How To Take Lean Six Sigma Out of The Factory And Into The Office

The manufacturing sector has long relied on Lean and Six Sigma methodologies to achieve operational excellence. Lean is very much concerned with eliminating waste and boosting efficiency, while Six Sigma is all about streamlining production and improving output quality. When you combine the two, you find that Lean accelerates the progress of Six Sigma, enabling faster and more efficient problem-solving.

By the end of the 20th century, half of the Fortune 500 were using the Six Sigma strategy in their processes, saving more than $427 billion combined. Nowadays, more companies are discovering they can use Lean Six Sigma to improve processes beyond the factory floor and across the wider business. Sounds simple but this transition can be complex, leading many companies to fear and even abandon it. However, with a thorough understanding of Lean Six Sigma and your eyes on the prize of process excellence, significant improvements are more than achievable.

In this article, we’ll look at Lean Six Sigma in more detail. We’ll outline the benefits of adopting it, as well as the challenges. Finally, we’ll show you the steps to start truly reaping the rewards of Lean Six Sigma.

Why adopt Lean Six Sigma to your business operations?

How many of your production issues (even if you’ve improved efficiency with Lean Six Sigma) are caused by disconnects in the office?

Production often gets the blame because it’s where errors in (for example) forecasting, demand management, product development and resource planning show up. But imagine if the root causes could be resolved before they even reached the factory floor.

Of course, those are not the only benefits of applying Lean Six Sigma principles to business operations. Streamlining operations, reducing waste, and focusing on quality allow you to move faster, with more predictable outcomes. With this new-found speed and stability, you can move quicker and build your competitive advantage, whether that’s developing new products to delight your customers or reducing costs.

Lean Six Sigma principles remove many of the obstacles that your people encounter when carrying out their daily tasks. This makes them more productive, but also happier in their work, making them more likely to stay in your company longer and reducing staff churn. That’s just one of the many metrics that incorporating Lean Six Sigma can improve in your business.

Perhaps most importantly, Lean Six Sigma can have a significant impact on your P&L and your bottom line. You’re reducing costs and accelerating speed-to-market. The effect on your product, marketing and customer services should help you win and retain new customers. The effort of overcoming the challenges of implementing Lean Six Sigma will be reflected in your company results in the long-term, delivering benefits for all.

Challenges of rolling out Lean Six Sigma in business operations

If implementing Lean Six Sigma in your business operations can make such a dramatic, positive impact, why isn’t every company doing it? The fact is, rolling out Lean Six Sigma across an organisation can be tricky for many reasons:

• Lack of knowledge – For any Lean Six Sigma initiative to work, you need awareness and understanding, and that can sometimes mean educating the C-Suite. Securing strong leadership buy-in and fostering a culture of top-down continuous improvement are vital for driving success.
• Lack of skills -To make your transition a success, you need people with the right skills and ideally Lean Six Sigma certifications. Invest in training and development to achieve sustainable improvements.
• Knowledge of processes – Lean Six Sigma is all about having a handle on your existing processes so you can identify areas for improvement using methods like DMAIC (Define, Measure, Analyse, Improve, Control). Without detailed, documented knowledge of those processes, you won’t see those opportunities.
• Complexity – Most companies operate on webs of connection where one decision can impact several parts of the organization. For example, a slight change in a product’s design will affect your supply chain, marketing, inventory and beyond. These causes and effects are the reason why many companies feel they can’t implement Lean Six Sigma – and miss out on the benefits.
• Resistance – Let’s be honest; no one likes change. But, by engaging employees, communicating the benefits clearly, and providing adequate training it can help build vital support.

Sustaining success

The final challenge many organisations face is making Lean Six Sigma improvements stick. Lean Six Sigma improvements can’t be like a New Year’s resolution that you end up breaking by the second week of January; you must keep it consistent. The most effective way to stop people and processes from slipping back into bad habits is by formally documenting your new streamlined processes and keeping a close eye on how things are running.

Continuous improvement is the lifeblood of Lean Six Sigma. By investing in training, you help cultivate a culture where everyone is empowered to seek out better ways of working and as a result continuous improvement thrives. Businesses and their markets are constantly evolving so there will always be problems to iron out and ways to improve. To stay ahead, you need a balance of data-driven precision (Six Sigma) and employee driven innovation (Lean).

Implementing Lean Six Sigma in your business will have its challenges, but they can all be overcome with thorough planning, effective communication, and investment in skills. The potential benefits are too significant to ignore, so don’t let the fear of change hold you back.

Five steps to incorporate Lean Six Sigma in your business operations

Now you know the benefits of Lean Six Sigma and the obstacles you may need to overcome; how do you start rolling it out? Here are our five steps to Lean Six Sigma success.

1 – Get buy-in

The interconnected nature of how companies work makes getting leadership buy-in for any Lean Six Sigma implementation essential. At some point, there will be someone in some department of your company who will object to an improvement you want to make. When this happens, you need the people that matter in your corner.

Lean Six Sigma is high-level and often complex. However, you need to sell to your leadership team the massive benefits it can deliver, not least to your bottom line. The manufacturing industry is fast-moving and there’s a great deal of competition. When success depends on moving faster and becoming more efficient, Lean Six Sigma can help deliver the necessary changes. Sell those benefits and get that all-important commitment from your leaders.

2 – Get the skills

You need people with the right knowledge of Lean Six Sigma in your organization to assess current processes, identify areas to improve (through moving faster, eliminating waste, and raising quality standards) and roll out improvements.

You can do this through Lean Six Sigma training for yourself or your employees.

3 – Know where your processes stand

Next, conduct a thorough assessment of your current business processes. This is where your Lean Six Sigma skills come into play. In many cases, it’s about identifying those interconnections where one decision affects another. It can require a forensic approach, but it’s the only way to identify areas for improvement.

Go deep into the pain points of your business. Sometimes, what you initially believe is the problem isn’t the problem at all. Tug at the thread of causes and effects until you get to the root of the issues.

4 – Identify improvement areas

During your assessment, you will no doubt discover a number of things you would like to improve. How do you know which projects to tackle first?

You could begin by looking for quick wins, smaller projects that can deliver gains without too much complexity. On the flip side, it may be worth starting with a larger project that will lead to greater improvements and a bigger impact on the organization. In an interconnected company, the right changes benefit the entire network.

5 – Get started

Ready to turn those ideas into action? Start making waves with improvement techniques like Kaizen, Value Stream Mapping, and Poka-Yoke. Remember, the goal is smoother processes and bigger wins. Track your progress, celebrate small victories, and watch how one change can ripple through your business.

Technology is your secret weapon here. Tools like process mining can be used to uncover hidden problems and plot your next move. And let’s not forget about automation! RPA (Robotic Process Automation) can handle the repetitive stuff, while predictive analytics can help you stay ahead.