Six Sigma. Lean. What do these initiatives have to do with the supply chain? The short answer is everything. The origins of these approaches are based, in Six Sigma’s case, on continuous improvements in quality and variation control, and in lean’s case, on production velocity and eliminating waste. Both Six Sigma and lean can help improve supply chain efficiency, and companies today are quick to take advantage of one or the other approach throughout their organizations. However, few companies realize that while each approach can be mutually exclusive, an interesting thing happens when the two are combined.

Which brings us to our first question.

Have we forgotten what customers want?

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