The Impact of Lean Six Sigma on the Overall Results of Companies

Abstract

Lean Six Sigma represents a management approach for driving innovating processes inside a company in order to achieve superior results. It involves a practical analysis based on facts, aiming the innovation and growth, not only the efficiency of processes. It is a long term process of gradual and continuous improvement. The application of Lean Six Sigma in companies led to attaining superior financial performance by addressing new needs, by differentiating the products and services or by adjusting the business lines to new processes. Quality is more than making things without errors. It is about making a product or service meet the individual perception of a customer about the quality or value. Therefore, in what regards Lean Six Sigma, the concern is not only to "do the things right" but also to "do the right things right". We focus on the impact of implementing the Lean Six Sigma approach on companies, seeking for what changes and benefits it brings. The key elements it aims at are achieving the best quality, the lowest cost, getting the shortest lead-time, stressing on waste elimination. The requirements of a company for its implementation and the strategy to obtain the maximum practical outcome are investigated. Furthermore, we conduct a comparison analysis with the other methods of the total quality management and see why Lean Six Sigma is a more desirable approach.Lean Six Sigma, fact-based analysis, innovation, strategy, quality, gradual and continuous process.