Everyone has heard of Lean and Six Sigma process improvement, but what are they exactly? In this meetup we learnt the condensed history behind the two improvement methods, their high level characteristics, and when you should use them in application.

1. Lean vs Six Sigma: What’s the Difference?
NYBPP Meetup (10/18/2017)
Highlights and Q&A

2. Agenda
I. Lean vs Six Sigma: What’s the Difference?
■ Overview of Lean
■ Overview of Six Sigma
■ Lean-Six Sigma
■ Modern Application
■ Summary
II. Q&A
■ How do you use these methodologies in a project context?
■ What if there is no data or bad data?
■ How do I get certified in these methodologies?

3. What is Lean?
Lean is the name for the collection of tools and
methods derived from the Toyota Production System
(TPS) – a thorough framework for making cars that
the Toyoda family cultivated starting after World War
II (late 1940s).
When you hear “Lean”, you should think “waste
removal” and when you hear “Lean process
improvement”, it is referring to improving a process
through waste removal.

4. What is Six Sigma?
Six Sigma is the name for the collection of tools and methods started at
Motorola in 1986. The name “Six Sigma” refers to the number of standard
deviations away from the process mean before an item ends up being called
a defect.
When you hear “Six Sigma”, you should think of “defect reduction” and
when you hear “Six Sigma process improvement”, it is referring to improving
a process by reducing variations that cause defects.
Although Six Sigma was “born” at Motorola, it became well-known when
Jack Welch, the CEO of General Electric, picked it up in 1995. Welch was
able to save billions of dollars by applying Six Sigma guided process
improvement within GE. It was at GE that Six Sigma became a
well-respected method for process improvement and the belt system (black
belt, green belt, etc) was developed.

5. Lean vs. Six Sigma
● Lean actively looks to alter process capabilities by
removing waste, often changing the operating model
in the process, whereas
● Six Sigma studies a process without altering its
capabilities, and attempts to change configurable
elements within those capabilities in order to optimize
a non-changing operating model.
This difference (configuring versus changing process
capabilities) makes Six Sigma much more applicable to
PPE intensive manufacturing operations, and Lean
(while still manufacturing focused) friendlier to more
flexible industries (where the cost to alter the operating
model is significantly less).

6. Modern Application: Lean-Six Sigma
Lean-Six Sigma is the fusion of both systems (and the
evolution of the methodology as a whole).
It can be applied more easily to service and digital industries
(which tend to be more iterative and flexible), but demands
scientific rigor in measuring and quantifying process elements,
allowing for both waste removal and value creation optimization.
This idea of improving processes by altering and
reconfiguring their capabilities simultaneously is what Cavi
calls “organic optimization.”
The mix of Lean-Six Sigma is what informs the Cavi Method,
and is the closest representation of a comprehensive, modern
process improvement handbook as yet exists.

7. Summary
If you want to scale, you have to be MECE!
• Lean started in the 1940’s at Toyota and is focused on
process improvement through waste removal.
• Six-Sigma was started in 1986 and is focused on process
improvement through reducing process variation and defects.
It was brought to mainstream popularity by GE in 1995.
• Lean typically changes the operating model, while Six-Sigma
configures capabilities within a set operating model.
• Lean-Six Sigma is the fusion of both disciplines which looks
to both alter the operating model and optimize it within its
given configuration.
.

8. Q&A
Answering questions from the Meetup

9. How do you use these methodologies in a project
context?
The methods themselves tell you generally how a project
should flow...however, they would not be enough to
execute an entire project, as these methodologies are
more useful for analysis of process data than as
prescriptive, execution-oriented strategies.
These methods would be best used by a team of analysts
in requirements management in the context of a larger
project.

10. What if there is no data or bad data?
Measure it yourself!
● Often these is no data, so your starting point must always be
to establish a baseline and start measuring and collecting
your own data.
● No process improvement can be validated or assessed
properly without good measurement and data.

11. How do I get certified in these methodologies?
There is no nationally governed certification body yet for
any process improvement method.
For Six Sigma, you can be certified by company
sponsored programs, or by independent distributors of the
knowledge - but nothing is universally recognized in the
marketplace.
For Lean, there are certification programs that exist in
various forms, but no designation that is universally
recognizable.

12. THANK YOU FOR COMING!
• Thank you so much for coming to our meetup – we hope to see you again
in future sessions and please don’t hesitate to post additional questions on
the group discussion board.
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