What are the basic differences between Lean and Six Sigma. How is the practical implementation of one different from the other. Which one amongst the two is more recognized and accepted in the industries?

Six Sigma is useful when you have to reduce variation around target mean. Data and Statistics are used for analysis. Tools used are MSA, FMEA, ANOVA etc.

Lean is useful in minimizing wastes. Tools used are 5S, KANBAN, 2-BIN, VSM etc.

Dear Shradha,

Both Lean and Six Sigma are business process improvement methodologies. They each have a slightly different approach to meet their goals. Some differences in their practical application:

Lean: Train 100% of the workforce on simple tools such as 5S, Kaizen etc and make continuous improvements to processes every day.

Six Sigma: Train about 25% of the organization of advanced statistical problem solving tools and ask them to fix larger problems with unknown root causes or solutions within the companies.

Different companies have different take on which is better. Some companies feel Lean is better while others feel Six Sigma is better. Of course, there are those that deploy and benefit from both of them - which is an option I would recommend.

If you are involved in business process improvement activities, you should learn and use both the approaches.

i feel the key difference in that the lean involves people from all level and six sigma involve people only form certain area necessarily having understanding of statistical tools.

For eg: with the help of 5s & kaizen an ITI guy can also bring some improvements in terms of cost saving, wastage prevention, time saving stc. But the same guy can't work on 7 QC tools to interprete the process output.

The basic difference between Lean & six sigma is,,,, In Lean we Attack a problem straight away & we know the solution also,,,, but in Six sigma,,, we dont know the root cause of the problem & we try to develop a robust solution to the root cause we identified,,,,

 

The posts in the discussion forum are very well pointing out the difference between Lean & Six Sigma.Being on this forum most of us are very much familier with Six Sigma Tools & approach.

i would like to add something to "Lean"

Apart from the mentioned Lean tools , one very important factor to consider during project implementation is to identify the "Bottleneck resource" in the process & all the improvement project/s should be targeted towards this bottleneck to increase the Throughput of the business process.

In another words Lean approach removes waste to increase the "FLOW" means "THROUGHPUT"

Six sigma & Lean both are process improvement  and optimization techniques.

Six Sigma :

Focus on  Data Analysis (Statistics),variation reduction, response optimization,correlation etc.Six sigma  tools are mostly  used for problem solving  and  Process & response optimization.

Lean:

In  Lean , we are mainly focussing on resource utilization and elimination of waste  in the over all value chain.

both lean & six sigma works towards continuous improvements and process stability.

Lean strategy  focus on waste elimination. and Sixsigma focuses on to reduce Variation.

Accordingly : lean we have tools such as 5S ( Related to work space ) , Kaizen System ,fool proofing ,cellular manufacturing system.

SixSigma : we have FMEA,Fishbone diagram ,5 why ,etc.

Some of the tools are used common in both SIxSigma and Lean depending on the requirement (for eg FMEA , Brainstorming , 5 Why Analysis is used for Problem solving).

Lean is focussed towards waste elimination, 5"S", Improved process flow of prodcut, JIT system, Zero Inventory, Continuous flow of product.

While Sixsigma consist of more complex tools to improve process, Reduce variation in the product.

Now there is new concept called Lean Six Sigma, where sixsigma methodology and lean practices both are used to improve process, reduce cost, Improved customer satisfaction etc.

Dear ,

I read the opinion of the community members over differences between two methodologies.

I would like to elucidate the basic difference that exist between Lean and Six Sigma approach. Six Sixgma as a methodology is more of a Management tool just like we use 360 Degree appraisal . It focuses on reducing variation and can be useful in Quality improvement, Increasing market share . In Six Sigma Project we basically focus on problem where we do not know the root causes and solutions as well. After getting to know the problem , we collect data , Analyse , Brainstrom and find the root causes and reach to the solution till its implementation and control of Results as well. We primarily use high end six sigma tools like Annova, Hypothesis Testing, MSA but which depends on size of project and requirement as well i.e we need not to use ANNOVA in yellow belt Project if complexity is low and financial benefit is quite less.

Contrarlily , in Lean Approach we try to eliminate the waste and smoothen the processes by eliminating unnessary steps which are NVA (Non Value Added) and we are already aware about the steps which will not contribute to the vlaue addition . It is more of JUST DO IT APPROACH that we follow because we know the solution .

To summarise , Lean and Six Sigma differs in the solutioning aspect . Lean - Soltution is know beforehand and we just need to execute it properly whereas in Six Sigma solution is derived from Data , measurement and application of Statisctical tools .

Please respond with you opinion .

Thanks and Regards,

Rahul Dwivedi