Lean Six Sigma is a system designed to bring efficient and effective change within your organisation. Regardless of the size of your business, improvements can be made to improve performance and minimise waste. We work with small, medium and large organisations to bring about measurable and consistent improvements to streamline processes and increase your profit margin. This has a ripple effect throughout your business and will create sustainable positive change for your employees, suppliers and customers.

How Does Lean Six Sigma Work?

Lean Six Sigma is a combination of the two operating principles, Lean and Six Sigma. By bringing the two together in your organisation, you create a perpetual motion where they feed off each other to bring about greater and greater improvement.

Lean

Lean is a process by which you successfully identify waste and eliminate it. It is “lean” in the sense it minimises the resources required to achieve maximum customer satisfaction. It is a systematic approach to simplify processes and designs

. It eliminates waste so that every part of the process adds value to the customer.

Six-Sigma

Six-Sigma is a business management philosophy designed to maximise performance and minimise cost. To achieve Six-Sigma performance, it is necessary to reduce variation when following processes. It’s a structured approach to identifying the root causes of over-expenditure in maintaining quality. By doing this, we are able to predict outputs, reduce waste and lower operating costs, all with improved customer satisfaction.

How Can You Improve Business Performance?

Through the implementation of Lean Six Sigma, you will see a reduction in costs, improved efficiency and greater customer satisfaction. This is done through:

• Reliable Quality – Right first time every time.
• Dependable Deliveries – On-time deliveries to schedule and to promise.
• Strong Competitiveness – Continuous price reduction.

This is achieved by firstly dividing activities into the “three divisions of work‟:

• Value-Adding – Activities directly contributing to serving the customer. e.g. a component or service.
• Non Value Adding – Necessary but not directly impacting the customer. e.g administration or accounting activities.
• Waste – Activities that do not serve the customer and are unnecessary e.g. loss of time or manufacturing waste.

The benefit lies in reducing waste. If you do not become leaner in the way you deliver products and services, the market price will eventually fall below your total costs and you risk going out of business. The waste that we manage every day is costly, hides opportunities for quality improvement and reduces our responsiveness and flexibility.

This will have a roll-on effect for your workforce; improving work/life balance, job satisfaction and morale. Many corporations are implementing Lean Six Sigma internally while also making it a requirement for their partners and suppliers. By incorporating Lean Six Sigma, you will open doors to doing business with this community of organisations. If able to partner with these organisations, you will see a cultural shift that reaches across your business network, further engraining the Lean Six Sigma principles within your organisation. You can read more about Lean and Six-Sigma if you’d like to learn more.

Is This Adaptable To Your Business?

Yes. A commitment by senior management is the most significant requirement when implementing any change and once this is obtained, the process of applying the Lean Six-Sigma business model is one of planning, training and doing. Through Thornley Groups training and support network, you will learn to implement these principles in a way that is tailored to your organisation. Contact Thornley Group today to learn more and get your business on the path to unprecedented success.