Six Sigma Vs. Lean Manufacturing

Carolyn Langdon

Dr. Beqiri

OPER 345

Six Sigma Paper

July 19, 2016

Six Sigma vs. Lean Manufacturing

        Six Sigma and Lean Manufacturing are process improvement mechanisms used to regulate and reduce error in various manufacturing processes.  To start, I felt it would be best to explain a bit of history of the two processes.  Starting with Six Sigma, it was initially thought of in the mid 1980s, by Motorola engineers.  Their main goal with creating this process was because they wanted to “highlight quality problems to drive process improvement and decided to report quality levels in defects per million of output” (Fitzsimmons 191).  Soon the Six Sigma process was born and thus created a much-needed change of culture within the company.  Financially, the Six Sigma approach paid off for Motorola.  They reported $16 millions in savings and those huge savings did not go unnoticed.  Other firms chose to adopt this method as well.

        Lean Manufacturing/Service began in Japan in the late 1980s.  It is pioneered by Toyota.  A few of the core focuses of lean service are to “focus on waste elimination, continuous flow, and customer demand pull” (Fitzsimmons 196).  Another name that this process can be referred to is “Just-In-Time” production.  A key trait of this manufacturing process is that “quality improves as production time and cost are reduced” (Small Business). Another important characteristics of lean manufacturing is keeping an even workflow going.  

        To compare the two, I am going to start by going into detail about the Six Sigma process and then I will do the same in regards to the Lean manufacturing process.  As stated above, Six Sigma is a process used for regulating and improving performance throughout a business, company, or even for personal use.  According to the textbook, “The objective of Six Sigma is to reduce or narrow variation in performance to such a degree that six standard deviations can be squeezed within the limits defined by the customer’s expectations” (Fitzsimmons 192).  Depending on the nature of the project, there are limits defined as upper specification limit (USL) and a lower specification limit (LSL).  These limits are numerical values that pertain to the nature of the problem.

 There are a few methodologies that are used for the implementation of the Six Sigma strategy. The first method that is commonly associated with Six Sigma is the DMAIC process.  This is a five-step process that is used to help a company or whoever reach their goals more effectively. The acronym stands for design, measure, analyze, improve and control.  Each of these words carries a special task that is needed to ensure the desired result is achieved.  The first step, define, sets the stage for the rest of the project because it defines objectives, and also who the internal and external customers are going to be.  The second task is to measure and that can be as simple as to measure the current level of performance.  The third task is to analyze and this is used to figure out the root cause of the problem and variations.  The fourth part of the DMAIC acronym is improve and this is when you focus on addressing and eliminating the main causes of the problem.  The last part of the acronym is control and the main task of this is to maintain and control the improved process performance (ASQ.org).  If all of these steps are followed, then you or whoever uses it will have successfully used the Six Sigma method.