Abstract

The easily understood Pareto principle has long been used by problem solvers as a powerful root cause analysis tool to separate the vital few factors from the trivial many. However, the apparent simplicity of the Pareto chart has proved to be the undoing of many Six Sigma projects. Four commonly held misconceptions of the Pareto principle are discussed that have prevented some companies from realizing the true potential of the principle. Appropriately applying the Pareto principle to real-world problems can produce meaningful results without the need to resort to elaborate statistics.