Lean Six Sigma is a methodology that relies on a collaborative team effort to improve performance by systematically removing waste [1] and reducing variation. It combines lean manufacturing/lean enterprise and Six Sigma to eliminate the eight kinds of waste (muda):

  • Defects
  • Over-Production
  • Waiting
  • Non-Utilized Talent
  • Transportation
  • Inventory
  • Motion
  • Extra-Processing

History edit

1950s-2000s edit

Six Sigma was essentially created by an American business man named Joseph Juran. After World War 2, Japan made products were believed to be made cheap, which made it not as valuable. This is when a Japanese industry hired Juran to help raise the quality of their products. With each different Six Sigma project the quality levels improved. By the 1970’s, Japanese products were at higher quality levels than American products. This is when Motorola started implementing Six Sigma in their processes in 1987. Motorola introduced this concept to catch up to the Japanese manufacturing processes of improving the qualities of their products. In the 1990’s Allied Signal hired Larry Bossidy, from General Electric, to introduce Six Sigma in a heavy manufacturing setting. Seeing the improvements that Allied Signal was having, General Electric’s CEO Jack Welch decided that GE would begin using Six Sigma during 1995.

In 2000, Ford Motor Company was the first major auto manufacturer to adopt the Six Sigma process.

2000s- Present edit

The first concept of Lean Six Sigma was created in 2001 by a book titled Leaning into Six Sigma: The Path to integration of Lean Enterprise and Six Sigma by Barbara Wheat, Chuck Mills, Mike Carnell.[2] Lean Six Sigma has since adopted the belt ranking system and terminology of Six Sigma. By the mid-2000’s, major industry groups and engineering colleges made Lean Six Sigma courses available to the public. Since the recession in 2008, Lean Six Sigma has grown in popularity because of the economic pressures of cutting costs without injuring the quality of the products. Today, Lean Six Sigma principles expanded from just a manufacturing stand point into Healthcare, Finance, Supply Chain, etc.

Description edit

Lean Six Sigma is a synergized managerial concept of Lean and Six Sigma. Lean traditionally focuses on the elimination of the eight kinds of waste/muda classified as defects, over-production, waiting, non-utilized talent, transportation, inventory, motion and extra-processing. Six Sigma seeks to improve the quality of process outputs by identifying and removing the causes of defects (errors) and minimizing variability in (manufacturing and business) processes. Synergistically, Lean aims to achieve continuous flow by tightening the linkages between process steps while Six Sigma focuses on reducing process variation (in all its forms) for the process steps thereby enabling a tightening of those linkages. In short, Lean exposes sources of process variation and Six Sigma aims to reduce that variation enabling a virtuous cycle of iterative improvements towards the goal of continuous flow.

Lean Six Sigma uses the DMAIC phases similar to that of Six Sigma. Lean Six Sigma projects comprise aspects of Lean's waste elimination and the Six Sigma focus on reducing defects, based on critical to quality characteristics. Both Lean Six Sigma and Six Sigma have the same goal, which is to create an efficient system while eliminating waste at the same time. The main difference between the two are that they identify the root cause of the waste differently. In Lean Six Sigma they believe that waste comes from some unnecessary steps in the production process that does not add any value to the overall product. For example, having a safety inspection during your process does not improve or add any value of the overall product you are making. Also, Lean Six Sigma combines process speed with quality. This means that it reduces unnecessary time in between cycles or activities. [3]The shorter the cycle time, the more cycles you will be able to complete in a given time. Another section that Lean Six Sigma looks at is places where bottlenecks can be eliminated. Bottlenecks usually occur in a system that has multiple cycles, but one of the cycles in the process takes up too much time, which then increases the overall process time. While Six Sigma says that waste just comes from variation within the process itself, it does not get to the root of what is causing the waste.

 
Lean Six Sigma organization structure

For each of these belt levels skill sets are available that describe which of the overall Lean Six Sigma tools are expected to be part at a certain Belt level. These skill sets provide a detailed description of the learning elements that a participant will have acquired after completing a training program. The level upon which these learning elements may be applied is also described. The skill sets reflect elements from Six Sigma, Lean and other process improvement methods like the theory of constraints (TOC) total productive maintenance (TPM).

Lean Six Sigma Terminology[4] edit

  • Cycle Time is the time between completed parts at a particular process.
  • Lead Time is the total time to complete a product throughout multiple processes.
  • Takt Time is the time between completed parts to meet customer demand.
  • Down Time is the available production time where a machine or workstation is non-operation able, typically for unplanned reasons like a broken component or machine malfunction.
  • Up Time is the time when work is being done on the given process.
  • Queue Time is the wait time where products sits at a work station prior to being processed.
  • A Bottleneck is a step in the process that takes the longest and tat paces the rest of the line.
  • Bottleneck Management is different practices that are used to reduce the effects that bottlenecks produce.
  • Line Balancing is a practice of distributing work such that each process has approximately the same cycle time.
  • Single Piece Flow is a production mode where a single part moves from workstation to workstation without waiting in queue time.
  • Batch Processing is a production mode where a batch of parts arrive at a workstation and all of the parts in the batch is processed before the batch moves to the next process.
  • Kaizen is a Japanese term that stands for the period of time used to shut down the production line in order to implement production improvements.
  • Canban’ is a Japanese term used to describe a signal that is used to indicate that the product is needed for the next process.
  • Poka Yoke is a Japanese term used for mistake proofing, typically used in design process of a product to make sure the user can only use it in one way.

