Evolution Of Lean Six Sigma

Used sometimes in a copy-book style and several times in an unorthodox fashion, Lean Six Sigma approaches have been bringing large scale business improvement across sectors. 

I have been doing training and consulting on Lean Six Sigma(LSS) since 2001. We started conduct of structured LSStraining in the form of Green Belt in the year 2005. I shall mention changes that I have personally experienced over the years. This article shall explore several perspectives using a then (2005-06) and now (2013-14) comparison.
 
The book has changed and so has the meaning of copy-book:

• Copy book six sigma started in 1987- The original proponents of the subject had a copy book approach towards quality with a five stage structured approach to defect reduction.
• The original definition of Six Sigma referred to the ability of a process to generate a high percentage of the production output.
• This gained credence in many companies like Motorola (originator), Honeywell, and General Electric in a few years. GE developed methodologies that can be applied to services and to design.
• In 2014, there are large numbers of professionals promoting lean Six Sigma in a copy-book style but with an entirely different perspective. One look at the modern definition will explain how the meaning has changed.
• Lean Six Sigma is vastly regarded as a business improvement methodology that maximizes shareholder value by achieving the fastest rate of improvement in customer satisfaction, cost, quality, process speed, and invested capital.
• Quite clearly, Lean Six Sigma has moved from the perspective of Quality Management (which considered management of quality in a company) to a methodology that enhances the Quality of Management.

 
The numbers then and now:
When we started conducting green belt programs way back in 2005, we had an odd service sector participant sneaking in with a shy look as he saw all manufacturing folks occupying seats. This rapidly changed to 30 percent service sector participation by 2007 and finally to 85 % in 2014. The numbers in Green Belt programs have been changing over the years as well. In open enrollment programs, we trained about 100 people in the year 2005. It has swelled to 200+ per month now. In 2005, very few organizations in India had an internal Lean Six Sigma program. Today, a large percentage of managerial work-force gets trained in internal programs of leading companies in various sectors.
 
Enhancement of cross domain expertise:
One of the most prominent unchanged features of LSS in these nine years is that professionals with business excellence expertise are able to pursue opportunities across domains. This helps them grow across verticals as the business improvement skill-set is respected everywhere. This has been one of the reasons why senior professionals from various industry sectors have been nominated for these programs. In the 60+ Black Belt batches that we have completed, the career growth of at least one professional of each batch is highlighted at
 
Applicability of Lean Six Sigma:
The views on applicability were questioned in several domains initially. To be frank, there are a number of detractors even today, but the believers have been doing well all these years. Let us review various domains.
 
R&D: 

One of the most vehemently opposed groups initially was the R&D function. This has changed to quite an extent. In recent times, we have worked with design teams of VoithTurbo, William Hare, Dr. Reddy's, Kone Elevators, to name a few. LSS is on the rise in this domain.   
 
Banking and NBFC: 

Having trained professionals from American Express, JP Morgan Chase, HDFC, ICICI Bank, ABN Amro, Max New York, HSBC and the likes, I can say that the methodology is here to stay in financial domain.
 
BPO/ KPO:

Due to severe productivity and cost pressures, outsourcing industry has been active with LSS. Another reason for BPO’s early entry into this domain was due to their perceived similarity with manufacturing. All large BPO’s in India and LSS implementers.
 
Informational Technology:

IT experts in India have been joining the LSS bandwagon for one more reason in addition to business improvement objective. Most clients happen to be from the US and are active with LSS practices. It became a client expectation that project managers in IT domain understand and use the philosophy during software development. Most large IT companies actively pursue DMADV and DMAIC approaches.
  
Other Services:

Like healthcare, hospitality, travel, and telecom have seen significant activity with leading providers putting LSS teams in action. LSS in healthcare is a big focus area in the US in last few years and we get to see healthcare focused professionals in almost every program nowadays.
 
EPC (Engineering, Procurement, and Construction):

This industry works on projects most of the time. The leading provider of project management body of knowledge, the Project Management Institute has been promoting process approach to project management for several years now.  
 
Operations, Quality and Supply Chain: 

Professionals from these domains form the majority of our participants. There has been a significant increase in service sector participants from these domains as highlighted earlier.
 
Sales and Marketing:

In the digital age, search engine marketing and social marketing with platforms like Google, Facebook, Linkedin provide great opportunities for enhancements in lead generation using LSS due to the availability of reliable data. Usage of CRM solutions in most large corporates has made it easier for LSS professionals to focus on projects that focus on the increase in revenue. LSS activity is increasing marketing domain, but not so much in sales.
 
Unorthodox Lean Six Sigma on the rise:
There are a large number of professionals who use the LSS methods for problem-solving and decision making although they do not carry out end to end projects of the DMAIC or DMADV kind.
 
The usage of the approach needs modification to suit the culture of the organization. While mature organizations thrive with the new terminology and outlook, there are hundreds of organizations where our participants prudently avoiding usage of Lean Six Sigma jargon to ensure that colleagues and bosses are not intimidated.  
 
Unusual implementers of LSS include senior professionals from Naukri.com, IT service management experts from IBM, SAP implementation experts, Black Belts at HSBC, Business Excellence experts at TCS, Wipro, GE, and Risk Management professionals in Citibank and HSBC.
 
The biggest set of unorthodox Lean Six Sigma implementers are the large consulting companies who have created consulting roadmaps that use most of LSS methods capsuled in a proprietary approach developed by them. These consulting companies do not conduct training but take up business challenges, convert them into projects, collect data from client processes, use LSS tools and provide recommendations.
 
Lean Six Sigma Methodologies. Then and Now:
The most popular methodology continues to be the DMAIC (Define – Measure – Analyze â€“ Improve – Control) sequence where the objective is to identify an existing process that needs rapid improvement and take through a structured problem-solving rigor. The DMADV cycle (Define – Measure – Analyze â€“ Design – Verify - akin to business process re-engineering) has grown in stature and every year there are more companies that are seen using it. We re-launched our DMADV Black Belt program last year it seems this program is likely to grow in next few years.
 
The increase in the pace of change: 
The pace at which new products are getting launched, the time in which new concepts get tested and the rapidity with which customers accept or disregard a product is visible to all of us. This has led to LSS being made a part of the decision making on an everyday life in fast moving companies. As an example, when a regulatory change happens in a country, a bank initiates lean six sigma projects which focus on minimizing losses or maximizing gains from the specific change.Companies like IBM have developed a design sequence that ensures that the power of LSS methods is put to use whenever a new IT service is launched. This ensures more instances of “first time right services.
 
To keep pace with rapid changes, Lean got integrated with Six Sigma a few years ago. This created a new terminology called Lean Six Sigma. While Lean focuses on efficiency (faster designs, faster operations, faster deliveries etc.), Six Sigma focuses on effectiveness (meeting customer requirements).The LSS assignments are done more rapidly at companies that are in a dynamic market place. This is natural as no one can afford to spend much time in improving a process that is bound to be revised soon. This has also created the case for DMADV projects being taken up more often as compared to DMAIC in fast paced sectors.
 
The paradigm shift:
The shift from Inspections at the end to First time right at source is becoming a powerful management driver in more and more companies. FMEA that ensures risk mitigation, Mistake proofing that eliminates the possibility of defects, SPC that provides early warning alerts is gaining traction. Companies are realizing more than ever before that need for scalability creates a need to build extra-ordinary processes. LSS methods are aligned to build such processes in organizations. 

I will be pleased to answer queries on the subject.