New Business Book Summary Available for Innovating Lean Six Sigma

IPSWICH, Mass. - Nov. 18, 2016 - PRLog -- Lean Six Sigma is a process improvement methodology that has been used for many years. Some organizations have applied it successfully, while others have not. In Innovating Lean Six Sigma, Kimberly Watson-Hemphill and Kristine Nissen Bradley approach Lean Six Sigma as a journey that is unique to each organization. They offer suggestions about how to start a new project, rescue projects that are experiencing problems, and build Lean Six Sigma skills that will promote improved business results.

Regardless of their industry sectors, competitive organizations have one thing in common--a commitment to continuous improvement. Lean Six Sigma is a useful set of tools and frameworks to facilitate process and product improvement. However, each organization's Lean Six Sigma journey is unique. The following recommendations can help organizations use this methodology more effectively:

*To build a strong foundation for a Lean Six Sigma program, organizations must answer questions in four areas: why, what, how, and who.

*Leadership support is essential. Organizations need to engage business executives, cultivate sponsors among middle management, and develop deployment leaders and champions.

*Project decisions, as well as project management and evaluation, should be based on data. Outcome metrics fall into two categories: business and process metrics. The deployment champion serves as the metrics system owner.

*To get the best results from Lean Six Sigma, organizations must create and manage their project pipelines. This requires ideation, prioritization and selection, and preliminary chartering.

*Voice of the customer (VOC) activities form a useful foundation for Lean Six Sigma deployments. They help organization focus on customer experience rather than stated needs.

*Business process management helps organizations standardize, document, and control their Lean Six Sigma work and get process owners engaged in managing their own processes.

*Enterprise kaizen improvement projects are useful for solving broad problems that touch multiple parts of an organization and are effective at solving major problems in a short period of time.

*Hoshin planning aligns individual objectives with broader business goals. Other, more specialized tools include Shingo Maps, Design of Experiments, logistic regression, and TRIZ.

*When organizations design new products or processes from scratch, Design for Lean Six Sigma (DfLSS) is a good solution. It uses the DMEDI methodology (define, measure, explore, develop, and implement).

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