What is lean six sigma?
Lean six sigma is a methodology of business improvement, which is the combination of lean manufacturing and six sigma tools. The aim of lean six sigma is the production of products which yields the “better quality faster”.
An organization implement the use of lean six sigma in order to reduce the time of production with the high quality expected. This is possible through the combination of the lean manufacturing and the traditional six sigma methodology. While lean manufacturing pays attention towards the speed, the traditional six sigma focuses on the quality of the product. Both action results in the production of a “better quality faster”.
The implementation of lean six sigma acts as an inter process inspections, in order to find out and eliminate the defective units. Lean six sigma gives importance in finding out the cause of defective units rather than further processing.
The steps that are involved in lean six sigma method is:
Finding out the processes, both in the functional department and in a business, which is more important in delivering the customer value
Mapping the processes using the value stream mapping
Identifying the bottlenecks or the obstacles in the value stream
Standardizing the relevant process steps through the application of variation reduction by using DMAIC or DMADV methods.
Lean Six Sigma Certification
Lean six sigma certification provides the professionals with both techniques of service and manufacturing in industries. Along with this lean certification makes an individual attain the following requirements:
– Focusing how to move fast in order to accomplish the objectives with in the industry.
– Involves in business enterprise, identifies and eliminates the activities which do not provide values to the product or to the service given to the customer.
– Awareness of the lean and six sigma methodology help the business enterprise in attaining a stable improvement.
– The improvement will start from the bottom level and will be having a fast accomplishment
– Identifying the potential areas, deciding the improvements, meeting the customer expectation and the business results are other fields in which the trainees concentrate.
Emphasis is given in chasing the variations and waste out of the system, so as to make sure that the improvements are sustained.
What is value stream mapping?
Value stream mapping is a technique in lean, used in the identification of the flow of materials and the information up to date, in order to bring out the product or service to a consumer. Value stream maps are drawn by hand using the pencil so as to make the mapping process easy and simple. It also helps in making simple corrections according to the needs. The idea of value stream mapping helps in the drawing of the map with out any delay, while observing the situations of the target process. It also helps in identifying the opportunities for the improvement of the products with in the lead time. This value stream mapping is commonly used in the lean environment, because the lean methodology aims at the production of the better quality with out time waste.
Value stream mapping is used with manufacturing, logistics, supply chain, service related industries, software development and product development. The associated analysis methods of value stream mapping are as follows:
Process activity mapping
Supply chain responsiveness matrix
Product variety funnel
Quality filter mapping
Forester effect mapping
Decision point analysis
Overall structure maps