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Basic methodology consists of the following five steps:

Many people get confused by Six Sigma and believe that it is simply a case of applying a number of tools.  This has lead to many failed implantations of the methodologies.  Other people are put off Six Sigma by the amount of data collection and analysis which is used.  Simply put Six Sigma is all about data, if you have not got data you are just another person with an opinion.  One of the reasons Six Sigma has been so successful in companies such as Motorola is that it is all data driven the methodology makes you use the data, analyse the data and then come up with solutions.  To do this you must use statistics and tools which use stats to investigate and solve problems. As such typical tools used in Six Sigma include:-
They can seam daunting and put off many people but the simple truth is that you don't have to know them all.  You don't even need to use them all.  It is good ideas to have one or two people in your organisation who have detailed knowledge of them all you have to do is to know when they should be used then call in the experts. 

When used properly Six Sigma can dramatically reduce variation in your processes and lead to massive savings.  However when coupled with Lean it becomes even more powerful. 

Lean as the name suggest is the production of products or services using the least of everything - human effort, investment in inventory, machines, space, tools, time, development, transport / movement.  The term is called Lean, Lean Manufacturing and Lean Enterprise all meaning the same thing and deriving from the Toyota Production system and some other sources.  It is however very simply the reduction of waste from your processes it has enabled Toyota to become one of the biggest and most reliable car companies in the world.  

Lean is therefore the identification and steady elimination of waste through the implementation of perfect first time quality approaches to work, standardisation of processes, smoothing of flow, flexibility of work, long term relationships with customers and supplies and reduction in time leading to cost reduction and business improvement.  To achieve this a number of tools have been developed which facilitate the removal of waste from processes and a number of methodologies to implement the principles. 

In organisations where the principles of Lean are fully understood the people use the tools and techniques with out thought as eliminating waste and improving flow become the norm.  Lean in its many guises has been around since the 1940's and has developed and adapted over the years to become one of the key business improvement methodologies used in many of the worlds leading companies.  At its heart Lean is effectively simple and easy to understand.  Lean implementation is therefore focused on getting the right things, to the right place, at the right time, in the right quantity to achieve perfect work flow while minimising waste and inventor while being flexible and able to change if the customer requirements change. 
However, no matter how simple, at the heart of any Lean implementation is the cultural and managerial aspects of Lean which are just as, and possibly more, important than the actual tools or methodologies of Lean itself. There are many examples of Lean tool implementation without sustained benefit and these are often blamed on weak understanding of Lean in the organisation.

The first concept which must be understood is that waste is bad.  This has been the ethos for successful companies from Henry Ford onwards.  So what is waste?
Waste or non value added work is anything which doesn't add value to your product or service.  When you examine your processes in real detail you discover that the vast majority of what we do is non value added.   To illustrate this Shigeo Shingo (a deep Lean thinker) observed that it's only the last turn of a bolt that tightens it - the rest is just movement.  If we review everything we do to this extent we see that most of our activities are waste.  To eliminate waste we must examine three aspects - the design and planning of our activities, the fluctuation at our operations such as quality and volume and thirdly the waste in our processes themselves in the movement of people and materials and the machines they use.  
When you examine your processes in this way you can be said to be, learning to see and can start to eliminate the waste and improve the processes.  To make things easier there are 7 ways to think about waste. 

The original seven wastes are:

There has now been identified an 8th Waste

By identifying waste and non value added activities in our processes we can then start to use the Lean tools to eliminate them.  Typical Lean tools include - 5S, visual management, TPM, SMED, Pokie Yokie, Standardised work, pull systems, takt time, single piece flow, Kanban, cellular manufacturing, design for manufacture, kaizen etc
Lean thinking and the tools associated with it have been used for decades all over the world by every type of business.  There is a standard approach to implementation of Lean thinking.

If you have a top management team who understand the concepts and a workforce who embrace the culture then Lean will transform your business.

So what is Lean Six Sigma?

As stated above Lean and Six Sigma when used together will provide a business improvement methodology which combines tools from both Lean Enterprise (Manufacturing) and Six Sigma.  Lean eliminates the waste in your processes, while Six Sigma ensures quality through the elimination of variation in your processes and also provides a structured data driven structure to solve problems and implement sustainable change into your business. 

Why is there even a debate about which one you should use?

For some reason two camps have emerged one supporting Lean and the other Six Sigma.  Lots of it is childish my way is better than yours and some of is lack of knowledge.  Either way what you find is that both approaches use each others tools anyway.  So the whole thing is stupid.  As with any business improvement you should use the best tool for the job no matter what it is or where it has come from.  You should be constantly seeking out new tools, methods, applications and methodologies to satisfy your customer and business needs by eliminating waste and improving quality.  That is why we always train, consult and coach in Lean Six Sigma but bring in anything else we know. That is why we don't mind your calling your improvement initiative whatever you like and that is why we get results.