Running head: LEAN/SIX SIGMA
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Lean Six Sigma
Andrew Bessette
Business Quality Management/Southwestern College
Gary Brewer
September 28, 2014
LEAN SIX/SIGMA
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Table of Contents
Title Page .............................................................................................................................1
Table of Contents .................................................................................................................2
Section 1: Introduction to Lean Six Sigma and Green/Black Belt ......................................3
Section 2: Lean Six Sigma Explained ..................................................................................4
Section 3: Lean ....................................................................................................................6
Section 4: Six Sigma ............................................................................................................8
Section 5: Belt Construct and Requirements .....................................................................10
Section 6: Conclusion ........................................................................................................12
Section 7: References…..………………………………………………………………...14
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Lean/Six Sigma
Continuous improvement processes by utilizing the Lean/Six Sigma Green Belt and
Black Belt Applications is nothing new. It has been widely used and followed since its
beginnings after World War II. However, even with as widely used as it is, a large amount of the
population displays confusion when told about Lean/Six Sigma. In fact, when I talk about these
subjects with my leadership, I get an awkward and confused look. This makes me question why
the movement towards continuous process improvement is so important if my leadership is not
familiar with its details and applications of Lean/Six Sigma and like programs. I question why if
they are in charge of the day-to-day operations of the worlds most advanced and powerful Air
Force, how can they still not see the waste in a simple process? I decided that I had to find a way
to explain the processes, and the benefits of having an expert in their organization in a clear and
concise manner. Once I could do this, I could explain the benefits of using these processes and
get buy-in to the movement towards continuous improvement. After all, continuous
improvement is not only the responsibility of the leadership in an organization; it is the
responsibility of everyone. My research was supposed to include an actual certification and the
running of an improvement event. However, due to scheduling constraints and the availability of
the course, I was unable to attend before this writing this paper. Currently, I scheduling has
permitted me to attend the course in the near future. In fact I will be a certified “Green Belt”
when I complete the course and the other associated prerequisites. We will get into what it takes
to get that certification later. The research that I have completed building up to the course will
help me gain my certification into the Lean Six Sigma “belt” system, and be able to be the expert
that my organization needs. For the purposes of this paper, I will be explaining Lean/Six Sigma,
Breaking the two down into their individual parts, the belt construct and requirements, and the
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benefits of using the process in a typical organizational structure. Finally, during the course of
the paper I will give some real life examples of when an event needed completion, and how it
competed. Once I detail all of these items, I (as well as the reader) will be able to explain why
continuous improvement processes like Lean Six Sigma are so important to any organizations.
What is the Lean/Six Sigma buzzword that we have heard about but may know nothing of its
application?
Lean/Six Sigma Explained
Lean/Six Sigma is an improvement methodology that maximizes value by improving
cost, speed, quality, and customer satisfaction. According to Laureani and Antony of the
International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management, Lean/Six Sigma has been
widely adopted by the manufacturing and service industries. Some of these very successful
integrations have been in companies like GE and Motorola. Because of its success in these large
companies, it has become popular and this popularity has perpetuated its use. (Laureani and
Antony, 2012). Lean/Six Sigma began as part of the continuous process improvement revolution.
