Lean manufacturing or translatable as slender manufacturing, and also called the Toyota Production System is a management philosophy focusing on reduction of the seven types of waste (overproduction, waiting time, transportation, over processing, inventory, motion and defects). By eliminating such waste, the quality and improves production time and cost decrease. The tools "lean" processes include continuous analysis (kaizen), producing "pull" (in the sense of kanban) and elements/processes failsafe (Poka - Yoke).
A crucial aspect is that most costs are calculated in the design phase of a product. An engineer will specify materials and known methods and costs at the expense of other cheap and efficient processes. This reduces project risks. Companies that follow this methodology and develop reroute check sheets to validate the product design.
The key points of lean manufacturing are:
Building and maintaining a long-term relationship with suppliers taking agreements to share the risk, cost and information.
Lean is basically all that concerns obtaining correct materials in the correct place, in the right quantity while minimizing waste, being flexible and open to change.
Six Sigma is a set of practices originally developed by Motorola to systematically improve processes by eliminating defects. A defect is defined as nonconformity of a product or service to its specifications. Six Sigma is also defined as a management strategy to promote change in organizations, causing them to reach improvements in processes, products and services for customer satisfaction.
Unlike other forms of productive management or administrative proceedings Six Sigma's priority is getting results in a planned and clear, both quality mainly financial.
The Six Sigma includes features of other quality models, such as:
However, Six Sigma encompasses not only the statistical thinking, but also the quality of alignment with the organization's strategies, besides the strong emphasis on cost-effective improvement projects.
