Related to quality management, do you see that there is a relationship between "Motion and time study" of F. Taylor and concepts of Lean Sigma?

Sigma approach:It combines elements of statistical quality control, breakthrough thinking, and management science -- all valuable, powerful disciplines all with high profile attention for quality in process and process improvements .  F.W  Taylor approach is also to eliminate the un wanted waste of efforts to the maximum and improving overall efficiency.  Time and motion study--1950's-- time study developed in the direction of establishing standard times, while motion study evolved into a technique for improving work methods. The two techniques became integrated and refined into a widely accepted method applicable to the improvement and upgrading of work systems.

- Lean is about looking after wastes and eliminating them by having a focus the value added to the customer

- Six Sigma is about increasing quality by reducing process variability

Lean allows you to go FASTER and Six Sigma gives you a better quality.

The combination of both helps you to get Faster with a Better Quality. That's the goal of Lena Six Sigma.

Quality Management

Coordinated activities to direct and control an organization with regard to quality, to comply with requirements before, during and after product realization.  The product can be a commodity, service or a project. 

Attached to Quality Management is the theme of Continuous Improvement.

To achieve Continuous Improvement the organization should define its business processes correctly and measure their Key Performance Indicators (KPI's).  Then the improvement is achieved through working on the measurements towards specified targets.

Motion and Time Study, Fredrick W. Taylor;1881

Motion Study is designed to determine the best way to complete a repetitive job, through improving the Man / Machine Interaction. 

Motion study main concerns are:

ý  Operator's Safety,

ý  Minimal Operator's Motion and Effort

ý  Minimum motion of Raw Materials and Work-In-Process (WIP)

Time Study measures how long it takes an average worker to complete a task at a normal pace.

Time study main concerns are:

ý  Flow and Delivery Pace

ý  Assembly Line Balance

ý  Cost Reduction

ý  Optimizing Machine Capacity and Manpower to Production Targets

Motion and time study helps management determine how much is produced by workers in a specific period of time, therefore making it easier to predict work schedules and output.  Hence, Motion and Time Study is about how to increase productivity and reduce unit cost; through reducing Waste in Motion and Time.

Lean Six Sigma

Lean (Ford and Toyota; early Decades of the20th Century) is a set of principles that accelerates the speed of all Processes across the Enterprise.  Lean does this through fighting against the7 wastes as defined by Toyota (Over production – Over processing – Inventories – Inspection – Poor Quality – Waiting – Motion of Work-In-Process, Raw Materials and Personnel) together with starving for Continuous Flow.

Lean Implementation has different phases attached with each phase the Company utilizes certain Lean Tools and measures some Lean Metrics.

Lean Metrics have different frameworks; one of them is QCDSME that stands for (Quality – Cost – Delivery – Safety – Morale – Environment).

Six Sigma (Motorolla and G.E.; Late Decades of the20th Century)is a Continuous Improvement Methodology focused on achieving minimum or Zero Defects in Quality and eliminating all Variances, which Molds together the Following:

ý  A Problem Solving Framework abbreviated as DMAIC, with the following Phases :Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve and Control

DMAIC Framework is an elaboration for Plan-Do-Check-Act, Deming's PDCA Wheel

For each of the DMAIC Framework Phases there are defined Deliverables, Activities and Tools.

ý  Intensive use of Statistical Tools during the DMAIC Framework Phases.

ý  And most importantly severe restriction on the number of Failures / Defects to be the Area the BELL SHAPE Normal Distribution outside the6 δ Standard Deviation Range; i.e.3.4 failures / million opportunities.

Lean Six Sigma (Late Decades of the20th Century) is the application of lean techniques to increase organizational speed, while combining the tools and culture of Six Sigma to improve efficiencies and focus on customers’ issues.

The principles of Lean Six Sigma are to initially work on causes of customer Critical-To-Quality issues and those that create the longest lead-time delays in any process.

Eliminating those causes provides the greatest opportunity for improvement in cost, quality, capital, and lead-time.

Now I can put my preferred answer this way:

ý  Through Flow we can see how Lean Six Sigma Tools are related to Motion and Time Study

·                Value Stream Map (VSM): examines Materials and Products Information Flow to See the Flow

·                Process Flow Analysis : examines Materials and Products Flow to Understand the Flow

·                Yamazumi / Line Balance : examines the Balance between TAKT Time and Cycle Times to Realize How the Flow is Happening

·                Standardized Work – Work Sequence : examines the Man / Machine Interaction to Personalize the Flow to the Operator

ý  Lean Six Sigma and Motion and Time Study have in common the following :

·                Both are fighting waste in Time and Motion.

·                Both are after continuous improvement.

·                Both adopt rigorous measurement systems to achieve their goals.

·                The tools and measurement systems of both can be included in Quality Management Systems.

ý  Lean Six Sigma, Motion and Time Study and Quality Management Systems are developments along the road on how to manage Enterprises towards Excellency.

Sorry, I have no answer for this question, but thanks for inviting me.

Great question. Measuring cycle time in Lean Six Sigma is critical to process improvement. Employing a time and motion study will aid in deriving the cycle time for manual process work and facilitate value stream mapping. In many cases, the traditional time and motion study of a laborer is supplanted by some form of automation in data collection. For instance organizations, usually those in transactional environments, that have some form of automated workflow may replace the usual time and motion study with time stamps in systems with defined audit trails. 

One point of caution, though. The concepts that Fredrick Taylor espoused in his work may not necessarily hold true for Lean Six Sigma. Not every process may be optimized through the economical subdivision of labor in the modern work environment or even in modern manufacturing environments. Therefore his notion of time studies, or Gilbreth's motion studies,  require some form of adaptation prior to deployment in contemporary Lean Six Sigma efforts. 

Much of Fredrick Taylor's work was based on the steel industry, which back in1911, was largely manual with little automation. With the rise of information systems in process-centric industries the subdivision of human labor has largely lead to the introduction of plant automation. As such the allocation of work to human laborers is based not only on the speed of execution but on the quality of production and their ability to make valuable decision machines cannot.