Lean Six Sigma as a Combined Managerial Concept - Essay Example

“Six Sigma is primarily a methodology for improving the capability of business processes by using statistical methods to identify and decrease or eliminate process variation. Its goal is the reduction of defects and improvements in profits, employee morale and product quality” (Fu-Kwun 2010:301). While it was originally developed to improve manufacturing processes, it has also been used by many organizations to improve other areas of their business” (Guarraia 2009). Lean Manufacturing on the other hand had its roots back to production system of Toyota Production System which was “traditionally associated with moving equipment” (Klaasse, 2006). As a management strategy, it aims to optimize the company’s productivity by reducing waste during the development of products/services.

The need to align service delivery in accordance with customer expectations and the market imperative to reduce the cost to remain competitive in the market however compels the operations of businesses to think of management implements that would serve this purpose. Lean Six Sigma specifically caters to this need of reducing costs and maintaining competitiveness by removing processes that do not add value to the company and enhancing the quality of the company’s output by applying Lean Six Sigma in its processes. The result of the implementation of Lean Six Sigma across the organization is a better organization that can produce/render better products/services at a lesser cost.

As a business practice, Lean Six Sigma can be likened to the company’s existing quality control where it seeks to eliminate poor quality of its product and/or services and standardize procedures of its operation. The difference is that Lean Six Sigma is more comprehensive because it involves all processes and requires a cultural change in the whole organization because the core of the philosophy of Lean Six Sigma is the identification of customer value that any activities that are not consistent with customer value, or anything that the customer is not willing to pay for will be removed. Thus, with the implementation of Lean Six Sigma, the organization is driven to improve values that the customer is willing to pay for. Then a value stream is created to serve customer value. Read More