Six Sigma was introduced in the 1980’s by an engineer for Motorola named Bill Smith. Smith was of the belief that by getting rid of variation and organization can improve the customer experience while increasing overall savings (Lean VS Six Sigma para 14). It’s a comprehensive and flexible system for achieving, sustaining and maximizing business success uniquely driven by a close understanding of customer needs, disciplined use of facts, statistical analysis and on-going reinvention of business processes. Six Sigma projects are built on five phases or a DMAIC Framework: Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, and Control. Applying DMAIC to an inconsistent process can decrease variance and increase the quality of goods or services (Goldman, M.
L. para 2). Data collection and analysis is at the core of this method serving as a roadmap for analyzing business processes within an organization. Six Sigma is credited for saving millions of dollars in revenues for companies like Motorola, GE, Toshiba, Bank of America and Intel.
Concentrates on improving the quality of goods or services an organization produces by reducing variance in the production process (Six Sigma para 3). Variance is the enemy of Six Sigma. When a production process lacks stability, it will continue producing defective products until professionals intervene and improve the process. Personnel who improve the inconsistent production process are given belt rankings much like martial arts depending on their level of training and expertise. Lean Manufacturing or simply LEAN is a systematic method for waste minimization within a manufacturing system beneficial to overall productivity. The ideas behind lean manufacturing were originally introduced by Henry Ford who liked to keep production standards incredibly high so that each step flowed naturally into the next thus resulting in very little waste (Lean VS Six Sigma). Henry Ford defined the lean concept in one sentence: “we will not put into our establishment anything that is useless” (What is Lean).
Eliminating waste from the manufacturing process across all sectors of a business is at the core of lean manufacturing. Waste, defined as any activity that consumes resources without adding value. Lean focuses on the big picture, seeking to eliminate waste along the entire value stream and is a bottom up approach. Lean isn’t just about improving quality but actively seeks to create a culture dedicated to continuous improvement, employee empowerment and elimination of waste. Organizations have identified many types of wastes. According to Jason MCGee-Abe there are 8 Deadly Lean wastes cleverly illustrated below with a DOWNTIME analogy:DefectsOverproductionWaitingNot utilizing talentTransportationInventory excessMotion wasteExcess processing(A.
(2017, April 03) (Lean and 8 Wastes)
