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Lean And Six Sigma Methodologies

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Introduction
Lean and Six Sigma are two different methodologies originally designed to meet the demands of manufacturing companies. Lean was born in the premises of Toyota and their production system. Lean is about eliminating waste to improve processes. Six Sigma, on the other hand, is a management methodology that seeks to eliminate variation in processes (Goldsby & Martichenko, 2005). Where these two methodologies meet, is in their final goal of process improvement. With two different ways of implementation, these methodologies complement each other in practice, this is why many organizations choose to make a multidisciplinary implementation, and apply both Lean and Six Sigma to achieve better and longer results.
As organizations’ demands constantly change, they are also continuously looking for ways meet this demand and improve their business. This is one of the reasons why the Lean and Six Sigma methodologies have escalated in a significant manner, dabbling into markets that are not the ones they were created for in the first place, as healthcare.
This paper attempts to present two different implementations of these methodologies. Mayo clinic, an organization named as the best hospital of the United States; and Caterpillar, an icon of the construction and mining equipment manufacturing.
What is Lean?
The Lean methodology is a process management methodology that examines and enhance processes from the customer perspective. It looks to create proceedings that creates

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