Lean Services - The lean Six Sigma Delusion

Adapting process improvement tools to service organisations

Why is it so hard to get tried and tested improvement disciplines such as lean and Six Sigma to work effectively in service industries? Most service organisations that have tried importing these manufacturing strategies are still looking for breakthroughs in vain – and some are counting the cost of failure. It’s our opinion that before clambering aboard the continuous improvement bandwagon service organisations must check whether their business architecture is fit for purpose. Otherwise, they’re throwing money down the drain.