Getting The Job Done With Lean Six Sigma

Lean manufacturing isn't about doing your job shorthanded and without the tools that you need to get it done. It's about getting the job done with the exact number of parts, supplies and man hours that are needed. It's about getting the job with the right tools, with the minimum amount of waste created. This waste that you're eliminating is in material, time, space and money.
You need to be able to do the job, you're not looking for ways to cut corners because then you are just making an inferior product. So it's not always about using the cheapest materials available, it is about using the right materials in the best way possible. It's the same with the labor involved. You aren't looking to use the cheapest, most unskilled labor available, but you do need to use your labor wisely.
And that comes from training them correctly and having the right protocols in place when there happens to be a problem. And this is where a true test of lean comes into play. When you see a problem, is it something that is fixed right away. If there is a problem with production or quality, is it caught immediately? Are the protocols in place which could stop the problem from getting bigger and then eliminate the problem before it happens again?
There are going to be mistakes, which are inevitable, but are the mistakes correctable? How many times is the same mistake made? These are things that will eat away at your profit and leave you in pretty bad shape. It's the true measure of how efficient and how lean your operation is when you can fix these mistakes immediately, with the least amount of damage and prevent them from happening again.
If you are looking to just skate by, hope that things run smoothly and not worry about what can be avoided, but instead just try and fix it when it happens, then you are going to have a really hard time competing in today's global market. In actual fact, it does not take very long, just a couple of mistakes that make it past your doors and into the customers hands before the customers start identifying your company as one that's not reliable in the quality department. Looking at the lost revenue is bad enough, but seeing how your reputation suffers is worse.