DPMO (Defects Per Million Opportunities)

Biological Parallel

Bacterial conjugation transfers plasmids with 1 error per 10^9 base pairs—0.1 defects per billion opportunities, making Six Sigma look sloppy. The vertebrate immune system tests 10 million antibody variants per infection and selects the handful that bind the pathogen—a 99.9999% rejection rate. Salmon return to their birth stream with 99% accuracy after migrating thousands of miles—10,000 successful navigations per 10,100 attempts. Biology measures quality in defects per million because survival leaves no margin for error; DPMO merely formalizes nature's existing standard.