Operational Excellence in the Process Industry: A Practitioner’s Guide to Lean Six Sigma

This book presents a comprehensive, practitioner-focused framework for applying Lean Six Sigma (LSS) within the chemical and pharmaceutical process industries-sectors that have historically been underserved by mainstream LSS literature.While most existing resources concentrate on discrete manufacturing, this work addresses the distinct challenges of process-driven environments, including complex batch operations, stringent regulatory requirements, and variability in raw materials and formulations.By adapting core LSS tools such as DMAIC, SMED, Heijunka, and Visual Management to these realities, the book provides a practical roadmap for achieving operational excellence where precision, compliance, and adaptability are essential. A key technical contribution lies in the detailed application of SMED (Single-Minute Exchange of Dies) principles.The methodology involves breaking down changeover activities into internal and external tasks, conducting cost-benefit analyses, and systematically