Trimming waste, maximizing margins
Lean and Lean Six Sigma are a set of methods companies can apply to any manufacturing,
transactional or service process to reduce waste, eliminate non-value-added
actions and cut time.
Lean methods have a rich and proven history that began in the automobile
industry at Ford in the 1920s in a rudimentary way, and at Toyota in the 1950s
in a more advanced way. Combining Lean with Six Sigma can produce a program that brings both short-term results
- through the power of Lean - and long-term change through the power of Six Sigma. It is for this reason many
companies are turning to a combined Lean and Six Sigma effort.
BMGI's combined Lean and Six Sigma programs are designed to incorporate the best of both methodologies,
but Lean continues to have its own unique principles, tools, and even practitioners.
| Lean Principles •
Value: What the customer is willing to pay for.
• Value Stream: Actions that add value to a product
or process.
• Flow: The continuous movement of product,
favoring single-piece flow and work cells versus production lines.
• Pull: Replacing only material that is used and
eliminating excessive inventory.
• Continuous Improvement: A relentless elimination of waste on a never-ending basis. |
|
Who Uses Lean and Lean Six Sigma?
A great number of companies have implemented Lean principles and techniques,
including Alcoa, Boeing and Lockheed Martin in the manufacturing sector.
Transactional and service companies have also applied Lean and Lean Six Sigma with success,
benefiting from its time-saving, waste-removing and efficiency-gaining ways.
More examples of big-name companies that have employed Lean thinking and
principles are Dell in optimizing demand-driven flow, eBay in bringing products
and consumers together in real time and Microsoft in compressing its software
development cycle. Healthcare concerns are implementing Lean too as they
streamline the processes involved in patient care. |
|
Why Lean Six Sigma?
Companies typically use Lean to make immediate operational improvements as a
direct output of "Kaizen events." BMGI uses a methodology called
SCORE to run Kaizen events, which typically yield benefits sooner than
other methods, primarily because SCORE keeps the Kaizen team together day after
day until the needed Lean improvements are made.
Companies can see results from SCORE Kaizen events immediately, often within a
single week. Kaizen events also uncover a list of improvement opportunities for
ongoing attention with Lean tools, or process improvement tools like Six Sigma
and Design for Six Sigma. |
|
| Some Lean Tools |
| |
| • Value Stream Mapping |
| • The 5S System |
| • The 7 Wastes |
| • Set-up Reduction -
Fast Changeover |
| • Total productive
Maintenance |
| • Cellular/Flow
Manufacturing |
| • Toyota Production
System |
| • Poke Yoke (Mistake
Proofing) |
|
Lean and TPE
In the context of Total Performance Excellence (TPE), Lean principles and
tools are most effectively employed when your intent is to make key,
subordinate and enabling processes function as waste-free as possible. It is
easiest for companies to undertake Lean after they have solidified their
strategic direction, put a process architecture into place and aligned the
business around that architecture.
Want to learn more?
For more information about BMGI's Lean and Lean Six Sigma programs please
contact us. |