Key Points

• LSS tools are readily adapted to sustainable practices.
• Environmental goals are easy to integrate into current Lean Six Sigma projects.
• Employee engagement is going to be key to the continued success of any new sustainable initiatives.

Ready to implement sustainability goals into your Lean Six Sigma projects?

Sustainability isn’t just a buzzword touted around to imply green practices for businesses. You can make a true difference in the ecological condition of the planet with some careful planning and application of Lean and Six Sigma tools alike. So, with that in mind, as Earth Day is this week, we’re going to take a closer look at how to do exactly that.

This isn’t going to be an overnight process, but you can get the legwork started now to both win over your customers and better safeguard the planet.

Sustainability Goals in Businesses

What is a sustainability goal? Strictly speaking, a sustainability goal for an organization is aimed toward benefiting the planet in the long term. This can be further subdivided into two additional categories that we’ll explore further in just a moment. Now, green practices are nothing new for any business. Environmentally sound practices have been touted, although not strictly adhered to, for decades at this point.

However, one thing that is impossible to ignore is the shift in weather patterns. As such, it makes it paramount to start taking the necessary precautions to minimize the impact our businesses have on the earth.

Interestingly, integrating sustainability goals into your workplace isn’t too different than running the same LSS tools you use in the first place. The metrics and aim of the work itself change, sure, but the same philosophy and methodology that guides your business can be used for sustainability goals.

Social and Environmental Responsibilities

Sustainability goals come in two distinct forms: social and environmental. Environmental goals are a little more understandable, as you’re looking to do things like reduce water consumption, the production of waste, reduce carbon emissions, and so forth.

Social sustainability is a little different in scope, but still completely feasible for most LSS businesses. You’re looking at ways to include everyone through inclusive practices, looking after employee mental health, and generally providing a safe space where representation and human rights are championed.

Both of these forms of sustainability are crucial for the success of any business. However, we’ve discussed the impact of diversity on Six Sigma projects in a recent article, so the environment is where we’ll be spending most of our focus today.

Sustainability Goals in Lean Six Sigma Projects: Putting the Tools to Work

Now that we’ve laid a little groundwork, it’s time to take a closer look at some of the steps you can take to ensure you’re hitting those sustainability goals. As with any goals, you’ll want to set some understandable metrics first. I’d focus on a short-term, mid-term, and long-term sustainability goal to hit. These can be things like reducing water consumption in the employee washrooms, but we’ll dive into that a little more.

Contrary to popular belief, Lean Six Sigma is very much tailored for this sort of work. While it might not seem like it is a green practice on the jump, many of the tools we’ll be utilizing are right at home with sustainable practices.

As such, you’re not having to completely shift the way you work. Instead, you can adapt the tools you’re already using to reduce the environmental impact of your organization. It will take time, make no mistake there, but these are easily attainable goals with enough dedication and follow-through.

Setting Sustainable Targets

The first place you’ll start is setting new sustainability goals in the first place. Ideally, this should be all sorts of environmental issues where you can minimize your contributions. However, every journey starts with a step, so setting just a few targets at the start is recommended.

When looking at this in the context of a Lean Six Sigma project, you’ll want to use SMART to set these targets. SMART is a great tool when looking at sustainability goals, and following the acronym gives you timely integration of those goals into a current project.

Additionally, you might want to implement something like scorecards to keep track of your organization’s performance throughout projects. These can likewise follow SMART, namely setting specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound goals. Nonetheless, you’ll want these targets adhered to at an organizational level, not just in the context of your current projects.

Incorporating New KPIs

Lean Six Sigma is about the reduction of waste, increasing efficiency, and continuous improvement. As such, establishing new KPIs related to the environmental factors you’re focusing on is going to be your best bet. So, what sort of indicators are you looking to measure in the first place?

Well, this can be metrics like water consumption, energy efficiency, waste reduction, and so forth. Further, these KPIs can be integrated into your current production’s monitoring systems, giving a bird’s eye view of sorts as to how well the current project is adhering to the new KPIs.

Additionally, you can look at integrating these KPIs into your project charters when developing new products, services, and so forth. This gives you a guideline and attainable targets to guide your team toward while getting the work done in the first place.

Engaging Employees

Change is a pain in the neck at an institutional level. It’s difficult enough to get one person on board, let alone an entire team. As such, this is where it is instrumental to begin engaging your team regarding your sustainability goals. Previously, I stated that these goals are the sort that you’ll want to integrate at an organizational level, and that is going to hold no matter what work you’re planning to do.

Your employees are the ones getting the work done, so it makes sense to keep them in the loop with said goals. This can be done in a few different ways, either through openly communicating your intentions and goals for future Lean Six Sigma projects or other avenues.

Consider integrating training that is focused on your current environmental impacts and how to mitigate that sort of damage. You can link what your organization does to the environmental responsibilities everyone working there has.

Kaizen Efforts

Kaizen is going to be one of your most valuable tools when starting toward any sustainability goals in Lean Six Sigma. Small, incremental improvements are going to be a lot easier to integrate into any project over the likes of massive changes right off the bat.

This is also another area where you can engage your employees. Getting everyone onboard to identify and champion environmental initiatives is a fantastic way of increasing overall employee engagement with your efforts.

Poka-Yoke

Poka-Yoke is another extremely useful tool that can make a huge impact on the overall survival of your sustainability goals. You’ll want to prevent errors where you can, which can have a definite environmental impact. This comes down to things like not overfilling containers, using proper recycling containers, and so forth. These small things add up quite a bit over time, and you’ll see a substantial reduction in waste over time.

DMAIC

Our final area of focus is going to be DMAIC. Now, if you’re seasoned at all in LSS, you should know DMAIC. When looking at targets, you can use the various phases of the tool to single out your sustainability goals for maximum effectiveness. Often, this can be integrated right alongside the other aspects of process improvement you’re trying to integrate.

Other Useful Tools and Concepts

Looking for something else to go with your morning coffee? You might want to take a closer look at how digital tools are transforming Kaizen. Tools like Kaizen have been in use for decades, but digital transformation is changing how we approach the likes of improvement in the workplace.

Additionally, you might want to look at how the resistance to change manifests in psychology. Change management can be difficult, but being armed to handle things with the right tools can go a long way.

Conclusion

Hitting your sustainability goals in Lean Six Sigma projects isn’t quite as difficult as you’d think. There is some definite legwork you’ll have to do, but that’s going to be true for any project as it stands.

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