What in the name of God is Lean six sigma anyway?

Irishder

Skidfingers wrote: »

What did you do the project on? What was the project like?



This help much appreciated!

For the Green Belt, that was about 10 years ago now, i had a look at reducing cycle time in one or our process's.

We basically used a "KanBan" to store material on the floor rather then the warehouse which meant the operators could take the material at point of use so there was not waiting or excessive motion and transportation. Simple idea but worked well.

For the project just think about doing a small improvement well that uses a couple of the tools

Skidfingers

Irishder wrote: »

For the Green Belt, that was about 10 years ago now, i had a look at reducing cycle time in one or our process's.

We basically used a "KanBan" to store material on the floor rather then the warehouse which meant the operators could take the material at point of use so there was not waiting or excessive motion and transportation. Simple idea but worked well.

For the project just think about doing a small improvement well that uses a couple of the tools

Will do thanks for the advice. Did you have to do an exam at the end also?

Irishder

Skidfingers wrote: »

Will do thanks for the advice. Did you have to do an exam at the end also?

No there was no exam as far as i can remember

Skidfingers

Irishder wrote: »

No there was no exam as far as i can remember

We're being told we've an exam. Much rather if there wasn't

MissShihTzu

I have a green belt, but hated the course, and have never used it. My employer knows I have one, and keeps making vague noises about asking me to take a black belt. To which I say 'HELL NO'!

I also have a PRINCE2 which might be FAR more useful.

Irishder

MissShihTzu wrote: »

I have a green belt, but hated the course, and have never used it. My employer knows I have one, and keeps making vague noises about asking me to take a black belt. To which I say 'HELL NO'!

I also have a PRINCE2 which might be FAR more useful.

Far more useful to you

Skidfingers

MissShihTzu wrote: »

I have a green belt, but hated the course, and have never used it. My employer knows I have one, and keeps making vague noises about asking me to take a black belt. To which I say 'HELL NO'!

I also have a PRINCE2 which might be FAR more useful.

What is a prince 2?

MissShihTzu

PRINCE2

BTW - there IS an exam for the Lean 6. IIRC, it was in 2 parts. I did mine at CIT.

MissShihTzu

Irishder wrote: »

Far more useful to you

Meaning?? I don't use either in my current role. But I know what I meant with regard to the poster. What did you mean?

Eduard Khil

Thread like this really is counterintuitive to the meaning

Lean Six Sigma is a method that relies on a collaborative team effort to improve performance by systematically removing waste and reducing variation. Wikipedia

The major issue is that it's considered a box ticking exercise and never followed through on or the company does "training" courses for everyone.

Places I've seen it work are where there are one or two people who's jobs are dedicated to continuous improvement and implement the applicable components to their lines, and rejecting the majority of it, which is morketing buzzword nonsense. With management buy in essential.

Forcing the "training" on everyone breeds resentment

Irishder

MissShihTzu wrote: »

I have a green belt, but hated the course, and have never used it. My employer knows I have one, and keeps making vague noises about asking me to take a black belt. To which I say 'HELL NO'!

I also have a PRINCE2 which might be FAR more useful.

You are stating PRINCE2 is far more useful then lean, that's a very general statement.

My point was PRINCE2 may be more useful to you.

Both are different and both are useful.

cee_jay

MissShihTzu wrote: »

I have a green belt, but hated the course, and have never used it. My employer knows I have one, and keeps making vague noises about asking me to take a black belt. To which I say 'HELL NO'!

I also have a PRINCE2 which might be FAR more useful.

They are very different - one is about making processes more efficient, the other about project management.
If it is useful or not depends on the circumstance, and the role you have.

JimmyCorkhill

I am looking to do a Lean Six Sigma Green Belt Cert of some sort.

I am currently in full time employment but want to upskill & do enjoy the process improvement side of things.

From reading online it really does seem there are lots of places doing the courses, all different prices, varying durations to deliver the course, different testing methods etc.

There is no official body from what I can see.

Can anyone recommend, based on their own experiences, of somewhere which will deliver the course to a high quality, preferably not too expensive & do it online and ideally over just a few months (3 months or so).

I checked Springboard & does not seem to be anywhere ideal in the near future.

Thanks

1874

Stovepipe wrote: »

Lean works very well in some manufacturing settings but it's a pain in the arse when your management tries to force it into an airline, which is not a manufacturer, in case anyone missed it. It's good for tool control, keeping things tidy and so on, but for running an airline, it's a waste of time.

Having started in aviation maintenance and working for a longtime in manufacturing, I think I can understand where you are coming from, but I'd tend to disagree. I wouldnt say I deal with this stuff directly but Im still in maintenance, I can see wasteful steps/tasks that are ingrained in people, some of the biggest downfalls in any workplace are laziness to even do basic tasks or do them right for task that are essential. I used to think there was only so much improvement that could be made, that said, I'm inclined to think there is less room for improvement in aviation, because in comparison to other organisations Ive worked in, the standard of training/background is higher/more similar for the type of work required and the work carried out to a better standard, whereas, Ive seen guys come straight out of college, thinking they are experts and would have no practical hands on experience in maintenance or troubleshooting, I often find myself thinking, this just would not ever happen with aircraft, but I keep my mouth shut, because they dont know, becuase they havent the background and dont care, and in a lot of cases it is just stuff that wont stop production.

Nelbert wrote: »

I’m not disputing the impact.

I’ve worked on some large scale projects moving towards EPR and some of the financial incentives in terms of realisable cost savings are extremely appealing. I’ve done full cost benefit analysis (with cost savings intentionally underestimated) and despite the scale of investment it does payback.

It requires significant upfront cost however and navigating a lot of vested interests.
My personal view is centralised funding from the HSE / DOH which is ringfenced will make EPR happen anything short of this will leave us in status quo.

Full disclosure; I work in a public hospital, I WISH we had an EPR (doing an MSc in Data Analytics so the opportunities it would open up for improvement and analysis is quite something!). But from previous jobs I can understand the mixture of political intervention, vested interests and unions preventing such a large investment. Ironically I think it will be a political intervention that ultimately leads to the ring fenced money that’s required to make it happen.

The efficiencies and analytical opportunities it would create would I feel have one of the most significant positive impacts on patient care in both acute and community care if done properly.

Basically the clinical secretary in OPD example having time wasted with physical charts is indeed a symptom of a significant systematic waste but it’s not something that could be solved within the confines of a lean project within the OPD in isolation..... it’s a massive transformational project for the entire organisation.

My workplace uses a what could be described as a CMMS, while I think its good in a maintenance arena, I am not completely convinced thats as suitable completely for medical records, it might reduce waste but that doesnt necessarily mean its better. Id really think someone that is an adherent of any Lean tool, should also have a background in the area they are trying to make change, because it is easy to gloss over very important concerns that affect real world situations.

Eduard Khil wrote: »

Thread like this really is counterintuitive to the meaning

Lean Six Sigma is a method that relies on a collaborative team effort to improve performance by systematically removing waste and reducing variation. Wikipedia

The biggest failure Ive experienced is outright laziness, and a business so busy falling over themselves trying to make improvements that they cant see, sometimes small changes can reap huge rewards, it depends on the type of work/business as to what can be achieved and the type of people in an organisation. Some places Ive worked in dont know about it and are hugely disorganized, others over do it and either waste time at it, dont follow through, change or remove useful tasks or throw everything out and think some new methods are just going to fix all ills.