ABSTRACT
Many organizations deploying Lean and Six Sigma have standardized their improvement road map to the acronym Define, measure, analyze, improve, control (DMAIC). It works well for organizations implementing Six Sigma tools, and Lean activities have been and can be mapped to each phase, however, it can be confusing as the Lean tools overlap many of the DMAIC phases. The baseline, assess, suggest solutions, implement, check, and sustain Lean system implementation approach follows the plan–do–check–act problem-solving model with a target condition of one-piece balanced synchronized flow regardless of the environments. Implementation starts with understanding the customer needs and the customer demand. The implementation model describes the different approaches to Lean and compares them to Toyota. Kaizen is the concept that every employee is contributing ideas and small improvements every day. Supervisors and managers are given time, at least 50% of their day, to implement the changes.
