Taming SOX costs with six sigma

The Sarbanes‐Oxley Act (SOX) was passed to fight fraud. But SOX has imposed a lot of additional work and expense on public companies and their independent auditors. Large public companies have been shocked at the multibillion‐dollar costs of first‐year SOX compliance. And year two's costs do not look much better. Is there a way to get SOX costs under control? The authors say the answer is yes, and it can be done by using a powerful quality improvement tool: Six Sigma. They show how to use it and how to avoid common pitfalls. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.