Understanding what Lean Six Sigma is is essential for all departments within an organization. In fact, this methodology makes it possible to optimize processes and reduce waste; and is associated with improved business performance.
Particularly, by knowing what Lean Six Sigma is for companies, you will have the ability to control, define, measure, analyze and improve all phases of the development of the products or services that your company sells. Everything is through the detection of defects and making improvements in the processes involved.
But how is the Lean Six Sigma method defined? What are the benefits of its application in a company?
If you want to know what Lean Six Sigma is and put its tools into practice, keep reading this blog post. And therefore, you can streamline the management of each of the processes within your company.
What is Lean Six Sigma?
To understand what Lean Six Sigma is, you must bear in mind that it is a methodology in which different statistical resources are put into action, with the aim of reducing production defects or service providers based on customer wishes. . This, in order to increase the productivity levels of organizational processes.
Next, we present a series of specific characteristics that can be useful to understand what Lean Six Sigma is and what its implications are within any company:
- Historically, it was developed in 1986 by the American communications company Motorola, headed by engineer Bill Smith. However, if you want to know in more detail what Lean Six Sigma is and what its history is, keep in mind that it became popular thanks to the General Electric company.
- The Lean Six Sigma methodological focus is placed on the customer, since the objective of the Lean Six Sigma operational improvement process is to achieve 3.4 production or service delivery defects, in relation to the customer’s wishes.
- If you want to understand what Lean Six Sigma is, you have to know its phases or levels, whose initial letters make up the acronym “DMAIC”, which we explain here:
- Define the goal of the program.
- Measure the type of operation of the current process.
- Analyze what are the reasons for the defects present in each process, through the Lean Six Sigma methodology.
- Improve with the least degree of investment possible.
- Control the applications made to keep defects at a minimum level and achieve maximum customer satisfaction.
Advantages of Lean Six Sigma
The benefits of the Lean Six Sigma method in companies are multiple. Beyond the differences in the positive aspects related to this process optimization methodology, they all promote productivity, cost savings, and performance improvement.
In this section, you will know more precisely what Lean Six Sigma is and what it is for. This, through the benefits that we detail here:
- Customer satisfaction improves as a result of reducing process waste. In fact, by understanding what Lean Six Sigma is, the following errors in the process methodology can be detected: product or service defects, excessive waiting times, avoidable transport, inventory problems, and unnecessary increases in production standards. , unused human resources, etc.
- Strengthening of leadership throughout the company’s hierarchical structure, since the changes proposed by Lean Six Sigma require it for implementation throughout the organization.
- To carry out an effective business process analysis and apply the tools used by Lean Six Sigma, it is necessary to train the company’s work teams.
This is beneficial for every human talent; and also, for the company, since you learn to manage time, the phases of the processes, and the supply chain, from an efficiency perspective.
- By knowing what Lean Six Sigma is and applying it in your company, human capital will be motivated. Indeed, professional training in relation to this method is one of the main ways to take care of the people in your teams and increase work productivity.
For this reason, it seeks to develop skills in work teams that enhance understanding of what Lean Six Sigma is and how to put it into action in their daily tasks to increase performance.
In case you need more resources to measure the performance of your work teams and optimize business processes, you can request a demo of our Performance Tracking Platform. - Knowing what Lean Six Sigma is and applying this methodology, it becomes essential to improve communication levels outside and inside business departments.
According to a Forbes article, it is necessary to know in depth the needs of the client and improve the value chain. To do this, communication and collaboration between those people who are part of the organization’s human talent must be strengthened. Everything to achieve a positive customer experience. If you require a tool to find out what problems your talent experiences in communication processes
How to implement Lean Six Sigma in your company?
Finally, the purpose of understanding what Lean Six Sigma is is to carry out a correct application in your company.
There are several process management tools. According to a Harvard article, there are different process management models based on identifying problems and finding proven and effective solutions. In addition to the example of Lean Six Sigma, we can mention Lean tools, process reengineering, and ISO standards, among others.
In this way, we advise you to use Lean Six Sigma, if you need an orientation focused on the needs of your customers.
On the other hand, remember that when using the Lean Six Sigma methodology, you will have to constantly update the project.
Thus, to continue with this guide on what Lean Six Sigma is, here are some practical recommendations to use Lean Six Sigma tools in your organization without problems:
- Define the objective of using this methodology. Include a document detailing the particular project, and map the entire business process you want to improve.
- Establish which will be the variables to take into account, to later evaluate your evolution when applying Lean Six Sigma.
- Identify the reasons why the defects occur in the processes that are in your analysis. At the same time, it complements the information collected with reliable and relevant statistics.
- Apply the improvements established in each of the organizational processes that are part of the implementation of this method. It is important to make an updated process manual based on the established modifications.
- It carries out controls the productivity of the processes under study. Identify positive aspects and potential opportunities for improvement.
In summary, by understanding what Lean Six Sigma is and putting its method into action, it will be possible to reduce waste in all processes of the organization. And thus, achieve maximum performance.
If you need more resources to apply the Lean Six Sigma methodology, you can learn about each of the Learning Routes that make up our Human Resources Academy. Therefore, you will acquire all the knowledge involved in managing processes and improving the productivity of your work teams.
So, go deeper into what Lean Six Sigma is, and apply the tools of this methodology in your business procedures. And consequently, you will be able to improve the positioning of your company based on the satisfaction of customer needs.
Until the next article!
