Lean Six Sigma: What is it?
Lean Six Sigma is a managerial strategy with a team focus that aims to increase performance by reducing resource waste and flaws.
It blends the lean manufacturing/lean enterprise mindset with Six Sigma techniques and tools. It aims to stop the wastage of material resources, time, talent, and effort while guaranteeing the quality of organizational and production processes. Simply said, Lean Six Sigma advocates eliminating any resource consumption that doesn't add value for the end user because it is wasteful.
Understanding Lean Six Sigma
Lean Six Sigma is a combination of Lean methodology and Six Sigma strategy. Lean methodology was established by Japanese automaker Toyota in the 1940s. Its purpose was to remove non-value-adding activities from the production process.
Six Sigma, on the other hand, was established in the 1980s by an engineer at U.S. telecommunications company Motorola who was inspired by Japan's Kaizen model. It was trademarked by the company in 1993. Its method seeks to identify and reduce defects in the production process. It also strives to streamline the variability of the production process.
Lean Six Sigma emerged in the 1990s as large U.S. manufacturers attempted to compete with Japan's better-made products. The combination strategy was introduced by Michael George and Robert Lawrence Jr. in their 2002 book Lean Six Sigma: Combining Six Sigma with Lean Speed.
The Lean Six Sigma Concept
The lean concept of management focuses on the reduction and elimination of eight kinds of waste known as DOWNTIME, an acronym formed by the words defects, overproduction, waiting, non-utilized talent, transportation, inventory, motion, and extra-processing. Lean refers to any method, measure, or tool that helps in the identification and elimination of waste.
The term Six Sigma refers to tools and techniques that are used to improve manufacturing processes. The strategy attempts to identify and eliminate the causes of defects and variations in business and manufacturing processes.
Six Sigma's DMAIC phases are utilized in Lean Six Sigma. The acronym stands for define, measure, analyze, improve, and control. It refers to the data-driven five-step method for improving, optimizing, and stabilizing business and manufacturing processes.
A Lean Six Sigma approach that combines Lean strategy and Six Sigma's tools and techniques highlights processes that are prone to waste, defects, and variation and then reduces them to ensure improvement in a company's operational processes.
Lean Six Sigma Techniques
The techniques and tools used to accomplish essential goals of the Lean Six Sigma strategy include:
- Kanban: Workflow management practices, such as work visualization and limited work in progress, which maximize efficiency and promote continuous improvement.
- Kaizen: Practices that engage employees and promote a work environment that emphasizes self-development and ongoing improvement.
- Value stream mapping: Analyze places to eliminate waste and optimize process steps.
- 5S tool: Method to ensure that the workplace is efficient, productive, safe, and successful.
Lean Six Sigma Phases
The DMAIC phases of Lean Six Sigma are Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, and Control. They are used to identify and improve existing process problems with unknown root causes.
Define
Define the problem from a company perspective, stakeholder perspective, and customer perspective. Figure out the quality expectations that customers have and the extent of the problem.
Measure
Examine the current process and how it contributes to the problem. Determine whether the process can meet the previously defined quality expectations of customers. Match each process step to your quality criteria. Support your measurements with actual performance data.
Analyze
Examine all information gathered thus far to finalize the exact nature of the problem, its scope, and its cause.
Improve
Solve the problem and verify the improvement. Collaborate to structure a solution that eliminates both the problem and its cause. Use your data to ensure that the solution fits the issue at hand. Test the solution and derive performance data to support it.
Control
Monitor improvement and continue to improve where possible. Finalize acceptable performance criteria. Establish a plan that can deal with variations that occur, sustain improvements, and prevent a reoccurrence of the original problem.
Benefits of Lean Six Sigma
There are a number of established benefits to Lean Six Sigma methods for employees, customers, vendors, and the company.
By increasing the efficiency of important processes, companies can improve the work experience for employees and the customer experience for buyers. This can build loyalty inside and outside of a company.
Streamlined, simplified processes can increase control and a company's ability to capitalize on new opportunities quickly. They can also lead to more sales and revenue, lower costs, and more successful business results.
Involving employees in a group or a company-wide efficiency effort can improve their skills (e.g., analytical thinking and project management), improve their growth opportunities, and boost camaraderie. By preventing defects, companies save on the time, money, and human effort previously required to identify and eliminate them.
Lean Six Sigma vs. Six Sigma
Lean Six Sigma and Six Sigma are two related strategies that can solve process problems. Both can help companies make noteworthy improvements in quality, efficiency, and use of time by analyzing the way their processes function. Both use the DMAIC phases/method. Both are based on creating a problem-solving workplace culture. However, Six Sigma is focused on reducing defects and process variability to improve process output and quality to meet customer expectations. Lean Six Sigma is focused on reducing or eliminating the wasteful use of resources and defects to improve workflow and create more value for customers.
Lean Six Sigma combines aspects of Six Sigma (such as data analysis) and aspects of the Lean methodology (such as waste-eliminating tools) to improve process flow, maintain continuous improvement, and achieve business goals.
What Is the Meaning of Lean Six Sigma?
Lean Six Sigma is a process improvement strategy that seeks to eliminate inefficiencies in a company's process flow by identifying the causes of waste or redundancy and developing solutions to address them.
What Are the 5 Principles of Lean Six Sigma?
Define, measure, analyze, improve, and control are the five principles and phases of Lean Six Sigma. They're the steps practitioners take to create more efficient processes and a workplace culture that's focused on continuous improvement.
Why Is Lean Six Sigma Important?
Many consider it important for the measurable and consistent improvements in operations and business results that companies achieve using it. It also might be considered important because it combines the significant process streamlining of the Lean methodology of the 1940s with the Six Sigma data-driven approach of the 1980s.
What Is Lean Six Sigma Training?
Lean Six Sigma training instructs students in the basics of Six Sigma methodology, as well as the Six Sigma DMAIC roadmap. Students also learn how to apply the concepts in practical scenarios as they go through the courses.
The Bottom Line
Lean Six Sigma is a management approach and method that endeavors to eliminate any wasteful use of resources plus defects in production processes so as to improve employee and company performance. It draws on the Lean concept of the 1940s established by Japan's Toyota to reduce waste and the Six Sigma strategy of the 1980s established by U.S. company Motorola to reduce defects. By combining these teachings, Lean Six Sigma puts the best of both to work to streamline efficient operations and financial outcomes for all kinds of organizations.
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