Streamlining enterprise records management with Lean Six Sigma: process created by manufacturing can be applied to records management with substantial results.

• Author: Brett, Charles
• Position: ManagementWise

As corporations toil to manage ever-increasing volumes of enterprise records, growing forces such as risk mitigation, changing legislation, and corporate governance are creating the need to manage information in a timely fashion. For some organizations, getting better control of paper-and electronic-based information processes and enterprise records management (RM) starts with Lean Six Sigma.

Lean Six Sigma is the latest evolutionary step in the history of manufacturing that marries Henry Ford's Lean Flow manufacturing process of the early 1900s with the Six Sigma process created by Motorola Corp. in the 1980s. Both practices have enabled businesses to operate efficiently and effectively for decades. [See Sidebar on page 61.]

By itself, Lean Flow centers on using the minimum amount of resources--people, materials, and capital--to produce solutions and deliver them on time to customers. The Lean Flow process, however, does not have the discipline to deliver results predictably.

In some cases, Lean Flow implementation involves an informal investigation into an organization's workflow, which is typically followed by an immediate rearrangement of processes. While this approach produces change quickly, it cannot be relied upon to yield desired results consistently. On the other end of the spectrum, Lean Flow implementation can involve extremely thorough data collection and analysis, which produces expected results but takes years before any change occurs.

In his book, Lean Six Sigma and High Performance Organizations, Tom Devane writes that Six Sigma, on the other hand, is designed to improve quality by enhancing knowledge-generating processes. Six Sigma is a statistically based method aimed at reducing variation and eliminating defects in a process--whether that process is producing hard goods or answering customer inquiries. In banking, for example, the goal might be to process one check perfectly, then repeat it millions of times. Six Sigma also focuses on the need to identify things considered "critical to quality" (known as CTQs). The Six Sigma metric states that processes affecting customers should have as little variation as possible. In many cases, this leads to slow, deliberate, change-intolerant practices.

By "nesting" the Lean Flow methodology within the Six Sigma methodology, a synergy can be attained that provides results that are much more significant than the results of the individual approaches. When Lean is added to Six Sigma, slow processes are challenged and replaced with more streamlined workflows. Additionally, the data gathered during Lean Flow implementation helps identify the highest-impact Six Sigma opportunities. When Six Sigma is added to Lean Flow, a much-needed structure is provided that makes it easier to consistently achieve optimum flow. The two methodologies work so well together that a new, integrated, Lean Six Sigma approach, with its own unique characteristics, has been defined and used by several leading organizations, including Xerox Corporation, General Electric Company, Johnson & Johnson, and Dell Inc.

Lean Six Sigma is the application of lean techniques to increase speed and reduce waste and process complexity, while employing processes to improve quality and focus on the voice of the customer. Lean Six Sigma means doing it right the first time and implementing changes that generate value while acting quickly and efficiently.

Beyond Manufacturing

Lean Six Sigma is not limited to the manufacturing arena. The ideals of improving quality...