Both six sigma and Lean Office were originally developed for the manufacturing shop floor and have found application in the office environment. Both take a continuous improvement approach to making operating performance better everyday. Both are customer focused and have their roots in quality improvement; though both have evolved to not only improve quality but also increase responsiveness, throughput, and employee and customer satisfaction.

Although their roots are similar, six sigma and Lean Office are two different tools; just as a hammer and a saw are two different tools. Each has sweet spots where they works the best, areas where they are OK, and areas where they are a waste of time. Over time the two approaches are adopting techniques of the other, as organizations realize that there is no more reason to build a house with just a hammer, as there is to build a house with just a saw.

Six sigma's primary focus is on the reduction of variation. Six sigma uses statistical mathematics to measure and predict variation. Once identified, reducing variation reduces defects and costs; thereby increasing performance. As an approach, six sigma does not specify techniques for reducing variation once discovered. Lean Office techniques can be one of the tools to reduce the variation monitored by six sigma.

Lean Office's primary focus is on maximizing value creation and minimizing waste. Lean Office assumes that the job of enhancing value creation and waste reduction is never done. There are always incremental improvements to be made. Lean Office relies on measurements such as six sigma or balanced scorecards to establish the status quo and evaluate the impact of change. But Lean Office is more of an approach for defining how systems should operate to maximize throughput while minimizing cycle times and waste.

Therefore, six sigma is more of a measurement tool to help identify problems and establish when they are resolved. Lean Office is more of an operations tool to help define from a system-wide perspective the most effective way for work to be performed.

Each of these continuous improvement approaches are defined in the Lean Office Glossary. As approaches for conducting continuous improvement programs each represents a cycle of implementation steps or stages; and all are typically represented as wheels. Although each defines what is included in each stage/step slightly differently, the overall contents of each are roughly identical. Whether you use one of these approaches or some other variation, it’s important that:

• It be done continuously
• There are sufficient measurements to insure progress is made
• Nothing else is broken

There is an interesting continuum where each of these particular approaches exists when it comes to problem solving. Consider a scale from one to five where one is "eliminate the negative" and five is "accentuate the positive". On this scale six sigma would rate a one, PDCA would rate a two, and the Five D's would rate a five. Depending on the organizational culture, one of these approaches or its derivatives may be more appropriate than another.

Value is a popular term within the vocabulary of Lean Office. Like many popular terms it means different things to different people. The Lean Office Glossary defines value as something of worth in usefulness or importance to the possessor. To paraphrase another saying: value is in the eye of the beholder. So there is nothing simple about establishing the value of something. It depends on the context and the individual or group assigning the value.

In Lean Office there are two primary uses of the word value:

1. The value of culture or community
2. The value of products or services

The value of culture or community represents the worth of maintaining the organization to the individuals that comprise the organization. These values establish a common sense of purpose, direction, and execution; why the organization exists, where it is going, and how is it going to get there.

The value of products or services represents the worth produced by the activities of the organization. The customers of this value can be both internal and external customers of the organization. These values help to sustain the long term viability of the organization.

There is a tendency to establish the overall value of an organization solely by the value of its products or services. Lean Office recognizes that both are important and that the two must be closely aligned and continually enhanced to maximize organizational performance.