Welcome to the Lean Six Sigma Experts of Colorado
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Companies and businesses need to worry not only about achieving results but also about how efficient and effective is the method they use for it. This is why most companies in Colorado evaluate and go for the option of integrating Lean Six Sigma into their processes.
Lean Six Sigma (LSS) is a methodology based on two process improvement methods: Lean and Six Sigma. Although it is not new but rather has been around for several years, not all companies know about it nor understand how it can truly change their future.
To put it simple words—for now—, Lean 6 Sigma helps companies to have more efficient, productive, and faster processes by reducing waste and eliminating defects and variations.
Most companies in Colorado and around the world, focus on improving constantly by investing more and trying to work around their current processes. But what they do not know is that approaching them with a problem-solving method is much more useful than focusing on adding more to processes that are not well-established in the first place.
Lean Six Sigma shares this ideal of problem-solving and allows companies to not only identify the problem and solve them momentarily but also, find the sources and guarantee they do not continue affecting them. However, the methodology is not as simple as it seems at first.
There is a lot involved in reaching the point where you—the company or business—will be able to obtain products that satisfy the customers by following the methodology. Which is the main objective of all companies that decide to implement it: achieve customer satisfaction. To reach this point, you have to understand your processes, company’s needs, and set goals that are realistic in the short and long term.
But before even that, understanding and knowing every detail about Lean Six Sigma and how it can be implemented will be the first step to take. At Lean Six Sigma Experts of Colorado, we can give you an introduction to the LSS world, provide you with training in different levels, or help you implement the methodology in your business.
In this way, you will be able to implement it in your company and improve your processes continuously. Or, you can decide to build a career as an individual that is around Lean 6 Sigma and the skills you obtain when learning about the methodology.
What Lean Six Sigma Means
As we mentioned before, Lean Six Sigma is a methodology that comes from the other two methods, Lean and Six Sigma. Each one of these methods has a different approach and steps when it comes to achieving process improvement.
Lean 6 Sigma takes both of them and uses the basics and principles in being able to improve processes by reducing waste, eliminating variations and defects, but also addressing problems and finding them in the first place. When you implement it in a company, you will be able to eliminate all aspects that difficult or prevent you from obtaining the products that will satisfy your clients.
At the same time, you will not spend as many resources as usual since you aim to optimize the processes and consider two important aspects: quality and speed. But without having to use more resources than you are investing now but rather less. Now, what does Lean 6 Sigma take from Lean and Six Sigma in specific?
Lean is the part of the methodology that focuses on eliminating and reducing waste to optimize processes and deliver valuable products to the customers. But what is considered “waste” in Lean? Anything that delays obtaining the final products, their delivery, and makes your company spend more than it should or can afford:
- Defects.
- Excess processing.
- Overproduction.
- Waiting time.
- Inventory.
- Transportation.
- Motion.
- Non-utilized talent.
Six Sigma, on the other hand, is focused on analyzing metrics and data to improve quality within the company. It has a special focus on eliminating defects but mostly variations to guarantee there is almost a perfect production. The main goal for 6 Sigma is to have 3,4 errors or defects every 1 million.
To understand this, let’s think about your company manufacturing a million lamps, but while doing it, you have to discard 100 because they do not meet customer satisfaction or specific requirements. The Six Sigma method wants to reduce this number and make a company obtain the products without any defects. For this, it is the part of Lean Six Sigma that has a problem-solving focus.
But besides finding the problems, their sources, and solving them, it also looks to prevent them. When you unify them as Lean Six Sigma, you obtain a methodology that is much more potent and focused on process improvement by considering both necessary and crucial approaches.
What Are The 5 Lean Six Sigma Principles?
When learning and trying to implement Lean 6 Sigma, you will notice there is a lot to consider. It is not only about the waste, defects, variations, and problems but also about your processes and the company overall. Therefore, learning, understanding, and interpreting the 5 Lean Six Sigma principles is a good and necessary start.
