What Color is Your Belt?
Manny Veloso
With Our Learn-and-Do Approach, We Build Practitioners Who Think and Act Like Owners
Confused by all the jargon? Read my article "Lean Six Sigma For All - A Primer on CI" to understand how Lean and Six Sigma work and how they are different.
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Same or Different?
I was scheduling my Fall and Winter classes today when I started thinking about who would be attending Green Belt training in November and how they would know they needed the skills involved. Quickly, the realization struck that there is a lot of confusion about Lean and Six Sigma. Some people think that it's just two names for the same tools.
?Lean is defined as "eliminating waste"
Six Sigma is all about "reducing variation"
In reality, the two approaches to continuous improvement (CI) are complementary, with the same goal, to improve processes and reduce errors. So how are they different? Is one methodology better than the other? Each camp says they're more focused on the customer or quality than the other. Who's right? What's a practitioner to do?
What Tool to Use When?
As my article "Lean Six Sigma For All - A Primer on CI", explains in detail, Lean follows PDCA (Plan-Do-Check-Act) while Six Sigma uses the DMAIC (Define-Measure-Analyze-Improve-Control) methodology in its approach. Often people ask, "Manny, how do I know when to use which approach?" "Easy", I tell them, "Do you know what Lean tool to apply and where so that it solves your problem?"
Is a hammer "better" than a screwdriver?
It's a principle I call "See a snake, kill a snake." If we know what Lean tool to apply where, then go ahead and solve the problem - there's no need to make a project out of it. Just execute the countermeasure and follow PDCA cycles until complete. Much like there's no need to determine what the snake likes to eat or its preferred habitat, if we know how to solve the problem, then we don't need to study the problem any more.
Should I start with Lean or Six Sigma?
On the other hand, if you don't know what Lean tool to apply where to solve your problem, then go ahead and use the Define-Measure-Analyze (DMA) front end of the DMAIC Methodology to answer the question of what Lean tool to apply where.
Then, apply the Lean tool and continue on through the Control phase to maintain the gains generated.
It's not one or the other,
It's Lean and Six Sigma together.
?Typical Projects
Lean tools are great for getting teams to work on their day-to-day operations by eliminating the wastes, inherent in the process, that prevent people from doing a job efficiently and right the first time. Lean methods are great for quickly communicating status of an area or when there is an abnormality in the process to be addressed.
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Typical starting points for Lean projects include some of the following activities:
All of this activity reduces waste in the process and allows people to perform more, higher-quality work with less effort.
Six Sigma projects are more focused in critical inputs, like machine settings and raw materials and their influence on the output or outcome of the process. This is represented as Y=f(x) in scientific terminology.
Y=f(x) is a fancy way of saying the inputs into a process influence the outcome we observe.
Typical Six Sigma projects include:
If you know what Lean tool to use, go ahead and use it. If not, study the problem with Six Sigma tools until you know what Lean tool to use to solve your problem.
My View on the Matter
I wish that Lean people would pay more attention to issues of measurement and variation, and that Six Sigma devotees would recognize the importance of people, culture, and Lean principles in identifying and solving problems so they stay solved. Further, it's OK to use Control phase tools with Lean projects to help maintain the gains generated.
Make changes and do great things with Lean with its focus on Process
Each tool is best used at the right time. Go straight to the Lean tool if you can answer the question, "Do you know what Lean tool to apply where to solve your problem?"
If you can't answer that question then start with a Six Sigma approach and use the ‘DMA’ front end until you can answer the question. It's not one approach over the other, it's the right tool at the right time to solve the problem at hand.
When people ask me if they should start their CI journey with Lean or Six Sigma, I always tell them to start applying Lean to their operations first. They'll improve further and faster, especially when they can involve everyone in the culture of improvement in the organization, by paying attention to the Human Side of Lean.
Use Six Sigma like a scalpel to understand and control critical factors and levels
When you are bumping up against problems that seem resistant to Lean efforts to improve by changing processes, then you may need the surgical precision of Six Sigma to understand the critical factors, both inputs and outputs, affecting your outcomes and customer experiences. That's when it makes sense to incorporate Six Sigma methodologies into your CI toolbox!
In the End
You should use the simplest possible tool to solve your problem in an open, and results-oriented culture with teams of motivated problem solvers who think like owners. If you're not getting the results you want out of your operation, then maybe you should try a different approach.
Try the CICS approach to CI. We combine learning with projects and coaching to drive real results. With our methods, "We Build Practitioners."
Quality Engineer at Berk-Tek, Leviton
2 年Looks like great classes on Lean and Six Sigma methodologies