International Journal of Lean Six Sigma

Bài báo này nhằm xác định, phân tích và phân loại các yếu tố sẵn sàng chính để thực hiện Lean Six Sigma (LSS) trong các tổ chức chăm sóc sức khỏe bằng kỹ thuật mô hình hoá cấu trúc giải thích tổng thể. Các yếu tố sẵn sàng được xác định sẽ giúp quản lý nhận diện các lĩnh vực còn thiếu và cung cấp tầm quan trọng cho việc thực hiện thành công LSS trong các lĩnh vực đó. Bài báo cũng nhằm mục đích hiểu các mối quan hệ liên kết thứ bậc giữa các yếu tố sẵn sàng được xác định bằng cách sử dụng sự phụ thuộc và sức mạnh thúc đẩy.

Tổng cộng có 16 yếu tố sẵn sàng được xác định từ việc rà soát tài liệu và ý kiến chuyên gia từ các bệnh viện. Cuộc phỏng vấn được lên lịch dựa trên khảo sát bảng câu hỏi tại các bệnh viện trong bối cảnh Ấn Độ để xác định sự liên quan của các mối quan hệ giữa các yếu tố sẵn sàng. Ý kiến chuyên gia được sử dụng trong ma trận tiếp cận ban đầu và ma trận tương tác giải thích. Phân tích MICMAC sử dụng đa phụ thuộc và sức mạnh thúc đẩy để hiểu mối quan hệ liên kết thứ bậc giữa các yếu tố sẵn sàng được xác định.

Kết quả cho thấy rằng văn hóa định hướng khách hàng và quản lý mục tiêu là các yếu tố sẵn sàng then chốt cho LSS. Kỹ thuật thực thi và đào tạo được cung cấp theo nhu cầu hiện tại của khách hàng và sự thay đổi mục tiêu của tổ chức. Người quản lý cần tập trung nhiều hơn vào các yếu tố sẵn sàng để hình thành quy trình thực hiện LSS nhằm cải thiện liên tục tổ chức chăm sóc sức khỏe. Mức độ sẵn sàng giúp người quản lý xác định khu vực mục tiêu để thực hiện LSS.

Nghiên cứu này chủ yếu tập trung vào các yếu tố sẵn sàng cho việc thực hiện LSS trong ngành công nghiệp chăm sóc sức khỏe.

Nghiên cứu này sẽ hữu ích cho các nhà nghiên cứu và nhà thực hành để hiểu các yếu tố sẵn sàng trước khi bắt đầu quá trình thực hiện LSS.

Nhiều nghiên cứu đang được thực hiện về tỷ lệ thành công và thất bại của việc thực hiện các yếu tố. Nghiên cứu hiện tại xác định các yếu tố sẵn sàng liên quan đến LSS, đặc biệt là cho ngành công nghiệp chăm sóc sức khỏe.

The objective of this paper is to explore the critical success factors (CSFs) for Lean Six Sigma (LSS) in the Malaysian automotive industry.

Structural equation modeling (SEM) was employed to test the model drawing on a sample of 252 Malaysian automotive organisations. Exploratory factor analyses (EFA), confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), and reliability analysis empirically verified and validated the underlying items of CSFs of LSS.

The results of EFA, CFA, and reliability analysis show that two items for supplier relationship are recommended to be excluded from the analysis. The result indicates that LSS has identified 40 items as compared to the original questionnaire which had 42 items. Based on the survey of empirical data, the two factors of leadership and customer focus have been shown to be the extremely important factors for LSS implementation in the Malaysian automotive industry.

Firstly, this survey is based only on the automotive industry in Malaysia, and therefore it is not generalisable to other industries. Secondly, there may be other CSFs for LSS such as culture change, project management skill, and employee involvement, which were not included in this study. Finally, for future research agenda, the authors are looking at the structural relationship between LSS practices and organizational performance in the Malaysian automotive industry.

The developed and tested content of this study fills the research gap by providing reliable and useful reference material on the CSFs of LSS. On top of that, the contribution for academic researchers and practitioners is to provide important guidelines for automotive and related companies to implement LSS strategic practices to improve organizational performance.

