them not because they were able to catch more defects, but because they prevented them from happening in the first place. Smith needed a way to predict and prevent defects before they happened. But how do you measure something that has not occurred yet?

THE BREAKTHROUGH

Smith borrowed a concept from statistics.

Imagine throwing darts at a bullseye. Most cluster around the center, but some scatter wide. That scatter? Statisticians call it sigma—the Greek letter we use to represent standard deviation.

Here was Smith’s “radical” idea: What if we could reduce that scatter so dramatically that only about 3 darts out of every million missed the bullseye?

That level of precision can transform manufacturing. And that is Six Sigma.

The name itself tells you the goal. If you know statistics, it is six standard deviations from the mean—a process yield of 99.99966 percent. In other words, near perfection.

But Smith did not just think of “inventing” a metric. His goal became to build a complete system to achieve that level of perfection.

THE METHODOLOGY

Smith then drafted a roadmap—five steps. Each one with specific tools and techniques to achieve that goal every time.

He came up with the DMAIC process: Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, Control.

And with time, this became not just theory—it became a proven process that saved companies billions. Let’s find out how.

DMAIC IN ACTION – THE ALLIED SIGNAL STORY

Imagine you are the quality manager at Allied Signal in 1995. Aircraft component defects are costing you over $50 million annually. Your CEO just heard of Smith’s Six Sigma idea and asks you to implement it. Where do you start?

DEFINE PHASE

You can’t just say “quality is bad” and leave it at that. That is too vague.

You narrow all your problems to the most important one, and after collecting data, you can tell the CEO, “Hydraulic seal failures occur in 2.3 percent of units, costing $847 per failure and impacting customer satisfaction scores by 12 points.”

Notice the precision? That is the idea of Define—to have a clear problem statement, measurable goals, and a defined scope.

MEASURE PHASE

You cannot improve what you cannot measure, as old listeners of the podcast might recall. So, in your new quest, you ask your team to collect failure data for 30 days. When do seals fail? Which production lines? What conditions? These are questions addressing the defined problem.

You use control charts to establish baseline performance. After collecting data for several days, you can calculate the current sigma level—in other words, how far you are from the target. By checking your measurements, you identify parts of your process that are wrong; these are critical-to-quality characteristics. Now, data becomes your foundation.

ANALYZE PHASE

Here and now, you become a detective.

Why are seals failing? Why, why, why… Your team brainstorms. You create fishbone diagrams mapping potential causes: material quality, operator technique, equipment calibration, environmental factors.

You test your hypotheses using statistical analysis—regression analysis, analysis of variance. If you are into statistics… but just looking at the data will give you a hint.

The culprit emerges: temperature variations during the curing process. A 15-degree fluctuation is causing molecular bonding failures. Some of your engineers will say after looking at your charts… Root cause identified.

IMPROVE PHASE

With that experience, it is no guessing anymore—systematic testing.

Your team uses experiments to test your idea: different curing temperatures, durations, and humidity levels. You run controlled trials and measure results. The fun part—playing Lego for grown-ups. After all that, the optimal combination comes up: 185 degrees, 47 minutes, 35 percent humidity. Wow… who knew?

With that, you redesign the curing process. You check the change on one production line after implementing the changes, and voila—defects drop 73 percent in the first week. Your controlling department validates your solution.

CONTROL PHASE

This is where most improvement initiatives fail. Now that you have found the solution, the excitement fades. Old habits return. But not with Six Sigma.

You create control plans, document your findings, establish monitoring systems, and train operators on the new process. You document standard operating procedures and transfer ownership from the improvement team to the production team.

Result? Allied Signal achieved a 68 percent defect reduction and saved $1.2 billion over four years. And that is DMAIC in action.

ENGAGEMENT MOMENT

Quick quiz: If a process operates at Four Sigma, how many defects per million opportunities?

Pause and guess.

Answer: 6,210 defects per million.

Six Sigma’s 3.4 defects represent an 1,800 times improvement.

That is the difference between losing customers and dominating your market.

THE BELT SYSTEM

Six Sigma borrowed something cool from martial arts: the belt system.

White Belts and Yellow Belts learn the basics in awareness training. They understand the methodology but do not lead projects.

Green Belts manage smaller projects while doing their regular job. Think weekend warriors tackling quality issues part-time.

Black Belts are full-time quality professionals. They lead major initiatives, mentor Green Belts, and drive organizational change.

Master Black Belts? They are the senseis—training, coaching, and guiding strategy across the entire organization.

Champions sit at the top—these are operational leaders who sponsor projects and remove barriers.

This structure ensures Six Sigma becomes embedded in company culture, not just a one-time initiative.

REAL IMPACT

Let me put the numbers in perspective.

That $1.2 billion Allied Signal saved? That meant job security for 50,000 employees and safer aircraft for millions of passengers—not only one year, but for the lifetime of the company.

Motorola’s 20 percent annual profit increase? That transformed them from bankruptcy risk to industry leader. Their stock price tripled.

Asea Brown Boveri’s 68 percent defect drop after adopting this practice—yes, those guys with the orange robots? That meant fewer customer complaints, less rework stress for workers, and 30 percent lower production costs passed to consumers.

Six Sigma delivers hard financial results and soft cultural benefits: alignment with customer expectations, sustainable improvement mechanisms, and analytical skills for employees.

Better quality. Lower costs. Happier customers.

CLOSING – YOUR ACTION STEP

Here is what Six Sigma teaches us:

Quality is not luck. It is discipline.

Whether you are managing a factory floor or a service team, the DMAIC framework gives you a proven roadmap from problem to solution. Start small this week. Pick one recurring issue.

Define it precisely. What exactly is the problem? How much does it cost?

Measure current performance. Collect data for at least two weeks.

Find the root cause. Use fishbone diagrams or the five whys.

Test a solution. Run a small pilot.

Lock in the improvement. Document it. Train your team.

That is Six Sigma in action.

If you want to dive deeper into the specific tools and techniques, check out my books Principles of Quality and Life Quality Projects… or go one step further and enhance your thinking with my book The Quality Mindset… And if this helped you, subscribe for more practical quality management strategies every week. This is Juan Navarro—stay agile, stay excellent, and go make things better.