Variations and defect exist even in the IT industry. In a lot of instances, IT technology is usually the answer in reducing variations and defects. IT companies also have situations arise when they need to use methods of improvement like Six Sigma. Six Sigma is in demand with IT companies because it gives them a solid solution to grow their abilities and services.

The manufacturing industry and IT industry have similarities, being that they neither one face many challenges. The biggest one they may see would be deadlines being missed in lengthy projects. Many instances leave Six Sigma limited to a single project alone.

The solution comes in the form of using Lean tools with Six Sigma. They are very complementary, especially in instances of high variations and wastes. These result in defects, which Six Sigma helps attack. It can be difficult to see where total wastes may be, but Lean can help with this.

The best way to bring about improvements is to use Lean concepts and tools to assess such concern areas of the project that are responsible for the drawbacks. By undertaking such an assessment, or in other words “leaning out” the processes, it becomes easy to analyze and examine the quality issues using Six Sigma tools and techniques. The causes for variation can be figured out with the help of various Six Sigma tools. This approach of leaning out projects to be taken under the Six Sigma scanner yields good results in the selected process areas.

Companies are in a position to lower costs by discerning the cost of bad quality and by moving towards cost reduction. There is not a single solution for all. With both Six Sigma and Lean, proper sortation of problems and improvement will be successfully achieved.