Integrating Lean Six Sigma with Process Automation

When the grandson of Genghis khan had to strike down an annoying resisting castle in old China, than Marco Polo helped him in coming up with an earlier concept of Catapult to automate the process of throwing stone at the castle’s wall. It won’t be wrong to call catapult, a lean six sigma of that time because of its preciseness in hitting the enemy’s wall. This mere event left a great business lesson for an upcoming times i.e.: “Instead of reinventing the wheel, make an optimal use of available resources in the light of long term goal, while trying to outweigh the earlier betterment”

Apart from historical notions, it is now clear to many clerics that world is standing at the verge of disruption, instilled by fourth industrial revolution. From super markets to the passenger’s cabs, ever single entity is going to be disrupted with the futuristic innovations like Artificial intelligence, internet of things, process automation & big data etc. Driven by the most efficient commodity i.e.: Data, many enterprises are joining hands to make the best out of it. From predicting the potential disease attack to a patient to alarming community about an upcoming catastrophe, science is going to embrace the huge revolution in the times lie ahead.

Keeping in view the essence of subjected article, it is mandatory to mention the Industrial revolution as one of the major parameter which ensured the global economy escalation. With an invent of water & steam driven energy, assembly line or mass production took the charge as a 2^nd industrial evolution. Afterwards computerization/automaton & internet of things have once against untapped a lot of opportunity for an existing companies & new startups. Everyday many ships are getting sinked due to the reluctance towards this storm of change, standing at the doorstep. As the famous philosopher has said;

Now the question is, amidst of such extravagant hype how can one possibly get started to come in line with this wave of revolution? Indeed, it would be absurd to invest in heavy futuristic stuff without getting the basic parameters of doing a job in flow. The answer to address this ambiguity lies in developing an organizational culture pertinent to Lean six sigma. It is by far the most effective tool which has been deployed by global leaders, which assists from the basic of mapping personnel job description to taking them in a spectrum of critical thinking for continuous improvement. Nevertheless, when basics get on roll, than the industrial productivity can be pumped up by process automation. Let us have a look, over, how these two fundamentals can serve as a gladiators in the lean times.

Lean Six Sigma

Combination of Lean & Six Sigma is a by far the most valued notion globally, executing which has helped many organizations in going from average to the world leader. So how exactly it can assist any organization in standing out of a cut throat competition.?

Basically Lean is a philosophy which aims to mitigate the wastages (8 types) from the system to ensure the healthy process stability while six sigma tackles the end product variation and tends to minimize it put 3.4 defects per million opportunities.

Furthermore, the answer to this question lies in a circle below;

“Lean six sigma, when implemented, enables an organization to produce the product of higher quality, in a minimum time and at a minimum cost.”

China and Japan are the great examples of the subjected content. Producing highest quality product in the global economy with an optimal lead time and rate are enabling them to make an exponential growth by exporting the overall lion’s share in the market.

By imparting the principles of subjected techniques, industrial world can make a fortune by streamlining their processes and integrating the culture of continuous improvement. Where lean acts as a management philosophy to adhere to the principles of removing non value added activities from the system, six sigma tends to use the data-driven notions in terms of statistical analysis & dashboard designing which ultimately helps the top management to the see an actual gap between current & desired state.

Process Automation

When the basic things are in line i.e.: minimum wastages & variation is being produced by the system & lesser number of non-conformities are encountered, than comes the role of robotic process automation.

RPA aims at identifying the bottleneck operation, consuming more cycle time in an overall process & than map out his possibility of automating the process, resulting in exponential hype in overall productivity. Form the assembly car manufacturers to the 3D printing phenomenon, every sector is eyeing towards getting benefits from mechanized automation or digital one. Central control rooms equipped with the real time simulation exports can make hectic tasks tedious, while enabling the personnel for better decision making in a lesser time.

Process automation is generally achieved via digital encryptions, networking, Artificial intelligence, & CCR sensors/panels.

Integration of LSS &RPA

It has been an historical norm to couple the two separate swords to make a robust and better one. Similarly, through the integration LSS & RPA, a promising dawn can be ensured. It can not only enable the companies to compete in an existing economical war but when card when played, can act as a catalyst in taking the company to becoming  a market leader. Thus, it really is a need of the time to start practicing theses notions at the earliest by firstly going after the low hanging fruits in an organization.

To enable this cause of integrating lean six sigma & process automation in Pakistan, Bilal Consultancy Private Limited & Ace Connect have joined hands to take an organizational metaphor to a next level.