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What Are the Core Principles of Lean Six Sigma vs. Its Barriers?
Understand the key components of Lean Six Sigma for your certification exam. Learn why customer-focused improvement, waste reduction, and defect prevention are essential, and why organizational politics is a significant barrier, not a principle of the methodology.
Question
Which of the following is NOT a key component of Lean Six Sigma?
A. Customer-focused improvement
B. Waste reduction
C. Increasing organizational politics
D. Defect prevention
Answer
C. Increasing organizational politics
Explanation
Politics is unrelated to Lean Six Sigma. Lean Six Sigma is a methodology focused on process improvement through data and collaboration; organizational politics is a cultural barrier that is fundamentally incompatible with its principles.
Core Components of Lean Six Sigma
Lean Six Sigma is built on a foundation of specific, interconnected principles designed to enhance value and eliminate inefficiency. The other options listed are all essential pillars of this methodology.
A. Customer-focused improvement: This is the starting point for all Lean Six Sigma projects. The methodology is driven by the Voice of the Customer (VOC), which ensures that all improvement efforts are directly linked to what the customer values. The goal is to enhance satisfaction by improving quality, delivery, and price from the customer’s perspective.
B. Waste reduction: This is the primary contribution of the “Lean” aspect of Lean Six Sigma. It involves systematically identifying and eliminating the eight types of waste (Muda) from processes to improve speed, efficiency, and flow.
D. Defect prevention: This is the core focus of the “Six Sigma” component. Using a data-driven, statistical approach, Six Sigma aims to reduce process variation to prevent defects from occurring, striving for a quality level of no more than 3.4 defects per million opportunities (DPMO).
Why Organizational Politics Is Not a Component
Organizational politics refers to the use of power and social networking within an organization to achieve personal or group advantages, often without regard to the effect on the company as a whole. This is directly contrary to the philosophy of Lean Six Sigma, which demands:
- Data-Driven Decisions: Decisions are based on objective data and statistical analysis, not on opinions, influence, or personal agendas.
- Transparency: Processes and performance data are made visible to all stakeholders to facilitate open and honest problem-solving.
- Collaboration: Success requires cross-functional teamwork where individuals work together toward a common, data-verified goal.
Increasing organizational politics undermines this required culture of trust and objectivity, creating resistance to change, fostering blame instead of solutions, and leading to decisions that are not in the best interest of the customer or the process. It is a major reason why Lean Six Sigma initiatives fail, making it a barrier to be overcome, not a component to be increased.
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.