The first industrial revolution was a result of usage of steam engines to power manufacturing machinery. Henry Ford’s mass production of a single

It is time for Lean Six Sigma to evolve- by leveraging Big Data

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2020-06-29 04:41:23

The first industrial revolution was a result of usage of steam engines to power manufacturing machinery. Henry Ford’s mass production of a single model of car at lowest cost was a key element of seconfd Industrial revolution. Toyota copied Ford’s line production model and evolved a methodology around it- popularly known as Toyota Production system (TPS).

Lean Six Sigma approach, that derives its inspiration primarily from TPS, has been used widely in Manufacturing. It was so popular at one point that it spawned an entire Industry of “Lean Six Sigma professionals”. But in my perspective, lean Six Sigma had some drawbacks, which, though were overlooked at that time due to tech constraints, that need to be addressed now. And Big Data technologies can help.

For its time, Toyota Production System was indeed revolutionary. Lean Six Sigma, based on Toyota Production system, became the most widely used process improvement method in Industry and the military, creating the Third Industrial revolution. Lean Six Sigma incorporated Little’s Law of cycle time reduction, allowing the TPS to be applied to any industry and process.