If you have ever wanted to use Lean Six Sigma to improve your manufacturing plant--and who hasn't--you might want to read the book Velocity, authored by the Goldratt Institute's Dee Jacobs, Suzan Bergland and Joe Cox. As Goldratt and his colleagues are wont to do, they wrote a business novel. By the middle of the book, the reader realizes that the plant in the book has been operating pretty successfully using the Theory of Constraints Management system. Then, the plant is sold to a company that endorses Lean Six Sigma. When the new regime tries to balance the flow through the workcenters, there are few gains on the bottom line. It takes them a while to realize that the best application of the three systems is to schedule with TOC, streamline with Lean and improve specific processes with Six Sigma.
They make an interesting case for being careful before we jump into new "Flavor of the Month" programs. None of these programs are sufficient alone. They all can be useful in the areas where they apply best. But none is The Answer.