International Journal of Lean Six Sigma

The purpose of this paper is to quantify Toyota's managerial values known as the Toyota Way to understand the cultural aspects of the Toyota production system (TPS).

The research methodology in this paper utilizes latent semantic analysis and singular value decomposition to analyze corporate memory documents to determine from organizational view how TPS is prescribed ideally to achieve Toyota's culture.

This work shows that the Toyota Way heavily centers on the principle ofGenchi Genbutsuwhich is the practice of seeing problems first hand. Findings also show that Toyota's widely popularizedKaizenphilosophy is de‐emphasized compared to team work and respect for people. Toyota's culture is somewhat balanced between individualism and collectivism which disagrees with most national Asian cultures. Finally, results show that Toyota reinforces both long‐ and short‐term orientations which disagree with most national views of Japan's national culture.

Future work using latent semantic analysis should include a broader spectrum of literature on which to perform the analysis. This analysis is limited to developing theories about Toyota's culture but does not actually describe the culture that exist in the workplace.

This work provides a broad guideline with which to structure a lean culture. It provides the reader with knowledge of what parts of a corporate culture to deem the most significant. Improving upon each of these company values with the weighted significance elicited in this document could provide a positive impact within an organization.

The methodology used in this paper is a brand new, fledgling technique that could provide significant improvements in studying lean cultures. The concepts of this technique will be useful to researchers in this field and the results will be of value to management who wish to create a more efficient organization.

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.

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.

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.

Existing audits fail to fully encapsulate the complexities of an organisation's value chain and the significance of culture and change to the success of Lean. The purpose of this paper is to identify precisely what is meant by the term, “a genuine Lean organisation” through the application of a comprehensive Lean audit focused at manufacturing firms in the UK.

An extensive audit was developed able to establish the juncture of an organisation's Lean journey. This was piloted within 20 manufacturing organisations in the UK. A total of 104 separate indices are used, which are grouped within 12 distinctive categories.

The audit provides an organisation with a Lean vision. Lean requires a considerable commitment and whilst successful implementations facilitate the improvement of numerous indices, the audit acquaints an organisation of the multifaceted requirements for Lean. Its real value is in identifying the juncture of Lean an organisation has accomplished.

The audit has been tested in 20 manufacturing organisations; a natural extension would be to replicate the exercise within the service sector.

The audit results demonstrate how it is possible to split an organisation's Lean journey into seven evident phases. The feedback would improve the implementation records within the UK.

This paper tackles a void within the literature of a comprehensive Lean audit specifically examining: whether an organisation had adopted Lean as a philosophy, and to distinctively deduce the phase of a Lean journey the organisation had reached.

The purpose of this paper is to utilize the power of Six Sigma, a disciplined approach to improve quality of product, process or service quality, for accident prevention in the manufacturing industry.

This paper presents the basic features of DMAIC methodology of Six Sigma and its application for the purpose of accident prevention; illustrates the set of tools and techniques to be used at different phases of DMAIC for accident data analysis; and outlines the DMAIC methodology by analyzing accident data from a large process industry in India.

The systematic and logical approach of Six Sigma problem solving could identify many root causes for accident and identification and deployment of corrective actions horizontally to relevant processes.

Six Sigma has been successfully implemented in improving manufacturing processes but its application for the purpose of accident prevention is still limited. This paper demonstrates that Six Sigma principle can resolve such problems, and can be used by any plant to solve similar problems of accident prevention.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a criterion for selection of critical sub‐processes when all the sub‐processes cannot be taken up simultaneously for improvement. There exist various methods but the practitioners get utterly confused because of the existence of these multiple options. In this paper, the goal is to assist practitioners in the selection of the critical sub‐processes.

The authors discuss various statistical methods such as correlation and regression, simulation, basic statistics such as average, standard deviation, coefficient of variation % (C.V.%), etc. for the selection and identification of the critical sub‐processes. The strengths and weaknesses of these methods have been compared through empirical analysis based on real‐life case examples.

The stepwise regression and simulation have been found to yield identical results. However, from the perspective of application, stepwise regression has been found to be a preferred option.

The roadmap thus evolved for the selection of the critical sub‐processes will be of great value to the practitioner, as it will help them understand the ground reality in an unambiguous manner, resulting in a superior strategy for process improvement.

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.

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.