How can you combine Lean Six Sigma with Agile or Design Thinking?

Basically these tools and techniques are use to improve efficiencies and customer centricity in the organization. - LSS: Voice of interested parties, 8 waste, VSM, SMED, DMAIC (includes many tools and techniques) - Agile: Scrum, Epic, Story, Sprint planing, execution and delivery, sprint retrospective.

3.4 defects in a million! That six sigma, with lean the LSS(Lean Six Sigma) reduce the process wastage and defects of any work; from Pharmaceuticals to Hospitals, Banks to Industry, Finance to Supply Chain any kind of work. Two methods mainly used. -DMADV; for New Development of any process to new industry/company. -DMAIC; for existing process/company to continual improvement/development Both two are project based work which needs a season/year to get successful outcome.

In layman's terms, Lean Six Sigma is a set of tools and principles that help a company do things better, faster, and with fewer mistakes. Here's a breakdown of the terms: Lean: Think about getting rid of things that don't add value. Imagine you're making a sandwich. Lean thinking would be about cutting out steps that don't really help you make a better sandwich, like taking a longer route to the kitchen. Six Sigma: This is about reducing errors. If you have six sigma, you have a very low chance of making a mistake (only 3.4 DPMO) . So, in terms of our sandwich, Six Sigma would be making sure you get the right ingredients in the right amounts every time.

The top three unique advantages of Lean Six Sigma are: Process Efficiency: Lean Six Sigma combines Lean and Six Sigma methodologies to enhance process efficiency by eliminating waste, reducing defects, and improving overall productivity. Customer Focus: Lean Six Sigma emphasizes understanding customer needs and delivering value by consistently meeting or exceeding their expectations. Data-Driven Decision Making: Lean Six Sigma relies on data analysis and statistical tools to drive decision-making, ensuring that improvements are based on factual information rather than assumptions.

Lean Six Sigma is a set of business management methods that combine lean manufacturing principles with Six Sigma quality management techniques. Lean Six Sigma is designed to help organizations improve their quality and efficiency by identifying and eliminating waste.

The best display of LEAN and Agile is the Lean Portfolio Management methodology. How you link the PDCA cycle through the different Agile ways of working, with directed tailor-ship is key to any leading of change. The ability to link strategic themes to products through clear value streams and organize organizations around value is in my opinion the one true capability that organizations need to invest in during these fast past market varations.

An e xample of Design Thinknig: A group of students applying design thinking to enhance the cafeteria experience: They empathize by observing and talking to fellow classmates. The defined problem is improving food ordering efficiency and variety. Ideation generates ideas like self-ordering kiosks and themed food days. Prototypes, such as paper models and sample menus, are created. Testing involves gathering feedback from users. Iterations refine the solutions based on feedback received. Through this iterative process, the students develop a user-centric cafeteria improvement solution.

I would say that design thinking is a modern way of a cientific method, I would add that a not healthy well defined problem would probably never be solved right. I would instead go back to basics and get rid off waste (Lean) and identify value from Customer and from Business. You should be not that far to figure out how to tackle the gap between current situation and how you would like things to be.

My take is, there is a little bit of misunderstanding about where Agile comes from. It is Lean based, from within Lean. So imho there is no merge or confluence most of the time. Just try to imagine that one was originally thought for ongoing operations and the other tries to apply those principles on software development, kind of a paradox to some extend.

A few studies delve into the integration of Lean Six Sigma and agile methodologies to optimize order management processes in the seed industry. Through action research in a Brazilian Seeds Business, significant improvements were made in customer care, planning, and logistics. By integrating DMAIC with agile sprints, cycle times and defects decreased while process efficiency increased. Despite the single-case limitation, the research emphasizes the potential of this approach in fostering continuous improvement and operational excellence. Practical implications include evidence-based decision-making and a comprehensive framework adaptable to various organizational challenges.

A report from consulting firm CC Pace makes the case for combining Agile and Lean Six Sigma. ?? → Lean Six Sigma can support Agile project execution by providing: - Grounded project vision and clear focus - Stronger business cases - Means to measure success - Directed portfolio design The report suggests starting with a low-level integration, eventually building towards completely combining the two processes. ?? Organizations can explore the potential of combining Agile and Lean Six Sigma as the drive for efficiency continues. Lean or Six Sigma experts should be prepared to take on this trend. ??

Lean principles can be used in agile development to help teams identify and eliminate waste, such as unnecessary meetings or documentation. Agile principles can also be used in lean development to help teams stay flexible and adaptable to changing requirements.

The easiest way to combine Lean Six Sigma with Design Thinking is to focus on Lean. There are 8 key wastes that Lean aims to eliminate. Lets take the waste of extra processing. This extra processing comes from designing & building more features than your customer actually wants or needs. You use Lean to prevent this, by involving your target customer right from the get-go, when you're conceiving the design of the product. By designing a minimum viable product based on initial customer feedback, you can repeatedly test hypotheses about what the customer really wants. Eventually you'll arrive at a finished product, designed without all the unnecessary features the customer will never use. Saving the Design process a lot of time and money!

Design thinking and lean principles are powerful tools that can be used to solve any kind of problem. By combining these two approaches, teams can create innovative solutions that are both efficient and effective. as some examples to correlate the lean with critical thinking: A team that is designing a new product could use lean principles to identify the most efficient way to manufacture the product, and design thinking to ensure that the product meets the needs of the target market. A team that is trying to reduce waste in a supply chain could use lean principles to identify the sources of waste, and design thinking to come up with new ways to reduce waste.

The cheapest and quickest way to test a hypothesis while eliminating waste and promoting agility is through alternative methods that do not involve extensive engineering, design, and building of actual tests. One such approach utilized by startups and companies is running highly targeted ads to gauge audience engagement. By monitoring audience interactions, such as clicks on provided links or willingness to pay by filling out a form or sharing personal information, valuable insights can be gained at a lower cost and faster pace compared to traditional MVPs (minimum viable products) that involve significant resources.

I apply the tools as follows Design thinking to understand and define the customer experience Agile to build the right product or services Lean Six Sigma to identify waste, optimize the value stream, and maintain improvements with statistical control Best regards