ISO9001 is a quality management standard with requirements on the infrastructure of an organization, with main focus on the satisfaction of its customers with the products and services offered. Many customers nowadays require their suppliers to be certified by an independent body to the ISO9001 standard.
Lean Six Sigma on the other hand, focuses on minimizing the required resources for carrying out work and on the reduction of variation (and the resulting defects) in the effectiveness of the organization’s processes to satisfy their customers. Both have led to significant cost reduction in the organizations that have used them.
The two methodologies have many common characteristics as well as some distinct differences. This presentation outlines a) the history and objectives of each approach, b) a summary of the principles of each methodology and c) the different roles and responsibilities required for the implementation of each. It then proceeds to compare the two methodologies point by point, highlighting their main similarities and differences.
The advantages of each methodology over the other one are presented and their synergies are outlined.
An implementation strategy of the two methodologies is then suggested with different scenarios, taking into consideration different decision criteria and the optimization of their synergies.