Dayan Hengedara, CEO, The Lean Six Sigma Company Asia, and Pradeesh Wanniarachchi, Managing Partner, The Lean Six Sigma Company Asia, are leading the successful regional expansion of globally proven practical management concepts from out of Sri Lanka. They empower individuals to become change agents and growth enablers within their companies and help businesses adopt Lean Six Sigma to beat inflation and unlock growth.

Can you briefly take us through Lean Six Sigma Company Asia’s journey and notable successes thus far?

We started our operation in Sri Lanka three years ago as a franchise partner to The Lean Six Sigma Company Netherlands and exceeded expectations with our success. Within a short period, we were providing our services to companies across a wide range of industries from apparel and textiles to healthcare, BPO, IT, banking and finance, FMCG, academic, hospitality, insurance, printing and logistics in Sri Lanka and began aggressive expansion overseas.

Today, we serve these industries in other parts of Asia, including India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam and Malaysia, providing a wide range of Lean Six Sigma programmes. These programmes include the Lean Six Sigma Yellow Belt, Green Belt, Black Belt qualifications and other Lean programmes customized for different and unique customer requirements.

What is unique about the solutions you offer? What are the advantages and benefits your solutions can give enterprises?

Lean Six Sigma is a globally recognized methodology to improve efficiency and product quality while significantly reducing operational costs through robust process improvement solutions. The ultimate objective is to deliver a high-quality product to your customer in a shorter lead time and at an affordable price point, leading to more demand and higher earnings and growth for your organization.

In short, we help organizations to do more with fewer resources which are highly critical in these challenging economic situations to uphold competitive advantages. The most important thing is that Lean Six Sigma applies just as well to services companies as to manufacturing. We have a tried-and-tested unique approach to training Lean Six Sigma through high-quality materials, many advanced simulations, case studies and more.

What are those ingredients that helped you build a resilient company? How did you build a culture of innovation and resilience at Lean Six Sigma Company Asia?

Our people are the biggest strength in helping the company and our clients to thrive in these extremely tough situations. The co-founders (Dayan and Pradeesh) have over 15 years of industry experience in leadership positions for several leading organizations in Sri Lanka in different sectors such as apparel, chemicals, automobiles and hospitality. Apart from expertise in Lean Six Sigma concepts, we look for specialized industry experience when selecting trainers, enabling us to support our clients develop sustainable solutions to their problems through training and coaching. We can conduct our programmes in physical and virtual classrooms using the most advanced software and simulations to teach critical concepts in Lean Six Sigma.

The backing of the parent company, The Lean Six Sigma Company, Netherlands, is immense. We are one of the few global Lean Six Sigma training organizations with ISO 18404 & ISO 13053 accreditations and one of the oldest training organizations in the world with more than 25 partner countries across Europe, the US, Canada and Asia.

How is Lean Six Sigma Company Asia helping enterprises to reimagine and reinvent themselves?

By passing on Lean Six Sigma concepts and knowledge to each of our students through our training programmes, including project coaching to help them acquire and hone practical skills, we aim to transform all our students. We empower them to become change agents who create value, unlock growth opportunities and lead Lean Six Sigma projects within their organizations in the long run.

Lean Six Sigma is the ideal tool, especially in an environment where high inflation keeps pushing products out of consumer reach due to escalating prices. That is the biggest challenge confronting businesses today. The only viable option for mitigating the ill effects of high inflation is to reduce operational costs, which usually account for 30%-40% of total costs depending on the industry. That is where you need Lean Six Sigma tools and techniques!

We specialize in helping companies adopt Lean Six Sigma concepts, providing the necessary tools and techniques and helping them develop an effective strategy. We have established a proven reputation for having helped many organizations in Sri Lanka and Asia achieve significant results through Lean Six Sigma. We also collaborate with leading government and private sector universities to train lecturers and students, building our next generation of industry professionals to equip themselves with Lean Six Sigma knowledge to play a vital role tomorrow in the growth of our economy.

What are your plans for expansion and growth? How will you enable that growth?

We have a rapid expansion plan for the next couple of years. We aim to become the leading Lean Six Sigma provider in Asia. We will roll out programmes for SMEs to help them overcome the unfolding economic crisis and thrive. For individuals seeking to build fulfilling and successful careers today, Lean Six Sigma is one of the best professional qualifications that will give them the skills, knowledge and tools to be highly-valued agents of change in their companies. We have many plans to assist them through our open enrolment programmes.