what is lean six sigma 
lean six sigma is a team focused managerial approach that seeks to improve performance by eliminating waste and defects while boosting the standardization of work it combines six sigma methods and tools and the lean manufacturing lean enterprise philosophy striving to reduce the waste of physical resources time effort and talent while assuring quality in production and organizational processes any use of resources that does not create value for the end customer is considered a waste and should be eliminated 1six sigma certification and belt rankingsindividuals can obtain six sigma certification to attest to their understanding of the process and their skills in implementing it these certifications are awarded through a belt system similar to karate training the belt levels are 2people with black belts can become masters and champions someone with a master black belt is considered an expert and strong leader with excellent problem solving skills a champion is a lean six sigma leader trained in maximizing profits through the elimination of waste and defects 2these certifications and the courses required to obtain them are offered by a variety of companies and educational institutions and can differ from one to another real world examples of six sigmasix sigma is used by many companies local governments and other institutions here are two examples of how six sigma improved operational efficiency saved money and increased customer satisfaction microsoft msft is one of the largest software producers in the world it used six sigma to help eradicate defects in its systems and data centers and systematically reduce it infrastructure failures the company first established standards for all of its hardware and software to create a baseline measurement for detecting defects it then used root cause analysis including collecting data from past high priority incidents server failures and recommendations from product group members and customers to pinpoint potential problem areas 3large amounts of data were collected on a daily and weekly basis from various servers the incidents were prioritized based on how severely the defects affected the business and the company s underlying services data analysis and reporting identified the specific defects after which remediation steps for each defect were established as a result of six sigma microsoft says it improved the availability of its servers boosted productivity and increased customer satisfaction ventura county california credited the use of lean six sigma for a savings of 33 million the county government began to use the program in 2008 and has trained more than 5 000 employees in the methodology the county says the savings are due in part to the introduction of more efficient new systems and the elimination of unnecessary but time consuming steps from its prior processes 4for example the vc star newspaper reported in 2019 that the county saved 51 000 with an appointments system that reduced labor costs and rates for maintenance of county vehicles and almost 400 000 annually by implementing a new system to track employee leaves of absence 4