Technically speaking, Lean and Six Sigma are two separate improvement methods. They work together and complement one another to get faster results that are of higher quality. Together, Lean Six Sigma is a way to make it easier for the team in your business to solve problems and increase the speed and effectiveness of organizational processes.
Lean Six Sigma comes with many benefits for any business or organization. Some of these benefits include delighting more customers, minimizing costs, maximizing profits, and building better and more collaborative teams.
To break it down further, let us take a closer look at what Lean and Six Sigma are.
Lean
A methodological approach to streamlining and processes and minimizing wasted time, Lean is more than a set of tools. Lean creates a culture in a workplace to increase productivity and decrease waste. It creates a more sustainable environment that is structured around a defined customer value and a common purpose.
A Lean process is faster, more efficient and economical, and a better way to deliver satisfaction. Lean originated with Henry Ford and Toyota creator Taiichi Ohno, who both had enormous success with their businesses.
Six Sigma
The term ‘six sigma’ has a base in a statistical concept. Here, defective items are minimized by maintaining six standard deviations. These deviations are between the process mean and its upper and lower specification limits. Put simply, this is a method to effectively solve a problem.
To work, Six Sigma identifies the problem in order to effectively develop solutions. This methodology was developed at Motorola in 1961. Since then, it has constantly been saving big companies big dollars in just about every industry around the world.
Used together, Lean Six Sigma has the potential to increase the revenue and productivity of your business by using streamlined processes. This is the most effective way to do more with less, which is something that sounds appealing to any organization.
For more information, please visit our Lean Six Sigma training page.