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This paper, a case study, aims to illustrate the application of Six Sigma in a small-scale ceramic manufacturing industry. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the empirical application of DMAIC methodology to reduce failure rate at high voltage (HV) testing of one of the most critical products, insulator.

The case study is based on primary data collected from a real-life situation prevailing in the industry. The case study methodology adopted here is at one small-scale unit wherein the authors have applied DMAIC methodology and observed and recorded the improvement results, especially, reduction in failure rate at HV testing of insulator and, thus, increase in Sigma level.

The results found after implementation of the solutions are very significant. The rejection percentage has been reduced from 0.5 to 0.1 percent and consequently the Sigma level has been improved from 4.4 to 5.0.

This success story can be a guiding roadmap for other such industries to successfully implement Six Sigma to improve quality, productivity and profitability.

This case study will serve as one of the resource bases for the industries which have till not implemented Six Sigma and benefited from the same.

Improved quality and productivity leads to better economy. This case will help industries to serve the society with better economy with improved quality and productivity.

Though ceramic industries in India are having enormous potential for growth, majority of them, especially, small and medium industries are either not aware of or not implementing Six Sigma to reap its multidimensional benefits of improving quality, productivity and profitability. This study highlights the benefits reaped by small-scale ceramic manufacturing industry opening up the avenues for its application at other such organizations.

The purpose of this paper is to present the results from an empirical investigation of Six Sigma status in Indian industry, especially to highlight critical success factors (CSFs) of Six Sigma implementation in a developing economy like India.

The study is based on survey questionnaire suitable for Indian industries. The results of the study are based on descriptive statistics.

The results of this exploratory empirical study reflect the impact of different CSFs of Six Sigma implementation in different sizes and sectors of Indian industries.

The major constraints of the study were the number of companies surveyed as well as time and budget. Moreover, a detailed impact of different CSFs of Six Sigma implementation in Indian industry by means of semi‐structured interviews could not be executed due to above constraints.

Very little research has been carried out exploring the status of CSFs of Six Sigma implementation in Indian industries. This paper will provide value to academics, researchers and practitioners of Six Sigma by way of providing insight into the CSFs for Six Sigma implementation, especially in Indian industries.

The purpose of this paper is to present the results from an empirical investigation of six sigma status in the Indian industry and underrepresented region of investigation on six sigma implementation.

A survey questionnaire which applied in the UK industry is applied in India. The survey is adapted so that it is suitable to Indian industry. The results of the study are based on descriptive statistics.

The results of this empirical study reflect the reasons for application of six sigma by Indian organizations, the most and least commonly used tools and techniques, critical success factors (CSFs) for the implementation of six sigma, and common impediments in the implementation.

This study was carried out with some boundaries such as the number of companies surveyed, time and budget constraints. Moreover, a detailed understanding of the status of six sigma applications in Indian industry by means of semi‐structured interviews could not be executed due to above constraints.

Very little research has been carried out relating to the status of six sigma implementation in the Indian industry. This paper will provide value to academics, practitioners of six sigma and those researchers who are involved in six sigma research.

The success or failure of any Six Sigma program/project depends on some critical factors. The purpose of this paper is to identify and explore critical success factors (CSFs) of Six Sigma from an extensive literature review of research articles published in the context of Six Sigma and propose a categorized list of vital CSFs.

The methodology used is the systematic analysis of 64 different research publications and case studies from 34 different journals that are relevant in the context of Six Sigma by filtering, using keywords like Six Sigma and CSFs. This analysis leads to the exploration of a number of CSFs followed by their prioritization by using a Pareto analysis quality tool. These CSFs are then sorted into a proposed list of “vital few” and “useful many” CSFs groups in accordance to their frequency of occurrence.

The literature revealed 13 vital CSFs: management involvement and commitment, training, cultural change, communication, customer focus and requirements, organizational infrastructure and resources, project management skills, project prioritization and selection, understanding the Six Sigma methodology, tools and techniques, linking Six Sigma to business strategy, linking Six Sigma to customers, customer focus and requirements, quality data and reporting and linking Six Sigma to suppliers. The consideration of these CSFs will increase the success rates of a Six Sigma program/project in an organization.

The CSFs extracted spotlight only small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and do not consider large industries. This paper is confined to those articles that argued that the Six Sigma is beneficial to SMEs and does not consider the failure experience of the industries.

This paper identifies the CSFs for implementing Six Sigma that are comprehensive and potential to address the quality-related issues of industries. This paper also provides an extract of the relevant publishing to both the academicians and practitioners in the field of Six Sigma for implementing Six Sigma framework in an organization. This study is apparently the first of its kind on CSF assessment and categorization.

The purpose of this paper is to illustrate the successful application of Six Sigma at a small and medium scale plastic parts manufacturing unit. Overall operational excellence is one of the foundations of global competiveness. Indian industries are also keeping up with achieving and maintaining operational excellence through different improvement tools and methodologies. Plastic parts manufacturing industries in India are also on the move to increase their overall quality, productivity and profitability. However, it appears from the available literature that application of Six Sigma, one of the most effective breakthrough improvement strategies having direct impact on bottom line of the organization, is not being explored to its full potential, especially at plastic parts manufacturing industries in India. This study was thus undertaken at plastic products manufacturing plant to introduce Six Sigma to them by applying the same to their chronic problems and drawing improvements in quality, productivity and profitability.

This paper illustrates the real-life case study of improving quality and productivity of injection molding process by phase wiz application of define, measure, analyze, improve and control, the process improvement methodology of Six Sigma.

