Lean Six Sigma strategy is the key to a successful business. There is a great demand for the Lean Six Sigma concept in today’s business world. The concept has been widely accepted to understand the business and analyze the problematic areas to deliver the right solution.
The Leans Six Sigma principles and methodologies help eliminate the business’s waste process and minimize operational costs. Therefore, it helps streamline the workflow and provides the best solutions to run the business continuously.
This is why lean six sigma is in great demand these days. But does lean Six sigma similar to the Six Sigma concept? Stay tuned to know the answer and understand the benefits of implementing the Lean Six Sigma concept in the workplace.
What exactly is Lean Six Sigma?
Lean Six Sigma refers to the fusion of business principles followed in Six Sigma and Lean Six Sigma to improve business performance and minimize waste. Lean Six Sigma combines the quantitative techniques of Motorola Six Sigma and Toyota’s lean manufacturing methodology.
In simple terms, Lean Six sigma distinguishes the role of the stakeholders in every single project and determines the importance of analyzing and collecting data for effective workflow. It’s a strategic approach that enables business organizations to discover the faults and choose different parts from each discipline to meet the business goals.
The Lean Six Sigma management tools for the business process improvement include various things, which are as follows:
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The Concept of Five Whys
In today’s business environment, the concept of the five whys is extremely popular. It is a problem-solving strategy based on simple agreements: If a problem arises in the business world, ask “Question?” at least five to six times until you find a solid answer. The strategy helps business organizations find the root cause of the business problem.
The problems will be troubleshooted by knowing the answers to the question “Why.” Moreover, the techniques help know the real culprit and where the company is lacking behind in tracing the solutions.
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Kanban Inventory Power Cues
Kanban refers to the visual system that helps keep a track record of the work and helps to manage the business flow. Kanban can be utilized in various variations. However, generally, this is a card sequence, such as the heijunka box used on the visual board.
This is to provide keen details about the amount of work and the number of tasks required to perform. The board is divided into three main categories, which are as follows:
- Waiting for the productions
- The underproduction area
- The product that has been produced.
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Value Stream Mapping
Value stream mapping commonly uses a flowchart to articulate the process at every step. Using such visualization structure and deep business analysis helps improve the knowledge about how much material is needed to design the final product and the information required to fulfill the customer requirements.
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Ishikawa Fishbone Diagrams
The Ishikawa fishbone diagram is a reason and outcome visualization tool that helps track down the main reason behind the slow business and defects. This combined practice requires brainstorming with a basic template to determine the problematic area and deliver the solution according to the problem.
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Heijunka Box
The Heijunka box is a visual scheduling apparatus used to maintain a seamless production flow. Generally, the heijunka is a toolset mounted on pigeonholes/small boxed grids. The boxes row represents the business process, where every single column determines the particular period.
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Takt Time Calculation
This form of calculation is used to determine the acceptable timing to meet customer demand. Hence, to calculate the maximum time, the formula divides the overall time available by the time available for the product as per the consumer’s demand.
Different Types of Waste Calculated By Lean Six Sigma
Lean Six Sigma Certification focuses on the resources that are not adding value to the business and must be eliminated. At present, there are eight different types of waste processes that are defined by Lean Six sigma. These are as follows:
- Overproduction: It refers to the production in excessive quantity and more than customer demand
- Defects: It refers to the products that are defective and doesn’t meet customer demands
- Waiting: It refers to the unplanned and bottlenecks downtimes
- Transportation: It refers to the poorly managed transportation and shipping methods
- Non-Utilized Talent: improper alignment and underutilizing of employees’ skills and talents sets
- Motion: It refers to the excess movement of machines, products, and people
- Inventory: It refers to the surplus product supply which exceeds the demand of the customer
- Extra Processing refers to repetitive business tasks and doing more than the actual requirement.
Benefits of Implementing Lean Six Sigma Methodology in Business Environment
The Lean Six Sigma processes and methodology are widely adopted worldwide for the following benefits.
- During continuous betterment, Lean Six Sigma encourages a high level of job participation. This improves team morale while also speeding up growth and organizational performance.
- The most anticipated advantage firms obtain from Lean Six Sigma methodologies is lower costs. In addition, process efficiency, waste minimization, lower latency, and process standardization contribute to improved bottom-line performance.
- Lean Six Sigma also follows a customer-centric approach which means the system relies on the customer demand to provide high-quality results. This methodology further follows the streamlined business process and helps improve workflow. When you implement this technique into your work field, you can enhance your retention rates and customer experience. Moreover, the customers can also enjoy the on-time product delivery, improvement in the product, and minimized waste process to meet customer expectations.
Bottom Line
Lean Six Sigma is a strategic approach that helps improve your business to meet customer expectations. Moreover, the course is in great demand due to the increased usage of Lean Six Sigma in business sectors. Therefore, individuals who want to learn Six Sigma strategies can join the course program to improve their skills and set up a robust platform to gain a job.