Lean Six Sigma

You 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.
 

I 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.
 

Hello 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.
Kevin