TY  - JOUR
AB  - Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to determine the key ingredients of Six Sigma in order to grasp and understand its essential characteristics and then identify suitable ingredients and complements in consideration of vision, strategies, capability, and circumstance of a company.Design/methodology/approach– The study outlines the range of research in Korean enterprises, suppliers, and SMEs. Potential ingredients collected from previous studies about critical success factors, ingredients of Six Sigma and TQM, and criteria of quality awards (Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award (MBNQA), European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM) Award, Deming Prize, Korean National Quality Award) are classified into 11 categories based on Six Sigma expert opinions and affinity analysis. Also, questionnaires are surveyed from champions, master black belts and black belts in 90 Korean companies that have more than three years of experience in implementing Six Sigma. Statistical analysis with factor analysis and hypothesis testing has been done to select the key ingredients and to find the differences among the diverse types of companies.Findings– By using factor analysis, three main factors are derived for each category respectively, and consequently 30 factors in 11 categories are concluded as the key ingredients of Six Sigma in Korean companies. There is a significant difference in importance of Six Sigma key ingredients according to company size, business type, and implementation phase.Research limitations/implications– A study may be conducted to identify Six Sigma success factors according to corporate characteristics from key ingredients identified in this study in future.Originality:/value– The paper investigates the key ingredients of Six Sigma based on a survey of diverse sizes, industries, and implementation phases of Korean companies. Compared with other studies conducted by empirical methods, the survey data are statistically analysed and the evaluation results are represented as quantitative indicators.
VL  - 23
IS  - 6
SN  - 1754-2731
DO  - 10.1108/17542731111175239
UR  - https://doi.org/10.1108/17542731111175239
AU  - Hyun Cho Ji
AU  - Hoon Lee Jae
AU  - Geun Ahn Dong
AU  - Soon Jang Joong
PY  - 2011
Y1  - 2011/01/01
TI  - Selection of Six Sigma key ingredients (KIs) in Korean companies
T2  - The TQM Journal
PB  - Emerald Group Publishing Limited
SP  - 611
EP  - 628
Y2  - 2024/04/24
ER  -