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Practical "Lean" - Using the Six Steps to Lean Six Sigma
Implementing Lean Six Sigma is not costly
Falling revenues and changing customer requirements are forcing many
companies to look for ways to reduce the workload on current staff while
developing long-term
solutions. When companies are forced to make reductions, the increase in work on
remaining employees frequently results in stress and anxiety causing
productivity to suffer.
Long-term solutions might lie in developing new and more-automated systems to
handle the work. Some take to shifting from mass production of standard products
to
small-lot production of customized products, with even greater focus on quality.
This often proves to be shortsighted in the long run. However, if a company can
omit
steps from its design, manufacturing, and servicing processes, as well as
fine-tune those that remain, it would be able to deliver better products to
customers far faster
and at lower cost.
Lean Six Sigma has taken root across Corporate America in the past two years.
Companies are using the techniques to analyze and improve tasks ranging from
simple processes such as customer credit checks to complex product-design
challenges. Lean is a systematic approach to identifying and eliminating waste
(non-value added activities) through continuous improvement to allow product
flow at the pull of the customer in pursuit of perfection. It focuses on
eliminating non-value added
activities from a company's processes while streamlining value-added activities.
The traditional Six Sigma Black Belt implementation approach can require
millions of dollars in investment, dedication of a firm’s best full time
resources, and lengthy training. This top-down approach is a major barrier to
entry for smaller and mid-sized companies, and it doesn't need to be. There is
an alternative Six Sigma deployment model called the Six Steps to Lean Six
Sigma. Motorola originally pioneered it and it allows smaller and mid-sized
organizations to implement at a cost and pace where they can actually grasp the
methodology and achieve benefits, without the significant resource commitment
and overhead structure of the Black Belt approach.
One of the strengths of the Six Steps to Lean Six Sigma is that it involves the
entire company. Previous quality programs may have addressed a particular
factory operation or only a part of it. The purpose is not to automate
complicated processes, but to "lean out" existing processes by removing
unnecessary steps and then fix those that remain. As a people-oriented approach
that empowers a team to take action to achieve improvements, lean is the best
way to effectively use a company's most valuable resource — its people.
One Size Fits All? -- NOT!
One observation I've made about the Six Sigma implementation process is that the
majority of benefits are not always derived from Black Belts - they are
generated at the Green and Yellow Belt level. Another observation is that Black
Belts and Green/Yellow Belts are interchangeable for about 65% of the
organization's Six Sigma opportunities. Using a Yellow Belt approach, embodied
in the Six Steps to Lean Six Sigma, addresses many of the constraints of smaller
and mid-sized companies and allows them to implement at a less costly, more
manageable pace.
These organizations become just as technically skilled as their larger company
counterparts; in fact, many are outperforming their larger customers in terms of
both
financial results and cultural transformation.
Six Steps to Lean Six Sigma – How It Works
The following is a brief overview explanation of a Six Steps to Lean Sigma
deployment and execution process, which I recommend for smaller and mid-sized
organizations.
- It begins with elevating senior management
awareness on the procedure and benefits of the
Lean Six Sigma process. At this time the
strategy and implementation approach are
aligned with the organization’s strategic
business plan, focusing on customer
requirements. Also at this step a Steering
Committee is established to create, foster and
ensure application of the Lean Six Sigma
process through out the organization.
- Here implementation planning is completed.
This includes establishing baseline performance
factors, expected performance/financial
improvements, communicating program goals,
implementation strategies, and developing
Practical “Lean” -- Using the Six Steps to
Lean Six Sigma
Arthur G. Davis, Principal, The Davis Group
Implementing Lean Six Sigma is not costly
training schedules for all employees. Employees
and management are brought into the training in
natural or functional work groups.
- In the training, they learn about the Six Steps to Lean Six Sigma
process, methodology, and tools. This course is designed to help
organizations reach their goal of Total Customer Satisfaction through the
attainment of reduced cycle time yielding high levels of quality. It does
this by showing how functions can increase the extent to which their work
meets the expectations of the people they do it for - their customers.
- Training and team formation are begun
concurrently. In the training employees learn
the specific methodology in resolving
differences in product/service expectations, so
those mistakes, which lead to customer
dissatisfaction, can be minimized. Any activity
that doesn't add to the market form or function
of the product (things for which the customer is
willing to pay) is a non-value added activity, or
the "wastes" that lean seeks to eliminate.
Emphasis is on learning ways of achieving
extremely high levels of quality (on the order of
3 to 4 defects per million or Six Sigma) and
gives participants a chance to start applying it
right away to their own work.
- Upon completion of the training, the natural
work group is the yellow belt action team. The
team sets about applying the six-step
methodology to improve their major product or
service. They identify customers, suppliers and
their critical requirements, define value vs. nonvalue
added activities via process analysis,
improve the cycle time by removing defect
causing, non-value added tasks, and implement
quality performance measures, to assure
continuous improvement: kaizen. The team
continues this approach focusing on their other
products or services for improvement.
- Later in the progress of the program, certain
individuals in the team may be transitioned to
the next level of Six Sigma achievement. Some
selected team members are developed into
Green or Black Belts based on need.
These are the results that Thybar, Inc., of Addison, Illinois, a supplier to the
HVAC industry, discovered when it adopted the Six Steps to Lean Six Sigma
intervention over a year ago. Trane, a major customer of Thybar, was insisting
that they adopt the Six Sigma methodology. However, the investment to embrace
the traditional Back Belt approach that Trane was taking was too prohibitive for
Thybar. The company understood the power of six sigma in eliminating defects but
needed a more practical and, economical approach, that all of its employees
could learn and apply to improve all processes from “order to cash”.
Beginning in January of last year they implemented the Six Steps to Lean Six
Sigma with all of their employees and management with significant bottom line
results. Each training workshop yielded 25-30 implementable improvement ideas
that averaged a 25% reduction in cost and process cycle time. Thybar's
president, Bill Evitt, is so convinced of the process that he subsequently
implemented it with his other three plants in the U.S.
Using the foregoing approach organizations can accomplish their Lean Six Sigma
implementation at a more economical and manageable pace. The number of
improvement activities, the levels of education, and the whole deployment and
execution approach occur at a suitable rate, using all employees, with a direct
link to strategy and results.
Art Davis
Principal
The Davis Group
About the Author
Art Davis is principal of The Davis Group, a Chicago area
consultancy specializing in business process improvement and
total quality. He has delivered many training programs in Six
Sigma for Motorola, Caterpillar, ITW, Litelfuse and other firms.
For more information call: 800-959-0632.
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