What Are the Differences Between Lean and Six Sigma?

What Are the Differences Between Lean and Six Sigma in Project Management?

Project management methodologies such as Lean and Six Sigma are a collection of tools and procedures that help organizations improve business operations, output, and performance. While Lean and Six Sigma are both methodologies focused on reducing or eliminating waste, they have conceptual and practical differences. 

Learn more about the differences between Six Sigma vs. Lean in project management to pick the best option for your organization.

Lean project management

Businesses adopt the Lean methodology in project management to simplify production and operations. The core focus of Lean is on eliminating redundant and unproductive steps in the development phase, leaving only necessary processes that run smoothly and efficiently to achieve the organization's goals.

Six Sigma

Six Sigma in project management focuses on improving the quality and efficiency of processes and workflows. The core focus of Six Sigma is to minimize errors and waste by optimizing operations and performance. Six Sigma is integral to organizational leadership, and its widespread adoption helps companies deliver positive, quantifiable outcomes.

Differences between Lean vs. Six Sigma

To compare Lean vs. Six Sigma, we need to understand various factors that differentiate the two methodologies:

Waste

In Lean methodology, waste is defined as any process or activity that does not add value to the customer. Lean practitioners strive to improve processes to produce more customer value.

According to Six Sigma, a variation within a process causes waste. Six Sigma advocates strive to remove faults in processes by lowering variability.

Approach

Lean is a mindset that, when applied holistically, improves decision-making. Lean practitioners use continuous improvement to seek methods that enhance value and reduce waste. It is most successful when ingrained in an organization's culture and implemented from the ground up.

Six Sigma is a deliberate, disciplined technique for solving organizational challenges by lowering risk and process variability. The Six Sigma certification system is one of the most well-known aspects of the methodology. Six Sigma professionals may be found at many levels of a business.

Leadership

Lean offers more flexibility, pushing its practitioners (including individual contributors and managers) to think big and tackle organizational challenges. Lean is well-suited to independent organizational structures that facilitate cooperation across teams and hierarchies.

Six Sigma provides a structured, hierarchical leadership paradigm suited for highly organized companies. It equips professionals to carry out a specific function in their organization, typically beginning with localized issue resolution and progressing to leading complicated challenges and mentoring project teams.

Application

Lean originated from the software development industry and is still used today in its original form and various formats such as Kanban, Agile, and Scrum. Teams and organizations across the board use lean concepts to provide more value to customers.

Six Sigma is used in complex contexts where minimizing variability and risk is vital to success. Six Sigma may be used in sectors such as manufacturing, engineering, and sales. It cannot be applied in every business or context. Small businesses, generally, do not have the resources to adopt Six Sigma.

Six Sigma vs. Lean: Which is the better option for you?

Lean can be a good fit for your company if you need a simple, continuous framework to drive improvement and growth. Six Sigma may be better if you want to minimize unpredictability and improve efficiency in a more complicated setting. 

You can combine Lean and Six Sigma to create a hybrid technique known as Lean Six Sigma to get the best of both methodologies. Lean Six Sigma is effective in helping organizations reduce costs and waste while enhancing the speed and quality of operations and output.