Explaining Lean Six Sigma

In today's competitive global market, all companies are looking to make improvements that drive bottom line results. Many of these organizations are turning to process improvement methodologies such as Lean Six Sigma. While this is a great starting point, your first question may be, "What exactly is Lean Six Sigma and how is it different from Six Sigma or Lean?" Your next question may be, "If my company is not in manufacturing, would Lean Six Sigma even be applicable for my organization?" 

In this article, we will answer these questions by providing an overview of the fundamental framework of this methodology. We will take a look at how companies are using Lean Six Sigma as well as some of the common pitfalls.

What is Lean Six Sigma? 

The first point that is important to understand is that Lean, Six Sigma and Lean Six Sigma are three different methodologies. All center on the fundamental concept of doing things better, faster and cheaper, but from different perspectives.

Lean Six Sigma is a natural evolution of the quality and process improvement disciplines that originated in the 1950s to improve manufacturing. It began with a focus on improving quality in order to decrease the cost of producing defective material. This evolved into applying similar principles to improve process efficiency on the factory floor through the elimination of wasted effort by only producing what was needed, when it was needed, instead of filling warehouses.

Over time, other parts of the organization saw the opportunity to apply these same principles to business activities other than manufacturing. After all, nearly everything an organization does can be broken down into process form.

The Differences Between Lean, Six Sigma & Lean Six Sigma

Lean and Six Sigma are both disciplines for continuous improvement, but have differences in objectives and approach. Lean is a discipline in which the goal is to eliminate waste and increase process efficiency through a focus on improvements in speed and cost.

Six Sigma, on the other hand, is a discipline in which the goal is to eliminate variation and reduce defects through a focus on improvements in quality.

Lean uses tools such as kaizen events, value stream mapping, work load balancing and 7 waste analysis. Six Sigma uses more analytical tools such as Pareto analysis, control charts, statistical analysis and defects per million opportunities (DPMO) measurements.

Lean Six Sigma is a hybrid that brings both of these disciplines together. It takes a pragmatic view of process improvement with a focus on what is needed and important to the customer. It combines the time-focused strategy inherent in Lean with the analytical tools of Six Sigma, which allows for a flexible solution set to address the broadest set of problems.

DMAIC (Define-Measure-Analyze-Improve-Control) is the fundamental framework of Six Sigma and was adopted as such for Lean Six Sigma, specifically for projects aimed at improving existing business processes.