On 5/4/05, Rod Wallace <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> From IM's 4/21 press release:
>
> "Iron Mountain performs upwards of five million pick-ups and deliveries of
> backup tapes each year, with greater than 99.999% reliability. Nevertheless,
> since the beginning of the year, four events of human error at Iron Mountain
> resulted in the loss of a customer's computer backup tapes. While four losses is
> not a large number in comparison to an annual rate of five million
> transportation events, any loss is important to customers and to Iron Mountain."
>
> At loss rate of 0.00001 the resulting percentage would be 50 losses per year
> or about
> one per week.

Never trust the press. The NYTimes (I believe) reported. 99.9%
accuracy. At 99.999% reliability IM is close to the magic Six Sigma

here are some numbers to look at as well as a link to a Six Sigma calculator

99.99% accuracy would result in 500 unsuccessful trips

99.999% accuracy would be 50 unsuccessful trips

99.9999% would be 5 unsuccessful trips

want to have fun check out this Six Sigma calculator

http://www.isixsigma.com/sixsigma/six_sigma_calculator.asp


the question then becomes how much will it cost (IM, the customer or
both) to get from 50 unsuccessful trips per year to 5 unsuccessful
trips per year?


--
Peter Kurilecz
Richmond, Va

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