Lean Manufacturing, Six Sigma, and Supply Chain Operations Reference or SCOR are viewed as three of the strategies that can help an organization improve their processes.
We have talked about the effective combination of Lean and Six Sigma in previous posts. Now companies are starting to believe that incorporating SCOR with the other two is the way to go. From their experience, SCOR is an excellent prelude to a Lean Six Sigma approach for developing a portfolio of projects.
Termed as a cross-industry model, SCOR is designed to analyze a supply chain and identify improvement opportunities in both Material flow and Work & Information flow.
The SCOR model defines a supply chain as: “the integrated processes of Plan, Source, Make, Deliver and Return, spanning your supplier’s supplier to your customer’s customer, aligned with Operational Strategy, Material, Work & Information Flows.”
The SCOR model is carried out in phases from a high level (usually Enterprise or Supply Chain) to Material flow and Work & Information flow activities.
With SCOR, Lean and Six Sigma will pave the way for the organization’s competitiveness. Using SCOR as a prelude to Lean Six Sigma offers several advantages:
1. It aligns improvement efforts with the supply chain, not organizations.
2. It provides a comprehensive analysis of a supply chain, focusing on the customer as the end-point.
3. It enables the selection of projects, which will have the most impact on achieving strategic objectives and improving the P&L.
Using Lean, Six Sigma, and SCOR To Improve Competitiveness
