I’m sure that got your attention, as it did mine. 
If Five Sigma means 233 defects per million opportunities (DPMOs) with 99.9767% success rate, and Six Sigma is 3.4 DPMOs with 99.99966% success rate, what is Nine Sigma? Zero defect?
Maybe. But the Nine Sigma in BusinessWeek Online refers to NineSigma, a company that helps companies take advantage of “open innovation.” Open innovation is the practice of companies that go beyond their R&D departments and tap thousands of independent inventors, university researchers for solutions.
Paul Stiros, Nine Sigma’s president and CEO, proudly recalls:
It was NineSigma that, by sending a request out to its network of 1.5 million experts (who are free to forward the request to still more experts), found the semiconductor expert who solved P&G’s cotton wrinkling problem, and the company tackles similarly tough problems for companies such as Unilever, General Mills, and Johnson Controls. Many companies come to us out of frustration.
Continue reading about Jessie Scanlon’s interview with Paul Stiros and learn how NineSigma can help you meet the challenges of innovation, especially open innovation, and how to make it work in your company.
I visited the company’s website in the hope of learning about why they chose to name their company NineSigma. I didn’t find the answer there.
Does anyone know?
Nine sigma is just ridiculous! What’s next anorexic manufacturing, or something?
Crazy.
Rob
:)
six sigma is about quality and continuous improvement. NineSigma is about breakthrough