Pierre Pellerin, Associate Director, Kairos Management

Six Sigma
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Six Sigma is a management and performance-enhancement system based on the utilization of data. Initiated by Motorola in the 1980s, popularized by General Electric in the 1990s, Six Sigma has been adopted by every sector of the economy since the early 2000s. Today increasingly combined with Lean, Six Sigma is a source of profitability growth, reducing errors and variation in processes and improving the quality of the products and services delivered to the customer.

At the heart of the Six Sigma approach is the DMAIC (Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, Control) problem-solving methodology. It is implemented in five phases in a project mode and offers a flexible but rigorous management structure:

DMAIC methodology applies the principles of Six Sigma. It is based on the observation of real situations and the use of substantiated data: it thus allows one to objectively study performance and facilitates decision-making.

Analyses carried out with Six Sigma distinguish themselves by the fact that, even if opinions of experts are taken into account, they nonetheless have to be backed up by the facts. To determine the real causes of a problem, we thus use a combination of research tools aimed at causes (Five “Whys?” – Ishikawa Diagram – Failure Modes and Effects and Criticality Analysis) and statistical analysis (ANOVA – Regression – Control Charts). The research for and proof of a cause-and-effect relationship will thus guarantee that a solution appropriate to the problem is put in place.

 Lean
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Lean comprises a group of practices that came out of the Toyota Production system and were popularized by the Americans Womack and Jones in their book The Machine That Changed the World (1991).

More than a methodology, Lean is a manufacturing philosophy based on a certain number of techniques. The principal techniques are:

> Heijunka: “level-smooth” manufacturing programs with a view to stabilize production.
> Kanban: implement “pulled” production manufacturing flows in order to reduce stocks.
> Jidoka: detect anomalies and halt manufacturing above all to avoid production of faulty parts.
> Poka-Yoke: reduce risk of assembly or connection error.
> Kaizen: carry out small, simple improvements, in teams and continuously.

The goal of Lean is to fundamentally reduce the response time to customer demand by eliminating waste.

Its implementation is based on the 14 principles of “Lean Management,” among which the following are particularly important:

> Determine the value of each job from the client’s point of view.
> Standardize practices and visualize disparities.
> Have on-the-ground personnel observe the situation.
> Eliminate waste and organize production “to the minimum.”
> Encourage colleagues to resolve problems as soon as they arise.
> Shoot for perfection and not simply being better than the competition.

Describing how operational processes work – mapping – rarely reflects the way things really are: the absence of visibility of errors, expectations, supplies (or any other form of time- or resource-wasting) prevents the implementation of corrective action or improvement projects.

Putting the above principles into effect requires analytical and enhancement tools. Certain are more directly applicable to the industrial environments in which they originated (Takt, SMED, TPM), others can be applied within transactional or service environments (VSM, 5S, Poka-Yoke).

Just like Six Sigma, Lean can be put in place in project mode and then takes from Six Sigma the DMAIC structure.