A traditional Lean Six Sigma program can be a powerful framework for process improvement. However, many deployments fall short of delivering long-term, enterprise-wide benefits. At Smarter Solutions, we believe it’s time for an upgrade—a Lean Six Sigma Program 2.0—powered by our Integrated Enterprise Excellence (IEE) system.
The Problem with Traditional Lean Six Sigma Programs
While traditional Lean Six Sigma deployments aim to reduce waste and improve quality, they often fall into a tactical trap. Organizations invest heavily in training belts, launching dozens of projects based on perceived problems or localized metrics. However, these efforts frequently:
- Lack alignment with strategic business goals.
- Focus on isolated areas without addressing system-wide inefficiencies.
- Rely on anecdotal project selection rather than data-driven prioritization.
- Struggle to demonstrate financial impact or ROI.
- Create improvement fatigue without fostering a culture of lasting change.
These shortcomings can erode stakeholder confidence and reduce support for future improvement efforts.
The bottom line is: Organizations need a Lean Six Sigma Program 2.0 that positively impacts the Big-Picture.”
Lean Six Sigma Continuous Improvement: A Smarter Path to Sustainable Results
Organizations striving to remain competitive in today’s fast-paced environment recognize that excellence is not achieved through one-time initiatives—it requires a culture of continuous improvement. The Lean Six Sigma continuous improvement methodology is a proven, data-driven approach that integrates Lean principles (focused on eliminating waste) with Six Sigma techniques (focused on reducing variation). This powerful combination delivers long-lasting improvements that are directly tied to measurable business outcomes.
Traditional improvement programs often focus on isolated problem-solving efforts without a strategic linkage to enterprise-level goals. As a result, many projects deliver local benefits but fail to create meaningful, sustained impact across the organization. Lean Six Sigma, when properly deployed, addresses this challenge by combining structured problem-solving with a business-wide focus on value creation and waste elimination.
Smarter Solutions’ Lean Six Sigma Program 2.0 builds on this foundation, offering a smarter path to sustainable results. This enhanced approach to Lean Six Sigma continuous improvement is centered around the Integrated Enterprise Excellence (IEE) framework. Unlike conventional deployments that rely heavily on siloed DMAIC projects, the IEE methodology emphasizes alignment with enterprise goals, predictive metrics, and an actionable roadmap for targeted improvements. This ensures that every improvement effort contributes to the “big picture” and supports the strategic direction of the organization.
What sets this smarter Lean Six Sigma model apart is the integration of operational insights with business-level priorities. The IEE roadmap facilitates clear visibility into process health and enables leadership to make informed decisions based on predictive 30,000-foot-level performance metrics. This leads to smarter project selection—focused on areas where change truly moves the needle for financials and customer satisfaction.
A key aspect of successful Lean Six Sigma continuous improvement is consistency in deployment roles and responsibilities. Smarter Solutions promotes a structured hierarchy of Champions, Master Black Belts, Black Belts, and Green Belts, each playing a defined part in achieving sustained improvements. These roles are not merely titles—they are the pillars that support a culture of disciplined execution, cross-functional collaboration, and ongoing learning.
Moreover, the IEE-enhanced approach supports organizations in achieving breakthrough results without creating an unnecessary administrative burden. The system is designed to be scalable and flexible, integrating with existing business processes and ERP systems while providing real-time visibility into progress and outcomes. Whether you’re a large enterprise seeking to transform your culture or a smaller organization looking to optimize operations, the smarter path provided by Lean Six Sigma 2.0 delivers results that are both tangible and sustainable.
In short, Lean Six Sigma continuous improvement is not just a methodology—it’s a mindset. And when supported by a smarter deployment model like IEE, it becomes a strategic engine for driving enterprise excellence.
Lean Six Sigma Organizational Deployment Roles
In a traditional deployment, there is Lean Six Sigma Deployment Executive who works with leadership to determine process improvement projects that saves the organization money.
Champions are executives who are to then initiate and sprearhead the completion of these improvement projects in their area of the business.
The traditional Lean Six Sigma organizational deployment roles for process improvement projects are:
In a Lean Six Sigma (LSS) deployment, there is training for each of these roles. Certifications are available for those who satisfactory fulfil their assigned role.
With a traditional Lean Six Sigma Program, the focus is financial savings. Initially this financial initiative appears as a worthy objective; however, what often occurs is playing games with the numbers to make the success of a LSS deployment appear better than it is, e.g., we saved 100 million dollars, but nobody can find the money.
In a professional society meeting presentation, I saw a LSS executive manager present a claim of over a billion dollars in annual savings while his company’s stock was rapidly declining. Many people in the company told me this LSS Executive claims were not valid. By the way, shortly after this evening presentation, the company terminated their LSS program.
