K-Sigma™ (Accelerated Lean Six Sigma)
What are K-Sigma™ and DKMAIC™?
SBTI has introduced K-Sigma™, a revolutionary approach to achieving the benefits of Lean and Six Sigma in a fraction of the time! Black Belts undergo extensive training in fully integrated Lean and Six Sigma methodologies, and by following the DKMAIC™ roadmap they not only learn the tools over a shorter period, but they complete their project during the training period.
Typical Lean Sigma offerings involve just a 2 day bolt-on Lean class to traditional Six Sigma; K-Sigma™ however, is a ground up full integration of quality and flow methodologies.
Why does K-Sigma™ work?
Most business processes were never designed and merely evolved over time. An Accelerated Change Event (ACE or Kaizen) to get the process stakeholders together for a few days with the right Lean tools to strip the process down and simplify it considerably. Once the process is simplified, Six Sigma tools really show their power in a much more leveraged way. Six Sigma projects taking 6 months can be reduced to 6 weeks or less using the K-Sigma™ approach.
Typical Kaizen training does so by osmosis - see an event facilitated by a professional and you'll be able to replicate it. Clearly this is a high risk venture and does nothing to ensure that the Belt understands the tools, understands the preparation required for an event, understands how to identify, select, prioritize and scope an event. K-Sigma™ teaches all of these things and once a Belt leaves training they are fully competent in leading accelerated Lean-Sigma projects. Moreover they are competent at leading change in any business.
What does K-Sigma™ involve?
The training is made up of six ( 6 ) weeks of classroom training and each belt must both participate in a Kaizen event, but also co-lead a Kaizen event with one of their fellow participants.
The format is as follows:
Session 1: 1 Week Classroom Training
Session 2: 1 Week Classroom Training Including Preparation For First Series Of Events
Discovery Events: 2 Real, On-Site 2 day Discovery Kaizen Events Led By SBTI Professional (Typically 1 Event Per 4 Participants) to gain a rapid understanding of the process and to implement any quick hits
+ Series Of 3-4 Real, On-Site 2 day Discovery Kaizen Events Co-Led By 2 Participants to gain a rapid understanding of the process and to implement any quick hits
Session 3: 1 Week Classroom Training
Session 4: 2 Weeks Classroom Training Including Preparation For Second Series Of Events
Kaizen Events: 2 Real, On-Site Full 4.5 Day Kaizen Events Led By SBTI Professional (Typically 1 Event Per 4 Participants)
+ Series Of 6-8 Real, On-Site Full 4.5 Day Kaizen Events Co-Led By 2 Participants (With SBTI Professional As A Safety Net)
Session 6: 1 Week Classroom Training Including Construction Of Implementation Plan
Click here to read a fact sheet on K-Sigma™ (Accelerated Lean Six Sigma) 213KB 
Special-K
As popularly understood in corporate improvement methodology, Kaizen, which is taken from the Japanese words kai and zen (where kai means change and zen means good), refers to continual improvement of all areas of a company, not just quality. In this context, SBTI introduced the Special-K technique, a short, two-day Kaizen event. During this two-day period, a team combining Lean methods and Six Sigma techniques quickly eliminates obvious non-value-added activities, resources and space.
This Special-K “blitz” of a project accelerates any Six Sigma project. A project team, using a “Special-K Kaizen” up front and a full Kaizen during the improvement phase, will produce significant achievements, one of which will be the shortening of the improvement cycle time. A shortened period of thirteen weeks is typical. To arrive at such a result requires a company to commit full time Black Belts, but it will yield big results, and quickly.
SBTI found that it could successfully use the Special-K technique, combining Lean and Six Sigma methodologies, upfront, followed by a full Kaizen, in addressing individual projects for corporate customers. The advantage in using the Special-K technique, SBTI discovered, was to infuse the Kaizen event with a suddenness, a lightening round of project improvement at the very beginning of the improvement cycle. The obvious non-value added items of a project were quickly identified and removed. In the culture of corporate improvement methodology, Kaizen events are ordinarily associated with gradual, orderly, continual improvement that focuses on eliminating waste in all systems and processes of an organization over time. But, as SBTI established, by using the Special-K technique, a project team can accelerate the improvement process dramatically. The power of Lean meets and joins with the power of Six Sigma.
K-Sigma Links
Kaizen
Lean
Six Sigma
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