Lean, Agile and Six Sigma: Efficiency and the Challenges of Today's World, Is It Time for Change?

The article presents the results of the authors' research on the resilience of management concepts such as Lean Management, Agile, SixSigma to phenomena in the business environment. The crises of recent years - the Covid-19 pandemic, the increase in energy prices, the war in Ukraine - have posed great challenges for companies, including those that have applied management concepts such as Lean Management. Just-In-Time may involve more frequent deliveries, which has an impact on fuel consumption costs. On the other hand, however, improving processes by eliminating waste leads to a reduction in the consumption of production resources, including energy. The relationship is therefore not clear-cut. The authors used three research methods. Firstly, they analysed the literature - scientific publications, studies and expert reports. Secondly, they analysed the financial results from recent years of Polish companies, multinationals and companies that apply Lean Management, Agile and Six Sigma strategies and their combination. Thirdly, they surveyed companies that apply the Lean Management concept. The research sought to establish how crises, especially energy crises, have affected the effectiveness of companies using these management strategies and to determine whether the solutions used so far are sufficient or whether they need to be modified or new methods or tools need to be developed. The results of this research show that the crises of recent years, if they even caused a deterioration in the financial situation, were short-lived, as companies were able to adapt to the new conditions. The situation of companies that have implemented Lean is no better than that of other companies - it is not apparent that any of the management concepts studied help more in increasing process efficiency. The best results come from companies that combine different concepts (Lean, Agile, SixSigma), as well as digital technologies Industry 4.0). The crises, although they have forced companies to take certain measures (e.g. the use of renewable energy sources), have (contrary to predictions) not resulted in radical changes, i.e. moving from one concept to another or abandoning Just-In-Time. The issue of energy efficiency is gaining more and more attention in companies and is included in management concepts, e.g. Lean management. Lean management has a positive effect on energy efficiency (indirect effect) through the elimination of waste, but in order to effectively increase energy efficiency, solutions must be applied that are aimed directly at increasing energy efficiency.