Lean Manufacturing and Six Sigma Definitions

Glossary terms, history, people and definitions about Lean and Six Sigma

Bell Telephone

To protect the patent rights of Alexander Graham Bell after he successfully acquired the patent to the telephone system, Bell Patent Association was established in 1874.

The Bell Telephone Company was a telecommunications company organized in 1877 by Alexander Graham Bell’s father-in-law. By 1881, American Bell had acquired a controlling interest in the Western Electric Company, It evolved into the American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT&T) by 1900, called the Bell System or Ma Bell (“Mother” Bell).

Bell Labs conducted research and engineering development under Western Electric until 1925, when it was placed under the shared ownership of Western Electric and AT&T.

The expansion of telephone service allowed them to become the largest corporation in the world until its dismantling by the United States Department of Justice in 1984, at which time the Bell System ceased to exist.

These companies were integral to the development of Statistical Process Control methods developed by Walter Shewhart while working at Bell Labs.

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