Should You Consider Using Lean Six Sigma?

When it comes to improving the company overall there are a number of programs and methods that you need to consider. Many companies find it beneficial to use Lean Six Sigma as it is an effective tool that enables you to properly reduce the operational costs of the company and it is able to provide you with a simple step process at identifying and eliminating wastes. The goal with Lean Six Sigma is to be able to actually get rid of all the processes that are not considered value-adding.

One of the things about Lean Six Sigma is that you need to be able to consider which industry you are in and which lean tools are going to work. Start with the basic tools that are easier for you to implement. A lot of companies will end up turning to the 5 S method to get started as it is easy to understand and it is one of the best ones to consider implementing right away. Lean Six Sigma is a process that can be beneficial but it is one that you need to learn how to devote time to in order to have people support it. If you don't spend time on the actual training part and teaching people as to why it can be a good position, you won't end up getting much as far as the investment part goes.

The tools aren't that complex. It all comes down to the way that you are introducing them to your employees and the way that you are following through with them as well. Employees find that it's easier to believe in something when management believes in it and they see you living it each day. The more you work on living up to the program and living up to how the standards of Lean Six Sigma work, the more support you will get. Take time to really plan out the implementation of Lean Six Sigma. This will have a huge impact on the initial impression that people will have about lean.

For many companies the motivation of lean will come from the quality issues you have. A lot of product defects and quality issues will be directly related to the machinery and to the employees. Using Lean Six Sigma you can easily figure out ways to look at how you can cut costs by slowing certain processes down and monitoring them to see the issues that are at hand. Once you see the defect you can then easily get to the problem spot to fix them and then you will be able to eliminate them from the company overall.

Using lean is an advanced system that you are able to use for the reduction in the operational costs of the company and to ensure that your customers are able to get higher quality products. It is important that you are able to work on having people that are supportive of using Lean Six Sigma so your company can find chances to improve.

The one drawback of using lean six sigma can be related to the cost concern. In a lot of places you will need to plan on investing roughly $450 a person for every day of training that they need to attend. Depending upon the size of your company, you might be looking at a pretty large investment into just the training part of Six Sigma. Is it worth the investment? Do your research and know what type of issues your company is facing. Once you know what you have to work on, you may be able to use the lean tools instead of the Six Sigma certification training that can be costly.