At Lean Six Sigma Experts of Colorado, we focus on teaching and training any person and professional interested in the methodology the principles before anything else. In this way, you can have a great concept and understand how it can be implemented in a company later on, regardless of the type and size of the business. Either if you choose to implement it in your organization or are aiming to obtain the skills to consider it for other companies, you will have the same principles present for it:
When learning about Lean Six Sigma, you will be introduced to all the tools used to achieve process improvement. The Value Stream Map is a tool that comes from the Lean method and helps you to analyze the influx of information and materials used within the production process. It aims to let companies know and understand all the processes involved in obtaining the final products. In this way, the waste and problems within production can be identified and addressed properly while also achieving the desired improvement. After all, you must know your processes before even trying to improve them in the first place. With your Value Stream Map made, you will work towards determining the problems in the processes—as we mentioned before. Focus on each step of the process and production to determine the main problems first and then, the secondary ones. Once this is done, only focus on finding solutions for them. The “problems” we are mentioning are more focused on the defects and errors within your processes. You can start by identifying the steps that usually cause many errors to obtain the products or lead to variations and therefore, spending more resources and time. While working on your problems with the Value Stream Map, you will also be able to observe the waste in each step. When you have a very defined map of each process, you can notice what is extra, what is essential, and what you should definitely reduce or eliminate. As a follow-up of the previous principle, you will aim to get rid of the waste previously mentioned while explaining Lean Six Sigma and determine the valuable steps and the ones that are not. This will eliminate everything that creates even more waste and makes the company go through more processes than necessary. To reduce variation, taking different steps will be necessary: If you want Lean Six Sigma to work and achieve the desired results within a company, the entire team involved in the task should know and understand Lean Six Sigma. Within a business, there should be a team dedicated to LSS alone and with everyone fulfilling a role. Also, keep in mind its implementation is a huge change in any type of business no matter its size. Therefore, it is necessary to have good communication with everyone involved in its implementation and between all the employees and people in the company. This methodology comes with many changes that will not be easily taken in any business or organization. Therefore, it is important to create a culture of flexibility and change within the team and company overall. This will make the implementation process easier but, more importantly, create a continuous improvement culture, which is one of the final goals when following LSS.
2. Understand how processes work
3. Remove waste and reduce variation
4. Communicate clearly with your employees or team
5. Create the Lean Six Sigma culture, flexibility, and change
Where to Learn Lean Six Sigma?
Although it is possible to learn and understand what the methodology is and how it works, implementing it properly is another story. This is why proper formation and training are required for any company that wants to include it within its methods of process improvement. But also necessary for individuals that want to add Lean 6 Sigma to their aptitudes and skills.
Here at Lean Six Sigma Experts of Colorado, we can deliver 6 Sigma training and help you go through each level of the methodology. But before focusing on how you can access our training and learn from our experts, are you aware of who needs and can learn Lean 6 Sigma?
Companies, institutions, entities, organizations, and businesses need to implement LSS, which is why those will be the ones who need to work around it. However, who needs and can learn it is different. Organizations choose to train their employees or a part of them to build an LSS team within the business. In this way, they are able to build the Lean 6 Sigma culture, implement the methodology, and obtain the desired results.
Therefore, it is fair to say that workers from any company no matter its size and type can go for the Lean Six Sigma training and be experts on it. But, professionals, individuals, and people overall can also learn it if they wish for it. After all, anyone is welcome to understand and learn all the skills that come with LSS to get prepared for its implementation. Also, it helps individuals to have more discipline, be more organized, and build a career around the methodology alone.
In our company, we give the opportunity to either companies’ employees who need to get trained but also to those who wish to add Lean 6 Sigma to their curriculums and lives. You can contact us anytime and our team will be ready to provide you with Lean Six Sigma training, certifications, and extra services that include delivering advice and implementing the method in your business if necessary.
What Are the Lean Six Sigma Belts?
When you build an LSS team in your company, you will not have one or two people implementing the methodology alone. Or if you are a particular deciding to get trained, you will have to go through different levels to guarantee you can handle different tasks and roles within the team and company.
But instead of levels, Lean 6 Six Sigma belts are the ones that identify them. Each belt determines the level of understanding and training of the LSS expert but also his or her role in the team. You will find several sources that add or remove different belts from the explanation. However, the main ones are the yellow, green, and black belt, which are the ones we offer in our company.
