You’d be forgiven for thinking that there isn’t much of a difference between Lean Six Sigma and Six Sigma. If we get technical, there are, but at their core, they’re both dedicated to improving performance in business.
Is this all about semantics? Maybe, but if it is about semantics, then it is of a very important kind, especially if you’re wondering if you need Lean Six Sigma or just regular Six Sigma.
In this article, we’re going to dive into the difference between Six Sigma vs Lean Six Sigma. We’ll also discuss why that difference matters and which of the two will help your business more.
Sound good? Let’s get started.
What Is Six Sigma?
Six Sigma is a management approach that focuses on improving business processes leading to qualitative standards of success.
Hence, Six Sigma practitioners are people who rely on statistics, financial analysis, and project management to improve their operations.
Six Sigma is also a statistical benchmark that reveals how effective a business is. For example, a process can prove to be effective if it leads to less than 3.4 defects for every million chances. Anything produced that does not provide customer satisfaction constitutes a defect.
Six Sigma has also transformed into a more general business management style. It deals mainly with meeting customers’ requirements to increase customer retention rates. In addition, it improves products and services.
Benefits of Six Sigma
In answering the question, what is Six Sigma, the answer can come as an rundown of the principle’s benefits as below.
Decrease in Waste
This is through the optimization of business processes. This unique philosophy makes it easier to detect waste within an organization and how to provide solutions.
Increases Efficiency
This is through formal training, wherein one can learn the ways to use resources while maximizing their effectiveness.
Reduce Business Errors
Because it’s not possible to halt production in the middle of it, Six Sigma ensures that the process yields the right results the first time around.
Equal Attention
This refers to attention to quality during the process. Since a production job cannot be undone, it’s a must to perfect the product the first time it is created.
Reduce a Company’s Legal Risk
This is another advantage of Six Sigma. What keeps a company from wasting time and money will also protect it against potential legal costs.
Offers Flexibility
It can be used in any industry, from retail to healthcare. Any techniques and tools gained through the training can be used to boost a company’s profits by lowering its costs.
What Is Lean Six Sigma?
As you might find in any Lean Six Sigma guide, this is a style of management that focuses on helping teams to improve business performance while eliminating waste and defects along the way.
It is a combination of Six Sigma methods and lean manufacturing or lean enterprise philosophy.
The objective is to stop wasting time, effort, talent, and physical resources while ensuring that quality is maintained in production and organizational processes.
So what is lean six sigma? In a nutshell, it is the philosophy that asserts that anything not useful to the end customer should be considered a waste and must be removed from the process.
Under the Lean Six Sigma principle, there are eight kinds of waste that must be be reduced or eliminated, and they are collectively known as DOWNTIME: defects, overproduction, waiting, non-utilized talent, transportation, inventory, motion, and extra-processing.
When they use the term, lean, it refers to anything that is used to spot waste and eliminate it.
Combining lean management concepts and Six Sigma’s tools and techniques makes it easier to know which processes are likely to require variations, which are then minimized as the product is continually improved.
Benefits of Lean Six Sigma
Lean Six Sigma offers benefits that are no different from those of Six Sigma. One is decreasing costs by removing waste from the process. By eliminating unnecessary production steps, the cost of meeting customers’ expectations becomes lower.
This business philosophy also improves efficiency, makes successful processes scalable, and allows for the reallocation of valuable resources.
Furthermore, Lean Six Sigma boosts the effectiveness of processes as it aids in defining customers and their customers, as well as in measuring and improving what they care about.
Lastly, Six Sigma helps in developing effective people and teams that are behind a company’s processes. When the people who run an organization are geared toward success, so is that organization.
Six Sigma Vs Lean Six Sigma
There are many similarities between Six Sigma and Lean Six Sigma as they are both methodologies that aim to improve efficiency and quality. However, there are also some key differences between the two.
Lean Six Sigma is a more holistic approach that looks at the entire process, whereas Six Sigma is more focused on individual parts of the process.
Lean Six Sigma also places a greater emphasis on customer satisfaction, whereas Six Sigma is more focused on reducing waste and defects.
Ultimately, the decision of which methodology to use depends on the specific needs of the organization.
Both Six Sigma and Lean Six Sigma can be effective in improving quality and efficiency, but it is important to choose the right approach for the specific situation.
Which Is Right for Your Organization?
The toss between Six Sigma vs Lean Six Sigma boils down to what your organization needs. If you are primarily concerned with reducing defects and variability, then Six Sigma may be the best approach.
If you are interested in a more holistic approach that includes all aspects of the organization, then Lean Six Sigma may be a better fit.
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