How do you sustain Six Sigma with Kaizen?

1 What is Six Sigma?

Six Sigma is a data-driven approach to reduce defects and variation in processes and products. It aims to achieve a level of quality where only 3.4 defects per million opportunities occur. Six Sigma uses a structured framework called DMAIC, which stands for Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, and Control. Each phase involves specific tools and techniques to identify problems, find root causes, implement solutions, and monitor performance.

2 What is Kaizen?

Kaizen is a Japanese word that means "change for the better" or "continuous improvement". It is a philosophy and practice that involves everyone in the organization, from top management to frontline workers, in making small, incremental changes to improve processes and eliminate waste. Kaizen encourages teamwork, feedback, creativity, and learning from mistakes. It also promotes a customer-centric mindset and a culture of excellence.

3 How do Six Sigma and Kaizen work together?

Six Sigma and Kaizen can work together in several ways. For example, you can use Six Sigma to identify and prioritize the most critical issues that affect your quality and efficiency, and then use Kaizen to implement and test solutions quickly and effectively. You can also use Kaizen to support and sustain the improvements made by Six Sigma, by ensuring that the changes are standardized, documented, and communicated across the organization. Furthermore, you can use Kaizen to foster a culture of continuous improvement, by empowering your employees to identify and solve problems on a daily basis, and by rewarding and recognizing their efforts.

4 How do you sustain Six Sigma with Kaizen?

Sustaining Six Sigma with Kaizen requires a long-term commitment and a systematic approach. To ensure success, you should align your initiatives with your strategic objectives and customer needs, establish clear roles and responsibilities for your teams, provide adequate training and coaching, monitor and measure results, and communicate and celebrate achievements. Doing so will help you focus on the most important improvements, avoid confusion or duplication among staff, develop the necessary skills to apply tools and techniques effectively, track progress, identify gaps or opportunities, evaluate impact on quality and efficiency, share best practices with stakeholders, customers, and employees, and motivate your teams to keep improving and innovating.

5 What are the benefits of sustaining Six Sigma with Kaizen?

Sustaining Six Sigma with Kaizen can bring you many benefits, such as increased customer satisfaction and loyalty through higher quality products and services, reduced costs and waste through defect elimination, improved productivity and profitability through optimization of resources, enhanced innovation and competitiveness through a culture of continuous improvement, and empowered and engaged employees by involving them in the improvement process.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?