Why Agile Sigma© is the improved version of Lean Six Sigma?

As an Industrial Engineer, Lean Six Sigma flows in our blood --"NOTHING TO PROVE, EVERYTHING TO IMPROVE"-- we studied all its concepts, 3/5 years of our Bachelor's degree. Based from my experience from both product and service industry if you're an Industrial Engineer - Lean Six Sigma is the mindset even without certification. It applies globally. I'm a full time Lean Six Sigma practitioner and an advocate of it. I thrive on a quest to find more improvements and I believe this 2020 more methodologies is going to be disrupted. I together with KonnectKonsult are one of the pioneers of Agile Sigma Methodology in the world.

To those who are not familiar with both Agile Methodology and Lean Six Sigma, I created a simple table to compare both and together with other methodologies inspired by a study I found from iSixSigma by Timothy T. Gaffney . He is the founder of The Gaffney Institute and the one and only creator of the Agile Sigma Methodology©

To benefit from that synergy, the best of Six Sigma and Agile have been combined into a single methodology – Agile Sigma. Development of the new methodology began in 2016, and Agile Sigma is now ready to be used by any type of business to improve their processes significantly and quickly to deliver increased value for their customers. -Timothy Gaffney

Methodologies are on your first row and efficiency categories on your first column. The higher each rating goes up means that the methodology is changing the game on the particular category.

We saw how Agile Sigma© aced all the ratings compared to other methodologies. How did it happened? As a practitioner of Lean Six Sigma, I'm aware of its areas of improvement. Agile, buzzword methodology of software development and other technology driven businesses, considered disruptive and fast has its own areas of improvement as well. Agile Methodology lacks the strategy which Lean Six Sigma offers.

Combining agile software development (particularly Scrum) with Lean Six Sigma and its ‘DMAIC’ roadmap as a statistical and analytical problem solving approach. We assessed how the combination of this two, disrupted and improved both methodologies by the application of its framework to our projects in the Gaming Industry, Aviation Industry and Manufacturing Industry. The Agile Sigma© Framework shown below is made possible by combining both agile-‐based iterative and incremental method called “Process Increments and Lean Six Sigma road map.

PHASE 1.0: ASSESS & PLAN

Assess the current environment & plan the project. (Problem, Objective, Scope, Approach, Team, Timeline)

PHASE 2.0: MEASURE & ANALYZE

Document current & future state processes. Define, Measure & Analyze the key process output metrics.

PHASE 3.0: IMPROVE & VALIDATE

Improve & validate using the iterative agile sprint approach (Discover, Design, Develop, Test). Roll out improvements and confirm statistical significance.PHASE 4.0: ITERATE & OPTIMIZE

Iterate to continue to improve the process until optimize. (Achieve project goal)

Again, why Agile Sigma aced the tabulation ratings? Agile Sigma aims to target all types of opportunities for improvement within an organization/business. Agile complements Lean Six Sigma philosophies by providing responsiveness and adaptability. The balance lies in customer centricity, variations and costs reduction, fast delivery speed and growth of market share, while at the same time being responsive to changes to the system.

We've shown above how Agile Sigma© framework works, we've used more statistical analysis, iterations, optimizations, process increments and you'll really see how it boosts the output you need. If you've gain new insights, new queries and new ideas, please feel free to comment below, contact me or Timothy T. Gaffney of The Gaffney Institute so we can discuss. We'll be happy to create/share detailed deck of the projects we've made.

All of us practitioners are on quest to improve the current state for an awesome future state.

"NOTHING TO PROVE, EVERYTHING TO IMPROVE" - Anonymous (many are claiming :D)

For those who are interested to know the importance of other methodologies. See below, you are free to choose what methodology to use, who knows what other disruptions can be made as well? :)

1. Agile Methodology - Advantages of Agile model: Customer satisfaction by rapid, continuous delivery of useful software. People and interactions are emphasized rather than process and tools. Customers, developers and testers constantly interact with each other. Working software is delivered frequently (weeks rather than months).
2. Lean Six Sigma - Major benefits of Lean Six Sigma strategy includes customer satisfaction and cost reduction. It leads to revenue growth and productivity improvements. Lean Six Sigma is a method which provides prized analytic and process skills. These skills are relevant to leadership positions.
3. TQM - TQM can have an important and beneficial effect on employee and organizational development. By having all employees focus on quality management and continuous improvement, companies can establish and uphold cultural values that create long-term success to both customers and the organization itself.
4. ISO9000 - ISO 9000 is a quality management standard that presents guidelines intended to increase business efficiency and customer satisfaction. The goal of ISO 9000 is to embed a quality management system within an organization, increasing productivity, reducing unnecessary costs, and ensuring quality of processes and products.

Agile Sigma© is the best methodology as of the moment, I can't wait what other methodologies will arise and I'm so excited to use whatever it is as well. As of April 09, 2020 I will remain as an advocate of Agile Sigma. Thank you Timothy Gaffney for sharing Agile Sigma to the world.

Kept the article brief and short. Hope you learned something from this! Stay productive during the Quarantine Season and Stay safe! Don't forget to follow me, @TheGaffneyInstitute, @KonnectKonsult @OptimizeLifeSeries for more and updates.