DPMO (Defects Per Million Opportunities)

Standard Six Sigma metric that normalizes defect rates across different processes by calculating defects per million opportunities for error. Formula: (Number of Defects / Number of Opportunities) × 1,000,000. A Six Sigma process achieves 3.4 DPMO (99.9997% quality). Allows comparison between simple processes (few opportunities) and complex ones (many opportunities). Example: 10 defects in 1,000 units with 5 defect opportunities per unit = (10 / 5,000) × 1M = 2,000 DPMO (approximately 4 sigma level).