In another company, a LSS Black Belt was not given credit for their project, which identified and removed an organizational bottle neck that added several million dollars annually to the organization’s bottom line, i.e., the project did not “save” any money.
Lean Six Sigma Program 2.0: A Better Way
Smarter Solutions offers a reimagined approach to Lean Six Sigma—one that ensures sustainability, alignment, and measurable success. Lean Six Sigma Program 2.0, based on our Integrated Enterprise Excellence (IEE) methodology, addresses the flaws of traditional deployments and replaces them with a business system that drives real organizational value.
Rather than treating improvement as a series of disconnected events, the IEE approach embeds continuous improvement into the fabric of how an organization operates. It ensures that every improvement initiative, dashboard, and performance metric serves a clear purpose—supporting the achievement of long-term business and customer outcomes.
The Power of Integrated Enterprise Excellence (IEE)
At the heart of Lean Six Sigma Program 2.0 is the IEE business management system. IEE provides a structured, repeatable framework that integrates strategy, process improvement, and performance reporting in a seamless way. Here’s how it transforms your Lean Six Sigma deployment:
1. Smarter Project Selection
Traditional Lean Six Sigma projects are often chosen based on gut feeling or local pain points. IEE replaces this with a data-driven, enterprise-aligned prioritization system that links improvement initiatives directly to big-picture performance needs. This ensures your resources are focused where they will have the most financial and customer impact.
2. 30,000-Foot-Level Metrics Reporting
Most organizations use red-yellow-green scorecards or daily metrics to monitor performance. These can be misleading and reactive. IEE introduces 30,000-foot-level metrics, which provide a high-altitude, statistically sound view of process performance over time. This allows leadership to differentiate between common cause and special cause variation—and make decisions based on trends, not noise.
3. Strategy Execution that Works
The IEE system aligns Lean Six Sigma efforts with your enterprise’s strategic goals. Using its nine-step methodology, IEE connects high-level objectives with actionable metrics and well-scoped improvement projects. This ensures your entire organization is pulling in the same direction, from the C-suite to the front line.
4. Long-Term Cultural Adoption
A Lean Six Sigma program should be more than training belts and completing projects. With IEE, improvement becomes an integral part of how your organization thinks and operates. You gain not only tools and methods, but also a unified language and strategy for making performance improvement part of everyday work.
The IEE Nine-Step Roadmap
Our IEE system offers a well-defined nine-step roadmap that guides organizations through:
- Establishing leadership understanding and buy-in.
- Identifying enterprise-level performance gaps.
- Mapping the value chain and selecting meaningful metrics.
- Reporting with clarity using 30,000-foot-level dashboards.
- Prioritizing improvement efforts based on business impact.
- Executing projects with Lean Six Sigma tools in context.
- Monitoring improvement results to sustain gains.
- Updating dashboards to reflect true progress.
- Institutionalizing improvement through learning and growth.
This roadmap ensures that your Lean Six Sigma program isn’t just another corporate initiative—it becomes a true driver of excellence.
Results that Matter
Organizations that implement Lean Six Sigma through the IEE system consistently report:
- Increased alignment between improvement projects and strategic objectives.
- Improved customer satisfaction and Net Promoter Scores (NPS).
- Greater transparency in enterprise performance.
- Meaningful bottom-line financial improvements.
- Reduced effort chasing unimportant metrics or misaligned goals.
Lean Six Sigma and DMAIC: A Smarter, More Connected Approach
Lean Six Sigma and DMAIC are often taught as powerful tools for driving continuous improvement (via Master Black Belts, Black Belts, and Green Belts), but in traditional deployments, they often fall short of delivering sustainable, enterprise-wide impact. Why? Because too many organizations implement DMAIC (Define-Measure-Analyze-Improve-Control) projects in silos, disconnected from the business’s overall strategic goals. At Smarter Solutions, we’ve modernized the deployment of Lean Six Sigma and DMAIC through a smarter, more integrated methodology—one that bridges the gap between improvement activity and business-wide success.
Our Lean Six Sigma Program 2.0 enhances the classical DMAIC structure by embedding it within a larger system of organizational alignment. We don’t just teach the phases of DMAIC—we connect them to the enterprise’s big-picture goals. This ensures that improvement efforts go beyond localized efficiencies and instead deliver measurable financial and customer satisfaction gains.
