Lean Six Sigma

Concept

A process improvement approach that combines lean, which removes waste and speeds up flow, with Six Sigma, which reduces variation and defects using data and the DMAIC steps.

Description

Lean Six Sigma combines two improvement approaches. Lean focuses on removing waste and speeding up flow. Six Sigma focuses on reducing variation and defects, using data and statistics. Together they address both the time a process takes and the quality it delivers.

Projects often follow the DMAIC steps of Six Sigma: define, measure, analyse, improve and control. Lean tools such as value stream mapping help to find where to look, and Six Sigma tools help to prove the cause and check the result. Many companies train staff in belts, such as green belt and black belt, to lead projects. The two approaches overlap, so the practical question is which tool fits the problem at hand.

Related topics in brief

• iFAKT GmbH · Related to · Organization
  Stuttgart-based consulting company and software specialist for Industry 4.0, founded in 2001, that helps manufacturers plan and optimize production and logistics processes; developer of the Polaris software.
• Lean management · Related to · Concept
  A management approach derived from the Toyota Production System that creates more value for customers with fewer resources by removing waste, improving flow and involving the people who do the work in continuous improvement.
• Continuous improvement · Related to · Concept
  An ongoing effort to improve products, services or processes incrementally over time; applied here to cloud operations where monitoring signals trigger funded, owned actions.
• Operational excellence · Related to · Concept
  A management discipline that aims to make a company's operations reliably efficient and customer-focused through shared principles, standard routines, performance measures and continuous improvement at every level.
• Operational excellence manager · Related to · Job / role
  Builds and runs the operational excellence programme of a company or site, with standards, routines, performance measures and improvement projects.

Glossary

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Experts on related topics

• Mirko Peters · via iFAKT GmbH

Maintained by Mirko Peters (Microsoft MVP) · Last updated: 2026-11-11