How Lean and Six Sigma come together[edit]

Lean Six Sigma uses concepts from both Lean and Six Sigma to cut production costs,
improve quality, speed up, stay competitive, and save money. From Six Sigma, companies
benefit from the reduced variation on parts. Also, Lean saves money for the company by
focusing on the types of waste and how to reduce waste. The two processes come together
into Lean Six Sigma, creating a well balanced and organized solution to save money and
produce better products.[10][page  needed]
Although Lean and Six Sigma are different processes, they are complementary and share
many similarities that allow them to flow together seamlessly. First, both Lean and Six
Sigma stress the fact that the customer defines the value of a product or service. This
means that when processes are examined, the importance or necessity of steps in the
process should be examined through the eyes of the customer. Also, Lean and Six Sigma
use process flow maps in order to better understand the flow of production and identify any
wastes. Furthermore, both rely on data to determine which areas of production need
improvement in efficiency and to measure the success of improvements. Finally, as a result
of implementing Lean and Six Sigma, efficiency typically improves and variation decreases.
Efficiency and reduction in variation go hand-in-hand, with improvement in one resulting in
an improvement in the other.
Lean and Six Sigma have many similarities but are different processes and were developed
for different purposes. The first difference between the two methods is problem
identification. While Lean focuses on the problem of inefficiency around the eight wastes,
Six Sigma focuses on identifying sources of variation to reduce inefficiency. In addition,
Lean and Six Sigma use different tools. While Lean uses more data visualization tools, Six
Sigma uses more numerical and analytical-focused tools. [11]
The similarities between Lean and Six Sigma allow for simultaneous functionality on the
same product or process, while their differences allow the benefit of having a vast amount
of analytical tools at one's disposal.