"When Zhang [Ruimin, chairman of Haier Group] was struggling in the 1990s to transform Haier from a collective village enterprise into a world-class manufacturer, he idolized General Electric Co. because of its reputation for corporate excellence. 'We went for courses at Crotonville, studying Six Sigma,' he says, referring to GE's management training center in New York and the data-driven process-improvement strategy espoused by former Chief Executive Officer Jack Welch.
"as Haier became the biggest appliance maker in the world, he thought it needed a different playbook to eliminate the sluggish bureaucracy that comes with size. So he [Zhang] created a management philosophy he calls rendanheyi 人单合一, which translates loosely to 'employees and customers become one.' * * * Haier declined to give additional financial details. But annual revenue from its two public entities—Shanghai-listed Qingdao Haier Co and Hong Kong-listed Haier Electronics Group Co—is about $40 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Note:
(a)
(i) summary underneath the title in print: After buying GE Appliance business, Haier is using a homegrown philosophy to revive it
(ii) Print and the online version are the same.
(b) "Haier became the biggest appliance maker in the world"
Online but not in print is a bat chart: "Share of Global Retail Volume, Major Appliances, 2018[:] Haier 10.4% > LG 5.8> Samsung 5.0 > Whirlpool 4.6> Midea 4.5. Electrolux 3.0> Bosch 2.9>GE 2.7 Data: Euromonitor"
That is volume -- or units. Another statistic is revenues or sales. But Euromonitor charges thousands of dollar for a book.
(c) "We went for courses at Crotonville, studying Six Sigma"
(i)
(A) Ossining, New York (village): "in the town of Ossining, Westchester County, New York state * * * the site of the Crotonville Institute, the famous General Electric leadership training facility, founded in 1956" Wikipedia for the village.
(B) Town of "Ossining is bounded on the west by the Hudson River and on the north by the Croton River. * * * A local Indian authority suggested the town be named Ossinsing, a different form of the name Sing Sing." Wikipedia for the town.
(C) "Sing Sing Correctional Facility is a maximum security prison operated by the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision in the village of Ossining * * * It is located about 30 miles (48 km) north of New York City on the east bank of the Hudson River. [The village was first named Sing Sing] whose name came from the Native American words [and also name of a band of Native Americans who had lived there] 'Sinck Sinck' which translates to 'stone upon stone.' " Wikipedia for the state prison.
(ii) Six Sigma
(A) "Six Sigma (6σ) is a set of techniques and tools for process improvement. It was introduced by engineer Bill Smith while working at Motorola in 1980. Jack Welch made it central to his business strategy at General Electric in 1995." Wolo[edoa for Six Sigma.
(B) In mathematics, standard deviation is also denoted with lowercase Greek letter sigma σ.
(C) What Is Sigma and Why Is It Six Sigma? https://www.sixsigma-institute.o ... Is_It_Six_Sigma.php
Six Sigma (or 6 σ) means six standard deviations on EACH side of the mean, hence "3.4 defects per million" manufactured products. See the table.
Cf 68–95–99.7 rule https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/68–95–99.7_rule
, which represents 1, 2 and 3 standard deviations on each side of the mean, in a normal distribution.