Lean Six Sigma: What it is & What are its applications?

A famous English proverb state that, “Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without”. This is how waste management works in any process. Even in business manufacturing processes, Lean Six Sigma plays a significant role in waste management. Any product in a process that is of no use throughout is called a waste product. Minimizing the waste products in a process takes the process step towards more productivity.

What is Lean?

Developed in Toyota as a part of their manufacturing techniques, lean manufacturing is a set of tools and techniques that play an important role in the elimination of waste. It basically focuses on waste coming as a result of the whole system, and how to reduce the quantity without disturbing the quality of the end products.

Working on 5 major principles, lean manufacturing approaches from value to perfection in the process. These 5 principles include value, value mapping, generating flow, pull, and attaining perfection.

Using these principles, Lean manufacturing tends to eliminate 3 types of waste products.

These wastes include,

• Muda, pure waste
• Mura, uneven flow
• Muri, burdening resources and orders over the normal work routines.

What is Six Sigma?

First developed at Motorola, pioneered by Bill Smith, the Six Sigma technique goals to improve the quality and measurements to identify and eliminate errors in the process without affecting the end process. This technique works on eliminating things that dissatisfy customers’ needs and improving the quality of work. Six Sigma was designed with five phases to address and improve these issues.

These 5 phases are DMAIC, define, measure, analyze, improvement, and control. All these phases lead to achieving the goal. Starting with data analysis, measurements, and improvement methods, these phases help a company to control its manufacturing methods.

What is Lean Six Sigma?

This is the job; Lean Six Sigma performs during any business process. It is an improvement method in any process that is diagrammed to help remove scrap and unproductive material and increase the efficiency of the process by providing better quality products with a much better experience to the clients.

It is a process of continuous improvement that cuts the cost and time to half of the actual and doubles the quality and satisfaction of customers.

Principles of Lean Six Sigma

It works on the following principles,

1. Focus on Customer

Focusing on the customer’s needs, what they want, and how they want the product.

2. Understand and identify the value stream

Understand the value stream, the processes of getting work done.

3. Improvement of Flow

Looking up to the methods that can help improve the process flow.

4. Non-Value Adding Steps, a big NO

Removing the non-value adding steps and waste products from the manufacturing process.

5. Involvement of team

Involve the people of your team. Listen to their plans and ideas and execute the ones you feel better for the process, this will help build confidence in your team.

6. Improvement

Execute all the plans and achieve perfection.

Benefits of Lean Six Sigma

1. Business Simplified

Simpler processes come up with fewer chances for errors. Lean Six Sigma helps to simplify the business. The cross-functional value stream maps help identify areas of waste and inefficiency. This results in a faster process, leading to better customer service and higher customer satisfaction. These two will definitely lead to better business without any mess, greater sales, and increased profits.

2. Fewer Errors

Going deeper into the benefit of fewer errors defines how much it is important to focus on the quality and what the customer values. Some of the processes are quite important to be addressed for they have a huge impact on business.

The result comes up with improvements, fixing real problems, and bringing them to a level that is acceptable to the real customers.

3. Predictable Performance

Lean Six Sigma focuses on reducing variation within a process. Lesser variations lead to processes becoming more predictable. Predictable process means time, quality, and costs, all becoming predictable. And all this leads to lesser errors, it helps eliminate the harming steps, providing better customer service to the clients.

This predictability becomes a huge advantage for any business when operating in an environment of speedy changes. Without predictable processes, it isn’t possible to create and implement a perfect experience.

Lean Six Sigma Certifications

1. Yellow Belt

A lean six sigma yellow belt focuses the ones, newer in the world of Lean, the ones with lesser knowledge of the developmental process. The number of yellow belt members depends upon the scope of the project and the nature of the problem and the need of being investigated.

2. Green Belt?

Lean Six Sigma Green Belt is well experienced in the core to advanced tools of Six Sigma, leading improvement projects and it serves as a team member as a part of complex improvement projects lead by a Certified Black Belt. Green Belt is not considered to be an expert in Lean Six Sigma tools and techniques. They need a command from Black Belt for advice, whenever run into any problems.

3. Black Belt?

Lean Six Sigma Black Belt defines the professionals having all the deep insights into all the philosophies, principles, and techniques of the process. They have a thorough understanding of all the 5 phases of Six Sigma I.e. define, analyze, improve, measure, and control.

They are responsible for executing all the principles, conducting team meetings, and providing solutions to all the team challenges.

Best Lean Six Sigma Books

Mentioned above are all the basic details needed to understand the concept of Lean Six Sigma, but if one wants to have deeper insights into this concept, there are stacks of choices, one can take in the world of book reading. These books will surely help you have great and keen knowledge about the concept as they are all written by experienced authors and help you understand their experiences. It is however important to understand all the concepts before actually pursuing them in your business.

