A “Skinny” Approach to Lean 6 Sigma

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Understanding and selecting the right project management approach can make or break a technology implementation. Depending on your depth of experience, you may have encountered any number of disciplines over your career with potentially varied success. No doubt you have experienced the “Six Sigma” program. What is interesting today is that there are now evolved approaches to the original program that make it more accessible and practical for more situations. To understand how this “Skinny” approach works, it is helpful to take a look at the evolution of Six Sigma. 

Most of us have heard of or participated in some version of Six Sigma programs. The version most of us know today is a 2000’s hybrid of the two approaches “Lean” and “Six Sigma” or “Lean Six Sigma” and when it was introduced, it was hailed by consultants across Corporate America as the next “transformative” idea. Here’s how it all started. 

The “Lean” approach to frontline- based continuous improvement and resource management comes from post-World War II Toyota Corporation where Taiichi Ohno and Shigeo Shingo set out to overhaul the company’s production system. Their “Lean” approach was designed to drive production efficiencies that would make Toyota a world-wide automotive brand.   

Several decades later, in the late 1980’s, Mikel Harry of Motorola Corporation expanded on the Lean approach by focusing on manufacturing variability, quality and customer satisfaction.  He named his approach “Six Sigma”.  

The Lean Six Sigma approach born of the earlier work at Toyota and Motorola required sweeping organizational changes, continuous improvement Infrastructure and cultural mandates. While very effective and truly transformative for those companies that rolled it out, not all could implement, let alone sustain, the necessary changes.   

Companies not ready or able to commit to an entire culture of continuous improvement could still have benefitted from a “skinny” approach to Lean Six Sigma.   

Seemingly redundant, the term Skinny Lean adopts some of the fundamental concepts of the production system without the pain and suffering (and expense) of a cultural over-haul. These concepts include: Voice of the Customer, Efficient Work-Flow Infrastructure, Standard Work, Daily Huddles and Problem Solving.  

The most important input when setting business goals and objectives comes from your customers.  Effort spent on things that will not meet your customers’ needs is a waste of time and resources. Many businesses must consider multiple customers.  For example, a Financial Services Company needs to also consider regulators, advisors and end-clients as customers.  Proper feedback-loops are vital when faced with complex and sometimes diverse customer needs. The information they provide is critical to setting and maintaining a strategy for a successful enterprise.   

There’s an adage that says: “If you can’t see it, you can’t fix it”.  A very practical and intuitive sentiment. But what about when you don’t know what you don’t know? Without the right work-flow system, the chances of seeing problems, never mind fixing them, are greatly reduced.  An effective system provides real-time transparency and the granular metrics necessary to monitor, track and continuously improve operations.  It also gives you the ability to create and amend work-flows as often as necessary. The key to leveraging this system is to effectively mine and interpret the data as it relates to your business.  

Anyone who’s ever used a navigation app. knows there are many ways to get where you want to go.  The difference between routes usually comes down to time and the quality of the drive. The same principles apply to any operational procedure. The first step to developing a consistent approach to any task is to identify the most efficient and repeatable work processes. This ‘standard work” is the foundation for bringing your operations to the next level.  When implemented, this approach will dramatically improve efficiency and quality. It can also provide a template for future training and development.  

Empowerment of employees to identify and act upon improvement opportunities is the hallmark of a Lean approach. Replacing staff meetings with Huddles and Problem-Solving sessions can be among the most impactful things a Leadership Team can roll out.  This seemingly simple change can also be a cultural challenge.   

If you want to implement a Skinny Lean approach to change in your organization, it’s important that you understand and evaluate all the concepts discussed above. GreenLine Consultants is a team of seasoned, successful financial services professionals that brings decades of experience helping multi-billion-dollar corporations succeed to every client challenge. We collaborate with teams to evaluate the impact of change including customer and associate experience, operations, ongoing costs and maintenance, implementation costs, and risk. That means you can be confident that you are making informed decisions that will best move your business forward.