Why Lean-Six-Sigma go hand-in-hand?
The Key principles of Lean are
- Value – Define what is of value to the customer
- Eliminate Waste – Identify the Value Stream and eliminate what is of no value to end customer
- Flow – Create a constant Flow
- Pull – Produce on demand and reduce backlogs or holdups
- Perfection – Continuous improvement
Lean is silent on Quality and therefore only a lean thinking may result in reduction of wastage, optimization, reduction of costs and enabling a perfect just-in-time pull system. However, without quality focus there is a danger of producing goods which are optimized, developed at a low cost but of lower quality. This would be un-acceptable to the end-customer.
Six Sigma is a long term strategy to improve quality and reduce variation. Six Sigma employs various statistical tools and techniques to improve quality and reduce variations.
Together with Lean-Six-Sigma focus, organizations will be able to get a focus on optimization at the same time focus on the long-term goal of producing great quality goods.
Therefore Lean in isolation might not be a viable idea without Six Sigma. Therefore when talking about Lean, Six Sigma is always considered.