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The purpose of this paper is to present the fundamental and critical differences between two of the most powerful methodologies in a process excellence initiative in any organisation.

The approach taken was to collate opinions from a number of leading academics and practitioners from five different countries. It was also important to ensure that all participants have a good knowledge and expertise in the field of both Lean and Six Sigma methodologies.

Although both methodologies are focused on process and quality improvement, Lean is formalisation and codification of experience and judgement which is not a feature of Six Sigma. Lean emphasises speed and waste, however Six Sigma emphasises variation, defects and process evaluation.

The viewpoints expressed in the article are those of a few academics and practitioners. It is important to capture the viewpoints of more academics and practitioners to arrive at sound and valid conclusions.

The paper provides an excellent resource for many researchers and for practitioners who are engaged in research and applications of the most two powerful methodologies for achieving and sustaining operational excellence. It is also critical to understand the fundamental differences between these two methodologies.

The purpose of this study is to investigate awareness and opportunities for Lean Six Sigma in public sector municipalities striving to become more efficient and effective in the quality and delivery of services and goods leading to increased citizen satisfaction and budget savings.

Lean Six Sigma is a quality improvement methodology widely implemented in the for-profit sectors and, now, is expanding into the public sector. This study includes a literature review on Lean Six Sigma, supported by results from interviews with public sector officials, and includes recommendations for how public sector entities can utilize Lean Six Sigma.

Based on results from interviews with a sample of public sector officials, this study uncovered that overall there exists a keen interest in Lean Six Sigma and how it can be applied to streamline and improve organizational processes, produce cost-savings, improve organizational culture and improve the quality of goods and services. This study also discovers that there are plenty of opportunities for Lean Six Sigma in the public sector and municipalities can, in fact, incorporate its philosophy and methodology to streamline and improve organizational processes, produce cost-savings, improve organizational culture and improve the quality of goods and services.

Abundant literature exists on Lean Six Sigma and the private sector. This study includes a review of the literature supported by interview results of public sector officials and suggests techniques for how public sector municipalities can utilize the Lean Six Sigma methodology. In a twenty-first-century economy, public sector officials are looking for ways to maximize their tax dollars while increasing the quality of their goods and services; Lean Six Sigma is a framework that can make these objectives become a reality.

This study aims to investigate the effect of Lean Six Sigma elements on the Jordanian Pharmaceutical Manufacturing organizations’ business performance.

Data were collected from 120 managers out of about 300 managers by means of questionnaire. After confirming normality, validity and reliability of the study tool, correlation analysis was carried out, and then multiple regressions were used to test the hypotheses.

The results show that there is an agreement on high implementation of Lean Six Sigma variables among Jordanian Pharmaceutical Manufacturing organizations; there are strong relationships among Lean Six Sigma variables, except between non-utilized talent and transportation; there are strong relationships between Lean Six Sigma variables and business performance. All Lean Six Sigma variables have effect on business performance, except extra processing and waiting time.

This study was carried out on the pharmaceutical industry in Jordan, generalizing results of one industry and/or one country to other industries and/or countries may be questionable. Extending the analyses to other industries and countries represents future research opportunities.

Implementing Lean Six Sigma variables in all Jordanian Pharmaceutical Manufacturing organizations can improve their business performance; also, it can be applied to other manufacturing industry.

The aim of all organizations is to reduce waste, which leads to reserve the natural resources, which is considered as a corporate social responsibility.

Only few studies related to Lean or Six Sigma have been carried out in pharmaceutical industry in Jordan. Therefore, this study might be considered as an initiative study, which studies the effect of both Lean and Six Sigma on pharmaceutical industry in Jordan.

Many organizations have reported significant benefits after the implementation of Lean Six Sigma (LSS). Embracing LSS requires asking some important questions: How Lean Six Sigma Readiness (LESIRE) can be measured? How can an organization identify the barriers for LESIRE? Answers to these questions are critical to both academicians and practitioners. The paper aims to discuss this issue.

