Lean Six Sigma Basics
Two methods of improving a business are Six Sigma and Lean, and recently the two have been combined into a more powerful methodology: Lean Six Sigma.
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Lean
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Lean, known best from its use at Toyota, is the reduction of waste in any process in order to maximize profit and reduce costs. Its tools identify where the "sleeping dollars" are and how best to wake them up and put them to use.
Six Sigma
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Six Sigma tools, brought to the forefront by General Electric, are used to find and eliminate process variation. The phrase "Six Sigma" refers to the mathematical concept of making only 3.4 defects per million opportunities (99.99966 percent good).
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DMAIC: Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve and Control
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The acronym D.M.A.I.C. is the project flow of every Six Sigma effort--defining the problem, understanding how to measure the effects of the project, analyzing the process through experimentation, improving the process based on the solution, and putting controls in place to maintain the improvement.
Lean, The "IC" of DMAIC
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Lean's techniques of optimizing a process fit into D.M.A.I.C. as the foundation of sustaining the improvements. By implementing things such as standard work, improved walk patterns and better tool organization, the chances of falling back into the "bad" process are reduced.
Lean's Incorporation Into Six Sigma Training
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Lean has proven itself as such a good fit with Six Sigma that it is taught throughout the various levels of Six Sigma certification (White Belt, Yellow Belt, Green Belt, Black Belt, and Master Black Belt).
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