A recent Twitter (www.twitter.com) “Tweet” indicated that one of my followers wanted to know more about Lean Six Sigma. Before gaining my Green Belt training, I was curious too. I had extensive experience in project design and implementation and was eager to gain the skills to participate and lead Lean Six Sigma projects for my division. Before completing my Green Belt training, I didn’t understand that Lean Six Sigma offered a set of tools for improving processes and that Lean Six Sigma projects were process improvement projects. Since gaining my training, I have found that this lack of understanding is one shared by many of my business associates who are eager to learn how Lean Six Sigma can be used to implement projects they have in mind.
Not a Lean Six Sigma Project
As a Green Belt, I would not use Lean Six Sigma tools if I were rolling out an entirely new initiative outside of existing processes. If Acme Accounting were a business that consistently provided accounting services, improvements to the processes in place for delivering those services would be good candidates for LSS projects. But if Acme Accounting found that most their clients had dogs that needed walking, adding a dog walking service would be a new roll-out, not an improvement to existing accounting services and not a good project for LSS process improvement.
Lean Six Sigma in a Nutshell
On the other hand, if Acme Accounting had an extensive marketing program designed to gain new accounting customers and they felt that adding dog walking services would improve their marketing process then the dog walking business could be part of a LSS marketing process improvement project. Effectiveness would be measured in terms improvements in the metrics in place for existing marketing processes.
So, in a nutshell, Lean Six Sigma is a management approach to improving existing business processes. Lean Six Sigma drives projects that improve process efficiency and delivers more consistent results to achieve market leadership.
Today’s Lean Six Sigma approach reflects the marriage of Lean and Six Sigma. Lean manufacturing practices focus on reducing waste (labor, time and materials) and meeting customer demand. Six Sigma includes practices designed to achieve higher levels of quality (better outcomes) and reducing the variation in quality (consistent outcomes).
LSS Projects Improve Controlled Business Processes
Of course LSS is not just for manufacturing. It can be applied to any controlled business process, even complex processes, used regularly and systematically to achieve outcomes. A controlled process is a sufficiently consistent process that returns predictable and measurable results. The controlled process may be one used daily or one used occasionally, e.g. a process for securing bids. Ideally a controlled process has an identified Process Owner who manages changes to the process.
LSS is not effective for targeting projects involving uncontrolled processes that do not return measurable and consistent results because they are subject to periodic, often unplanned changes to meet emerging interests without weighing the merit and impact of the process change. If a process is not yet a controlled process, the first step in a LSS project would be to define the parameter and of the process, set controls in place and assign a Process Owner the authority to manage the process.
Authority is critical to the success which relies on process control. If a process in not controlled by a Process Owner, others are free to adopt changes to the process that will impact process outcomes and interfere with the results a LSS project desires to achieve. In other words, the right hand will be working in opposition to the left hand, which is entirely contrary to a LSS business philosophy.
Can a LSS Project Improve an Uncontrolled Process?
What happens when a LSS project targets an uncontrolled process? It really depends on the stability of the process. If, while it is uncontrolled, the process has remained relatively stable overtime and not too many interests exercise their control over the process, it is likely that improvements can be achieved through a LSS process improvement project. However if the process is unstable and changing, it is less likely that results can be achieved and maintained.
For a Green Belt project, which is one with a more limited overall scope, rather than attempting to improve an uncontrolled process, it would be better to narrow the project to a scope to address the part of the process that is relatively stable and then to put controls around that aspect of the project. If it is desirable to gain control of the larger process to secure efficiencies and improve outcomes, putting a Black Belt in the lead with Green Belt support would be more advisable.
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