Citation
(2014), "2013 Awards for Excellence", International Journal of Lean Six Sigma, Vol. 5 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJLSS-03-2014-001
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
2013 Awards for Excellence
Article Type: 2013 Awards for Excellence From: International Journal of Lean Six Sigma, Volume 5, Issue 1
The following article was selected for this year’s Outstanding Paper Award for International Journal of Lean Six Sigma
"Deploying LSS in a global enterprise – project identification"
Brett Duarte, Douglas Montgomery, John Fowler and John Konopka
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide Lean Six Sigma deployment champions with a structured approach to identify and prioritize parts of their business that are conducive to the Lean Six Sigma methodology.
Design/methodology/approach – A five-step approach to Lean Six Sigma project identification is presented in this paper. The approach utilizes a clustering technique to group similar processes based on seven process characteristics. The clusters formed are then evaluated and prioritized for their compatibility to Lean Six Sigma.
Findings – The clustering approach can be applied to any industry segment, including non-manufacturing, healthcare and financial-based organizations. A case study is presented in this paper in which the approach is applied to an IT-based company. A total of 30 percent of the business processes were found to be Lean Six Sigma conducive.
Research limitations/implications – The current model does not have provision to consider the current performance of a process as an evaluation criterion. This requires the deployment champion to use the model in conjunction with a balanced scorecard. Future research will address this limitation.
Originality/value – There is a general lack of a mathematical approach to enable Lean Six Sigma practitioners to identify parts of their business that are conducive to the methodology. This research attempts to bridge this gap in the literature by using an unsupervised learning approach, using a clustering algorithm, to group processes based on seven process characteristics. The cluster evaluation helps the deployment champion identify key areas within the business to focus an LSS deployment.
http://www.emeraldinsight.com/10.1108/IJLSS-03-2014-001
This article originally appeared in Volume 3 Number 1, 2012, International Journal of Lean Six Sigma
The following articles were selected for this year’s Highly Commended Award
“Design for Six Sigma and lean product development
Ida Gremyr and Jean-Baptiste Fouquet
This article originally appeared in Volume 3 Number 1, 2012, International Journal of Lean Six Sigma
“The development of a value improvement model for repetitive processes (VIM): combining Lean, Six Sigma and systems thinking
Paul Martin Gibbons, Colin Kennedy, Stuart Burgess and Patrick Godfrey
This article originally appeared in Volume 3 Number 4, 2012, International Journal of Lean Six Sigma
“Four decades of lean: a systematic literature review
Kyle B. Stone
This article originally appeared in Volume 3 Number 4, 2012, International Journal of Lean Six Sigma
Outstanding reviewers
Mr Larry Smith
Professor Howard Gitlow