Maximizing Profits Through the Integration of Lean, Six Sigma and Theory of Constraints

Author: Bob Sproull from www.sixsigmaiq.com

I must say that I’ve been very fortunate in my career. Not because I have been successful financially, although I haven’t done badly. I’ve been fortunate because I’ve been able to be a part of so many different process improvement initiatives over the years. I was around during the Deming years and was able to learn and apply his now-famous 15 principles, as well as his teachings regarding the significant impact variation has on processes and systems. I was around when Lean and Six Sigma came on the scene and was fortunate enough to have worked for a great TPS consulting firm. All of these and more had a very profound impact on me as a professional.Like most consultants, I was looking to remove waste and variation in every process I touched. After all, waste and variation exists everywhere, right? If I could reduce both of these harmful negatives from every process, surely the results would flow directly to the bottom line. And they did, but not in what I thought were significant enough numbers. What was I doing wrong? I mean the companies I worked for certainly looked better because of my 5S events and our changeovers were being done in record time, but the bottom line was not growing enough to suit me. Our process layouts were better, we had manufacturing cells in place, our inventory was lower and there was much less waiting, but the financial results just weren’t there, at least not enough to satisfy me. We even reduced the time it took to purchase supplies and materials. And not only were we not seeing positive effects on the bottom line, our orders were still late getting to our customers. Something had to change!

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