CapTech White Paper: The "People Side" of Lean Six-Sigma Initiatives
Companies can realize significant, measureable results, by reducing variability and eliminating waste in their process through Lean-Six Sigma initiatives. Lean-Six Sigma is a combination of Lean and Six Sigma practices, which are used to analyze a current state and identify improvements in order to attain the desired future state. Change is implemented to help meet the company’s strategic objectives, but the success of any process improvement or design effort hinges on maintaining a focus on managing the change appropriately. Alternately referred to as organizational change management (OCM), or business readiness, change management focuses on managing the people side of change. Effective change management in a Lean or Six Sigma project greatly increases the probability of success. While this concept is critical, it is not revolutionary. Change management is mentioned in many of the Six Sigma and Lean reference materials, though sporadically. This white paper highlights the critical change management activities within the Lean-Six Sigma methodology, while emphasizing the necessity of incorporating change management into a successful process engineering initiative.