In our last post, we discussed how you could use Waterfall and Agile methodologies in your projects. In this post, let’s dive headfirst to understand what are Lean and Six Sigma Methodologies.

Lean

Because it originated in the manufacturing world, Lean methodology is also known as Lean Manufacturing. The elimination of waste within an operation is the main principle of Lean methodology. Add value at each production stage by optimising process steps and eliminating waste.

Today’s Lean Manufacturing methodology identifies eight types of waste in operation: defects, excess processing, overproduction, waiting, inventory, transportation, motion, and underutilised talent. These sorts of waste are typically related to problems in the industrial business, including as: 

• Lack of proper documentation
• Lack of process standards
• Not understanding the customers’ needs
• Lack of effective communication
• Lack of process control
• Inefficient process design
• Failures of management

In project management, the same issues cause waste. Utilise Lean project management when you want to make the most of limited resources, reduce waste, and streamline procedures.

Lean 5S

You can accomplish this by utilising the Lean 5S quality tool’s pillars. The five pillars of good housekeeping are known as 5S.: sort, arrange, shine, standardise, and sustain. Implementing the 5S method entails cleaning and organising the workplace to waste as little time and material as possible. These are the five steps of the 5S method.: 

1. Sort: Remove all items not required for current production operations and leave only the bare necessities. 
2. Set in order: Arrange necessary items so that they are easily accessible. Label items so that they can be found and stored by anyone. 
3. Shine: Keep everything in its proper place. Every day, clean your workspace.
4. Standardise: Every time, follow the same procedure.
5. Sustain: Make it a habit to follow proper procedures and instil this discipline in your team.

5S is a Lean methodology tool that helps you improve performance.

The final Lean concept employs a Kanban scheduling system to manage production. The Kanban scheduling system, also known as the Kanban board, is a visual tool that allows you to optimise the flow of your team’s work. It provides the team with a visual representation of what they need to do and when. The Kanban board uses cards moved from left to right to show progress and help your team coordinate work.

Kanban boards and 5S are essential components of the Lean methodology. They can assist you in successfully managing your project. Let us now examine the Six Sigma method and determine when it is most appropriate to employ it.

Six Sigma

Six Sigma is a methodology for reducing variation by consistently following quality processes. The term “Six Sigma” comes from statistics and generally means that items or processes should have a quality of 99.9996 percent.

Six Sigma’s seven guiding principles are as follows:

1. Always keep the customer in mind.
2. Determine and understand how to complete the work.
3. Make your processes flow smoothly.
4. Reduce waste and concentrate on value.
5. Stop defects by removing variation.
6. Involve and collaborate with your team.
7. Approach improvement activity in a systematic way.

Use this methodology to identify measurable aspects of a product or process, such as time, cost, or quantity. After that, examine the measurable item, and reject any products that do not meet the Six Sigma standard. Any process that produces unacceptable results must be improved.

Now that you know what Lean and Six Sigma are, let’s look at how they can work together to improve your project’s performance!

Lean Six Sigma 

After implementing both Lean and Six Sigma, the two methodologies (Lean and Six Sigma Methodologies) were discovered to be compatible and could be combined to maximise benefits. Lean tools, such as Kanban boards and 5S, instil quality in processes from the start. Inspect lean-method products using Six Sigma standards. Reject the products that do not meet these requirements. 

The primary distinction between these methodologies is that Lean streamlines processes. In contrast, Six Sigma reduces product variation by incorporating quality from the start and inspecting products to meet quality standards. You may discover that using one of these two methods—or both Lean and Six Sigma methodologies to improve the efficiency of your projects.

Benefits of Lean Six Sigma

Lean Six Sigma methodology is commonly used in projects to save money, improve quality, and move through processes quickly. It also emphasises teamwork, which fosters a positive work environment. When your team feels valued, motivation and productivity increase and the entire process runs more smoothly.

