Welcome to the Lean Six Sigma Experts of Kansas
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Improving processes by reducing waste and eliminating variations is only possible with the proper integration of Lean Six Sigma into a company. For this, there are several steps companies need to follow in compliance with experts in the methodology.
Also, not all “experts” are a good fit for an organization since it is not only about knowledge but rather having experience in the field. Six Sigma can be implemented in any business and as a result, experts need to have some experience in dealing with several industries and working with a wide range of companies.
It is not mandatory to have an experienced Lean Six Sigma professional all the time, but having one or a few included within the company’s team to integrate the methodology is always the best decision. With that said, how can companies achieve results with Sigma if they need experts for the task?
Organizations tend to have 2 options when it comes to this: developing their own talent by training workers or hiring Lean Six Sigma consultants who can deliver fast and efficient results. In Kansas, many companies decide to go for the option of training their workers in order to build their own LSS team. And this option is quite viable when you consider the fact that Six Sigma will be continuous in the business along with all the projects based on it.
Now, there are many “but” when it comes to training, implementation, and any solution regarding Six Sigma. First, companies need to find reliable experts and teachers that can deliver the desired training for their employees. And once it is completed, provide the certification to demonstrate their understanding and compliance with the methodology.
Second, hiring consultants focuses on the same approach: you will need the right company for it. At Lean Six Sigma Experts of Kansas, we provide solutions to cover all LSS needs of companies but also people interested in learning about it. Our main focus is to provide Sigma training and guarantee anyone who completes it is able to take the exam and get certified soon after.
But companies that are looking for experts who can deliver results in no time can also rely on us. Before you decide on hiring our services or even investing in Six Sigma, we want to start by letting you know if you truly need it for your company—or your personal life.
What Does Lean Six Sigma Means?
It is a methodology that focuses on improving processes and performance by reducing or eliminating defects and waste.
The name actually comes from the combination of 2 process improvement methodologies: Lean and Six Sigma. Lean is the part that focuses on improving efficiency and effectiveness within processes by eliminating any type of waste. For this, it is crucial to understand the processes and get to know the problems that produce the waste and variations.
However, Lean does not have the focus of measuring or analyzing them but rather eliminating everything that just delays or makes the processes inefficient. With that said, what is considered to be “waste” when it comes to the Lean methodology? There is a total of 7 wastes that Lean includes in its standards:
- Defects: leaving them can result in poor quality control and reduce the production level, lack of proper documentation, among other issues.
- Overproduction: you do not want to produce more than you can afford but rather exactly what you need to satisfy your customer requirements.
- Waiting: not obtaining products and services on time will lead to more expenses and resources to be invested.
- Inventory: you do not need to purchase more than you need since inventory can be a form of waste due to the holding costs and if the items or materials continue to be valuable.
- Transportation: when you speed up the processes, you are able to reduce waiting and motion as well as costs. There should not be any form of step or transport that just causes more expenses.
- Motion: people, materials, and equipment are expensive and you need to use them efficiently.
- Non-utilized talent: you need workers in a company to perform their roles and use all their potential to complete tasks in order to guarantee you are using every single part of their talent to achieve the desired results and reduce the rest of the waste like waiting and defects.
But how can a company eliminate all this waste? As we mentioned before, it is necessary to know and understand the processes but also the entire production cycle. For this, Lean follows 5 key principles:
- Identify value: it is valuable if it meets your customers’ needs and requirements for a specific product. This includes the delivery time and other aspects besides quality and price.
- Value stream: if you have your value identified, you can start to map your production and all the processes that take to obtain the specific product in order to identify the waste and problems that need to be eliminated and solved.
- Flow: once removing all the waste, make sure the remaining processes are smooth and guaranteeing the results you were aiming for.
- Pull: when improving processes by removing waste and maintaining a flow, you can start to deliver products without having to manufacture them beforehand and establish a pull.
- Perfection: you need to integrate the methodology, not only focus on accomplishing the previous steps. Creating a Lean culture and reducing waste will be natural.
If Lean covers all these aspects and steps, why is Six Sigma necessary in this case? We did not forget about it but if you want to implement LSS or get trained in it, you must understand that there is more to it than a simple process improvement methodology as its concept. With Lean taking care of reducing waste, Six Sigma is aimed at the defects and variations in the processes.
“Variations” are all those steps that lead to a different result or product to what the customer needs. You do not want to obtain products that do not meet what your customers requested since it only causes the costs to increase and your company to fall behind in performance and satisfaction. The way Six Sigma addresses this is by executing 2 methodologies: DMAIC and DMADV.
DMAIC stands for define, measure, analyze, improve, and control.
- Define your customer needs, requirements, and project goals.
- Measure the current processes and their key aspects.
- Analyze data to identify the problems and variations.
- Improve processes based on the data collected and run tests to determine if the changes are effective.
- Control the changes and future projects to guarantee continuous improvement and eliminate all variations
Meanwhile, DMADV is not too mentioned among Lean Six Sigma experts but it is crucial to optimize new products and processes:
- Define customer and company goals.
- Measure characteristics that are critical for the quality of the products, the product capabilities, production process, and risks.
- Analyze data.
- Design new processes that adjust to Six Sigma based on the previous data.
- Verify the design and if processes perform as expected.
But What Is Lean Six Sigma After All This?
Since it is a combination of both Lean and Six Sigma, we can consider it to be the best of both worlds. But a deeper explanation will determine that Lean 6 Sigma is a process improvement methodology that focuses on both approaches at the same time: reduce waste but also eliminate variations. Now, LSS has a special focus on identifying problems, finding their root causes, and solving them.
Usually, people consider this is already included in Lean or Six Sigma but the goal is considered to be part of Lean Six Sigma itself. Having all these 3 aspects together is what helps organizations to achieve results not only efficiently but also in no time. Especially since LSS itself has 5 principles any company can follow:
- Work for the customer.
- Find problems and focus on them.
- Remove variations and bottlenecks.
- Improve communication, teamwork, and employee involvement.
- Flexibility and change.
How to Implement Lean 6 Sigma
Going back to how organizations can integrate the methodology, we will focus on both options: hiring or training. Lean Six Sigma training is available for any person be it a worker from a company or individual trying to learn about it. If you are indeed a company trying to work with Six Sigma, you will need to invest in different levels of training.
Sigma training is divided into belts—which are the levels in the methodology—and every expert that provides the service chooses to follow or offer specific ones.
At Lean Six Sigma Experts of Kansas, we work with the main 3 belts:
- Yellow belt.
- Green belt.
- Black belt.
Depending on the Six Sigma belt training to complete, the expert will have different roles and tasks within the team in the company. For an organization to implement the methodology and achieve process improvement, experts in all three belts are required, which is why full training is necessary in most cases and what takes time when developing talent.
On the other hand, Lean Six Sigma consultants are the efficient, fast, and best option if you want results in a matter of weeks. A 6 Sigma consultant takes care of controlling quality standards, reducing waste, using the right LSS tools, and guaranteeing the company starts projects that will benefit its processes. In general, he or she takes care of the entire integration of the methodology but can also deliver training if requested.
By knowing this, you have a decision to make as a company: do you need a consultant or to develop your own talent? For quick results, Lean Six Sigma consultants are the best alternative. But if you have time to train your workers and can afford to wait a few months, Lean Six Sigma training sounds just right.
Lean Six Sigma Training in Kansas
For organizations that make the decision to focus on training instead of hiring experts and talent, our Lean Six Sigma courses are available throughout the state. But they can also be accessed by individuals interested in starting a career in Six Sigma, developing new skills for personal and professional use, and bring more benefits to their lives.
Our training is available as an online course but also an in-person option. This means companies can have their employees getting trained during working hours or send them to our offices to get prepared with our experts. While people overall can access the option that suits their schedules the most. We previously mentioned that our experts deliver 3 types of training according to the main belts in the methodology: yellow, green, and black.
Our yellow belt training is about the basics, essentials, concepts, principles, and methods in Six Sigma so you are able to understand how it works and how it is implemented. The green belt training aims to prepare individuals to implement the methodology, work with the right tools, and start and manage projects within the team.
While the black belt is aimed at those that want to fulfill leadership roles by supervising projects, finding problems and their root causes, solving them, and providing assistance and mentorship to the entire team. Based on this, you can choose the training that fits your needs and objectives the most, which will be a tough decision for most people in Kansas. In our experience, we recommend a training option in specific depending on your objectives with the methodology but also personal ones:
- Yellow belt: aimed for people who want to develop new skills for personal use and fulfill small roles in companies that are either implementing or not the methodology.
- Green belt: perfect for individuals looking to have better job positions and start in small but crucial leadership roles.
- Black belt: the best option for those that want to have a wide variety of career and work opportunities, fulfill the roles of a leader, mentor, and coach.
In terms of a company choosing the best Six Sigma training, all three of them will be necessary to guarantee the LSS team handling the projects has enough people to start and manage them.
Is Lean Six Sigma Important?
It is not a mandatory methodology to follow and integrate, but it has been a game-changing addition for companies over the last decade. Improving processes, removing waste, and eliminating variations, are objectives every company needs to achieve and being able to implement a methodology that combines all these results cannot be ignored. Therefore, we can consider Lean Six Sigma to be important and essential, but you can choose not to use it in your business.
However, this can lead you to spend more time and resources finding solutions to achieve the same results. Or implement Lean and Six Sigma separately, which ends up being less efficient and productive in the long run. A better way to understand why the methodology is important and consider its implementation in a company is to look at the benefits from it.
Organizations—besides the main benefit of improving processes and reducing waste along with variations—are able to see other results:
- Customer satisfaction.
- Sustain quality improvement.
- Organizational growth.
- Integrate a flexible and change culture.
- Identify flaws and address them.
- Better time management.
- Shorter cycle times.
- Stronger supply chain.
On a personal level, Lean Six Sigma is more than just a method for companies to improve and have more opportunities. Individuals that take the time to access 6 Sigma training will work towards a better career and personal opportunities. After all, LSS experts are valuable for any company in Kansas and around the world, which leads all belt experts to be required in different industries.
This expands the career options and adds value to your curriculum even when you do not have enough experience in the methodology. 6 Sigma is important for any person who wants to obtain benefits such as:
- A better salary.
- Add value to the resume or curriculum.
- Apply for better job positions.
- Gain hands-on experience in quality management.
- Complement process improvement knowledge.
- Develop analytic abilities.
- Gain confidence in your problem-solving and decision-making skills.
- Be valuable for any company and organization.
- Obtain new skills to use in personal projects or work with LSS in your own company.
Lean Six Sigma Services for Companies and Individuals
With your clear necessity of the methodology, you will need to start looking for solutions that can cover it. Our role at Lean Six Sigma Experts of Kansas is to provide you with all the services that can prepare you to work with Six Sigma or help the company to achieve process improvement. Therefore, when you contact us, you can rely on our experts to deliver consulting services, training in any of the previous belts, and additional options for specific needs.
Unlike other companies in Kansas, we are not limited to organizations needing our services but rather offer them to any person interested. So far, we have mentioned our most popular and requested services:
- Lean Six Sigma Consulting.
- Lean Six Sigma Training.
And the yellow, green, and black belt courses are available as individual options depending on the level of understanding and compliance you want with the methodology. In the case of training, we have included the additional option of getting certified in the Lean Six Sigma belt you have completed. This means you can rely on our company to certify you in Six Sigma and help you to demonstrate your understanding and compliance with the methodology.
A Lean Six Sigma certification is crucial to be able to fulfill the roles you have been trained for, which is why we allow our clients to take the exam and opt for the belt certification once completing a Six Sigma course. However, those that were trained by other experts or companies are able to request our exam to opt for the certification. This means you can add Lean Six Sigma certifications to the list of solutions our company can offer you.
Finally, we have a special program for high school students that allows them to learn about Six Sigma and get yellow or green belt certified. For schools, adding this opportunity for their students will help them to have more career and college options, develop valuable skills, add value to their curriculums even without experience, and give them the option to start a career based on Sigma alone.
The 6 Sigma training we offer for high school students is available for any educational institution in the state. The only requirement we have for it is to take the time to include our courses in their schedule, which will not be difficult considering our Lean Six Sigma for high school students is available as an online course but also in-person service. And both options are also available for regular training programs for companies and other individuals.
How to Access Our Six Sigma Services
All it takes to have our experts working in your company and implementing Six Sigma or start your training in any of the belts available is a call or email. You are also welcome to visit us any time since we have several offices throughout the state. Our services are available all year round and you can always request more than one at the same time.
Finding the right experts to cover your Sigma needs is not simple, but we are right here to help you with every difficulty and guarantee you are not only able to understand the methodology but also obtain all the benefits from it, either if you are a company or person in need of it.
We are excited to help you build a career based on the method, start improving your company’s processes by reducing waste, or assisting your high school students to give them more chances in their personal and professional lives. Just make sure to let us know if you have any service in mind or if there are special requests for our experts.
We will do our best to provide you with the most comfortable and efficient services for training, certification, consulting, or implementation.
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.