Integrating Lean and Six Sigma for both continuous and rapid improvement

Lean Six Sigma & Process Improvement Summit
Amsterdam – 27th October 2008


The first day of the 4th Annual Lean Six Sigma & Process Improvement Summit was given over to workshops. The first of these looked at the integration of Lean and Six Sigma, and was delivered by John Morgan and Martin Brenig-Jones of Catalyst Consulting.

With 30 attendees, it was the most popular IQPC workshop ever with very positive feedback from the participants. The workshop had originally been run at IQPC's London event in April, where again it proved to be the best rated workshop of the conference.

John and Martin demonstrated the natural synergy created by merging Lean and Six Sigma through a series of practical exercises and case study videos. They also demonstrated the potential opportunity for organisations to use rapid improvement events to achieve real returns quickly, both in terms of customer satisfaction and the bottom-line.

Catalyst has badged this approach Kai Sigma, a name that reflects the link to continuous improvement (Kaizen) with the use of DMAIC (the improvement method commonly used in Six Sigma). Integration of Lean and Six Sigma is covered in a forthcoming book which John and Martin have been commissioned to write by Wiley Publishing in the famous ‘Dummies’ series: ‘Lean Six Sigma for Dummies’.

One of the exercises highlighted that a number of relatively simple tools and techniques are commonly used by organisations, but the more statistical tools, including, for example, DoE, Hypothesis Tests and Multiple Regression, are rarely used.

Discussion within the workshop also highlighted how some Black Belts found it difficult to remember exactly how to use these tools when eventually they needed to.

The need for revision training seemed to link well with Catalyst's new product 'The Business Improvement Zone' which includes on-line support to practitioners through a set of web based Black Belt video modules.

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