Your organization is getting into process improvement. Should you look at the SEI's capability maturity model integration (CMMI) first? Six Sigma first? Or both at the same time? This dilemma has confronted many organizations over the last several years.
Randy Bennettsr proj mgr| fiservCollegeville, Pa, United States
This is an interesting question. As an employee or consultant I have been in organizations that used both. Based on those admittedly limited observations, I would opt for Lean Six Sigma, period.
The real question to ask is why either approach is being considered. If the motive is improved quality or reduced costs or both, any version of Six Sigma seems more likely to deliver.
Unless you are compelled by mandate or regulation to adopt CMMI I recommend staying away from it. The overhead required in the places I have seen it makes it unlikely to receive a return on the investment in a reasonable time frame. Saving Changes...
David PaulManager IT Planning and Governance| EMD ChemicalsAbington, Pa, United States
First - Lean Six Sigma is a bit of an oxymoron. Lean, TPS, uses minimal metrics to drive process improvement. Six Sigma uses maximum metrics to drive and sustain improvements. Lean Six Sigma is more about marketing a phrase.
Process Improvement methodologies, be it Lean, Six Sigma or CMMI, all provide value in the right context. CMMI is used more around applications and functionality they provide. Six Sigma and Lean are more around what an organization does, mapping it out, and improving it to drive improvements.
In my opinion, a holistic approach to business process improvement needs to start with either Lean or Six Sigma than introduce other concepts as interest and enthusiasm for the original program start to diminish. Saving Changes...
Lean approach increases the speed of the process ,by reducing the waste of time , manpower ,material,logistics,movements etc,which are all redundant or non-value added activities.
Six sigma will reduce the variations observed from the process ,and redesign to maintain a low defect rate, further ,if DFSS is implemented,then the process would give Roll through put products with high product assurance.
In CMMI,level3 onwards(higher maturity levels) we have to quantitatively analyse the process and define organisational process performance, and exactly here we require sixsigma and lean approach Saving Changes...
As i observed from my personal experiences with both the techniques have slight differences in implementation details over size, subject and its purpose of objectives. Software projects have better visibility, focus and fitment with CMM while projects in which we can quantify as much as possible there is a better fitment for Six sigma implementation like manufacturing, although we can use either of the techniques to be used for customization of processes and quality improvement.
Thanks,
Alok Tapdiya Saving Changes...
Rakesh TrivediSenior Project Manager| IT CompanyIndore, Mp, India
Good post , I have been into CMM and Six sigma ( Not lean) based process . couple of observation which i noticed,
-CMM is more suitable and compatible to IT service provider companies while Six Sigma suits manufacturing and like companies
- Sometimes seen companies following mixture of CMM and Six Sigma i.e. process adjusted as per Organization requirement.
- CMM talks about adherence of laid down process while Six Sigma (lean ) has affinity towards process improvement through waste removal
So better understand your need and then take steps.
Saving Changes...
