Lean Six Sigma In General
When running any kind of business, there would be an inevitable time wherein production times are at an all-low, and time management is thrown out of the window that results in wasted time in overall production.
To combat this, various companies and organizations around the world implement the method of Lean Six Sigma, which is a combination of Lean Manufacturing/Lean Enterprise and Six Sigma that results in the elimination of “waste” in production (also known as “downtime”).
However, not all know what exactly is Lean Six Sigma. In this article, we will look at what this method does and how it is used.
What Is it Exactly?
Lean Six Sigma is a method of process improvement that companies and organizations can implement in their production facilities. To ensure that their production standards are met, they will employ process improvement methods such as Lean Six Sigma, which is a combination of Lean methods of PDCA (Plan-Do-Check-Act) and usage of tools like 8 Wastes and the 5S and the Six Sigma methods of DMAIC (Define-Measure-Analyze-Improve-Control), as well as tools like Control Charts and FMEA to achieve overall continuous improvement in production.
As mentioned earlier, the target of a process improvement like Lean Six Sigma is the elimination of waste, rework, or inefficiency to better serve customers. It also helps companies leverage the best problem-solving methods they can get to achieve their missions and to satisfy their customers’ demands.
Lean Six Sigma Benefits
There are various benefits that users of Lean Six Sigma can benefit from, which are listed below:
- Improved customer services and loyalty by streamlining overall processes.
- Achieving higher bottom-line results via more developed efficient process flows.
- Waste removal and cost reduction by switching from “defect detection” to “defect prevention”.
- Organizational “nimbleness” and can pivot to every day challenges via the standardization of processes.
- Increased capacity and profitability via decreased lead times.
- Accelerated people’s development and moral improvement via employee engagement.
Who Would Benefit From Lean Six Sigma?
There are two major groups that will reap the benefits offered by Lean Six Sigma, which are various businesses and its customers, and the employees of those said businesses, resulting in a win-win scenario.
For businesses, it gives them an effective roadmap that helps them meet their goals that results in increased profit returns/revenues, as well as cost reductions, to overall production processes which free up valuable company resources that those businesses would need critically. Thanks to all of that, their customers will enjoy more services from them and much better overall customer satisfaction in their products and services.
For employees, it helps them improve their own processes when it comes to the work production output they provide. Process improvements help employees boost their work confidence that will result in great assets to their company. Furthermore, this affects their outlook in life by being more accountable and living happier lives. This greatly impacts their work production output. Learning Lean Six Sigma helps employees to standardize their work continually by rooting our problems and removing waste in their production.
References:
