Lean Six Sigma is a management approach that focuses on teamwork to improve operation process, efficiency, and save money by removing waste and defects. Its history began in the 1450s in Venice when shipbuilders managed to standardise the technological process of galley shipbuilding at the Venetian Arsenal, thereby improving efficiency, quality, and safety. The three basic concepts of Lean consulting today. The manufacturing of ships during the 15th century was so complex that it would take a whole year to build one. The processes were disjointed and little efficiency was built into them. However, when the Venetians decided to optimise their construction time and methods by standardising work processes and certain material flows, they were able to reduce the improvement time of one ship from as long as a year to less than two weeks.

Over the years, shipbuilding technology has improved, leading to better efficiency during naval battles at sea. From the end of the 16th century all warships were armed with different types of battle guns. Standardisation of the production process for naval equipment and components and their uniform placement on the ship led to standardisation of military operations. In the image we can see that each gun station is the same. This means that the operation of loading and firing the gun is the same at each station and so is far more efficient.

Eli Whitney

Elie Whitney has played an important role in the popularisation of the concept of JIT manufacturing (Just in Time). In 1799, when Congress voted to get the nation ready for war with France, Eli Whitney was contracted by the US Army to fabricate muskets. He used standardised sets of parts that can easily be assembled and disassembled resulting in faster changeover times and uniformity of the product. This means that even unskilled workers could produce a finished product more quickly and at a much lower cost. The muskets at incredibly low cost were assembled with record speed and efficiency. 

Although the Idea was first introduced by Eli Whitney, he did not yet have a name for it. In 1816, Samuel Colt used it in his gun factory, and called it replacement parts. But in 1886, seventeen years after the term replacement parts was first used, a man named Oliver Byrne wrote that it is possible to produce interchangeable screws without using any standard sizes. Byrne then labeled this method “screw interchangeability,” and thus the concept got renamed to what we call lean manufacturing today.

Frank and Lillian Gilbreth

The Gilbreths were the first who began to form the concept of Lean, recognising the link between efficiency and waste. In the early 1900s, Frank and Lillian Gilbreth cooperated to develop the study of motion as an engineering and management method. By observing workers of the building industry, and factories Frank and Lillian developed diagrams and maps illustrating the chain of events that are necessary to complete a product or obtain a result. It was the Gilbrets who created the concept of waste elimination, which is a basic principle of lean manufacturing.

Frederick W. Taylor

Observing workers in factories, Frederick Winslow Taylor realised that regardless of how hard someone worked, optimisation and standardisation of tasks was a more efficient and productive approach.

He saw the answer to productivity as splitting up and facilitating tasks in such a way that even unskilled workers could perform them properly.

In 1911, his book Principles of Scientific Management was published, in which Taylor showed how to apply the scientific approach to management in order to improve workers productivity.

Henry Ford

The first person to truly integrate the concept of lean manufacturing into the production system was Henry Ford. He was convinced that interchangeability was necessary to increase production. He also believed it was essential to facilitate the production process.

In 1913, Henry Ford installed the first moving assembly line for mass production. This new technology made it possible to significantly reduce the time taken to assemble an entire automobile. So, the company was able to produce 200,000 cars a year.

Charles Sorensen

Ford’s manufacturing methods, combined with Taylor’s methods, played a crucial role in the Allied victory in World War II. Charles Sorensen, who was working at Ford at the time, used his experience and helped construct aircraft for the US Air Force. This contributed greatly to the victory of the war by allied nations, as he helped implement these methods to other American manufacturing companies as well. The role of Ford’s, Taylor’s and other lean production strategies in the victory in WWII caught the attention of a Japanese innovative engineer during his visit to Ford in 1911.

Toyota

Toyota team members realised that a series of simple innovations could improve the quality management process and invented the Toyota Production System. The concept which organises production and logistics and the interaction with customers. Eiji Toyoda introduced the concept of waste elimination in manufacturing to maximise the efficiency of the production process. The TPS approach led to the establishment of the “Just-in-Time” principle (JIT). The idea of this principle was to reduce the inventory surplus, so the parts needed in the manufacturing process were purchased as required. During this period lean manufacturing became precisely what we know it to be today and is used around the world.

Motorola

In the 1980s a young engineer Bill Smith who used to work at Motorola created Six Sigma. He forged the path of this concept through Motorola’s CEO Bob Galvin. Bill proposed to minimise the amount of variation every time the company makes a new product to get more consistent and improve their quality. So the concept known as Six Sigma, which stands for “Six Standard Deviations”, was created to help minimise the number of defects or flaws. They started to measure the defects not per traditional thousands but per million opportunities. Motorola developed the methodology with new standards which helped them to save Billions of dollars and become known around the world.

Lean and Six Sigma become one methodology

During the 2000s, the two different methodologies Lean and Six Sigma became one unique process. The two work hand in hand, to make sure the company works as efficiently as possible and the customers are happy with the result.

Although Lean Six Sigma originated in manufacturing, it has been widely adopted in many other industries. Its methodologies and tools are incorporated into healthcare, construction, post, retail, public, military, and transport sectors, and even government administration.