SMART Industry and the future of Lean Six Sigma at EZ

What is SMART Industry?

The 6-minute video below explains exactly what SMART Industry is all about

The SMART Industry framework

The SMART industry framework includes 7 elements shown below. One of the most important developments is that the role of robots will increase. For example, it is already quite conceivable that a robot should be able to handle 80% of grant applications (which are standard). Now you still have to tell a robot exactly what to do but the development of self-learning robots is already underway. Incidentally, a pilot with a robot is also starting at RFO.

The impact of Smart Industry on Lean Six Sigma

The impact on Lean Six Sigma of SMART-industry is well illustrated by the Continuous Improvement Maturity Model (CIMM) developed by Symbol. The CIMM model (see opposite) identifies the five maturity stages of an LSS organization. At the first level, we recognize 5S. Meanwhile, there are convenient 5S apps on the market that facilitate 5S auditing and allow direct download to a progress board. At the third level, pull and the associated Kanban system (signaling to the upstream process step when production may begin) is expected to be handled extensively by the adaptive robots themselves.

Now at the fourth level is Six Sigma. Now that is mostly drawing conclusions based on samples somewhere between 30 and 300. Six Sigma as a data analysis technique will become much more important but vastly different in character. The computerization and robotization of litigation are creating huge data files that, if properly analyzed, will be a great source of improvement. So the analysis techniques will change. See also CBS’ interesting video on three applications of big data within their world here.