DMAIC or Kaizen?

There is a long standing debate about which improvement methodology your company should adopt - Lean or Six Sigma? And if you peel back the onion a little further, does it really come down to a debate between Kaizen and DMAIC? 

The question comes up from time to time and this morning, a client ran this by me....

Hmm, it got me thinking.

In a fight between the two approaches, who would win?

In the blue corner we have the Kaizen approach, sponsored by Lean. In the red corner, we have the DMAIC approach, sponsored by Six Sigma:

Lean is -Bottom-up employee-led change using Kaizen events

Six Sigma is -Top-down Blackbelt-led change using DMAIC

What is Kaizen?

Kaizen is simply a Japanese word that simply means “to make better” Its main characteristics are:

• Projects are well defined and baseline stats are collected before starting event
• Dedicated resources are subject matter experts (SMEs) and focus on only the event
• The solutions should come from the SMEs as they will need to act as champions for the change
• Often follows the Deming/Shewhart cycle of Plan-Do Check-Act
• Kaizen event typically lasts 3 – 5 days        
• Mangement MUST make resources available from support functions during the event. i.e. HR, Finance, Warehouse, Sales, Marketing etc
• Will implement solutions based on 80% confidence instead of 95% which is typical in DMAIC
• Implementation is completed within the week event but if items fall outside they are completed  within 20 days
• Basic analysis is acceptable with indicative results enough to make decisions

What is DMAIC? 

DMAIC is an acronym for a 5 step process where the 1^st letter of each stage spells out DMAIC being, Define, Measure, Analyse, Improve & Control. Its main characteristics are:

• Existing process is not meeting customer requirements but the reason why is not obvious
• Time is spent on analyzing the baseline data to understand current performance
• Baseline data is used to prove/validate the benefits once re-measured
• Solutions can come from anywhere and may not be popular with employees as may mean  significant changes
• Solutions require 95% confidence in being correct before implementation
• Can be a level of risk associated with the solution that will need to be accepted by the business before implementation
• Change is led by a Blackbelt or Greenbelt  due to the nature of the data analysis

Now that we understand the 2 approaches a little better, which continuous improvement tool should you use? Kaizen or DMAIC? Well, we think there is a place for both in a modern organization, depending on what it is being used for. We’ve put together this simple matrix to help can easily be determined with the answer to a few simple considerations?

Interestingly, many practitioners have started to plan out their Kaizen events using the DMAIC process steps. This way they ensure that everything is considered. So it may not be a case of Kaizen vs DMAIC after all but instead, a powerful combination of both!

A hybrid approach - the third way:)