Tushar N. Desai

Dr. R. L. Shrivastava

Abstract

The last two decades have witnessed an increased pressure from customers and competitors for greater value from their purchase whether based on quality, faster delivery, or lower cost (or combination of these) in both manufacturing and service sectors. The intense competition in the current marketplace has forced industrialfirms to reexamine their methods of carrying out manufacturing activities. This has encouraged many industries to adopt advanced quality management philosophies like either Six Sigma (as a process improvement and problem solving approach) or Lean manufacturing (for improving speed to respond to customer needs and overall cost) as part of management strategy to increase the market share and maximize profit. Lean and Six Sigma are two widely acknowledged business process improvement strategies available to organizations today for achieving dramatic results in cost, quality and time by focusing on process performance. Lean and Six Sigma practitioners are integrating these two strategies into a more powerful and integrated approach that is Lean Six Sigma', addressing many of the weaknesses and retaining strengths of each strategy. The Lean Six Sigma framework provides a synergistic approach to integratingthe concepts and tools ofLean enterprise and Six Sigma. This paper makes some critical examinations relating to comparison of Six Sigma with Lean Management and provides a direction for integrating them into the planning, design and implementation framework to enhance their effectiveness and business performance. The comprehensive set oftools, techniques and principles that can be employed in the integrated approach of Lean and Six Sigma business strategies are described. The integrated approach of Six Sigma and lean strategy will offer a complete, holistic approach to moving the business forward on the road to achieve the best competitive position. The disciplined, structured and systematic methodology of Six Sigma combined with the speed and agility of lean will produce greater solutions in the search for business andoperations excellence.

Keywords- Lean Management, Six Sigma, Lean Sigma Synergy, Business Performance