What is Lean?
Lean manufacturing has had proponents throughout the industrial age including Henry Ford and Sakichi Toyoda (Toyota). The current iteration of Lean has its roots in Japan where Toyota popularized waste-reducing manufacturing processes during the 1980s and 1990s on its way to becoming the largest vehicle manufacturer in the world. Combined with increased efficiency, a reduction in defects and precision workflow standards, Toyota’s approach led to better quality even as profit margins increased.
What is Six Sigma?
Lean deals with the concrete factors related to manufacturing as exhibited in the Toyota Production System and the North American version known as Just-in-Time. Six Sigma is more conceptual, and therefore more transferable. Its foundational practices are:
Define: Problems, goals, resources, the customer and more.
Measure: Establishing current baselines to demonstrate improvement.
Analyze: Identify the root causes of defects such as measurements, methods and personnel.
Improve: Identify and test solutions, then implement the one that works through processes like the Plan-Do-Check-Act/Adjust cycle.
Control: Solidify the gains achieved through implementing and monitoring necessary change and repeating this DMAIC cycle.
It’s easy to see how these principles can be applied to any business process, but only when each member of the leadership team buys into the process and commits to its implementation is success maximized. Another key is learning to apply the principles in industry-specific ways. This has been done successfully in logistics, health care, service industries, software development, R&D, retail and government in addition to manufacturing.
It’s easy to see how these principles can be applied to any business process, but only when each member of the leadership team buys into the process and commits to its implementation is success maximized.