第73至76題為題組
         Six Sigma is a highly disciplined process that helps companies focus on developing and delivering near-perfect products and services. The word “sigma” is a statistical term that measures how far a given process falls short of perfection. The central idea behind Six Sigma is that if a company can measure how many “defects” they have in a commercial production process, they can systematically figure out how to eliminate the problems and get as close to “zero defects” as possible.
         Training and teamwork are essential elements of the Six Sigma methodology. In other words,companies need to have their team leaders and team members trained to implement the Six Sigma processes. They must learn to use the measurement and improvement tools. They also need to learn communication skills necessary for them to involve customers and suppliers and to serve their needs.
         Six Sigma was developed in 1986 by Motorola, an American telecommunications company. Engineers in Motorola used it as an informal name for a plan to reduce faults in production processes. A few years later, Motorola extended the name “Six Sigma” to mean a general performance improvement method, beyond purely “defect reduction” in the production process. In 1995, Jack Welch, CEO of General Electrics (GE), decided to implement Six Sigma in GE； and by 1998 GE claimed that Six Sigma had generated over three-quarters of a billion dollars of cost savings.
         By 2000, Six Sigma was effectively established as an industry in its own right, involving the training, consultancy and implementation of Six Sigma methodology in all sorts of organizations around the world. Organizations as diverse as local governments, prisons, hospitals, the armed forces, banks, and multi-national corporations have been adopting Six Sigma for quality and process improvement.
【題組】73According to the passage, what is “Six Sigma”?
(A) A digital device to speed up production processes.
(B) A near-perfect process in business communication.
(C) A statistical term that measures a company’s budgets and profits.
(D) A quality measure that detects problems to improve products and services.