Lean/Six Sigma is not a single process improvement entity, but two separate methodologies that
lead to the same end. This end is the continuous improvement of the organization. The two
separate entities are Lean and Six Sigma. In fact, all of my sources call this Lean Six Sigma or
LSS. I chose to use the “/” symbol in between them to show the separation between the two parts
of the improvement process. According to Goetsch and Davis (2013), this continuous
improvement revolution began with W. Edwards Deming’s Lean approach shortly after World
War II. The US emerged as the victor after the war, and had the world’s best and intact
manufacturing abilities. Rivals like Japan and Germany had most of their production facilities
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carpet-bombed and leveled during the Great War leaving their infrastructure destroyed. Deming
was already in the process of his ideas on continuous improvement. He attempted to sell the idea
to the US manufacturers, however, due to the current (US) success after the war, and the fact that
there was no competition left in the global market, the US rejected Deming’s’ total quality
approach. (Goetsch and Davis, 2013). However, when Deming approached the Toyota Company
in Japan with their ideas, they saw an opportunity to get back into the global market. You see,
Japan had to start from scratch. The war destroyed their entire manufacturing infrastructure,
along with the processes. The only way the country would survive and thrive was to get their
products improved to the point of competing on a global scale. This is the exact reason that
Toyota adopted Deming’s Lean construct, and became a very strong competitor in the world
manufacturing market. (Goetsch and Davis, 2013) Lean is the reduction of waste by doing the
same or improved work while using fewer resources. According to Goetsch and Davis, these
resources at things like human, financial, technological and physical in nature. This was the start
of the total quality revolution. Six Sigma is a similar methodology as Lean, however, according
to Oliver Wyman; Six Sigma is a project management framework as well as a set of statistical
tools that is very successful when properly applied to applications in order to solve business
problems. (Wyman, 2012). Six Sigma began with the Motorola Corporation when the company
was discovering that the market was becoming a much more difficult place to compete. They had
to step up their quality and competitiveness, and the best way was to adopt the continuous
improvement framework of Six Sigma. Their approach to improvement stemmed off from a
statistical principal that I will cover later. The question to answer is why is it Lean/Six Sigma,
and not two separate processes? The answer is simple. Lean and Six Sigma work very well as a
continuous improvement culture change with a framework that is easily adopted when used as a
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single construct. When separate, an organization may have the most lean and easily made
products, but they will not improve past that point when all of the waste is out of the process. On
the other hand, if the company only uses the Six Sigma portion, they may be constantly
improving on a rigid scale, but there will be a considerable amount of waste still present in their
processes. This is why the best way for an organization to proceed is to do a Lean/Six Sigma
combination. For example, Joseph Basala tells us that there are a high percentage of people with
lean skills and training wanting to learn about the Six Sigma tools. Additionally, there are those
that rely heavily on the methods that started with Six Sigma now wanting to know more about
the lean concept. Basala also tells us that Lean/Six Sigma is not a perfect 50-50 split between
lean and Six Sigma tools. The use will always depend on the situation rather than the availability
or ease of tool use. For example, if you have a very complex project that requires variationreduction tools you may favor traditional Six Sigma tools. However, if a project is not as
complex and you are concerned with flow of operations and waste reduction then you would use
more of the traditional lean methodologies (Joseph Basala, 2014). I have explained much of the
history of Lean/Six Sigma and have explained that Lean Six Sigma is not one entity; I will
explain what they both actually consist of. I will start with Lean.
Lean
Lean is a reduction of waste in any organization. This “waste” can be in the form of many
things. You can find waste present in people, processes, financial, technological, and resources to
name a few. According to Goetsch and Davis, much of the lean processes focus on reducing and
eventually eliminating the waste. These come in the form of overproduction waste, which is
making more of an item than is necessary for the production at that moment. An example of this
is making one thousand nut and washer combinations for only 500 bolts. Inventory waste, is
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carrying too much inventory than is needed at any time. An example of inventory waste is
present in the food industry. Why make more food than the customers will eat in a day? Motion
waste is unnecessary movement in a process. What this means is instead of turning around 3 or 4
times to complete an assembly operation, move the operation so the turning is reduced, reducing
the amount of injury’s from a repetitive motion. Transportation waste is the wasted movement of
parts or people in order to complete the processing of the product. Over processing waste is
when the amount of product available far exceeds the customer draw. Defect waste is the amount
of unacceptable defects in a product. Waiting waste, (always present in the military), is the
excess of idle time of a person or machine. Finally, underutilization waste is not using all of the
company’s assets to the correct level. (Goetsch and Davis, 2013) There are many Lean tools
available to combat these wastes. A few of the more popular and more utilized tools in my
organization are as follows: Standardized work, Self-inspection, Total Productive Maintenance,
Value Stream Mapping (VSM), Change Management, and Teamwork. We use the Standardized
work tool when we are completing a weapons maintenance operation. The weapon is the same at
any location, so the process to maintain it should also be the same. We ensure the standardized
work, by keeping the tools and handling equipment the same for the system, and make detailed
technical orders that our maintainers are required to follow. This has standardized the work to the
point where an inspection team can watch any team complete the maintenance operation, and the
only difference during the task will be the people doing the operation. We use self-inspection
throughout the Air Force. Our newest self-inspection methodology is the Commanders
Inspection Program, or CCIP. The CCIP has a database of checklists for each unit to complete to
ensure their everyday processes are being completed to a satisfactory level. We use Total
Productive Maintenance every day in the maintenance career fields. We are all required to ensure
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all equipment is available and serviceable prior to starting any maintenance task. It is very
frustrating to get half way through a procedure and discover you can go no further due to an
equipment shortage or shortfall. Value Stream Mapping is not as widely used in my organization
unless a new section or area of expertise is about to be added. Normally we use this process
when we are still in the planning stages of a new project. I find that value stream mapping is a
great tool to use when trying to improve on an organization. Change Management is a tool that
we use every day. The Air Force is in a perpetual state of change. With increased terror threats
and the face of traditional war changing, we have to adapt to the situations. Change management
helps us all adapt with very little conflict. The last of the tools that we most utilize is teamwork.
