Small Businesses: Reduce Waste and Improve Productivity through Lean Six Sigma

Lean Six Sigma is a powerful program designed to help businesses of all sizes accomplish noticeable improvement through conditioning and management training. As a combination of both the Lean and the Six Sigma systems, the benefits of each separate system are supported by the tools and techniques present in the other. This reinforcing behavior is what established the Lean Six Sigma system as a well-founded and trusted method for obtaining success. A business coach can help owners and managers understand the intricacies of the Lean Six Sigma system with the years of experience and by the knowledge of what works where.

The Qualities of Lean Six Sigma

Many business owners and managers are looking for ways to better understand new tools and techniques to improve operational and production processes. Lean Six Sigma is a system of tools and techniques designed as a combination of the Lean and the Six Sigma programs. Each of these were designed to accomplish specific tasks, but the Lean Six Sigma combination enhances the benefits of both program by using their ingrained advantages to support and build each other.

Lean Six Sigma possesses certain qualities to expect for obtaining success in business. These qualities emphasize the reduction of waste while improving production. These two points help to reinforce the results possible.

Business Waste

Lean Six Sigma emphasizes seven kinds of business waste. Transportation, Inventory, Motion, Waiting, Overproduction, Over processing, and Defects make up the various wastes that are set to be eliminated. Waste is removed by understanding and implementing more efficient methods with each specific process.

This may be to automate logistic services for a reduction in transportation and inventory wastes; or, it may involve using better documentation and records to effectively determine the correct production levels. These are just a few examples of how Lean Six Sigma is involved with improving every process of a business from input of resources to the output of products and services.

Production Quality

Another important concept within the Lean Six Sigma program is managing the quality of production. This emphasis focuses every step of production to allow for an involved understanding where to make changes if necessary. This could be a macroscopic change like redesigning assembly line placement, or it could involve microscopic management of changing how a single employee builds the product.

This efforts result in a uniform product that allows customers to recognize the dependability offered by a business. This means an increase in sales with a reduction of expenses; overall, it means larger profits.

Coaching

Accessing these tools and techniques of the Lean Six Sigma system can be an involved task alone. A Lean Six Sigma coach is capable of helping business owners and managers to effectively understand the concepts critical to success while using earned experience to lead businesses to the path of success. Coaches are familiar with the program and have seen what decisions that people have made to reach success and what decisions people have made to lose it.