Questions & Answers about lean production
What is the difference between Lean and Sex Sigma?
Lean and Six Sigma are two different methods of improvement work. Simplified, it can be said that Lean focuses on minimizing waste, while Six Sigma accents reducing variations and defects.
Lean is a concept based on Toyota Production Systems (TPS) principles for more efficient production, while Six Sigma was developed by Motorola. The name Six Sigma comes from mathematics, where the Greek letter σ (sigma) is used to denote the population standard deviation. The word six comes from choosing exactly six standard deviations as the goal. Within Six Sigma there are also a number of levels that you can reach; the fewer percentage defects the higher the level.
Lean, or lean production, has an even greater focus on logistics and flows. The starting point for this concept is that organizations and companies waste resources and that it is therefore important to implement processes that lead to rationalization of the organizational structure. It is considered important to identify the components that do not provide a final value to the customer and then eliminate them. They want to increase profitability by creating more value for less work.
To get the most out of these philosophies, many companies have started using them in parallel under the name Lean Six Sigma. The method is based on improving performance by reducing both waste and variations. Simplified, it can be said that Lean, through its focus on flow, reveals sources of variation in all its forms within the process, while Sex Sigma aims to reduce this variation. The idea with Lean Six Sigma is to save money but at the same time increase the quality of the end product.