We have picked up the following list of top Lean Six Sigma tools and techniques books to help you step up your knowledge of their concept. These concepts are maybe easier to imagine but executing them requires intense knowledge. No matter if you’re a beginner or an expert, I would really encourage you to give them a keen study to understand the concepts.

1. Lean Six Sigma: Combining Six Sigma Quality with Lean Production Speed

This book, written by Michael L. George, describes the strong and meaningful effect of Lean and Six Sigma together in business. It explains the execution of both the techniques together and their benefits to the company. It summarizes a plan for the combination of both these techniques, and providing greater speed, low-cost methodologies, and better customer experience.

This book provides a step by step guide for the implementation of both these techniques together in your business. It will help you understand how to,

• Achieve major profit and cut the cost of the manufacturing process
• Eliminate waste throughout your organization

Lean Production and Six Sigma have reorganized the manufacturing business. This book takes you to today’s most dynamic program for smoothening the performance of both your production process and your back office and providing you with the cut cost and at the same time quality improvements, you need to stay one step ahead of your opposition.

Level: Beginner/Intermediate

You can check out this book on Amazon.

2. Lean Six Sigma for Dummies

Give this book a read if you want to get an effective and productive organization. This defines a process of combination of both Six Sigma and Lean, which takes your performance level to another step. This friendly and easy to understand book summarizes the main points of this deadly combination and explains to you how you can implement this to your business.

The slang crowded language and theory of Lean Six Sigma is at a much frightening level for both beginners and experienced users. The Author has written the book in easy English and real-life examples to understand all the tools and techniques for the implementation of Six Sigma rules.

• It gives you plain English explanations of complicated slangs often used in the Lean World.
  Serves as a useful gadget for business people looking to simplify their business.
• Helps you achieve goals with ease and confidence.
  Provides useful hands-on checklists

Level: Beginner/Intermediate

You can check out this book on Amazon.

3. Lean Six Sigma and Minitab (5th Edition): The Complete Toolbox Guide for Business Improvement

A quick sneak peek into all the tools and techniques for the implementation of Lean Six Sigma to your business methods. With over 150,000+ copies sold, these books are decisively recognized as a practical guide for those seeking development within the business/professional world. The guide provides:

• Six Sigma techniques and tools.
• Detailed graphical guides.
• Convenient navigation format using DMAIC tabs.
• Interactive samples with free templates and data files.
• Six Sigma DMAIC flow with Logical route maps.

Level: Beginner/Intermediate

You can check out this book on Amazon.

4. Lean Sigma Mastery Collection: 7 Books in 1: Lean Six Sigma, Lean Analytics, Lean Enterprise, Agile Project Management, KAIZEN, KAHBAN, SCRUM

This book is considered as Mastery Collection provides a full covering for the Lean Six Sigma process. The processes covered help recuperate control over your business. With the knowledge discussed during this book, you’d be ready to execute better business processes and improve your customer satisfaction. This guidebook covers discussion on everything that’s required for you to get started with Six Sigma. the numerous areas covered during this book include:

• Importance of getting Six Sigma certified employees
• Methodology usage and management
• Six Sigma basics (What, Why, and the way it can be deployed)

Level: Expert/ Advanced

You can check out this book on Amazon.

5. Lean Six Sigma for Supply Chain Management, Second Edition: The 10-Step Solution Process

A proven step by step guide to recognize and solve supply chain management problems and challenges. The second edition of this book covers a demonstrated 10-Step Solution Procedure for Identifying and Solving difficulties experienced in the Supply Chain through the appliance of the most recent Lean Methods. This book is totally revised to handle new concepts within the supply chain, strategies, Six Sigma techniques, and tools essential to eliminating any supply chain issues. The 10-Step Solution Process is well structured to confirm clear goals are known, and strategic objectives are met through the employment of Lean Six Sigma. This practical resource also offers operating templates and inventory models. These books cover the following topics:

• Management of Six Sigma projects with the help of Lean tools, techniques, and applications.
• Management impact and providing chain design for perfection methods
• Lead time impact and maturity model
• Lean Six Sigma techniques for the manufacturing process, service, and providing chain systems

Level: Expert/ Advanced

You can check out this on Amazon.

Conclusion

Lean Six Sigma will make your business more productive and impactful; these techniques are now used in a number of businesses now. No matter the type of business, these strategies will provide nothing but profit in the best deal to you, providing your business and personal benefits.

Review this blog if you want to get the best advice for Lean Six Sigma books. The theory can be frightening for beginners and newbies and even in some cases for experts, these above-mentioned books will provide you easy and best explanations for all the improvement techniques covered under Lean Six Sigma.

Look through these books for learning continuous improvement techniques and take your business to a new innovative world.

Visit our website for other Six Sigma techniques or guidance for the implementation of these techniques to your business. We have a lot more to offer you in the world of business and improvement of the business.