Mass Lean Manufacturing Certification and Six Sigma Training | Training

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Businesses are clamoring to get as many employees trained as six sigma green and black belts as possible. Others are training people with lean manufacturing certification. A few companies are beginning to combine both skills through lean six sigma training.

The skills of six sigma and lean manufacturing have been delivering huge bottom line improvements to organizations with the commitment to sustain the initiatives.

The pundits thought these methodologies would be another fad of the day and go by the wayside within a few years. However, just the opposite has happened, as small and large firms have found the concepts make sense to seek out opportunities and find solutions.

So, what are these disciplines? What is so special about them? To answer these often asked questions, they are simply improvement methodologies that use various concepts or tools to solve business problems or “opportunities”.

Lean manufacturing is often called “common sense manufacturing”, but it isn’t always common. It is simply a matter of providing the customer what they want (and no more), and producing it without any waste (called “muda” in Japanese) in a lead time that is constantly reduced.

The lean manufacturing method uses a concept called value stream mapping to identify the waste. It is simply a graphic picture of the various material and information flows from raw material to shipment. Distances, process rates, inventories, setup times, and other pertinent information is noted, allowing the “waste” to stand out when viewing. For example, when a product is transported 6 times over 4500 feet in a factory, and 8 reports are completed along the way, the “waste” which the customer does not value becomes obvious. In this example, is the customer willing to pay an extra 14 minutes of labor because 3 different fork lift drivers had to move product over 3 days? Certainly not. They only want the product.

Six sigma takes a more methodical approach to the improvement initiative. For example, a health care company may be trying to reduce medical costs. Through some detailed methods and statistical analysis, they may determine to provide “preventive” care at no cost. However, they wouldn’t want to give away preventive care without a payback.

The six sigma method uses a model with the acronym DMAIC (Define-Measure-Analyze-Improve-Control). A single six sigma project could take several months to complete when complex systems must be analyzed in detail to form, implement, and control improvement.

It is often most beneficial to combine both methods under the term lean six sigma. Some projects will require six sigma tools to solve, while others may only require lean manufacturing tools. Some projects will need both to provide the best and maximum improvement possible.

In summary, the reason these tools are being used is because they work. They work in extremely complex systems as well as simple one or two process service or manufacturing businesses.

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BPR is the leader insix sigma certification and lean manufacturing certification

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