Process ImprovementSix Sigma and LEAN are probably the most popular frameworks to drive process improvement in an organization. Although they share similar outcomes, their approach is fundamentally different.
Six Sigma is a set of techniques and tools for process improvement. It was initially developed by Motorola in 1986 and later adopted by Jack Welch who made it central to his business strategy at General Electric in 1995. In short, Six Sigma seeks to continuously improve the quality of process outputs by minimizing the causes of defects (errors). Specifically, it focuses on processes that can be measured, analyzed, controlled, and improved. LEAN seeks to maximize customer value through minimizing waste. It is a management philosophy mostly derived from Toyota who re-aligned company activities to reduce the following three forms of waste:
To accomplish this, LEAN thinking changes the focus of management from optimizing separate technologies, assets, and vertical departments to optimizing the flow of products and services through entire value streams that flow horizontally across technologies, assets, and departments to customers. Our approach is a mix of both frameworks with varying degrees dependent upon the client situation (e.g., organizational complexity, internal competancies / standards, BPM technologies in use, etc.). In terms of documentation, our philosophy is to generate output that has value in keeping current (e.g., process maps have limited value unless incorporated into visual workflow or BPM solutions, etc.).
More importantly, we leave our clients with an actionable roadmap that they can create an implementation plan from and know how to measure benefits associated with process improvements they roll out. |
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