Lean, Six Sigma and TQM are often taught as toolkits. Treated as science — with hypotheses, measurement and disciplined iteration — they become something far more powerful.
Productivity methods are frequently deployed as toolkits: a kaizen event here, a control chart there, a certificate on the wall.
Treated as science, they are transformative. A hypothesis about a bottleneck. A measurement that tests it. A disciplined change, and honest evaluation of whether it worked.
The distinction matters because tools without method produce activity without improvement. The chartered operations scientist is trained to tell the difference — and to build systems that get better on purpose, not by accident.