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The Taguchi method (Tm) is a powerful problem solving technique for improving process performance, yield and productivity. It reduces scrap rates, rework costs and manufacturing costs due to excessive variability in processes. However, its application by industrial engineers in the UK is limited, in part due to the inadequate statistical education of engineers. This paper presents a simple experiment which can be used in the classroom to teach engineers the basics of the technique and illustrates simple analytical and graphical tools which promote rapid understanding of the results of the experiment.

The purpose of this research is to evaluate essential characteristics of Six Sigma Black Belts (SSBBs) in UK manufacturing organisations. Six Sigma Black Belt(s) are considered as high potential employees who work full‐time as a leader of process and quality improvement projects after extensive training.

A pilot survey was undertaken to assess the key attributes of SSBBs. The results of this study are primarily based on descriptive statistics.

The key attributes of SSBBs identified from this pilot study include: effective communicators, change agents, customer advocators, team builders, results‐driven mindset personnel, positive thinkers, etc. The findings of this study will be extremely beneficial in designing the curriculum of SSBBs citing the key attributes required for a typical SSBB to be successful.

The study was primarily focused on manufacturing companies in the UK. The next phase of the study will be to compare the SSBB characteristics between manufacturing and service organisations. One of the authors will also be executing semi‐structured interviews with SSBBs in various manufacturing and service companies to obtain a greater understanding of the essential attributes or characteristics that SSBBs in manufacturing and service companies must possess.

Although the characteristics of SSBBs are cited widely in various textbooks and professional articles, no empirical study has been carried out to compare the theory and practice. This paper makes an attempt to identify essential characteristics of SSBBs in UK manufacturing companies.

Six sigma has received considerable attention over the last four years in the UK service sector. The purpose of this paper is to present a review of the literature on six sigma as applied to the service industry, followed by a presentation of the key findings obtained from a pilot survey carried out in UK service organisations.

This paper presents some of the most common challenges, difficulties, common myths, and implementation issues in the application of six sigma in service industry settings. It also discusses the benefits of six sigma in service organisations, tools and techniques of six sigma for service performance improvement, key criteria for the selection of winning projects, followed by the results of a six sigma pilot survey in UK service organisations.

The results of the study show that the majority of service organisations in the UK have been engaged in a six sigma initiative for just over three years. The average sigma quality level of the companies was around 2.8 (approximately 98,000 DPMO). Management commitment and involvement, customer focus, linking six sigma to business strategy, organisational infrastructure, project management skills, and understanding of the six sigma methodology are the most critical factors for the successful introduction, development and deployment of six sigma.

This paper reports the first study on the status of six sigma implementation in UK service organisations. The findings and key observations of this paper will be of immense value to the six sigma academic and research community.

Service quality is a growing concern for many service firms in the UK. Today service firms are paying more attention than ever to the needs and expectations of the customers by consistently improving the quality of service provided to their customers. This paper briefly explores the relation between service quality and business performance followed by an assessment of service quality as a framework. The case study focuses on a hotel group in UK, where service quality was measured at six different locations. The findings from the research unveiled that there were significant variations for service quality between the six hotels.

International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management (IJPPM) is one of the prominent journals publishing on general management with a particular focus on performance management and productive sciences. The objective of this study is to provide an academic structure overview of the journal between 2004 and 2018 using bibliometric tools.

Data used for this study were extracted using the Scopus database. Bibliometric analysis using several bibliometric indicators are adopted to know the major trends and themes of the journal. Mapping of bibliographic data is carried using VOSviewer and Gephi software.

Authors: Most of the IJPPM contributors are affiliated to the UK and India. Journal Performance: It is gaining pre-eminence in terms of total citations as well as CiteScores. Main themes: Major themes published in the journal are “performance management”, “productivity”, “six sigma”, “lean” and “supply chain management”.

IJPPM's growing influence in the scientific community has generated the interest to analyse the journal's publication and growth pattern. Moreover, no such retrospective bibliometric study for IJPPM is conducted so far.

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the power of experimental design as a technique to understand and evaluate the most important factors which influence teaching effectiveness for a postgraduate course in a higher education (HE) context.

The methodology involves the execution of a case study in the form of an experiment in a business school setting. The experiment was carried out with the assistance of over 100 postgraduate students from 26 countries. The data were collected over a two year period (2015 and 2016) from a postgraduate course offered by the same tutor for repeatability reasons.

The key findings of the experiment have clearly indicated that students’ perceptions of teaching effectiveness based on intuition and guesswork are not identical to the outcomes from a simple designed experiment. Moreover, the results of the experiment provided a greater stimulus for the wider applications of the technique to other processes across the case study HE sector.

One of the limitations of the study is that the experiment was conducted for a popular postgraduate course. It would be beneficial to understand the results of the experiment for less popular postgraduate courses in the university in order to drive improvements. Moreover, this research was conducted only for postgraduate courses and the results may vary for undergraduate courses. This would be an interesting study to understand the differences in the factors between undergraduate and postgraduate teaching effectiveness.

The outcome of this experiment would help everyone who is involved in teaching to understand the factors and their influences to improve students’ satisfaction scores during the delivery of teaching.

This paper shows how experimental design as a pure manufacturing technique can be extended to a HE setting.

The purpose of this research is to analyse whether Six Sigma business strategy can be used to improve the financial and operational performance of the NHS. The paper will also look at some of the major challenges and barriers in the implementation of this powerful process improvement strategy within the healthcare sector.

This paper discusses whether Six Sigma DMAIC methodology can be a useful and disciplined approach to tackle process‐ and quality‐related problems in the NHS.

The paper presents some key findings from other researchers in the field, followed by some comments on whether Six Sigma is a useful approach to be considered by the NHS for cost reduction and defect reduction strategies.

The paper illustrates the point that Six Sigma is not confined just to manufacturing industry, rather it is equally applicable to service industry, especially the healthcare and financial sectors. The application of Six Sigma in the UK health sector is relatively new and the purpose of the paper is to increase the awareness of this powerful business strategy in healthcare discipline.

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the vital linkage between six sigma and statistical thinking. The paper also explains the key characteristics required for statistical thinking and some of the common barriers in the implementation of the key principles of statistical thinking.

The objectives of the paper have been achieved in several ways. The paper provides the key principles of statistical thinking and then discusses the possible reasons for lack of statistical thinking in modern organizations. The paper then illustrates the linkage between the statistical principles and six sigma. The tools and techniques of six sigma used within statistical thinking are also highlighted in the paper.

The key findings of this work include the relationship between the two key powerful methodologies: six sigma and statistical thinking, reasons for lack of applications of statistical thinking in organizations, the future role of managers and engineers in companies with regard to statistical thinking era and the commonalities in the application of tools and techniques between these two methodologies.

The paper needs more justification through surveys and case examples and this will be the future step of this study. In fact, one of the co‐authors is currently conducting a survey in the UK organizations to investigate the relationship between statistical thinking and six sigma.

The paper is very practical in nature and it does yield a great value to those people who are currently embarking on six sigma program, especially at senior manager and executive levels.

Very little is published in the field of statistical thinking in the UK academic world. In fact, there is a cognitive gap in this field and this paper certainly forms a good platform for further research that will enable to bridge the gap.