Lean Six Sigma is a methodology that relies on a collaborative team effort to improve performance by systematically removing waste. It combines elements of lean manufacturing and enterprise with the areas of Six Sigma to eliminate the eight kinds of waste or “muda”.
George and Lawrence first published their theories in 2002, and since then the approach has been adopted across the world to improve what organisations do.
Lean Six Sigma utilizes the DMAIC system similar to that of Six Sigma.
Just as with snooker, and its coloured balls of ascending values, Six Sigma has a belt based training sysyem; the belt personnel are designated as white belts, yellow belts, green belts, black belts and master black belts. This is similar to judo, but snooker balls include one extra factor: the IiE red dot of What Matters Most. Within an organisation, the things that are identified as What Matters Most may vary by job function, but they will all ultimately work for the continuous improvement of the organisation as a whole.
Lean and Six Sigma sit well together as organisational improvement tools. Lean projects comprise the best approaches to waste elimination, and the Six Sigma focuses on reducing or removing defects, based on critical to quality (CTQ) characteristics.
Completion of a training programme for Lean Six Sigma, will equip the participant with the skill sets required to contribute effective and sustainable process improvement within a team or organisation. At IiE we are able to work with you to identify and address the most suitable ways in which Lean Six Sigma can help your organisation improve. What Matters Most is aimed at methods such as DMAIC, and promotes the “Define” element at the earliest opportunity of the improvement journey.
Although the greater values in snooker come from the coloured balls other than a red, you need to keep returning to the reds to allow access to build higher scores. Follow the same approach to success with our own What Matters Most red dot.