With a Six Sigma or Lean Six Sigma certification, you can now embark on a professional journey in both operations and quality management. But how are you going to choose a specific one between these two options? Check out this article from tip to toe, and you can gain solid insights about Six Sigma vs. Lean Six Sigma. Let’s delve deeper without any further ado.
A brief on Six Sigma
What do you understand by Six Sigma? It is a set of various practices or project management methodologies that eliminates defects or waste from the developing or existing process. Thanks to this data-driven approach, decreasing process variation, and increasing performance are as smooth as a cakewalk. Six Sigma enables you to improve the quality of services and products and employee morale.
Six Sigma involves two different methods- DMADV (Define, Measure, Analyze, Design, and Verify) and DMAIC (Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, and Control). Some of the levels of Six Sigma typically include green belt, yellow belt, master black belt, and black belt. Let’s take a quick look at the key principles of Six Sigma stated below in this article:
- ‘Customer is the king’- you must focus on your loyal clientele.
- It allows you to measure the value stream and identify a particular problem.
- Get rid of the junk.
- Ensure a responsive and flexible ecosystem
- Keep the ball rolling.
Now, let’s pave the way toward learning the Six Sigma techniques:
- Brainstorming
- The five whys of Root Cause Analysis
- Voice of the customer
- The 5 S system
- Kaizen
- Benchmarking
- Mistake proofing/ Poka-yoke
- Value stream mapping
Some of the Six Sigma tools typically include:
- Flow Chart
- Cause and Effect Analysis
- Histogram
- Pareto Chart
- Scatter Plot
- Check Sheet
- Control Chart
As a Six Sigma professional, you will get the amazing scope of exploring these job opportunities:
- Six Sigma Analyst
- Six Sigma Consultant
- Six Sigma Black Belt
- Functional Project Lead
- Director of Operational Excellence
- Six Sigma Projects Manager
- Business Process Manager
- Senior Project Manager
- Project Manager/ Lead Analyst
Let’s pave the way toward grabbing knowledge about the benefits of Six Sigma certification:
- Customer loyalty or customer satisfaction
- Workforce motivation
- Waste from the process and eradication of variation
- Advancement in career
- Effective time management
- Builds leadership skills
- Paves the way toward opting for a healthy company culture
- Strategic planning
- Reduce the legal risk of the company
A brief on Lean Six Sigma:
The Fusion of Lean and Six Sigma is called Lean Six Sigma. It is a team-focused managerial approach that focuses on eliminating waste procedures and improving organizational performance. Apart from that, Lean Six Sigma appreciates the stakeholder’s role in the success of every project. It is a modern technology that typically pays attention to both quality and speed. The organizational structure of Lean Six Sigma includes Green Belt, Yellow Belt, Black Belt, and Master Black Belt. Similar to Six Sigma, Lean Six Sigma uses the DMAIC approach as well.
Let’s check out the different types of tools that are used in Lean Six Sigma:
- SIPOC
- Stakeholder analysis
- VOC or Voice of the customer
- Data collection plan
- The cause-effect matrix
- Pareto chart
- Fishbone diagram
- Scatter plots
- Mistake proofing
- Regression analysis
- Project management
- Testing of hypothesis
- Standard operating procedures
- Statistical process control
- Visual management
Check out the job opportunities that you can crack after completing the Lean Six Sigma certification:
- Six Sigma Consultant
- Process Engineer
- Manufacturing Engineer
- Continuous Improvement Specialist
- Quality Engineer
- Operational Excellence Manager
- Industrial Engineer
- Mechanical Engineer
- Reliability Engineer
- Project Manager
Some of the benefits of Lean Six Sigma certification include the following:
- You can gain real-world experience
- Assist companies in boosting profitability
- Grab more job opportunities
- Increases company efficiency
- You can evolve as an influencer and leader
- Lean Six Sigma allows you to build effective teams
- You can improve your office environment and culture
- Lean Six Sigma teaches you to streamline systems and process
- Reduce errors and mistakes
- Take a step toward gaining global industry recognition
- Become more innovative and analytical
- Build critical thinking skills
- Master problem-solving qualities
Difference between Lean Six Sigma and Six Sigma
While Six Sigma is a program, Lean Six Sigma is an amalgamation of program and philosophy.
- Lean Six Sigma typically emphasizes speeding up the procedure and eliminating waste. The different types of waste include- overproduction, waiting, rework, overprocessing, motion, intellect, inventory, and unnecessary. On the other hand, Six Sigma focuses on the loyal customer and the end product.
- If you don’t possess any expertise in this field, opting for Lean Six Sigma will indeed be your best bet. On the other hand, if you have dealt with quality improvement projects, you can consider enrolling yourself in the Six Sigma Green Belt.
- Lean principles are used by organizations and teams with an approach to creating more value for the customers. Complex environments involving risks require Six Sigma methodologies. It can be implemented in various areas such as manufacturing, engineering, customer service, marketing/sales, plant operations, etc.
Roles and responsibilities of a Six Sigma and Lean Six Sigma Professional
Go through the responsibilities and roles of these professional experts:
- They prepare plans for the enterprise
- Focus on mentoring teams
- Strive hard to generate desired results
- Remove roadblocks and execute the project
- Team and project structuring
- Guide project resources
- Share best practices
- Execute projects
Which is better- Six Sigma and Lean Six Sigma:
To be honest, both of these methodologies are extremely crucial. While figuring out the best one among these two options, you need to depend on your requirements. Are you looking forward to reducing risk and variability in a complicated environment? If yes, Six Sigma can serve your purpose. On the other hand, if your company needs an ongoing, simple methodology, you can rely on Lean Six Sigma with your eyes closed.
It will direct improvement and innovation in the best possible manner. To develop a better understanding, you can check out this YouTube video at a quick glance:
Hopefully, you are aware of both Six Sigma and Lean Six Sigma. By achieving certification in this area, you can enjoy an average salary of RS 2,74,589.