Lean Six Sigma Tools[5] edit

  • Value Stream Mapping is a visual representation of the product from an information flow of a given product. The primary goal of a VSM is to identify value added and non-value added tasks. Some examples of value added tasks could be deburring, milling, turning, welding and painting. Some examples of non- value added tasks are inspection, move time, cleaning, maintenance and shipping.
  • House of Quality will relate customer requirements to technical requirements and help to prioritize the most important technical requirements. It will also help to relate how technical requirements will affect each other, and also provide opportunity to standards that are already been developed.
  • Design of Experiments is a lean tool to determine which input factors effect a given output variable.
Design of Experiments Terminology edit
  • Factor is an input variable, represented by X.
  • Response is an output variable, represented with Y.
  • Level refers to the number of values a factor can have. Typically a design of experiments is ran as 2-level (Low and High). However, a Design of experiments could have 3 levels (Low-Med-High).
  • Effect is a result of the experiment, which will tell you how the response will vary with the changes in the factors.
  1. Main Effects is the response behaviors due to a single factor.
  2. Interactions is the response behavior due to the combination of two or more factors.
  3. Noise Factor is an uncontrolled factor that has some effect on the response, but can't be identified.
  4. Treatment is a unique setting for factors.

5S edit

5S is a lean practice used to keep production workspace orderly and keep the workforce committed to maintaining order.

Japanese Terms edit

  1. Seiri - Put things in order
  2. Seiton - The proper arrangement
  3. Seiso - Clean (keep polished)
  4. Seiketsu - Purity (maintain clean)
  5. Shitsuke - Commitment instilling attitude/atmosphere to maintain 5S

English Terms edit

  1. Sort - Get rid of what is not necessary
  2. Straighten - Everything has a place and is in it
  3. Shine - Keep clean machine/workplace
  4. Standardize - Systems and procedures to maintain 1-3
  5. Sustain - Maintain systems/procedures (1-4)

See also edit

References edit

  1. ^ ""Xerox cuts popular lean six sigma program"". democratandchronicle. Retrieved March 10, 2015.
  2. ^ Leaning into Six Sigma: The path to integration of Lean Enterprise and Six Sigma. Boulder City, Colorado. 2001. ISBN 978-0971249103.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  3. ^ "Six Sigma vs. Lean Six Sigma". Villanova University. Brisk Education. Retrieved 11/14/2017. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  4. ^ Summers, Donna C.S. (2011). Lean Six Sigma Process Improvement Tools and Techniques (1 ed.). Pearson. ISBN 9780135125106.
  5. ^ Summers, Donna C.S. (2011). Lean Six Sigma Process Improvement Tools and Techniques (1 ed.). Pearson. ISBN 9780135125106.
  • George, Michael L. (2002). Lean Six Sigma: Combining Six Sigma Quality with Lean Production Speed (1st ed.). McGraw-Hill Education. ISBN 978-0071385213.
  • George, Michael L.; Rowlands, David; Kastle, Bill (2003). What is Lean Six Sigma?. McGraw-Hill Education. ISBN 978-0071426688.
  • George, Michael L. (2004). The Lean Six Sigma Pocket Toolbook: A Quick Reference Guide to 100 Tools for Improving Quality and Speed (1st ed.). McGraw-Hill Education. ISBN 978-0071441193.
  • Kowansky, Elaine; Friberg, Norm (2006). How NOT To Implement Six Sigma: A manager's guide to ensuring the failure of the world's greatest Quality Improvement and Waste Reducing Machine. Xilbris. ISBN 978-1425712266.
  • Bass, Issa; Lawton, Barbara (2009). Lean Six Sigma Using SigmaXL and Minitab. McGraw-Hill Education. ISBN 978-0071621304.
  • Pyzdek, Thomas; Keller, Paul (2014). The Six Sigma Handbook, Fourth Edition (4th ed.). McGraw-Hill Education (published May 13, 2014). ISBN 978-0071840538.
  • Morgan, John; Brenig-Jones, Martin (2015). Lean Six Sigma for Dummies, Third Revised Edition (3rd ed.). John Wiley & Sons (published Nov 6, 2015). ISBN 978-1119067351.
  • Bergman, Marcus; Van Der Laan, Tom; Nieuwenhuijse, Sanne; Blijsie, Jeroen (2016). Lean Six Sigma - Samenzinnig verbeteren. ISBN 978-9462470545.

External links edit