LSS Yellow Belt
During this level, we focus on teaching the basics of Lean 6 Sigma. Its terminology, how it works and can be implemented, how Lean and Six Sigma work separately, and how a person can grow and build a career from it.
Or how a company can implement it to obtain process improvement results while optimizing other aspects. When you finish this level and get certified, you will have a small role in reporting process issues, measuring the actions taken in LSS projects and how effective they are.
LSS Green Belt
You will learn how to implement the methodology in any company or organization and start and manage Lean Six Sigma projects. You have a bigger role in the team since you have to handle part of the projects in all the areas involved: value stream map, identify problems, solve them, reduce waste, and more.
Also, you will be prepared to provide training to yellow belts and offer the basic knowledge and understanding they need.
LSS Black Belt
During this level, we will aim to build a professional and expert that has a complete understanding of Lean 6 Sigma, knows how to implement it and build projects from zero, starts and manages them, and can be the leader of the entire team within the company.
When reaching this training and then certification, you must have experience in the previous levels and advanced Lean Six Sigma expertise. Your roles go from being a leader to coach and mentor other members of the team.
When to Use Lean Six Sigma
The methodology can be implemented in any company and organization regardless of its size and type. Therefore, there is no such thing as a limitation about who can use it but, is it the same with “when”? As useful and crucial as it is, not all companies need Lean Six Sigma for their process improvement objective.
Instead, many decide to implement it based on the results they have obtained with others and if there is positive change with a small project based on LSS. However, a more accurate answer would be: it can be used anytime. Organizations that have problems managing their processes and have a lot of waste to eliminate as well as defects and variations, certainly need to use it sooner and do not consider it too much.
After all, it is necessary to have it implemented before waste increases and the defects and variations are harder to control. Now, companies that have well-established and defined processes can decide to implement Lean Six Sigma to achieve better results. If they have processes with minimal variations, they might be able to reduce or eliminate even more by using Lean Six Sigma.
This needs to be determined by an expert in the method based on the company’s goal, assets, processes, and needs. To do so, companies can either choose to have their employees trained on it, but it can lead to using more resources than necessary for an evaluation. This is when hiring an expert—particular—in Lean Six Sigma is a better option.
At Lean Six Sigma Experts of Colorado, we can provide you with consulting services and implementation, which means our professionals can assess your business and determine if LSS should be used or not. And if so, we can handle the implementation and train your workers to guarantee there is a proper team around the method that will maintain and improve the results.
Our experts are well-versed in LSS and can handle different roles depending on what is necessary for your company. Now, if you are a person looking to understand when you should use it when a client hires you, this is something you will learn during our training.
Lean Six Sigma Belt Training & Certifications Near You
Along with our in-time training, we will provide you with the certification for any of the previous belts. You can choose to have our team at Lean Six Sigma Experts of Colorado training you according to your level or even provide a small introduction and explanation of LSS alone. And receive a certification based on the belt training you receive or level of preparation.
However, Lean 6 Sigma certifications are available for any employee or particular who has gotten trained as well. This means you can apply for the exam for one of the previous belts and demonstrate your understanding and interpretation of the methodology. Once passed, we will provide the certification in no time.
We offer our services throughout the state of Colorado, which means you can rely on us for your training, certification, and extra services, regardless of your location and city. Let us know in what Lean Six Sigma belt you need to get certified or if you have to start a new training to opt for it in the future. Our 6 Sigma certifications are available online as well as our training and courses.
This includes all the Lean Six Sigma levels and services we offer in addition to certifications and training:
- Lean Six Sigma Consulting.
- Lean Six Sigma Implementation.
- Lean Six Sigma for High School Students.
Allow our experts to know what you are aiming for or if you need our assistance to determine the best service for the results you are trying to obtain. Keep in mind 6 Sigma is a methodology that will take time to learn and during your training, you will gain the required experience to grow in the field. Therefore, all we ask is some patient and discipline more for you than us, and we assure you will have excellent results for your company or personal life once including it in either of them.
There are so many areas or regions where we offer these services with most of them being cities.
However, if you need any of these services, you need to contact us. The list below comprises the areas where we offer these services.