What’s the difference between Lean and Six Sigma?

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Something that almost every interviewee gets caught in is the difference between lean and Six Sigma. You might come across some highly qualified individuals in your company confusing one with another, don’t bother to correct them. It is because both Lean and Six Sigma work towards the same results, therefore they are very close to being separated.

For clarity, the primary focus of lean is to eliminate waste, adding value to the product/service, and reduce cycle time, while Six Sigma strives for perfection in the results and achieving higher customer satisfaction.

Six Sigma

There was a very specific goal behind the development of Six Sigma. It was reducing the variations in the same process, and that could be achieved only by eliminating defects. Generally speaking, there are two distinct approaches used in Six Sigma. What is the DMAIC or DMADV Method?

Although both of these methods have their unique and distinct uses, DMAIC is more preferred by industries. DMAIC stands for Define, Measure, Analyse, Improve, and Control. This process helps in identifying the problem, identifying and implementing a solution plan, and maintaining that solution in the future. This method is perfectly suited for times when only adjustments to an already existing system are required, For example in Supply Chain Management.

The Lean Method

On contrary, the Lean method is entirely focused on eliminating waste and providing maximum value to customers. The term Lean was first introduced by the Toyota Business System in the 1980s, a business methodology that helped the company attain its maximum efficiency. Lean can be very useful when a new process is to be designed. It will involve every tier of the organization, help in the allocation of resources, and shaping out every facet of that business.

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JUST IN TIME: What it is and What are its benefits?

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What is Just In Time?

Just in time abbreviated as JIT is a strategic system used to manage production rate without wasting any material. JIT works on saving the revenue that you spend on purchasing extra raw material.

In other words, the Just in time system basically deals to deliver the raw good only when production is in action. It means raw material is neither arrived before nor after production. It encourages dropshipping and stops the over-stocking of raw material.

However, this smart production strategy needs smart check-balance. It works on an estimate of previous and on-going market demand. Hence, it is essential to avoid any runout or breakage in the supply chain of a particular product.

For this purpose, the company uses Kanban as a critical tool to support JIT. Kanban is an active strategy to classify work into three phases, to-do, doing, and done. This strategy uses the visual and reachable approach to reduce errors.

Why practice Just In Time?

Just in time is a savage for the company’s revenue. This technique promises you to cut off the expenses required to store materials. For example, if there is a company dealing with making pottery, it needs a box also for packing. It prevents the company from buying boxes before any confirm purchasing order from the market. It promotes had-to- hand purchases of raw material (boxes). Hence, it enables to save massive revenues to stock such raw materials.

Moreover, it saves space to stock material, and workload of employees to maintain it. Besides this, JIT will benefit you if your company is multi-production based.

The calculated production of specific products will help you to switch to other product manufacturing if required rapidly. Therefore, Just in time also proves to be a time and energy-saving strategy.

Potential Benefits and Risks of Just In Time

Like every other production strategy, JIT also holds some risks with benefits. Let’s look into the crucial benefits of JIT inventory strategy.

Benefits of Just In Time

It helps your business in saving the stock oriented revenue. Also, it gives you the pathway to spend it on effective approaches and requirements.

Additionally, JIT helps you in cutting off the dead stock of raw material and limits the risk of production more than retailing.

JIT waves your cash flow that is necessary for the survival of any business. Apart from this, it also helps to raise your profit earned from the business.

The Just in time strategy promotes rapid innovation in the output according to the market and consumer demand. It minimizes the risk of decay in products and services. Therefore, it helps industries to avoid dabbling in financial loss.

Potential Risks Of Just In Time

Where Just in time offers so many benefits, it has its own risks. If not managed properly, can put your business on stake and deter you from achieving goals. Here are the triplet risks of Just in time.

There is no backup in the case of suppliers suffering from a breakdown. Hence, it can result in prolonging delay of production as the company remains hand to hand with raw materials.

Secondly, strong forecasting of market requirements is needed.

In case of any loss loop, it can freeze the production system. Eventually, this delay can cause consumer disappointment and maybe a chance of losing potential customers.

There is no fixed amount of expenditure on raw materials. In other words, the expenses for purchasing raw material can fluctuate with the variation in economic conditions. And there is no possibility to avoid the rising rate of raw materials.

