Lean production was immortalized by Womack, Jones and Roos in their seminal analysis of Japanese manufacturing, "The Machine that Changed the World".
In subsequent decades its key tenets - the elimination of bottlenecks and a relentless focus on process flow and automation - have been adopted worldwide.
A separate pillar of quality management came to prominence in the mid-1980s under the auspices of Motorola and General Electric.
This was Six Sigma, popularised by Jack Welch and GE and adopted by a wide range of leading global companies.
Six Sigma started with the statistical concept of the normal distribution (or bell curve) and designed a quality methodology to deliver stable, repeatable and consistently accurate processes.
The standard of quality demanded was breathtakingly high, with the Six Sigma defect rate of 3.
4 per million opportunities equating to a single spelling error in an entire small library of books.
While such quality levels were possible in precision engineering environments, they proved to be frustratingly elusive for many business processes due to the level of human dependency required.
Yet the lens of the DMAIC process (that is, Define, Measure, Analyse, Measure, Improve and Control) proved to be highly capable of lifting process performance in factories, offices and call centres alike.
The only missing element was the systemic vision of "lean" - the focus on flow, on time, and on the holistic business environment.
Lean Six Sigma attempts to fuse the best insights of both quality disciplines.
There are many natural overlaps and lean principles can be easily incorporated into a DMAIC framework.
Both are essentially customer focused, with the Critical to Quality requirement as determined by the end-consumer representing the start and end point of both systems.
Both lean and Six Sigma have a profound aversion to waste, which lean production identified in the seven classic forms of over-production, inventory, conveyance, correction, motion, processing and waiting.
The "hidden factory" of unnecessary rework which Six Sigma relentlessly targets is of course one of the most egregious forms of waste in any organisation.
Lean Six Sigma is ideally equipped for process mapping the flow and identifying process bottlenecks.
According to Goldratt's Theory of Constraints, production can then be optimized up to the level of the bottleneck.
Then comes the more arduous - and rewarding - task of eliminating the bottleneck itself.
The core strength of Six Sigma is its ability to focus like a magnifying glass on any problem, and so it is the ideal weapon to hit this target.
There has always been considerable usage of lean concepts, such as root cause analysis and the "Five Whys", in Six Sigma DMAIC projects.
The Ishikawa or fish-bone diagram used to identify causes and effects is of course a classic lean concept and the starting point for many a Green Belt project.
A more formal integration of lean concepts such as poka-yoke (simple solutions) within the DMAIC or Design for Six Sigma framework is no radical step.
The famous "visual factory" that lean production advocates can be easily incorporated into a Six Sigma quality, with Yamazumi Charts and "kanban" signals built in seamlessly as control devices.
Lean thinking also adds a relentless focus on time.
Indeed the concept of Takt time, or beat time (net available time per day divided by customer demand per day) is a novel concept in classic Six Sigma.
It furthermore applies a strategic and holistic process perspective.
For example, many core benefits of lean thinking, such as supplier parks co-located with plants, or installing flexible production cells, are above and beyond the scope and budget of ordinary Black Belt projects.
Meanwhile, the core genius of Six Sigma - its relentless focus through its relentless focus on stable and repeatable process excellence - remains undiminished.
Lean Six Sigma is a highly effective business combination and the marriage of the two process disciplines promises to be a long and fruitful one.
In subsequent decades its key tenets - the elimination of bottlenecks and a relentless focus on process flow and automation - have been adopted worldwide.
A separate pillar of quality management came to prominence in the mid-1980s under the auspices of Motorola and General Electric.
This was Six Sigma, popularised by Jack Welch and GE and adopted by a wide range of leading global companies.
Six Sigma started with the statistical concept of the normal distribution (or bell curve) and designed a quality methodology to deliver stable, repeatable and consistently accurate processes.
The standard of quality demanded was breathtakingly high, with the Six Sigma defect rate of 3.
4 per million opportunities equating to a single spelling error in an entire small library of books.
While such quality levels were possible in precision engineering environments, they proved to be frustratingly elusive for many business processes due to the level of human dependency required.
Yet the lens of the DMAIC process (that is, Define, Measure, Analyse, Measure, Improve and Control) proved to be highly capable of lifting process performance in factories, offices and call centres alike.
The only missing element was the systemic vision of "lean" - the focus on flow, on time, and on the holistic business environment.
Lean Six Sigma attempts to fuse the best insights of both quality disciplines.
There are many natural overlaps and lean principles can be easily incorporated into a DMAIC framework.
Both are essentially customer focused, with the Critical to Quality requirement as determined by the end-consumer representing the start and end point of both systems.
Both lean and Six Sigma have a profound aversion to waste, which lean production identified in the seven classic forms of over-production, inventory, conveyance, correction, motion, processing and waiting.
The "hidden factory" of unnecessary rework which Six Sigma relentlessly targets is of course one of the most egregious forms of waste in any organisation.
Lean Six Sigma is ideally equipped for process mapping the flow and identifying process bottlenecks.
According to Goldratt's Theory of Constraints, production can then be optimized up to the level of the bottleneck.
Then comes the more arduous - and rewarding - task of eliminating the bottleneck itself.
The core strength of Six Sigma is its ability to focus like a magnifying glass on any problem, and so it is the ideal weapon to hit this target.
There has always been considerable usage of lean concepts, such as root cause analysis and the "Five Whys", in Six Sigma DMAIC projects.
The Ishikawa or fish-bone diagram used to identify causes and effects is of course a classic lean concept and the starting point for many a Green Belt project.
A more formal integration of lean concepts such as poka-yoke (simple solutions) within the DMAIC or Design for Six Sigma framework is no radical step.
The famous "visual factory" that lean production advocates can be easily incorporated into a Six Sigma quality, with Yamazumi Charts and "kanban" signals built in seamlessly as control devices.
Lean thinking also adds a relentless focus on time.
Indeed the concept of Takt time, or beat time (net available time per day divided by customer demand per day) is a novel concept in classic Six Sigma.
It furthermore applies a strategic and holistic process perspective.
For example, many core benefits of lean thinking, such as supplier parks co-located with plants, or installing flexible production cells, are above and beyond the scope and budget of ordinary Black Belt projects.
Meanwhile, the core genius of Six Sigma - its relentless focus through its relentless focus on stable and repeatable process excellence - remains undiminished.
Lean Six Sigma is a highly effective business combination and the marriage of the two process disciplines promises to be a long and fruitful one.