5 Lean Mean Benefits of Lean Six Sigma

American Lebanese Syrian Associated Charities (ALSAC), the fundraising and awareness organization for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital was one of the first to implement Lean Six Sigma in Memphis.  ALSAC’s sole mission is to raise the funds and awareness necessary to operate and maintain St. Jude.  ALSAC is the largest healthcare related charity in the United States to implement the Six Sigma philosophy at the grassroots level,  through their incorporation of the Lean Six Sigma philosophy ALSAC decreased the donor-processing time by involving coordinators, supervisors, specialists, data entry employees and front line employees.

Businesses have been using the Six Sigma concept since Motorola developed it in the 1980’s.  Faced with plunging market share and soaring expenses due to product failures, Motorola’s executives set out to achieve tenfold reduction in defects within five years.  Their primary goal was to boost customer satisfaction and profitability by careful analysis and correction of root problems.  The Greek letter Sigma denotes variation from a standard; in order for an organization to achieve Six Sigma, it can not produce more that 3.4 defects per million opportunities.  Six Sigma projects are carried out by Yellow Belts and Green Belts, who are overseen by Black Belts.  These leaders are trained in a thorough understanding of the principles behind Six Sigma;  they direct and motivate teams to apply the principles and effect change.

Since Motorola launched the Six Sigma concept in the 1980’s, several Memphis organizations, in addition to, ALSAC, have incorporated Lean Six Sigma methodology within their workforce and they include both large and small Memphis organizations, such as,  Smith & Nephew, FedEx Trade Networks, Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare, Siemens,  Jordan Aluminum Extrusion, National Guard Products, Q Source, Regional One Health, Buckman Laboratories,  and Medtronic.

5 Lean Mean Benefits of Lean Six Sigma

The Lean Six Sigma’s platform operates on what its creators call “DMAIC”, which stands for Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, and Control.  In a nutshell, using the Lean Six Sigma program helps businesses identify and define problems, measure and map out the process in place, pinpoint the cause of the problem or problems, implement and test the solution(s), and finally, maintain the correction(s) made.

So what are the top benefits/reasons why companies should invest in Lean Six Sigma training for their employees?  I am listing five upsides of incorporating Lean Six Sigma into your business or organization:

1. Improves Processes

Are you tired of losing business due to poor process strategies?  Lean Six Sigma has been proven to improve business processes from the inside out, stream-ling those processes to increase efficiency and enabling your business to sell, manufacture, and provide services faster and more cost-effective.

2. Increases Revenue

Streamlining production and enabling systems and employees to operate at a higher capacity in less time will help you increase revenue.

3. Lowers Costs

By improving processes helps keep production costs, data processing colst, and delivery costs down.  Most businesses save anywhere from thousands to hundreds of thousands of dollars depending on the Lean Six Sigma’s Project size.

4. Improves Workplace Synergy

With the Lean Six Sigma program, employees through teamwork play an active role in improving the business inside and out by gaining a better understanding of how their individual roles in the business work as well as how to operate within those roles at their utmost potential.  Lean Six Sigma also provides more transparency for every level in a business , so everyone has a clear picture of their part of a larger goal.

5. Increases Efficiency

Lean Six Sigma is designed to take your processes from mediocre to excellent by eliminating waste and implementing strategies that work.

Through the Mid-South Quality Productivity Center (MSQPC) which is a Partnership between the Greater Memphis Chamber and Southwest Tennessee Community College and a Center of Excellence for the Tennessee Board of Regents (TBR),  Lean Six Sigma is presented to Memphis and Mid-South Organizations.  MSQPC offers in-house management consulting and tries to bring the best global practices into Memphis.  Through the efforts of the Lean Six Sigma Institute that was founded eight years ago by MSQPC and is known as the Memphis Lean Six Sigma Institute (MLSSI).

MLSSI offers a combined curriculum of Yellow – Green – and Black Belt Certification training over a 16 week period.  The combined class meets once per week on Tuesday evenings from 5:30 pm till 8:30 pm.  The class is designed to train participants in Lean Six Sigma concepts, philosophy, and methodology, over 16 weeks, while simultaneously having them complete work on their Lean Six Sigma Projects back at their worksite.  To our knowledge we are the only Lean Six Sigma Institute in the country that has a training model like ours.  We refer to it as the “Memphis Model”.  To become certified from MLSSI each participant has to pass an extensive exam and to also present a Lean Six Sigma Project that has incorporated all of the knowledge received at the Institute.   

A new Lean Six Sigma Class is scheduled to begin on October 1, 2019 to receive further details on the class please contact Kendra Kea by phone at 543-3528 and/or email at kkea@memphischamber.com.  In addition, please visit our website at msqpc.com.