Just In Time and Lean Manufacturing

Lean manufacturing and JIT are interconnected due to sharing the same pathways for the company’s progress. You can consider JIT as one component of Lean manufacturing. Where Lean manufacturing is a bigger picture of quick and sustainable production.

Just in time is the supporting pillar of Lean manufacturing enables production to fill up the plates of customers with fresh products and services. However, Lean, along with JIT, has more to do. It needs more pillars to expand communication out of the production circle to evaluate and develop the value of the market.

As Lean manufacturing has a lot to do with revenues, JIT supports it by limiting the inventory costs and gives Lean a chance to use it for other constructive purposes.

Five leading books on Just In Time

Below are five books that will make you a master of Just in time technique.

1. Lean Thinking: Banish Waste and Create Wealth in Your Corporation by James P. Womack and Daniel T. Jones

Lean Thinking is a fantastic book covering all necessary aspects of Lean management to flourish the business. Though written in 1996, this book is still functional to open up your business fate. It helps in embracing lean management in the advanced 21st century.

By The Hands of Expert Analysts:

Two intellectual business management analysts craft Lean Thinking. James P. Womack is the founder of a non-profitable educational and research center, ‘Lean Enterprise Institute’. The institute is based in Brookline in Massachusetts.

Whereas, Daniel T. Jones is the co-author who merged his experience and philosophies to craft this book at its best. He also serves a non-profitable educational and research center, Lean Enterprise Academy in the United Kingdom.

Explains The Perks Of Lean Thinking

Lean Thinking is a book that will reveal all the essential lean marketing strategies. It explains how Lean Thinking can be crucial to extend business. It teaches ways to improve through a value-based strategy.

Consumer’s Perception

The main key focus of this book is to encourage an approach in collecting the feedback of consumers. And to convert product according to the consumer’s demand through it. This value strategy is user-friendly. Hence, it is the primary core secret to remain first in the preference list of clients.

Efficiently Operational

Moreover, it helps to remain actively operational within comparatively less time and effort.

Once the consumer’s perception is collected, it becomes easy for workers to scheme the requirement into the technical cast for a less error-free product or services.

Lean Eliminates Waste

Lean Strategies emphasizes and encourages the methodology that brings the wastage to the zero of scale. Therefore, it stresses to apply a Just in time strategy where a product is only being manufactured or produced when it has confirmation of sell. This ultimately saves from unnecessary financial expenses by purchasing raw material and then storing it in warehouses.

Provides Various Action Plan With Real Life Example

Lean Thinking book is not only based on theoretical stuff, but it also refers to the successful practical life examples. This book comprises of almost fifty companies that practice lean strategy and is ruling the industrial world. And therefore, you can discover thousands of new lean strategies to extend your business irrespective of its domain.

Encourages Pull Than Push

The lean strategy focuses on the running flow of products and serves that consumers get compelled to pull it. The pulling technique is far efficient than the pushing of producers. This is because pushing has an attitude of selling and selling has inflexibility to understand consumer needs and demands. It just focuses on pointing out the benefits only they are aware of.

Besides this pulling technique opens you up to understand consumer needs and open gates for improvement and innovation. Therefore, the company has no worries to consume time for marketing instead of using time and energy in other productive things.

Availability Of ‘Lean Thinking’

You can quickly get the latest revised version 2010 on Amazon from the range of $ $6 to $19.37 whatever suits your pocket!

2. How To Implement Lean Manufacturing by Lonnie Wilson

Lonnie Wilson has concisely listed down the smart, lean strategies including Just in time to leap forward for a successful business. This book has addressed all possible problems and solutions to it that can hinder in the way of lean manufacturing.

Lonnie Wilson can be considered the father of lean techniques as he has been teaching it for more than thirty-nine years. Later in 1991, he founded Quality Consultants. Through these consultants, 500 thick firms and many ground-root level interpreters got a new road to success.

