From the course: Process Improvement Foundations

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Looking briefly at Lean and Six Sigma

Looking briefly at Lean and Six Sigma

From the course: Process Improvement Foundations

Looking briefly at Lean and Six Sigma

- A lot of the things I've been discussing in this course are parts of what are known as Lean Thinking and Six Sigma. I feel a bit of love and hate for these, because they contain lots of good ideas, but as programs I think they have some difficulties. Six Sigma doesn't really contain anything new, it's really about training your senior managers in known quality improvement techniques like SPC, quality circles, and some of the other things I've been covering on this course. The difference is that it's not the quality department, it's your senior managers, who are seconded onto the Six Sigma projects, and who drive it. I like that idea, although I can see some problems with persuading them to give up their jobs for a couple of years to join a quality improvement program. Six Sigma has recently combined itself with Lean to give it extra weight, and Lean does indeed include lots of great ideas. Again, I've been covering my…

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