This tool is in my opinion the most important of the Lean tools in an organization. There is not a
single person who can do everything perfect all the time. However, with a strong team around
you, the goods and services that your organization provides will be perfect. We use teams on
most every task in the maintenance realm. Without teams, mistakes would go unchecked and
could cause massive mission failures. So far, I have explained the Lean process, its tools, and
how we use them. Now let us look into Six Sigma, and how it is different from the Lean
construct.
Six Sigma
In modern organizations (and the first one that used Six Sigma), the term Six Sigma
refers to the calculation and estimation of the quality that helps the organization to reach
perfection. According to Goetsch and Davis, Six Sigma gets its name from a statistically
determined value. The value Six Sigma means that if all deviations remain constant, a Six Sigma
process will yield 99.9999998 percent perfection. This means that out of one million products, a
miniscule 0.002 will have defects. (Goetsch and Davis, 2013) This approach shows that a Six
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Sigma level of production is nearly perfect, and should be the goal of most organizations who
not only want to have superior performance, but a continued improvement of that performance.
The approach of ‘Six Sigma’ is not as much a process as it is a data-driven and disciplined
methodology designed to eliminate all the deficiencies within an organization. The removal of
these deficiencies increases the performance of the organizations that practice the Six Sigma
operations. Thus, driving the organization towards the quality level desired in the organizational
goal, and closer to that Six Sigma level of production. Goetsch and Davis tell us that the idea of
Six Sigma levels of production began in the Motorola Company. Their goal was to have a tenfold improvement in each sector of the company in just over ten years. After their ten-year effort,
the company did not achieve the goals, but still saved billions and increased profits by 20%.
(Goetsch and Davis, 2013) This is an amazing amount of improvement, and word of their
success spread to many other organizations, including my organization, the US Air Force. Six
Sigma is more of an approach than it is a list of tools and processes to complete. The basics of
Six Sigma is to eliminate waste, and continuously improve your organization towards the final
goal of perfection. In my career field specifically, (when politics of the US Government does not
intervene) we have taken drastic steps to reach a Six Sigma level. For example, we have taken a
“whole person” approach to training and mentoring our people in order to produce strong, smart,
and enthusiastic leadership. For example, my career field and many others will place an
individual into a set of “buckets” to increase the experience potential in places that they are
weak. Each bucket represents a different experience set, based on location, weapon system type,
and leadership level. One bucket will be in an Intercontinental Ballistic Missile leadership
position, while another will deal with Strategic and Tactical Bombs. There are 9 buckets that
each individual is placed in thorough their career. This starts very early in a supervisors career,
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and continues until either they make Chief Master Sergeant, or get out of the military. What this
has done is groomed our future leadership before they are expected to lead. They are able to get
the experience working with a system at a young age before they are required to run the shop that
maintains that system. This approach has decreased the amount of critical errors on the system
substantially. Another Six Sigma approach that we have taken in our career field is how we
conduct inspections. In fact, in the interest of continuous improvement, we have taken the Air
Force Inspection System model and the CCIP and are currently retooling it for the nuclear career
field. Not only will this ensure an easy transition from one program to another, (by using a
familiar system) but also it will provide continuity to those who have to complete the inspections
in an unfamiliar career field. As you can see, Six Sigma is a great methodology to improve an
organization. Now that I have covered both Lean and Six Sigma, let us look at putting them back
together in the Green and Black belt certification programs and how they benefit organizations.
Belt Construct and Requirements
Belt certification is becoming a very common occurrence in the Lean/Six Sigma world.
In fact, the dilution of the certification is because of hundreds of companies claiming to have the
best and most accredited certifications available. Due to this dilution, the “belt” certification
standards are difficult to narrow down, or even comprehend. However, Alessandro Laureani, and
Antony Juju has narrowed down the basic requirements. Laureani and Juju explain that the belts
available are; white, yellow, green, black, and master black, with a varying level of master black
belts. They go on to explain each belt in detail. A white belt is simply a basic introduction to the
system. White belts require about 40 hours of training and can only focus on a specific work area
instead of large cross-functional projects. They can complete about 12 projects a year with a
potential income of 25K per project. Not a bad income for only 40 hours of training! After white
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belts, there is the yellow belt. This belt according to Laureani and Juju is similar to the white
belt, except they can focus on more Six Sigma type of projects while they work their normal duty
responsibilities. The next belt that Laureani and Juju explained was the Green Belt. This belt is
what I am working towards a certification in. As soon as the next opportunity for the class arises,
I will be taking the course. A green belt receives about 80 hours of training, and like the yellow
belts, take roles in Six Sigma projects as well as their normal duty responsibilities. The big
difference is that they use many of the same tools that a black belted individual would use, but
focus on a single project in one location. Additionally, they work under a black belt at all times.