One of the most empowering tools in this journey is our free, online, clickable Lean Six Sigma DMAIC roadmap, available at https://www.smartersolutions.com/roadmap. This interactive tool is more than just a guide—it’s a dynamic learning and application aid that supports both new and experienced practitioners through every phase of the DMAIC process. From defining the problem to sustaining improvements, this online roadmap provides access to best practices, templates, and step-by-step direction, all from a single browser-based interface.
By offering this roadmap free to the public, we aim to democratize process improvement and empower individuals and teams to take smarter steps forward. It’s ideal for Black Belt and Green Belt candidates, project champions, and even executives who want to gain insight into how properly scoped DMAIC efforts contribute to strategic goals.
The synergy between Lean Six Sigma and DMAIC, when guided by our IEE (Integrated Enterprise Excellence) system, becomes a transformation engine. Traditional Lean Six Sigma training often results in disconnected improvement projects that may achieve localized success but fail to scale or align with enterprise-level metrics. Our enhanced approach ensures that the Define phase is tied directly to KPIs that matter, the Measure phase uses meaningful 30,000-foot-level metrics, and the Analyze, Improve, and Control phases focus on sustainable, system-level improvements.
Too often, organizations see DMAIC as a tactical tool. At Smarter Solutions, we elevate it into a strategic asset. Our clients repeatedly tell us that the clarity and alignment provided by our roadmap and training system make the difference between short-term wins and lasting cultural transformation.
Whether you’re launching your first improvement project or looking to evolve a mature deployment, aligning Lean Six Sigma and DMAIC with your organization’s broader business goals is crucial. Explore our free online DMAIC roadmap today and see how Smarter Solutions can help you create lasting, measurable impact across your enterprise.
Lean Six Sigma Books: A Smarter Resource for Sustainable Business Excellence
When exploring the world of operational excellence, the right resources can make all the difference. Lean Six Sigma books have long served as essential guides for business leaders, process improvement professionals, and continuous improvement enthusiasts. However, not all books are created equal. Many traditional resources only scratch the surface—offering general tools and techniques without providing a strategic roadmap for sustainable results.
That’s where Smarter Solutions’ suite of Lean Six Sigma books stands out. These publications go beyond conventional thinking by integrating Lean and Six Sigma tools into a broader management system known as Integrated Enterprise Excellence (IEE). This approach, often referred to as Lean Six Sigma 2.0, addresses the common pitfalls of traditional deployments, such as misaligned projects, siloed metrics, and disconnected improvement initiatives.
Smarter Solutions offers two novel-based titles that uniquely introduce the IEE methodology from a high-level, leadership-oriented perspective. These Lean Six Sigma books are designed as engaging stories that reveal not just what to do, but why and how it fits into the broader enterprise strategy.
Book Series for Strategic Insight: A Novel Approach
- Management 2.0: Discovery of Integrated Enterprise Excellence (Management and Leadership System 2.0 Book 1) : This novel-formatted book presents the discovery of the IEE system through a compelling storyline. Readers follow a business leader as they uncover why traditional Lean Six Sigma programs often fall short and how IEE offers a smarter path to improvement. The book covers foundational concepts such as metric reporting pitfalls, the flaws in red-yellow-green dashboards, and how strategic improvement projects can be better selected through a predictive performance measurement system. It is also available in audiobook format, making it ideal for executives who prefer listening during commutes or travel.
- Leadership System 2.0: Implementing Integrated Enterprise Excellence (Management and Leadership System 2.0 Book 2): In this second installment of the series, the focus shifts from discovery to implementation. The storyline illustrates how an organization can embed the IEE framework into its culture and daily operations. The book offers practical guidance for selecting improvement projects that truly impact enterprise goals and introduces an enhanced metric reporting structure that supports long-term success. Like Book 1, this part of the series is also available in audiobook format, enhancing accessibility for busy professionals.
These two Lean Six Sigma books provide a rare blend of storytelling and practical insight—helping business leaders understand the big picture of performance excellence without being overwhelmed by technical jargon.
Detailed Implementation Guides for Lean Six Sigma 2.0
For those who want to dive deeper into the nuts and bolts of Lean Six Sigma 2.0, Smarter Solutions offers a powerful collection of detailed execution manuals. These books are ideal for Green Belts, Black Belts, Master Black Belts, and improvement project leaders who want step-by-step guidance grounded in the IEE methodology:
- Minitab® and Lean Six Sigma: A Guide to Improve Business Performance Metrics: Tailored for those using Minitab software, this guide demonstrates how to analyze and improve processes using data-driven tools integrated within the IEE system.
- SigmaXL® and Lean Six Sigma: A Guide to Improve Business Performance Metrics: Similar in structure to the Minitab edition, this version focuses on SigmaXL users and offers a complete roadmap for executing improvement projects within an IEE framework.
