Prepare for your Lean Six Sigma certification exam by understanding the fundamental combination of Lean and Six Sigma. Learn how Lean’s waste reduction and Six Sigma’s defect reduction principles merge to create a powerful process improvement methodology for your organization.
Table of Contents
Question
What combination defines Lean Six Sigma?
A. Lean plus Six Sigma
B. Lean plus Balanced Scorecard
C. Lean plus Just Do It
D. Lean plus DFSS
Answer
A. Lean plus Six Sigma
Explanation
Lean reduces waste while Six Sigma reduces defects.
The Lean Component: Eliminating Waste
Lean is a systematic method for waste minimization within a manufacturing or service system without sacrificing productivity. Originating from the Toyota Production System, its primary goal is to maximize customer value while minimizing activities that do not add value. These non-value-added activities are categorized as the eight wastes, often remembered by the acronym DOWNTIME:
- Defects: Products or services that are out of specification and require resources to correct.
- Overproduction: Producing more, sooner, or faster than is required by the next process.
- Waiting: Idle time created when materials, information, people, or equipment are not ready.
- Non-Utilized Talent: Underutilizing people’s skills, talents, and creativity.
- Transportation: Unnecessary movement of products and materials.
- Inventory: Excess products and materials that are not being processed.
- Motion: Unnecessary movement by people (e.g., walking, lifting, reaching).
- Extra-Processing: Performing any activity that is not necessary to produce a functioning product or service.
The Six Sigma Component: Reducing Defects
Six Sigma is a disciplined, statistical-based, data-driven approach and continuous improvement methodology for eliminating defects in any process. Developed by Motorola, its objective is to reduce process variation to the point where there are no more than 3.4 defects per million opportunities (DPMO). It achieves this through a structured project-based framework, most commonly DMAIC (Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, Control) for existing processes. By using statistical tools, Six Sigma identifies the root causes of defects and implements solutions to create predictable, high-quality results.
Synergistic Combination
Lean Six Sigma is the integration of these two methodologies. Lean provides the tools to improve process speed and efficiency by eliminating waste, while Six Sigma provides the analytical rigor to solve complex problems and reduce variation. When combined, they create a comprehensive methodology that improves processes to be both efficient and effective. Lean addresses the flow and waste in a process, and Six Sigma ensures the quality and consistency of that process, leading to improved customer satisfaction, reduced costs, and a better bottom line.
Analysis of Incorrect Options
B. Lean plus Balanced Scorecard: The Balanced Scorecard is a strategic planning and management system used to align business activities to the vision and strategy of the organization. It is a performance measurement tool, not a process improvement methodology like Lean or Six Sigma.
C. Lean plus Just Do It: “Just Do It” refers to an unstructured, informal approach to problem-solving, which is contrary to the highly structured, data-driven nature of both Lean and Six Sigma.
D. Lean plus DFSS: DFSS, or Design for Six Sigma, is a specific application within the Six Sigma framework used for designing new products or processes from scratch. While related, it is a subset of the Six Sigma toolkit and does not represent the entirety of the methodology that is combined with Lean for process improvement.
Lean Six Sigma: Define, Analyze & Improve certification exam assessment practice question and answer (Q&A) dump including multiple choice questions (MCQ) and objective type questions, with detail explanation and reference available free, helpful to pass the Lean Six Sigma: Define, Analyze & Improve exam and earn Lean Six Sigma: Define, Analyze & Improve certificate.