Learn Kaizen through specialized events
Posted by Taggart on October 8th, 2018
They may be different concepts but Lean Six Sigma and Kaizen have a lot in common. The underlying principle in both these methodologies is elimination of waste. The concepts were made popular in Japan and the USA before they took over the entire global business community. If you are going through your Lean Six Sigma training and certification, it is a good idea to look up the other concept - you will immediately see the connection.
Lean Six Sigma works on the concept of eliminating muda. Muda is a set of eight kinds of waste and needs to be removed if a manufacturing or other business process has to work successfully. Lean Six Sigma is about identifying the wastes that hamper with optimum productivity and eliminating them so that the variability is minimized. This concept is most popular in the manufacturing processes but it has been successful enough to be used in other business processes as well.
Someone who knows how the Six Sigma methodology works will have no issues comprehending Lean Six Sigma. The DMAIC process is common to both. In both the concepts, a project team is created to work on improving a business process. The project team does the root cause analysis and finds out the problems with the business process they are working on. The team then gets together to find solutions to the identified problems and implements the solutions. A close monitoring mechanism is put in place so that the process doesn't slip going forward.
It is obvious that one can only work on Six Sigma projects once they have gone through a formal training and certification process. Hence, for someone to make or prosper their career in Six Sigma, it is imperative that they go through Lean Six Sigma training and certification. Depending on the level of the program, everything related to Six Sigma will be covered, right from the fundamentals to the most complex concepts. There are also tools and techniques used in Six Sigma and these will also be covered during the training.
If you read about Kaizen, you will come to know that Lean Six Sigma was introduced in Motorola to counter the other concept, which was already in use in Japan to improve manufacturing processes. To know more about this Japanese way of process improvement, you should look to attend an event on the topic. It is best if you attend as part of your organization because you can get an outside perspective about the business process issues that you encounter. These events are hosted by some of the renowned master black belts in the country. The organizers of these events do a lot of homework before, during and after the events so that they are able to make the participants realize how Kaizen works in the real-world scenarios.
Business process improvement has a direct correlation with customer satisfaction and this is why it’s important that you invest in it. You can go for Lean or Kaizen and the outcome will be similar.
Gain knowledge and skills with Lean Six Sigma training. Also get to know about Kaizen by attending an event near you.
