Clear the Clutter, Then Tune the Machine

Wednesday · Continuous Improvement Brief

Hi everyone,

This week’s continuous improvement message is about two good tools that fight when you run them at the same time.

Teams treat Lean and Six Sigma like one program. They are different jobs. Lean asks how to do the work faster, cleaner, and with less. It clears waste: extra motion, waiting, clutter, and steps that do not add value for the customer. The aim is flow, not perfection. Six Sigma asks why the output keeps changing. It uses data to find what drives the defects, then locks the process so the result repeats.

Both are useful. The trouble starts when a team does both at once. You open a defect study, then rearrange the line to cut walking. The baseline just moved. The numbers no longer describe the process you are trying to fix. Cycle time looks better. The defect picture is noise. People call that resistance to change. A lot of the time the system is fighting itself.

Order is the fix. Use Lean first. Stabilize the flow, take out the bottleneck, and put standard work in place so the process repeats. Then use Six Sigma to control variation and confirm the process can hold the result. Lean clears the noise. Six Sigma tunes the signal. Reverse that order and the project turns into an argument about why the numbers changed.

Before you start, pick the job. Are you clearing waste, or controlling variation? Both matter. Do not change the process while you are measuring it. Finish the flow change, let it settle, then take the new baseline.

Clear the clutter, then tune the machine.

Marc Bradburry II
Big Bearded Ginger