Why Should I Learn Six Sigma Processes?
An alternate form of Six Sigma Training is Lean Six Sigma. Although it is an altered form it has many of its own capacities, and knowing the differences can add to your quality improvement projects, more then you may think possible. Although the basis fundamentals of Six Sigma are still evident in Lean, there are a few additions that set it apart.
Lean Six Sigma focuses on eight elements of waste, or work that doesn’t add value to an organization or company. It has been found that many places that eliminate these wasteful areas can actually improve quality with just that elimination alone. The following is a list of the wastes according to the Lean process, along with examples of what each one alludes to:
-Wasted human talent: this includes people who don’t have a specific job function within the process or are simply slowing down the process with their presence.
-Defects: This can be products or processes that are not right. These obviously need solutions to fix them before they can be eliminated.
-Inventory: This refers to an over sized “To Do” list of work. You never want to have to much product waiting to be worked on. A doctors office, for example, does not want to have to many patients in the waiting room at one time.
-Overproduction: You never want to have to much of something before it is needed. This can get in the way of a well-organized operation.
-Wasted Time: The amount of time that is spent waiting for a product. Any down time should be spent on needed areas of various activities or process. For example, you should never have five employees just standing around waiting for a supply truck to arrive, instead find other areas that they can be useful while they wait.
-Motion: When you are moving people around and it is not necessary to do so. An example of this would be, when a clinic send a patient that has an appointment to triage. Instead the patient should be going straight to the exam room.
-Transportation: Ineffective transportation that moves people and products can be wasteful when it isn’t needed. Imagine a warehouse using a forklift to deliver items across the factory to a truck, when the production line could be streamlined to deliver right into the truck off of the line.
-Process Waste: Things that have to be done, but don’t add value to the process, product, or service at hand. For example, a bank manager has to process a lot of paperwork, but this doesn’t help customers or increase the banks ability to serve those customers in most cases.
By utilizing Lean Six Sigma and understanding the areas of waste, you are sure to improve the quailty of the product that is produced by you company.
Create the most of your business skills with six sigma training. Getting green belt six sigma will benefit yourself in addition to your business. To learn more check out www.sixsigmaonline.org.