What is Lean Six Sigma | Methodology, Principles and Benefits of Lean 6 Sigma

Lean Six Sigma Methodology:- Are you looking for ways to do it right the first time, avoiding unnecessary delays and unnecessary expense, all to the satisfaction of your customers? The solution is called Lean Six Sigma (LSS), a management method that aims to improve the quality and efficiency of manufacturing processes.

As its name suggests, the Lean Six Sigma method is the combination of principles of the Lean and Six Sigma methodologies, which are known and recognized for their effectiveness. In concrete terms, it is the meeting between two methods of continuous improvement designed to increase the performance of the company. While the Six Sigma will come to reduce the variations observed on the product, the Lean will concentrate on eliminating all that is superfluous in the production processes. By reducing working hours and waiting times, the process will become more efficient. The Lean Six Sigma approach is now increasingly used in relation to the Six Sigma method alone.

Principles of Lean Six Sigma

The Lean approach targets performance (in terms of productivity, quality, lead times and costs) through waste elimination and continuous improvement. The Six Sigma methodology seeks to eliminate defects and variations in production processes. Both methods work for customer satisfaction.

The concept of the Lean Six Sigma first appeared in 2001 in a book leaning into Six Sigma, written by Barbara Wheat, Chuck Mills and Mike Carnell.

Today, the combination of these two methodologies is recognized as a synthesis of best practices for improving operational performance and solves a wide range of daily problems encountered by different teams in their companies.

Thus, the Lean Six Sigma method leads companies to develop a true culture of continuous improvement.

Operation of Lean 6 Sigma

The LSS methodology works for companies of all sizes and sectors. This is a simple and effective method, based on the practice of common sense.

Deployed in draft mode, the approach to Lean Six Sigma follows the 5 phases of the DMAIC (Define, Measure, Analyze, and Improve (Improve English), Control) and allows:

• improve customer and stakeholder satisfaction ,
• to increase the operational and financial performance of the company,
• To meet strategic objectives.

The 5 phases are as follows:

• Define: define the problem and what is necessary to satisfy the customer.
• Measure: evaluate the performance of the current process in order to collect data on the problem.
• Analyze: identify the causes of the problem.
• Improve: implement a solution to solve the problem.
• Controlling: Monitoring and maintaining the improvement over the long term.

To sum up, Lean Six Sigma helps you identify the cause of a problem and implement an effective solution based on observations and facts, not mere assumptions.

The Benefits of Lean Six Sigma

The implementation of the Lean Six Sigma method makes it possible to realize financial gains, but above all intangible gains that concern all the actors of the project: customer loyalty, shareholder confidence, employee involvement and motivation, branding, etc.

Every day, companies are faced with rising costs and competition. The Lean Six Sigma helps you overcome these problems and improve the performance of your business in several ways:

• Increased Benefits: LSS streamlines your processes – producing faster and more efficiently without reducing quality and increasing costs. To simplify, with LSS, you produce quality products with a minimum of money, resources and time.
• Cost reduction: Lean Six Sigma enables the company to improve its processes. Thus you reduce your expenses by eliminating tasks that do not generate added value (eliminating waste) and by dealing with the different problems for each process (eliminating defects on a product that generate a customer return).
• Improved efficiency and efficiency: With LSS, you create more efficient processes and maximize your efforts to deliver a satisfactory product the first time. So, you produce more products and you can satisfy more customers.
• Creating a sense of belonging and responsibility: Involving your team in process improvement makes it more accountable, builds trust and creates a sense of belonging. It is also a good way to show that every person within the company is important. Your team is then more motivated and more efficient.

The Lean Six Sigma method affects your employees positively by encouraging them to improve their working conditions. Indeed, who better than them knows what to improve within the company? By successfully participating in LSS projects, your employees increase their confidence in themselves and in the company and they become your best assets.

To Conclude

The Lean and Six Sigma methods complement each other; hence the creation of the Lean Six Sigma method which combines these two approaches and thus allows better results to be obtained in the improvement of the manufacturing processes.