There are five stages to the Lean Six Sigma methodology. They are:

1. Define
2. Measure
3. Analyse 
4. Improve
5. Control

They are also known as DMAIC. DMAIC is a process improvement strategy. You’re attempting to identify the problems in the current process and how to resolve them so that everything runs more smoothly. Each step’s goal is to ensure the best possible results for your project. There are more specific details for using DMAIC and the Lean Six Sigma approach, just as for Waterfall and Agile.

The DMAIC process, on the other hand, can be used to solve any business problem. Let’s dissect it.

Define

The first stage is establishing the project goal and the procedures necessary to attain it. This first phase is very similar to traditional project management’s initiation phase. Let’s look at a real-world example. Assume you’ve been hired as a project manager by a prominent travel company. To help streamline and reduce customer service wait times, increasing due to a recent sales promotion.

Before working on the problem, you must define the project goal and discuss project expectations with stakeholders. In this case, the goal is to reduce average wait times from 30 minutes to less than 10 minutes. 

Measure

It’s now time to assess how well the current process is working. DMAIC focuses on data to improve operations. You want to map out the current strategy and pinpoint precisely where the problems are and their effect on the process. Using our example, you’re trying to figure out why the travel company takes so long to resolve a customer service issue.

You examine company data such as average wait times, daily customer count, and seasonal variations. Then you’ll devise a strategy for gathering that data and measuring it regularly. A strategy could include having the company generate weekly, monthly, and quarterly reports. In other cases, you may have employees or customers complete surveys or examine inventory, shipping, and tracking records, among other things.

Analyse

Once the data and measurements are collected, you can proceed to the next phase, which is analysis. You’ll start to notice gaps and issues here. In our example, after mapping out the process and data points, you may see that staffing is insufficient on the busiest days.

Regardless of the method used, data analysis is critical for project managers. You’ll have a strong understanding of causes and solutions from your data to move on to the next stage and improve.

Often, project managers want to jump right to this phase. But, it would help if you only undertook process improvement projects after careful consideration.

Improve

The improve stage is where you present your findings and prepare to begin making improvements. In our example, this could mean adjusting staffing to meet customer demands.

Control

Control is the final step in this cycle. You’ve gotten the process and project to a good point; now it’s time to put it into action and keep it there. Controlling entails learning from your initial efforts. To establish new processes, paperwork, and monitoring to ensure that the organisation does not revert to the old, inefficient way of doing things.

To summarise, DMAIC indicates what to measure; measure indicates what to analyse, analyse indicates what to improve, and improve indicates what to control. DMAIC and Lean Six Sigma approaches are suitable when the project goal is to improve the current process. To fix complicated or high-risk problems like enhancing sales and conversions or eliminating a bottleneck when things get backed up throughout a process.

Benefits of DMAIC

Following the DMAIC process prevents the likelihood of skipping essential steps and increases the chances of a successful project. As a way for your team to discover best practices that your client can use going forward, it uses data. It focuses on the customer or end-user to solve problems in a way that builds on previous learning so that you can discover effective permanent solutions for complex problems. 

Many ways break the flow of project management into digestible phrases and approaches. The goal is to accomplish the desired outcome as smoothly as possible and deliver the best value. As we discussed in our earlier post, some companies may follow many different approaches.

How do companies use a hybrid approach to project management?

For instance, an engineering team releasing a customer-focused product may primarily use Agile when creating the product. But they might decide to plug in some of the aspects of Waterfall project management for planning and documentation. A customer service team might focus on using Lean and Six Sigma Methodologies to improve an experience for our users by offering new features based on a recent analysis. But the team might develop parts of the code and roll out the components using Agile iterations and sprints to allow for change. Or one of the internal education and training teams may focus solely on Waterfall project management. To achieve a targeted goal of having all employees complete an annual compliance training. Here, waterfall methodology makes sense when there is a fixed training program requirement, deadline, and goal. 

Key Takeaways

The biggest takeaway is knowing the various methods and tools to apply what works best for you, your team, and the end goal. There is no accurate prescription for executing a project flawlessly because there are always pieces you can’t 100 percent control. But the good news is that you can get pretty close to the skillsets you develop through learning about these different frameworks.