Next to standard project management tools being knowledgeable in Six-Sigma techniques is a powerful capability to use in projects and day-to-day activities.

The basic concept of Six-Sigma is to eliminate defects in a process whereby the quality/quantity of output yield is maximized. Output can be a physical product but also services.

In essence there are two main streams in Six-Sigma:

Improvement projects aka DMAIC (Define, Measure, Analyse, Improve, Control). Concept is to Define the problem, Measure defect rate, Analyse cause of defect, Improve the process and Control the consitency of the solution.

Data driven design of processes aka DMADV- DFSS. When implementing (new) processes a combination of standardized project rules and tools are interwoven.


Next to Six-Sigma the LEAN concepts brings a set of tools to help improve productivity and quality of services.

LEAN in concept eliminates all waste in a process like idle time and non-value adding steps.

Six-Sigma en LEAN go well together as both techniques have overlap and are suplementairy in tooling.

More information about Six-Sigma and LEAN can be found using the following links:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six_sigma and http://www.isixsigma.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lean_manufacturing and http://www.lean.org/