This study illustrates the development process of a Lean Six Sigma Readiness (LESIRE) evaluation model to assess an organization’s readiness for LSS deployment using the fuzzy approach. The model was developed from 4 enablers, 16 criteria and 46 attributes of LSS, identified through a literature review.

To demonstrate the efficiency of the model, this study testing the LESIRE evaluation model in three Indian SMEs. Using experts’ ratings and weight, the researchers calculated the Fuzzy Lean Six Sigma index (FLSS) which indicates the LESIRE level of an organization and the Fuzzy Performance Importance Index (FPII) that helps to identify the barriers for LESIRE.

The main limitations of this study are that it did not consider the failure factors of LSS for model development and the LESIRE was only tested in manufacturing industries. Thus, future researchers could focus on developing a model with failure factors. The results obtained from the SMEs show that LESIRE is capable of assessing LESIRE in an industrial scenario and helps practitioners to measure LESIRE for the future decision making process.

The LESIRE model is easy to understand and use without much computation complexity. This simplicity makes the LESIRE evaluation model unique from other LSS models. Further, LESIRE was tested in three different SMEs, and it aided them to identify and improve their weak areas, thereby readying them for LSS deployment.

The main contribution of this study it proposes a LESIRE model that evaluates the organization for FLSS and FPII for LESIRE, which is essential for the organization embarking on an LSS journey. Further, it improves the readiness of the organization that is already practicing LSS.

Literature reviews are a pervasive aspect in research. An ever mounting field such as Lean Six Sigma requires a perpetual touch on the subject to accentuate insights that can be researched about. The purpose of this paper is to address the published literatures in the field of Lean Six Sigma through multiple criterion for an enhanced understanding of the subject matter through summarizing its current trends, uncovering existing literature gaps and revealing opportunities for future research in the field.

The literature review on Lean Six Sigma field spans around 17 years that includes peer-reviewed journals from management, business, engineering, healthcare, manufacturing, military among the many disciplines. The study uses a content analysis approach in which several dimensions of the literature were analysed: purpose or focus of study, years of publication, journal name or publications, methodologies, theories used, country of study, industry sub-sectors, active authors in the field, critical success factors, barriers and challenges and the most contribution of Lean Six Sigma papers by universities.

Eleven important findings from the analysis were summarized among them; the field of Lean Six Sigma had begun to grow significantly since the new millennium particularly after the 2004-2007 or 2008 period; standalone concepts of Lean and Six Sigma are highly researched compared to the integrated concepts; large proportion of perspective, conceptual and descriptive based studies; lack of empirical validity on the fusion between Lean and Six Sigma; lack of theoretical based studies, etc.

The study is limited to 102 journals in commonly searched databases in the subject matter which produced 261 journal papers. This study seeks to broaden the summary of studies done under the keyword “Lean Six Sigma”.

The review analysis uses a content analysis approach in search of valuable gaps in existing research. The study found 261 papers from 102 journals that were published over the past seventeen years (2000-2016). This paper provides scholars, practitioners and managers with insights on the present trends and focus of Lean Six Sigma in addition to what else are lacking in the subject matter, which could pave the way for future research and practical endeavours.

The academic literature and research lines exploring the effect of quality improvement methods on environmental performance still remain in early stages. The purpose of this paper is therefore to investigate, through a systematic review of the existing academic literature, the environmental (green) impact of using quality and operations improvement methods such as Lean, Six Sigma and Lean Six Sigma. This includes the impact on energy saving and the usage of natural resources.

This study follows a systematic literature review approach through which it analyses research papers published in top 16 operations and quality management journals. No specific time frame was established, but a set of keywords were used to short-list the articles. A sample of 70 articles was finally short-listed and analysed to provide a discussion on environmental concerns related to Lean, Six Sigma and Lean Six Sigma.