The critical defects, such as short molding, contamination, injection point and flash are reduced from the process leading to annual savings of INR 10.80 lacs. This is a considerable amount for a small concern in question.

Because this was the pilot project and the firm was of small and medium size, data collection was the major issue, which consequently took considerable time and efforts at define and measure phases. Injection molding is a very salient process for plastic products manufacturing. Almost one-third of plastic products are made by this process. Thus, improving quality of products made out of injection molding process is of paramount importance. The paper is an attempt to exhibit how a small-scale plastic injection molded parts manufacturing unit can put fruitful efforts to achieve competitive advantage through Six Sigma.

From the review of literature, it appears that application of Six Sigma among plastic parts manufacturing units, especially small and medium, is very rare, not in India but across the globe. This case study has opened up the direction to small- and medium-scale plastic parts manufacturing units to implement Six Sigma and to move a step forward toward achieving competitive advantage.

The purpose of this paper is to capture the status of implementation of Six Sigma in various manufacturing industries and also examine the success of the Six Sigma by using different performance indicators.

The methodology of critical review involves the selection and classification of 112 research articles on the implementation of Six Sigma in different manufacturing industries. The selected articles are categorized by the following: articles distribution based on the year of publication, publication database, various journals, contribution of authors, continent, scale of industry, implemented approaches, focused industry, tools and techniques used in phases of Six Sigma methodology, and performance indicators used in Six Sigma implementation. Then after, future scopes of research opportunities are derived based on significant findings.

The literature revealed that: Very few work was undertaken on the implementation of Six Sigma in various manufacturing industries like ceramic, paper, gems and jewelry, cement, furniture, stone, fertilizer, forging, paper and surface treatment industries. Most of the researchers have considered very few performance indicators to identify the improvement after Six Sigma implementation. But, there is no clue regarding overall improvement in different perspectives after the implementation of Six Sigma. The financial indicators, personnel indicators, process indicators and customer indicators are useful to measure the overall improvement after the implementation of Six Sigma in the manufacturing sector.

The study was carried out on the implementation of Six Sigma methodology in various manufacturing industries, and various performance indicators were identified while implementing the Six Sigma methodology. Case studies pertaining to service industries were not covered here.

Very little research has been carried out to measure the overall success of implementing Six Sigma methodology in manufacturing industries. This paper will provide value to students, researchers and practitioners of Six Sigma by providing insight into the implementation of Six Sigma in manufacturing industries.

The purpose of this paper is to illustrate how Six Sigma methodology has been applied in a small-scale foundry industry to improve the overall first-pass material yield and quality, with a view to the product and the process.

The researchers have reported this paper based on a case study carried out in industry using the Six Sigma Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve and Control (DMAIC) and its application in improving the manufacturing process of a foundry shop.

Identified root causes are validated and countermeasures are implemented for improvement. As a result of this case study, the overall first-pass yield of the sand casting process is improved to 78.88% from the previous yield of 67%. For product-specific case, yield is improved by 18% through the improved gating system design. Sigma level of the process is improved to 3.08 from baseline 2.21. Key lessons learned from this case study are mentioned in the current study.

This case study provides a standard road map and motivates small-scale foundry industries to implement Six Sigma methodology for productivity improvement, especially in jobbing foundry. The presented paper is based on a single case study, and the results are limited to the company only. Also, one of the reasons for low process yield is slag creation, which is not covered here, as it is a concern of the material quality supplied by the vendor. However, the approach of this paper is generic for learning perspective.

This case study provides a standard road map and motivates small-scale foundry industries to implement Six Sigma methodology for productivity improvement, especially in jobbing foundry. Through the effective application of Six Sigma quality initiative, how a quantum jump in financial aspect could be gain, has been demonstrated.

This research study showcases step-by-step implementation of Six Sigma-DMAIC methodology at a small-scale foundry industry. This paper could serve as a unique roadmap for practitioners and academicians to improve the material productivity of the foundry industry both ways, product and process.

Many projects focus on the reliable operation of the activities in the project. Any failure in the process activities leads to major problems resulting in waste, defects, equipment damage, which has a direct impact on the consumers. In addition, Lean Six Sigma (LSS) is not new to this issue. LSS projects have faced an interruption in the process flow and unforeseen defects. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to identify the vital failure factors of LSS projects.

Through extant literature review, the researchers found 44 critical failure factors (CFFs) of LSS. Using the Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) SIMOS approach, the decision makers’ (DMs) rating and weight for each factor were collected. Moreover, the study was conducted in both the manufacturing and service industries to identify the impact of CFFs in LSS projects.

CFFs and their evaluation have received little attention in the literature. Most of the previous studies deal only with the identification of the success factors in general. Therefore, the study identified 44 CFFs and ranked them through DMs. In addition, the TOPSIS SIMOS approach ranked the vital failure factors enabling the management to avert the LSS project from failures.

The study focused on project failures due to CFFs of LSS. Nevertheless, it did not consider other failure factors of project and knowledge management. Further, the sample used to test the approach was considerably small. Therefore, the study can be repeated with significant samples and the vital failure factors compared.

In real-life application, all the parameters in the LSS project need to be understood in a better manner. In such a condition, the practitioner needs to know that the project never fails due to the CFFs and TOPSIS SIMOS approach can prevent the LSS project failures.

The study applied TOPSIS SIMOS approach to rank the CFFs in an LSS project, which is first of its kind and aids the practitioners to make the right decisions in the business environment.