Directory Search on :   lean manufacturing glossary

How Open Minded Are You?

The "Big 3" whole-company improvement technologies -- Lean Thinking, Six Sigma, Theory of Constraints -- are individually so powerful that advocates can easily become defensive; "my technology is better than yours."

A sign of maturity in the movements is the recognition that each brings things to the table that the others do not; and the combination is more powerful than the independence. For example, managers trained in TOC know that the Theory of Constraints is the ultimate "mixer" -- it pulls other technologies in to an implementation, in a focused manner and with a high degree of leverage that helps each to achieve better results than they could have individually. Everyone wins.