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Soft systems approach for lean six sigma

Abstract:

In the last two decades, companies have made many efforts to remain competitive in the global market. Some of these efforts have been made through the implementation of initiatives, methodologies and techniques such as Lean and Six Sigma. Lean is a work philosophy where the main goal is the elimination of waste. On the other hand, Six Sigma is a methodology that aims to reduce variability and defects in the process. These two techniques have proved to be successfully implemented in many cases. However, when combining them together, some companies have struggled, resulting in ineffective and longer lean projects or six sigma light projects. This combination of Lean and Six Sigma should be treated as a system that aims to have lean processes and zero defects where everything has to be interconnected. Then, a systemic issue requires a systemic view, and one way to deal with it, is the systems methodology, particularly through the soft systems approach. This interpretative approach can be seen as a supportive technique to solve organizational problems with an undefined structure where a change is desirable. In this paper, the soft system approach is used to propose a conceptual and structural framework to combine Lean and Six Sigma in order to obtain the best of both sides where a function is improved without negatively affecting the performance of another function. This framework would help the leaders to address each problem with the right approach during the Lean Six Sigma deployment. Copyright, American Society for Engineering Management, 2012.