Lean Or Six Sigma

Some people ask which is better Lean or Six Sigma? Which should we deploy?

Both Lean and Six Sigma and process improvement methodologies that focus on providing better value for its customers. However, the approaches used to deliver this improvement is different.

Lean focuses on engaging 100% of the workforce and using their skills and expertise to make small continuous improvements to the workplace by removing wastes. Six Sigma focuses on making improvements on a project by project basis by training a small percentage of the workforce as Green Belts and Black Belts (usually 25%) who in turn focus on using statistical tools, facts and data to identify the root cause of the problem and getting rid of them.

Companies benefit the most by deploying both of these methodologies. They don't contradict one another - they are in fact complementary. Lean can be used to make small continuous improvements while Six Sigma can be used to tackle the hard to solve problems using more advanced tools. You waste resources by using Six Sigma on simple problems where the solution is already known.

Without Six Sigma, Lean may not be able to get rid of tough problems and without Lean, Six Sigma will take a lot longer and expend more effort to accomplish the same results.