Lean and Six Sigma

Lean management and Six Sigma are two concepts which share similar methodologies and tools. Both programs
are Japanese-influenced, but they are two different programs.

Lean management is focused on eliminating waste and ensuring efficiency while Six Sigma's focus is on
eliminating defects and reducing variability.
Lean and Six Sigma

Six Sigma focuses on reducing process variation and enhancing process control, whereas lean drives out waste (non-
value-added) and promotes work standardization and flow. Six Sigma practitioners should be well versed in both.

Lean and Six Sigma have the same general purpose of providing the customer with the best possible quality, cost,
delivery, and a newer attribute, nimbleness. There is a great deal of overlap, and disciples of both disagree as to
which techniques belong where.

The two initiatives approach their common purpose from slightly different angles:

• Lean focuses on waste reduction, whereas Six Sigma emphasizes variation reduction

• Lean achieves its goals by using less technical tools such as kaizen, workplace organization, and visual
controls, whereas Six Sigma tends to use statistical data analysis, design of experiments, and hypothesis tests
Lean and Six Sigma

The most successful users of implementations have begun with the lean approach, making the workplace as efficient
and effective as possible, reducing waste, and using value stream maps to improve understanding and throughput.

When process problems remain, the more technical Six Sigma statistical tools may be applied. One thing they have in
common is that both require strong management support to make them the standard way of doing business.

Some organizations have responded to this dichotomy of approaches by forming a lean-Six Sigma problem-solving team
with specialists in the various aspects of each discipline but with each member cognizant of others’ fields. Task forces
from this team are formed and reshaped depending on the problem at hand.
Six Sigma

Six Sigma doctrine asserts:

Continuous efforts to achieve stable and predictable process results (e.g. by reducing process variation) are of
vital importance to business success.

Manufacturing and business processes have characteristics that can be defined, measured, analyzed, improved,
and controlled.

Achieving sustained quality improvement requires commitment from the entire organization, particularly from
top-level management.

Features that set Six Sigma apart from previous quality-improvement initiatives include:

A clear focus on achieving measurable and quantifiable financial returns from any Six Sigma project.

An increased emphasis on strong and passionate management leadership and support.

A clear commitment to making decisions on the basis of verifiable data and statistical methods, rather than
assumptions and guesswork.
Six Sigma

The statistical representation of Six Sigma describes quantitatively how a process is performing. To achieve Six
Sigma, a process must not produce more than 3.4 defects per million opportunities.

A Six Sigma defect is defined as anything outside of customer specifications. A Six Sigma opportunity is then the total
quantity of chances for a defect.

Six Sigma is a method that provides organizations tools to improve the capability of their business processes.

This increase in performance and decrease in process variation lead to defect reduction…

and improvement in profits, employee morale, and quality of products or services.

Six Sigma

The DMAIC project methodology has five phases:

Define the system, the voice of the customer and their requirements, and the project goals, specifically.

Measure key aspects of the current process and collect relevant data; calculate the 'as-is' Process Capability.

Analyze the data to investigate and verify cause-and-effect relationships. Determine what the relationships are, and
attempt to ensure that all factors have been considered. Seek out root cause of the defect under investigation.

Improve or optimize the current process based upon data analysis using techniques such as design of
experiments, poka yoke or mistake proofing, and standard work to create a new, future state process. Set up pilot
runs to establish process capability.

Control the future state process to ensure that any deviations from the target are corrected before they result in
defects. Implement control systems such as statistical process control, production boards, visual workplaces, and
continuously monitor the process. This process is repeated until the desired quality level is obtained.

Some organizations add a Recognize step at the beginning, which is to recognize the right problem to work on, thus
yielding an RDMAIC methodology.