Lean Six Sigma – On the Comeback Trail

by Al Leigh, Master Black Belt and Rutgers Adjunct Instructor

A recent article in Business Week On-Line ⁽¹⁾ talks about the comeback of Six Sigma.  It cites companies as well-known and diverse as Merck, Cadbury, Dunkin’ Brands (of doughnut fame), and Pfizer, are using Six Sigma to drive continuous improvement and help their bottom line.  Wait!  Aren’t these mostly manufacturing companies, and isn’t that what Six Sigma is aimed at?

Well other companies have signed-on as well.  Starbucks is using Lean Six Sigma to reduce costs and improve service, Capital One had started their Six Sigma journey, and even a law firm in Chicago is using Lean Six Sigma techniques.  These are not your traditional manufacturing companies.  Companies are turning to Lean Six Sigma to reduce waste, eliminate defects, and streamline all parts of their operations, their transactional processes, supply chains, R&D, and even HR.

How can Lean Six Sigma be applicable to these very diverse businesses and functions?  With a very flexible architecture, Lean Six Sigma is aimed at helping an organization find the problems that are creating extra cost and waste.  Then Lean Six Sigma provides them with a methodology that guides their improvement processes.  Finally, Lean Six Sigma helps the organization manage the change management issues so that the improvements are sustained.

But there are doubters and critics of Six Sigma.  They argue that a data driven process is just too slow, or won’t apply to their problems.  At Rutgers, we have discovered ways to turbo-charge your Lean Six Sigma process and projects.  This includes rapid project identification, selection of the critical-few tools that are appropriate for your project, and change management techniques to help the organization hold the gain.  In addition, we employ a unique Project Startup Checklist to insure that projects are setup for success.  The successes have included emergency response preparation for a public company, streamlined appointment process at a pediatric clinic, improvements in complaint processes and service truck preparedness at a public utility, reduced patient wait time in a major hospital’s emergency room, and, yes, process improvements in manufacturing companies.  The common characteristic of all these projects is that they were well-chartered, they had empowered team leaders and team members, the teams used facts and data to design their improvement strategy, and they were accomplished quickly using the optimum improvement tools.

My name is Al Leigh.  I am a Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt and a member of the Continuing Education Team for the Rutgers’ Institute of Management and Executive Development.  Let me know if there is a topic you would like to know more about.  Contact me at a.leigh@dceo.rutgers.edu.

For more information on how Lean Six Sigma can help you,  contact Jonathan Lane – jonlane@camden.rutgers.edu or visit us at sixsigma.rutgers.edu .

1.     Six Sigma Makes a Comeback;  Brian Burns and Emily Thorton
Business Week On-Line, September 10, 2009