Page 15 - Lean six sigma demystified

xiv LEAN SIX SIGMA DeMYSTiFieD

Whenever I say Lean Six Sigma, people’s eyes automatically glaze over as
visions of complex statistical formulas dance in their heads. If you feel this way,
you’re not alone. I have found that many people have a phobia of anything
resembling math or technology. Sometimes both. Let me set your fears to
rest.
First, Lean Six Sigma is a mindset for solving specific business problems. Lean
Six Sigma offers some essential methods and tools that you can learn and apply
without ever having to do a single calculation. Lean Six Sigma involves simple
insights about how to look at your business that will transform how you sim-
plify and streamline it for maximum productivity and profitability. In other
words, once you learn how to look at your business through these filters of Lean
Six Sigma perception, you’ll never be stumped for ways to become better,
faster, cheaper, more productive, and more profitable.
Second, you can apply the methods and tools of Lean without any technol-
ogy other than Post-it notes and a flip chart. And aggressive applications of the
3-57 rule can take you a long way toward the kinds of speed and quality that
your customers demand.
Third, once you learn how to use the 4-50 rule of Six Sigma, you’ll always
be able to laser-focus your improvement efforts for maximum benefit with
minimum effort. This book will cover the bare-bones, essential methods and
tools you need to know to start making breakthrough improvements. Lean Six
Sigma is first a mindset for problem solving and then a set of methods and tools
to support that mindset.
Now for the bad news: Most businesses, while profitable, are barely three
sigma in performance. This means that every step in your process has a 1% to
3% to 6% error rate. Add these up across any business and you get a 6% to 12%

to 18% error rate that devours 25% to 40% of your total expenses and slashes
profit margins; that’s up to $4 million out of a $10 million business. Using Lean
Six Sigma you can cut these costs of poor quality to 5% or less while doubling
productivity and profitability and tripling growth.
To get to four or five sigma levels of performance, you’re going to want to
learn how to use the essential tools of Lean Six Sigma. You’ll want to learn how
to use a few key statistical and graphical tools to improve your business, and
more importantly, to sustain the improvement. A handful of tools will take you
from three to five sigma in as little as 24 months. To go from five to six sigma
will require more advanced tools discussed in the latter part of this book—
Design for Lean Six Sigma.