A benefit of becoming a green belt is that holding the certification alone can net you an income
of over 100 thousand dollars a year, plus your take on the project. The last belt that Laureani and
Juju explained was the black belt. These individuals have at least 160 hours of training, and they
have mastered many sophisticated tools and statistical techniques. They run long-term projects
and very large projects that take three or more months to complete. The next level of the black
belt as described by Laureani and Juju is the Master Black Belt. These individuals have mastered
the tools of the black belt, and have been successfully completed many sophisticated projects
utilizing very complex tools and statistical techniques. They have earned the master level due to
their success as a black belt and a savings of over 180 thousand dollars average per project.
These are the basic requirements for certification in the belt system. (Laureani and Juju, 2012)
During my research, I found that many of the companies required completion of extra activities
before awarding a certification in the belt system. For example, according to Cudney and
Fargher, DuPont has specific criteria for the specific target savings per project on each of the belt
levels. Additionally, companies like Motorola and Microsoft require an examination prior to
awarding a certification. (Cudney and Fargher, 2005) As you can see, the certification
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requirements for the belt system can be a bit confusing and intense. I find it very ironic that the
standards for certifications are so subjective on who gives it to you. You would think that the
process for continuous improvement and removing waste would have a single set of standards
for the certification. I think the next improvement event in the Lean/Six Sigma world should
focus on their certification standards and authority. Unfortunately, while there is a process, there
will be room for improvement. I hope that in the future, all governing bodies of the Lean/Six
Sigma combined belt system will adopt a standard certification requirement. This will end the
waste of time spent researching your belt qualifications and the subsequent re-certifications upon
transfer to another organization.
Conclusion
Lean/Six Sigma is a wonderful tool set designed to eliminate waste and improve your
organizational effectiveness to a near perfect level. It began after Deming proposed
improvements to the US manufacturers was dismissed due to the lack of competition in the
world market. This denial spurred Deming’s move to Japan where his ideas were put to good
use. Six Sigma began in the Motorola Company where by a statistical calculation, near
perfection was the goal of the organization, in addition to a continuous improvement movement.
By combining to form Lean/Six Sigma, a company can continually strive to be the best.
Organizations can not only eliminate waste, and improve processes, bit they can continue to
improve past their leaderships expectations. According to Sony and Naik, “The integration of
Lean and SS aims to expand the scope of improvement within an organization and therefore the
potential of the organization to improve business processes.” (Sony and Naik, 2012) By
following the Belt led events in your organization, one will find that a properly certified
individual can make a significant difference in the amount of waste that is eliminated. I hope that
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when I am a certified Lean/Six Sigma Green Belt, I can help the Air Force as well as any
company that I have the opportunity to work with. I am committed to the process of Lean/Six
Sigma, and I truly believe that anyone in an organization can be a vehicle to continuous process
improvement. I also believe that their efforts will make a significant impact on the success of the
organization.
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References
Goetsch, David L., Stanley Davis, Quality Management for Organizational Excellence: Introduction to
Total Quality. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson, 2013. 138. Print.
Basala, J. (2014). Lean six sigma revisited. ASQ Six Sigma Forum Magazine, 13(2), 33-34. Retrieved
from
http://ezproxy.sckans.edu/login?url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/1505315116?accountid
=13979
Cudney, E. A., & Fargher, John S W,Jr, PhD. (2005). Lean and six sigma: Integrating lean and six sigma
in a systematic approach (presentation supporting paper). IIE Annual Conference.Proceedings, ,
1-7. Retrieved from
http://ezproxy.sckans.edu/login?url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/192457203?accountid=
13979
Laureani, A., & Antony, J. (2012). Standards for lean six sigma certification. International Journal of
Productivity and Performance Management, 61(1), 110-120.
doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/17410401211188560
Sony, M., & Naik, S. (2012). Six sigma, organizational learning and innovation. The International
Journal of Quality & Reliability Management, 29(8), 915-936.
doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/02656711211258535