Using Lean Six Sigma to improve efficiency

Six Sigma and lean manufacturing are two of the most popular methods that are used to eliminate waste, and improve your businesses productivity and performance. When the processes are combined together, the result is a process known as Lean Six Sigma. It is important to know that Lean Six Sigma focuses more on increasing productivity, through identifying the production inefficiencies. When using Lean Six Sigma, your business will take a look at the way it is organized, and how all the processes work together. It is crucial to realize that product development can save your business, a lot of money if you spend enough time on it, to do it right. Within the product development phase, you will need to take a look at the raw goods, and all the other necessary supplies and equipment, you need to produce and ship your products.

Lean Six Sigma is a cost effective way to address the problems that may be found within your business. You will be able to improve the speed, quality, along with the cost of your products. One of the major benefits is that Lean Six Sigma is easy to introduce and it won't take long to see positive results. Manufacturers who have implemented Lean Six Sigma begin seeing positive results almost immediately.

To correctly implement Lean Six Sigma, you must follow some of the steps set forth by the Toyota Production System. The lean manufacturing system that Toyota has created is focused on identifying waste and removing it from your company. There are different kind of wastes that you will need to identify and eliminate from your company. These wastes are:

• Muri-This is known as wasteful design


• Mura-This is known as wasteful implementation


• Muda-This is known as wasteful activity

Additionally, within each of the different waste phases, there are seven different wastes that can lead to inefficiencies and design flaws. Here are the seven wastes that must be identified and fixed, in order to improve productivity:

• Transportation problems


• Inventory control


• Unnecessary movement


• Problems in time management


• Overproduction and underproduction


• Over-processing


• Production defects

When these waste are present within a business, they end up decreasing the value of the product, and the customers will end up paying more money, due to the excess costs of each wasteful phase.

Once a company is able to implement lean manufacturing, they will then turn to Six Sigma. Six Sigma will focus on measuring the number of defects that occur during the manufacturing process. The ultimate goal of Six Sigma is to reduce or completely eliminate errors from the production process at all. When it is combined with lean manufacturing, Six Sigma will help improve the overall effectiveness of the manufacturing process, and the overall operation of your business. When the two processes are combined, manufacturers will be focused on eliminating waste and also adding value to the production processes.

The overall goal of Lean Six Sigma is to provide a better product for a lower cost. Manufacturing businesses find that when they introduce steps to eliminate waste, and focus on improving the quality of your products and your organization, they find it is much easier to satisfy customers and to run an effective organization.

In addition, when technology changes in your industry, Lean Six Sigma is the best process to use, and it will help you easily integrate it into your business. You will be able to make everything run faster, and boost the performance of your employees, and the products you provide to your customers. Lean Six Sigma provides long lasting and positive changes to the entire production process.