Investigating the relationship between Lean Six Sigma and innovation

Innovation and Lean Six Sigma (LSS) have been proven to be very useful tools that can be used to achieve a more efficient utilization of resources, produce high quality products, and create competitive advantages that can help organizations to achieve high levels of business performance in today's competitive market. Where LSS tends to redesign and standardize the processes in an organization to control defects and eliminate waste, innovation; that needs a more flexible and open environment, encourages people to generate new ideas and think far beyond the rules and conditions of a particular standard. So, they can be considered as complements and organizations should target incorporating both of them. This paper will look into previous research that has investigated the relationship between LSS and innovation highlighting key aspects and observations of this relationship.