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the effectiveness of Six Sigma as an innovation tool in management system. In this regard, the comprehensive impact of Six Sigma is provided based on Osada's management system model in terms of driver, enabler, and performance. Then, the causal relationship diagram is drawn among critical success factors to show how Six Sigma innovates the management system. Finally, the comparison between Six Sigma and total quality management (TQM) is discussed to reveal the strength of Six Sigma as an innovation tool in management system.

An empirical study of world‐class companies was undertaken. Several of the companies were analyzed intensively namely Sony and Du Pont by interviewing and circulating questionnaires to the key actors of Six Sigma.

The paper confirms that Six Sigma has a positive and comprehensive impact on changing the management system. Six Sigma has been harmonizing and synergizing people and processes by establishing a clear linkage among critical factors. This linkage, as a critical strength in innovation, is described by a causal relationships diagram using the system dynamics principle. By comparing with TQM, this paper has identified that Six Sigma has additional features named as disseminating commitment and sustaining spirit.

The findings suggest that Six Sigma can potentially be used as an innovation tool for leveraging organizational performance. This paper provides a comprehensive perspective on how Six Sigma should be perceived and implemented to gain maximum potential. Hence, this paper is expected to provide a significant contribution to academia and practitioners in understanding the application of Six Sigma.

The paper analyzes the impact of Six Sigma in a more organized approach than previous report. This approach categorizes the impact based on driver, enabler, and performance through an empirical study. Additionally, the relationship diagram and the comparison between Six Sigma and TQM are established in this paper. It is believed that such study is rarely published in academic journals.

Innovation is a key source of competitiveness in the knowledge economy, and continuous improvement (CI) is a key element of such corporate pursuit. The purpose of this paper is to explore links to prevalent shop floor conditions which support or prohibit the effective realisation of CI. Lean is a globally competitive standard for product assembly of discreet parts. Successful Lean application is conditioned by an evolutionary problem‐solving ability of the rank and file. This is in itself contingent on employee involvement in improvement programs and the implementation of appropriate practices. But the challenge of operating innovative Lean systems lacks statistically valid guidance.

This empirical study is based on 294 worker responses from 12 manufacturing sites in four industry sectors.

The study identifies particular practices that impact employee participation in improvement activities and their performance outcomes. Process suggestions are driven by a combination of difficult working conditions that the workers seek to improve and team‐based work. However, for suggestions on product improvements, significant practices are worker favorable industrial relations and human resource practices.

To test work practices, work practice variables were measured with single items, trading lower measurement reliability for increased scope. Also, there is a moderate sample size, if addressed by selecting sites with a variety of practices.

The results indicate that the main business benefit is in enhanced product quality through process, rather than product, improvements, suggesting that management should pursue worker involvement on continuous process improvements, and employ designated design teams for product improvements.

The paper empirically identifies the relationship between particular work practices and product and process improvement in a Lean setting.

This research uses an optimisation model, based on the Six Sigma methodology, which assists marine container terminal operators to minimize trucks' congestions, as a defect in the global containerisation and smoothing the gate activity to reduce trucks' turn‐around times. The main purpose of this paper is implementing the Six Sigma in the landside of marine container terminals to reduce the average number of trucks in queues and average trucks' waiting times in both entrance and exit gates.

This study examines the applicability of the DMAIC method along with the SIPOC, cause and effect diagram, and failure mode and effect analysis (FMEA).

In this paper, Six Sigma methodology is found as an accurate optimisation tool in marine container terminals. Risk Priority Numbers obtained from the FMEA analysis denote that additional control procedures and associated inspections are needed as monitoring tools on the working time and activity of weighbridge operators and truck's drivers. In addition, serious consideration should be given to operator's performance appraisal and improving the administrative systems.

This study was carried out with some boundaries; like the complex operational system in marine container terminals, available data, time constraints, training the team members and controlling the implemented obtained results.

