Lean Six Sigma
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- This topic has 6 replies, 6 voices, and was last updated 19 years, 6 months ago by
Adam L Bowden.
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December 15, 2002 at 6:06 pm #31026
Hi people,
I am hearing a lot about Lean Six Sigma which is a combination of Lean Mfg and Six Sigma and that six sigma is a subset of Lean Mfg..so doesent it make Lean Six Sigma redundant…
0December 16, 2002 at 1:15 pm #81531You are way off base partner!. Lean is a process improvement technique utilized to improve the flow of a process. Six Sigma is a methodology for the reduction of variation in a process.
Two separate and distinct tool sets. The marriage of these two tool sets ( Lean Sigma) allows someone skilled in both ( A rare find indeed) to improve the actual process or Value Stream.
The exception of either of these skills limits the success of the project.
The one limitation with most six sigma projects is that they myopically look at only one small part of the value stream per project.
I hope this clears up the misunderstanding of these tool techniques.
0December 16, 2002 at 1:54 pm #81536Have to dissagree with you in part Mr Ron. Although Lean addresses the flow of the process, it does so at a 3 sigma level. With the addition of SS, this helps to further reduce variation. It took us 8 yrs to get to 0.4 % as a average of 30 lines, our next goal is to get to 0.2%, then 0.1% then 0.05%. SS in my opinion is just another tool to help us get there.
0December 16, 2002 at 2:04 pm #81537I don’t think we disagree Arthur. Bottom line you need both tool sets to accomplish a true process improvement.
The majority of six sigma programs ( I came out of the Allied Signal world) don’t include lean tools and treat it as a separate entity.
My focus is to combine both toolkits into all Six Sigma training progrmas.
0December 16, 2002 at 8:46 pm #81548I have been doing lean training for quite awhile and recently got on board with the six sigma methodology. The two techniques work great together and are so well intertwined that they feed off of each other and solve a lot of problems. When I train the two an analogy I use is that lean manufacturing lets you pluck a lot of the low hanging fruit from the operation and makes everything work with less waste. Six Sigma allows you to pluck the fruit from the top of the tree that is harder to get, but usually tastes much better.
0December 17, 2002 at 4:29 pm #81561Hello All,
I think that lean manufacturing needs to be explained, Lean Manufacturing is not a tool but rather a philosophy. Lean manufacturing is a mind set or structure that drives continuous improvement by using various tools such as Kan Ban, TPS, One Peice Flow, Five S, SMED, JIT, Cellular Manufacturing, Team dynamics, Autonomous Maintenance, Value Stream Mapping, Process Flow Mapping etc etc. This structure or mindset has to be top down driven to be given the opportunity to succeed. Lean manufacturing does not happen overnight, it takes great committment and can take years to fully implement. Lets face it, manufacturing is a race, a race that is never won but is continually run, you just want to make sure you are out front. Lean manufacturing is all the mentioned tools working together to create an entity, if you are not using them all, chances are you are going to struggle. To fully understand this, think of lean manufacturing as a tool belt, it holds all the tools that you need to use and must use together to be successfull. Six sigma has been around for a long time and is one of the tools that fits into the lean manufacturing tool belt quite well. I hope that this helps.
Kevin0December 17, 2002 at 5:42 pm #81563
Adam L BowdenParticipant@Adam-L-BowdenInclude @Adam-L-Bowden in your post and this person will
be notified via email.Hi Kevin,
I tend to agree with your comments. My view is that Lean is the strategy and Six Sigma is an enabler. For example when implemting a lean inventory system the strategy is to minimize the waste and the Six Sigma variation component is an element in the correct sizing of the Kanban based on variation in customer demand.
So lean first in terms of the customer needs and strategy.
Best regards,
Adam0 -
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