When it comes to operation excellence than lean six sigma holds major distinction, being a consolidation of lean philosophy principles & six sigma statistics. From tangible products to intangible services, documented evidence of industrial effectiveness is an advocate of subjected technique. With the attributes of either catering a specific project or developing organizational practice, flexibility is one of the great suit of this business warfare technique
Even though lean and six sigma were developed in a product driven companies (Motorola & Toyota), their conjugated principles are reviving the service sector too. One of the prime service domain in this aspect includes engineering projects, where multiple variables are involved along different stakeholders concern. In this context, effective implementation of LSS can do wonders for catering project constraints as compared to the traditional approaches.
According o the PMI, 4 project constraints are the biggest concern of every project, given below;
“If effective planning along concrete measures are put in place than quality can be assured in optimal time & minimum cost, keeping in an account the scope of project.”
In its wake, let us look at the importance of incorporating lean six sigma in engineering projects to;
1) Communication Channel Compliance
With the mapped out project charter in place, no blame game traditional practice can be exercised from contractor-client end. Each party is clear on the deliverables and needful to be done for pertinent resources accumulation in order to reach the end goal. Thus, clear communication channels result in stating the definite scope of project to all stakeholders.
2) KBD’s concrete reporting
When proper key business drivers are incorporated in engineering projects than daily or weekly acknowledgement of tasks done and problem faced is disseminated to both ends. With this approach trust develops at a fast pace and all the stakeholders are aware of the lead time being spent over each activity.
3) Customer landscape analysis
It is necessary to develop the project execution planner (Gantt chart), while taking into an count the customers overall objective and importance of current work needed to done. Thoroughly analyzing the landscape dictate the cost impacting factors which can be addressed in the light of client’s vision.
4) Optimal utilization of resources
With effectiveness and efficiency gauges in place, utilization of resources is not an option. With strong measures, stakeholders along the concerned parties put a greater emphasis on having a right quality input in right quantity at the right time from suppliers.
5) Workforce productivity escalation
Apart from vendors, workforce is motivated under the banner of process excellence & project management mantras to contribute as much towards the greater cause (end product) as possible.
One of the big factor in instilling lean six sigma principles in engineering works is the inclusion of all hierarchical workforce on one page. When labor is empowered, parallel to management board, to give their suggestion in making things more efficient than fortune can befall which is documented in the organizational financial statement under profit bar.