To date, no study has adequately examined the Six Sigma methodology in marine container terminals as an optimisation tool for reducing trucks' congestion. The challenging issues inherent this problem and the limitation of existing research, motivates this study.

This paper aims to resolve a staffing solution for a purchasing department at the University of Miami to expand a service request bulk purchasing program that generates savings for the university and respective departments.

The well‐known lean Six Sigma methodology is applied to yield consistent results and eliminate unnecessary actions (steps/tasks) by the staff.

The university is able to reduce processing time for a service request from 168 hours to 2.27 by streamlining communication and service request and automating lengthy process steps using a proprietary built workflow intelligence system.

There are limited publications in the field of lean Six Sigma as an approach to staffing solutions.

This paper provides an unexplored practical application of lean Six Sigma to yield a staffing solution.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a greater understanding of organisational learning in connection with assessment of Six Sigma readiness. Different forms that a possible deployment can take in the organisation's context based on the degree of readiness are explored.

The empirical data are derived from 12 in‐depth semi‐structured interviews of selected employees having different functions in the studied organisation, a global distribution system and information technology (IT) solutions provider to the travel and tourism industry. In addition, they include participant observation and documentation. The interview questions were built based on a modified version of Kettinger and Grover readiness assessment framework.

The study shows that organisational learning can provide a useful framework for assessing Six Sigma readiness in an IT organisation. A synthesized model is proposed combining the frameworks of an adapted Kettinger and Grover model and the core disciplines of the learning organisation. Further, the results suggest that having Six Sigma as a company‐wide strategy may not prove useful or suitable in the current context. However, the analysis shows that having Six Sigma as an improvement programme provides a structure for the improvement work and the define, measure, analyze, improve and control methodology is needed to address some current inefficiencies and problems.

This is a single case study and the possibility of generalising this finding to other contexts remains uncertain. Therefore, more research is needed. The procedure of using organisational learning as an assessment framework for Six Sigma readiness has been shown to be useful.

Implementing Six Sigma means a large investment and therefore it is important to make the right deployment approach. Having one integrated readiness assessment model should be useful for companies when assessing their readiness.

Knowledge of a Six Sigma readiness evaluation in an organisational learning context should be valuable for many organisations. In addition, research regarding Six Sigma in software companies is limited.

The purpose of this paper is to review the literature and provide an overview of the history, evolution and existing research on continuous improvement (CI). It reviews a large number of research papers in this field and presents the overview of various CI implementation practices demonstrated by manufacturing organizations globally.

The paper systematically categorizes the published literature, analyzes and reviews it methodically.

The paper reveals the important concepts, case studies and surveys in concerned with CI methodology. The contributions of CI programmes towards improving manufacturing performance of the organizations and CI values that underlies continuous improvement have also been highlighted.

The literature on classification of CI has so far been very limited. The paper reviews a large number of papers in this field and presents the overview of various CI practices demonstrated by manufacturing organizations globally. Further the future implications have also been discussed for the smooth and effective implementation of CI practices in manufacturing organizations.

The paper contains a comprehensive listing of publications on the field in question and their classification. It will be useful to researchers, professionals and others concerned with this subject to understand the significance of CI methodology.

The purpose of this paper is to present a study of how Six Sigma influences job satisfaction among employees at three large companies with manufacturing units in Sweden that have used different implementation strategies.

The study was performed using a survey distributed to those affected by the implementation at the three company sites, including those not directly involved in any Six Sigma activities.

Employees participating in Six Sigma feel positive changes in many aspects of job satisfaction. The Black Belts (BBs) felt, on the average, positive changes in almost all the tested areas. The largest changes are related to personal and new skill development, influence on work duties and enjoying the work. BBs also feel more recognition from management. Employees not involved in the Six Sigma projects do, on average, also feel positively influenced by Six Sigma, but the tendency is not as clear.

The results constitute a platform for further studies on the relation between Six Sigma applications and job satisfaction due to the different approaches used in the three studied plants.

The positive results should help alleviate concerns of job satisfaction due to implementation of Six Sigma.

The paper fills a knowledge gap concerning the effect of Six Sigma on employees' well being and job satisfaction.