Last week, I had my first meeting with my outplacement advisor — such a genuinely nice person Morten Schebye . When I introduced myself and said, “I’m a Lean Six Sigma expert,” he smiled and replied:

“Ah yes… Lean. I don’t like it. From what I’ve seen, it’s just a management tool to justify re-organizations and cutting jobs.”

That caught my attention immediately. I told him:

“Actually, Lean isn’t like that at all. In a real Lean company, you can’t fire people — because respect for people is one of its core principles.”

And that’s where our real conversation began.

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🇯🇵 Where Lean Really Started

When I think about Lean, I go back to Japan — about 75 years ago — when the entire economy was restructuring. Companies like Toyota pioneered systems that later reshaped global manufacturing.

I still feel lucky that my hometown, Sakarya, has a Toyota plant producing around 1,000 cars every day. If I remember correctly, a new car rolled off the line every minute!

When I first read Lean Thinking in 2001, I was simply impressed. It wasn’t just about efficiency or processes — it was about culture, respect, and continuous improvement.

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🚚 Lessons from Toyota’s Supply Chain

Later, I worked for one of Toyota’s tier-1 suppliers. Every day, a logistics company came to pick up our parts on time — what they called the milk run.

Toyota trusted us (and hundreds of suppliers) to deliver directly to their assembly lines. The level of quality and reliability was unbelievable.

One old Toyota engineer once told me:

“Our goal is to minimize the time from customer order to fulfillment — by eliminating waste.”

That’s the essence of Lean: 👉 See waste. 👉 Eliminate it. 👉 Empower people to own and improve their processes.

That’s Kaizen culture — Continuous Improvement in the value flow.

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📈 Then Came Six Sigma

Six Sigma started in the 1990s at GE — a structured way to solve big problems through DMAIC: Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, Control.

During our discussion, I picked up two board markers and asked:

“Do you think they’re the same width?”

He said yes. I replied, “They look the same — but if we had a precise enough gauge, we’d find small variations.”

That’s what Six Sigma does: it helps you see variation clearly and reduce it. The goal? 2.3 defects per million opportunities.

He said, “That’s ambitious.” I smiled and asked, “How many airplanes are flying right now? And how often do we hear about accidents?” That’s because aviation operates close to Six Sigma level performance.

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⚙️ And Then Comes Agile

We didn’t have time to dive into Agile during our talk — but conceptually, it’s the natural extension of Lean. Agile expands Lean principles like one-piece flow vs. batch (waterfall) — bringing them into the world of software and digital development.

As a Certified Scrum Master, I’ve worked with Azure DevOps and Agile teams focused on one thing: 👉 Making value flow to the customer without interruptions.

At its heart, Agile is Lean — just adapted for the digital era.

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🧭 My Takeaway

My advisor reminded me about posting on LinkedIn. I told him — I’m not here for social validation. I’d rather share real experiences and practical insights from Lean, Six Sigma, and Agile.

So here I am. If you’ve had negative experiences with Lean or other improvement tools — drop a comment below 👇 I’d love to hear your story and maybe help change your perspective.

Because Lean is not about cost-cutting. It’s about respect for people, learning every day, and making things flow better for everyone.

#Lean #ContinuousImprovement #SixSigma #Agile #Scrum #Kaizen #OperationalExcellence #Leadership #RespectForPeople #ProcessImprovement #LeanThinking