What is Lean Six Sigma?

(I’ve been asked to provide a down and dirty explanation of what Lean Six Sigma is; so hope this helps.  If you have any suggestions, feel free to let me know, thanks!)

Logical Thing To Do

When I was in college, I took a philosophy class, a requirement that was boring. 

One topic of discussion was “logic”.

The professor stood up in front of the class and said, “A cat has four legs and a tail. A dog has four legs and a tail, therefore a cat is a dog.”

Afterwards, he said nothing else.  

Silence. Crickets.  Chirp.  Chirp.

Boots on the Ground

Courtesy of chicagonow.com

“Boots on the ground” was a phrase I used in the oil fields borrowed from the military exercise, when soldiers, with heavy packs and guns loaded, marched in combat cadence.   One of my jobs was to maximize value to the customer by reducing waste, cycle time and defects. As Lean Six Sigma and the concept of Continuous Improvement were relatively new at the workplace; along came with it, a distinct vocabulary and hard to grasp concept.  To reach common ground, I had to modify terminology and substitute metaphors so that I can work with management and rank-and-file.  Without common ground, it was next to impossible to have a conversation.  The phrase “boots on the ground” was synonymous to “value added.”

The Fat Wallet

Courtesy of cetmacargo.com

A very close friend carried a wallet that contained his life's history. Not only did it hold his driver's license, Social Security, bank and credit cards, pictures of his family, birth certificate, past payroll stubs, receipts, business cards, phone numbers written on errant pieces of paper, a rubber band, and a razor blade. Least to say, his wallet was a fat ball that could not fit in the back of his pants pocket and carried it in his hands, like a small weapon, an extension of his mind, body and spirit.

I would never expect him to part with it.  There's way too much history in it.

So, companies attempting to introduce change to people with set ways, it's difficult to find methods to convince those like my old friend to abandon his old wallet for a new, different albeit lean and efficient system.

Lean Sigma and Transportation

The following is from Alan Kandel, writer and retired engineer who now focuses his attention to air quality in California and the impact transportation contributes to it.  Though short, his ideas provide insight for further studies and research.  

Story About Process

My past posts covered subjects like the Hidden Factory, Standard Operating Procedures and the "what, hows and the whys."  Most recently, I read a book by Clayton Christensen, who introduced the concept of Jobs To Be Done or JBTB. If you have time, pick it up; I highly recommend it.  It's titled Competing Against Luck: The Story of Innovation and Customer Choice.

In one YouTube video where he spoke in front of an audience in Oxford, the person who introduced him indicated that his book was one of the top six management books of all time. After reading it I couldn't agree more.

What Happens When You Swallow an Ishikawa Fishbone?

Answer: You spit out a solution.

Poka Yoke or Mistake Proofing

I've had conversations about the term “mistake proofing,” a Lean Six Sigma term taken from Toyota's Production Systems “poka yoke,” which means to set up a work environment where mistakes are virtually impossible.  The definition: Mistake proofing, or its Japanese equivalent poka-yoke (pronounced PO-ka yo-KAY), is the use of any automatic device or method that either makes it impossible for an error to occur or makes the error immediately obvious once it has occurred. (Source:  http://asq.org/learn-about-quality/process-analysis-tools/overview/mistake-proofing.html  American Society for Quality or ASQ) Metaphorically speaking, the idea is if you poke an egg yoke while frying, it would prevent the mistake of it being under cooked, though some of us like it that way.

Kamishibai Board

Simple and very LEAN!!!