Covers All Dimensions Of Lean Techniques

How to implement Lean Manufacturing give detail description of:

How to concise the variations in production to reduce inventory revenues.
How and which experiments to apply to evaluate the graph of production and services.
Ways to predict wastage within the process of manufacturing.
Approaches that can help in the parallel running of production and supply.
Tools that accelerates the process of lean manufacturing.
It also addresses all potential risks and approaches to minimize those risks.
Drives keen concentration on Kaizen actions.
Works on low-cost, high quality with the speedy process.

Easy To Go and Get:

This book is all you need if you want to shift the strategy of your settled business or even if you are starting from scratch. The author has successfully felt the pain points of every kind of entrepreneur. Conversely, he has given all vital blueprints of lean strategies for a successful business every person dreams for.

Click on Amazon and get this for $69 to $127 not much to purchase a wealth secret!

3. JIT Implementation Manual by Hiroyuki Hirano

JIT Implementation Manual_ The complete guide to Just in time Manufacturing is written by the author Hiroyuki Hirano. It is a complete guide to develop your business and production by adapting JIT manufacturing strategies.

Covers Practical Subject

The book talks about the all-important practical subject involved in establishing a business. This book deals with the Economical and Finance aspects of the Business Industry. Moreover, it also gives in-depth knowledge and appropriate implementation of Engineering and advances Technology.

SIX Volume Set

The second of the book justifies the main cover heading of the book by categorizing it into six volumes. Each volume carries an in-depth description and tips for practical implementation. The first volume is about Just in time Production System, whereas the second volume discusses the elements to reduce waste and its five principles to follow.

However, Volume 3 gives you in-depth details about Flow Manufacturing how Multi-Process Operations and Kanban can be implemented, making the manufacturing process more effective. Whereas, Volume 4 is about leveling and Volume 5 deals with the implementation of standardized operations in terms of safety and maintenance. The 6th volume works as the heart of the book as it gives all illustrative forms and charts of JIT implementation.

JIT bible

In Japan, HOW TO IMPLEMENT LEAN MANUFACTURING is considered a JIT bible. You can also grab the second edition of this JIT bible from Amazon for just $ 49 to $ 290. Spending your bucks on it will surely pay you back in miraculous ways!

4. Non-Stock Production by Shigeo Shingo

The book written by Shigeo Shingo was initially published in 1988. Though still no other book of its domain has beaten up Non-Stock Production even with decades gap. Shigeo Shingo is the legendary man behind the Toyota Production System. Moreover, he was the first to introduce the concept of Single-Minute Exchange of Die (SMED).

Key to Just in time

This book explains all the elements vital to JIT, along with poka-yoke and SMED. Under the main header of Non-Stock Production it comes:

Concepts for the improvement in production.
Indicates back draws of production in American and European philosophies.
Introduces a new approach to enhance scientific learning.
Targets the variation of the production system and its importance.

Complete Package Available

This complete handy guide package of JIT is conveniently available on Amazon. You can get the secret of non-stock production with the variation in price from $6 to $ 77. 95.

5. Zero Inventories by Robert W.Hall

Zero inventories are the masterpiece of Robert W. Hall. It arranges all Just in time facts, figures, and practices in one book within almost 250 pages.

Fits on all Designations:

Zero inventories are a must-read for all those people who are strung to any business organization. It is a complete guide from the primary entrepreneur to the manager to engineer to staff members of a particular business organization.

Deals with all mandatory requirements for JIT

This book is a solution to all problems and challenges that hinders the achievement of JIT.

It deals with logistics, forecasting, material gaining planning, and for reaching the standard benchmark of operational procedure.

Additionally, it helps you adapt unique approaches to make your production stock free.

Zero Inventories with Zero Wait

You can get your JIT gem on Amazon at the most reasonable price. The prices range from $ 7 to $ 60.09.

Conclusion

Just in time is a production strategy to inflate business with zero wastage of inventory costs. However, to apply JIT, you need robust forecasting and Kanban practice to avoid any risking breakage of production flow.

The best and inexpensive way to avoid any unnegotiable mishandling is to purchase a book related to JIT. This simple traditional trend of carrying method works miraculously to remain in touch with JIT values!

Experience exploring more into the world of JIT by carrying your own books in any way you like. Therefore, we recommend you to light your pocket to get books to make thick your bank accounts.

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

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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,

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

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.