ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the basic tools, methods, and concepts of Lean Six Sigma. It uses Lean concepts that have been successfully applied to manufacturing and develop analogs to service and office operations. Classifying by market segment and considering Kano needs and value expectations provides a good starting point for understanding customer requirements. A method to reduce complexity is applying mistake-proofing to the simplified product or service, so it can only be assembled or used one way to avoid error. Overproduction occurs if an operation is utilized at a higher level than the demand placed on it. As an example, if the actual demand on a procurement process is 100 purchase orders per day, but it processes 200 purchase orders per day, it over produced purchase orders. The unnecessary transport of materials and information is a third form of process waste.
