Abstract
The word sigma is the eighteenth letter of the Greek alphabet (Σ, σ), transliterated as ‘S, s’. These symbols are used to denote a mathematical sum (Σ) and a standard deviation (σ); the term standard deviation was introduced to statistics by Karl Pearson (1894), which is a quantity calculated to indicate the extent of deviation for a group of elements as a whole from their expected central tendency. A low standard deviation indicates that the elements tend to be very close to their expected central tendency, whereas high standard deviation indicates that the elements are spread out over a large range from their expected central tendency.
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Notes
- 1.
A popularly prearranged definition of a “six sigma” process, in the “six sigma” literature, is one in which there are about 3.4 defects per million opportunities, under a mythological assumption that an unpredictable process will not shift location more than ±1.5 sigma. This assumption does not hold true in most high temperatures combustion applications where heat transfer by radiation is predominant. When a high temperature combustion process is operated unpredictably there is no limit on the size of the shifts that can occur.
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van Aartsengel, A., Kurtoglu, S. (2013). Defining Lean Six Sigma. In: Handbook on Continuous Improvement Transformation. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-35901-9_2
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