What is Lean Six Sigma in Missouri?
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Before you even consider implementing LSS in your company or getting started with it in order to work in using the methodology, ask yourself this: what is Lean Six Sigma, to begin with? The general concept indicates that LSS is a process improvement methodology that focuses on reducing waste, the rate of variations and defects, and identifies and solve problems affecting the company’s performance.
This is possible thanks to how Lean 6 Sigma is formed: with the combination of other two process improvement methods, Lean and Six Sigma. Each methodology provides tools, principles, and philosophies that constitute LSS overall. However, it is not the same to implement both separately compared to going for Lean 6 Sigma as the entire methodology.
The results are not the same due to the lack of synergy between Lean and 6 Sigma when the company is not using the main benefits and practices that come with them. As you can see, it is more complex than it seems at the beginning. You have to learn about Lean and Six Sigma to then move onto what is Lean 6 Sigma overall. Here, we want to make sure to answer this question and clear any doubts to guarantee that you are making the right decision when thinking about choosing LSS.
What Are Lean Principles & Steps?
Since each methodology provides tools and principles, you need to understand Lean before anything else—along with Six Sigma. Lean is the method and part of LSS that focuses on reducing waste to maximize productivity. Most companies consider that ‘waste’ is literally trash or material, but Lean aims for more than just objects or the physical concept of waste. For this, it makes sure to mention the main 8 types of wastes:
- Non-utilized talent.
- Motion.
- Transportation.
- Inventory.
- Waiting.
- Overproduction.
- Excess processing.
- Defects.
Therefore, when companies are working on it, it is necessary to identify everything that is making production slower, inefficient, and more expensive. To achieve waste reduction and maximize processes, there are 5 principles or steps: value, value stream, flow, pull, and perfection.
During the entire process, companies learn to identify the problems, understand their processes, and guarantee the flow of a clean production is going smoothly. To finally move onto the continuous improvement that must be achieved and is considered perfection in the methodology.
What Does Six Sigma Do?
For this methodology, the focus is to identify problems, find the root causes, solve them, and reduce the rate of variations and defects. In order to achieve these goals, the main method inside Six Sigma is DMAIC. It stands for Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, and Control. All companies need to follow the 5-steps without changing plans or skipping one since the implementation’s success depends on it.
Now, the principles provided by 6 Sigma are the main ones LSS adopts:
- Work for the customers.
- Identify problems and focus on them.
- Remove variations and bottlenecks.
- Improve employee involvement.
- Flexibility and change.
Overall, change is a word that describes LSS quite well due to how many things and processes need to indeed change in a company to achieve process improvement. With that said, what is considered a variation in 6 Sigma? This is important to notice to understand LSS overall.
A variation is any result that does not satisfy what the customer expects or needs, causing the company to waste time and resources to finally deliver valuable products or services. More than problems themselves, variations and defects are the main causes for organizations to lose money and go bankrupt since they are losing many resources in the process. Usually, companies in Missouri have a rate of 100 defects or variations in 2,000. This means that 100 pieces or products are discarded due to not meeting the customers’ requirements.
What Six Sigma aims for is to reduce the rate and go for a 3,4 out of a million. In other words, the variations are almost none. But to achieve this, discipline, solutions, right implementation, and using the right tools will be required.
Is Lean Six Sigma Worth Your Time & Money?
Absolutely. Although there are many process improvement methodologies out there, including Lean and 6 Sigma by themselves, they cannot guarantee good results most of the time. LSS, of course, is not invincible. There is a small rate of failure that companies will face when implementing it. But when we say ‘small’, we mean like 1% at most.
Therefore, it is clearly a methodology that is efficient and guarantees you to obtain what you need without having to go through several processes over and over again in order to improve multiple areas within the company at the same time. Just make sure to have reliable experts and professionals working on the projects for the methodology or you will end up wasting your time and money, not because of the method itself but the people handling it. At Lean Six Sigma Experts of Missouri, we offer services that include consultants and experts to help you with integrating the methodology into your business.
We can also help you to get trained in LSS if you wish to start a career out of it or add more value to yourself as a professional and employee. Lean 6 Sigma is not something you implement once and then forget about it. You need to create a culture within the organization, which includes flexibility and change but also continuous improvement. Projects around Sigma will always be required if you want to achieve the results and maintain them too and, later on, go for more improvements in processes and performance.
We understand all this since we have been working with 6 Sigma for over a decade, and we are confident to be the answer to all your needs and problems with it. Just make sure to contact us for more information about our specific solutions and help you determine which one is the best approach for your situation.
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