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There are two internationally revered business approaches that, when combined, can offer any company exemplary, tangible improvements and benefits. They are two intensely disciplined approaches that identify and aggressively eliminate wasteful actions, steps and activities that are neither productive nor profitable. The two approaches are the Lean Principles of Manufacturing and Six Sigma. Combined into Lean Six Sigma, they offer Herculean results.
Lean and Six Sigma are proven, quantifiable methods for improving a company's productivity process. Lean equals speed and efficiency; Six Sigma equates to precision and accuracy. Merged together, they offer the exceptional speed and impact of Lean plus Six Sigma's notable quality control and variation reduction.
By integrating Lean's notable speed for removing unnecessary activities from production lines with Six Sigma's renowned success for reducing the average time to complete a project from months or more to mere weeks, companies reach their goals faster. The overriding result of this high-powered, seamless, single-process combination known as Lean Six Sigma is that rapid improvements are achieved at low costs.
"The objective of training a company's personnel in Lean Six Sigma," said Thomas G. Phillips, Sr., executive director of the business resource center, Hudson Valley Technology Development Center in Fishkill, NY, "is to look at the total process of creating something - anything from manufacturing a product to billing - and applying the Lean and Six Sigma techniques to obtain the greatest results.
The goal is to have a process or methodology in place, plus a staff trained in using the right Lean Six Sigma tools, plus a group mindset focused on continually reducing cycle time and fixing problems that cost the...