- Integrated Enterprise Excellence, Vol. II – Business Deployment: A Leaders’ Guide for Going Beyond Lean Six Sigma and the Balanced Scorecard: This volume is aimed at executives and managers responsible for aligning Lean Six Sigma with business goals. It outlines how to link improvement efforts with strategic direction and how to deploy a measurement system that drives results.
- Integrated Enterprise Excellence, Vol. III – Improvement Project Execution: A Management and Black Belt Guide for Going Beyond Lean Six Sigma and the Balanced Scorecard: his technical manual is packed with examples, templates, and guidance on how to conduct improvement projects that deliver meaningful change. It includes a step-by-step project roadmap consistent with Lean Six Sigma 2.0.
- Lean Six Sigma Project Execution Guide: The Integrated Enterprise Excellence (IEE) Process Improvement Project Roadmap: This concise guide walks teams through each stage of the IEE project roadmap. It provides practical direction for initiating, analyzing, improving, and sustaining projects in alignment with enterprise goals.
- Lean Six Sigma: A Handbook and Solutions Manual for Green Belt, Black Belt and Master Black Belt Process Improvement Projects (2-book Bundle): This comprehensive bundle includes both a reference handbook and a companion solutions manual, offering a complete toolkit for Lean Six Sigma training and execution within an IEE framework. Over 100 examples and 250 exercises (with datasets) are provided in this lean Six Sigma handbook.
Whether you’re a business leader seeking strategic alignment or a practitioner in search of execution excellence, these Lean Six Sigma books deliver value far beyond traditional improvement literature. With options for storytelling, technical guidance, and even audiobook formats, Smarter Solutions’ publications provide a truly smarter way to achieve sustainable results through Lean Six Sigma 2.0.
Lean Six Sigma Consulting Services: Unlocking Sustainable Results Through Smarter Solutions
When it comes to driving measurable improvement and sustainable transformation, Lean Six Sigma consulting services must go beyond cookie-cutter solutions. At Smarter Solutions, Inc., our consulting methodology integrates the power of traditional Lean Six Sigma tools with a modern, enhanced framework called the Integrated Enterprise Excellence (IEE) system. This approach resolves the long-standing limitations of siloed deployments, ensuring that every improvement initiative directly aligns with organizational financial goals and customer satisfaction.
Unlike conventional Lean Six Sigma programs that often fall short in project selection and long-term ROI, Smarter Solutions’ IEE system embeds predictive analytics and big-picture thinking into the improvement process. With our consulting services, organizations gain not only technical know-how but also a strategic roadmap with many supporting reference books that leads to enterprise-wide excellence.
Clients across industries—from manufacturing and healthcare to financial services and government—have found that working with Smarter Solutions transforms how they measure success and manage operations. Our consultants don’t just train or audit; they partner with you to embed a system that sustains results and fosters innovation.
“(Keith) considers IEE the most complete and effective operational management system available. (Keith) defines it as a process that allows management to accurately predict financial results, meet growth goals, maximize cash flow, force innovation, develop responsive supply chain dynamics, meet customer needs, improve employee performance–and avoid surprises.”
— Keith Moe, Retired Group Vice President, 3M’s Electro and Communications Markets Group Division
(More Testimonials)
Our Lean Six Sigma consulting services provide organizations with an end-to-end improvement model that integrates seamlessly with existing systems and cultures. Whether you’re just starting out or looking to revitalize an existing deployment, our consultants tailor each engagement to meet your needs—using data-driven methods to identify the right projects and measure their impact using our proprietary 30,000-foot-level reporting.
One of the unique advantages of working with Smarter Solutions is access to our free, online clickable DMAIC roadmap. This dynamic tool complements our consulting by guiding teams through the Define-Measure-Analyze-Improve-Control phases with clarity and efficiency.
Clients consistently praise our hands-on approach, technical depth, and ability to translate complex analytics into business value. Our team of consultants brings decades of real-world experience and a proven methodology that eliminates the guesswork and frustration often found in traditional deployments.
If you’re looking for Lean Six Sigma consulting services that deliver more than short-term gains, Smarter Solutions offers a smarter path. We help you shift from reactive management to proactive excellence—where improvement projects are no longer isolated efforts, but key drivers of financial performance and strategic growth.
Contact us today to learn how our unique consulting model can help your organization reach the next level of operational success.
Next Steps
Contact us today to schedule a free consultation and discover how we can help your organization achieve sustainable, measurable success with your Lean Six Sigma Program – and more.
If you do not see a suitable time in the Schedule a Meeting link below, email Forrest at [email protected].