Business process improvement - Lean and Six Sigma

Until recently, the concept of lean working was largely confined to commercial companies. However, with the potential business benefits now widely acknowledged, public sector organisations are adopting both Lean and Six Sigma techniques to deliver efficiency and improve service.

Lean working provides a set of tools and techniques designed to reduce and eliminate waste or "non-value" activity in any given process. Improving a process can lead to significant efficiencies and service improvements. There are five principles that underpin the use of Lean:

• Specify value in the eyes of the customer.
• Identify the value stream and eliminate waste.
• Increase performance and capacity by creating a continuous flow of "value-add" activities.
• Involve and empower employees.
• Continuously improve in the pursuit of perfection.

Lean is seen as an attractive option for many organisations because start-up is relatively easy, skills can be transferred to staff (making it an accessible tool as part of the improvement agenda) and the benefits are significant in terms of improved performance and efficiency.

Amtec adopts the DMAIC approach, which is underpinned by a number of best practice tools. This approach is applied systematically to the core processes of any organisation:

• Defines (what are the value added processes?)
• Measures (what is the cost of input and the results achieved?)
• Analyses (what are the opportunities for improvement?)
• Improves (what projects will lead to improvement?)
• Controls (how do we realise the benefits and continuously improve?)

Six Sigma is also focused on process improvement, but tends to be data-driven and is concerned with eliminating defects in the process. By comparison, Lean is more visual and more aligned to mapping core processes as a means of identifying value and, in particular, non-value aspects of any given process. Unlike Lean, there is a formal accreditation of Six Sigma professionals rising from Yellow Belt to Master Black Belt.

Ideally, a process improvement project would use the tools available from both disciplines and this is Amtec's preferred approach. There is increasing convergence between the two techniques, with the concept of Lean Sigma fast becoming the adopted term used by clients and practitioners alike. Don't get taken in by jargon - both are tools to support performance improvement and in Amtec's experience (and the documented case studies of others) do so to good effect.