Six Sigma for Managers, Second Edition (Briefcase Books Series), 2nd Edition

Measure Phase

I often say that when you can measure what you are speaking about and express it in numbers, you know something about it; but when you cannot measure it, when you cannot express it in numbers, your knowledge is of a meagre and unsatisfactory kind.

—William Thomson, Lord Kelvin (1824–1907)

We don’t know what we don’t know. We can’t act on what we don’t know. We won’t know until we search. We won’t search for what we don’t question. We don’t question what we don’t measure.”

—Dr. Mikel Harry

The purpose of the Measure phase is not to solve the problem. It’s to understand exactly where you are, what you know, and what you don’t know. ...