Evolution into Lean Six Sigma?

it is commonly thought that the term Lean Six Sigma was coined in the late 1990’s by both Allied Signal and Maytag the USA. It wasn’t long before other large organisations followed in the foot steps of these two organisations with their own Lean Six Sigma approaches. These companies included Lockheed Martin, GE and 3M.

The family tree below depicts how Lean Six Sigma came to evolve over the last century.

Our recent research shows that a combined approach of both Lean and Six Sigma is now the most popular within the Global Business improvement community. The reason for this are probably due to the enhanced benefits of combining the two approaches.