Questions & Answers about lean production
What is the difference between Lean and Sex Sigma?
Lean and Six Sigma are distinct methodologies for improving performance. Lean aims to minimize waste, while Six Sigma aims to reduce variations and defects.
The Lean methodology is based on the principles of efficient production and rooted in the Toyota Production System (TPS).
In comparison, Six Sigma was developed by Motorola. Its name derives from the Greek letter σ (sigma), which measures the dispersion of a standard deviation in mathematics.
The term “six” in Six Sigma refers to the goal of achieving six standard deviations from the mean. There are multiple levels of achievement within Six Sigma, with higher levels attained by reducing the percentage of defects.
In contrast, Lean production emphasizes streamlining logistics and organizational flow to eliminate waste. The foundation of Lean is the recognition of organizational resource waste and the importance of implementing efficient processes to rationalize company structures.
It is important to identify and eliminate components that do not provide end value to the customer in order to increase profitability while creating more value with less work.
Many companies have adopted the Lean Six Sigma approach to get the most out of these strategies through reducing both waste and variation, resulting in improved performance. In simpler terms, flow-focused Lean methodology exposes all types of variations in processes.