The comprehensive review of short-listed articles indicates that both Lean and Six Sigma can be considered effective methods to support the conservation of resources, combat global warming and saving energy. Various scholars provide evidence of this, and as such, organisations should not only consider these methods to manage quality and improve operational performance but also meet environmental regulations. A set of research questions that demands further investigation has also been proposed based on the findings of this research.

This study is limited to a sample of 70 articles collected from top 16 operations and quality management journals. The search of journals is also limited to a set of key words (“Lean”, “Green”, “Six Sigma”, “environment”, “sustainable” and “sustainability”) used to short-list the sample size.

The study shows that organisations can consider the adoption of Lean, Six Sigma and Lean Six Sigma to meet environmental regulations, save costs and also meet quality management standards. This will contribute in helping organisations to formulate more effective and inclusive strategies which do not only consider the quality and operational dimensions but also the environmental dimension.

Literature exploring the environmental/green impact of quality management methods commonly used in industry is limited. There is also a lack of studies aiming to investigate the green impact of Lean and Six Sigma in top operations and quality management journals. The study focusing on investigating the green impact of Lean, Six Sigma and Lean Six Sigma methods altogether is also a research first of its kind.

The purpose of this paper is to review the historical development of Lean Six Sigma and to identify the relevant opportunities for the application of Lean Six Sigma within the university setting. The paper also discusses the challenges of Lean Six Sigma implementation in higher education, as well as the cultural changes necessary to provide an appropriate climate for its long-term success.

The paper contains a comprehensive discussion of the development of Lean Six Sigma over the past three decades. Additionally, the paper describes how Lean Six Sigma may be applied in the university setting to improve processes in curriculum delivery; business and auxiliary services; admissions and enrollment management; and research.

Lean Six Sigma can be applied to facilitate process improvements in curriculum delivery; business and auxiliary services; admissions and enrollment management; and research. While obstacles to Lean Six Sigma implementation exist, the process improvements and resulting cultural changes are worthwhile and noteworthy.

The paper serves as a guide for how Lean Six Sigma processes can be utilized in the higher education setting. Other researchers and practitioners may use the paper as a practical orientation to Lean Six Sigma in the university setting.

Due to the unique culture of higher education, the application of Lean Six Sigma to university processes has been sparse. The paper provides a needed orientation as to how Lean Six Sigma may be applied to improve some of the more important functional aspects of the university.

This paper aims to presents a conceptual comparative analysis of Lean manufacturing and Six Sigma, highlighting 18 critical aspects between such approaches and their respective implications for management decision-making.

Qualitative approach based on the results obtained from literature review about Lean and Six Sigma.

The main points of divergence between Lean and Six Sigma have been highlighted based on 18 criteria. Seventeen criteria are proposed as a result of a review of the literature and one criterion, and “quality control”, is suggested by the authors.

This article mitigates the literature gap regarding whether and how Lean and Six Sigma are synergistic approaches.

This study enables decision-makers to evaluate the Lean and Six Sigma practices. The results of the analysis performed originated three observations: first, both approaches are predominantly complementary; second, it is possible to create a single model integrating both approaches studied in this research; and third, when Lean is implemented as stand-alone approach, it falls short of specific tools to leverage its full potential according to the complexity of the problem under consideration.

This paper analyzes which aspects from Lean and Six Sigma can be learnt from organizational change and productivity improvement efforts. The analysis includes a comparison of 18 critical aspects for practical use of Lean and Six Sigma.

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the ability to researchers of using design of experiments (DoE) as a structured and systematic approach to performing systematic literature reviews. The authors demonstrate a simple case study illustrating the application of DoE in executing a systematic literature review on two popular topics in higher education: academic leadership and Lean Six Sigma.

The methodology involves the systematic literature review of linking academic leadership with terms such as Lean, Six Sigma, Total Quality Management, Maturity Model and Continuous Improvement. The main tool used to structure the systematic literature review is a Taguchi Orthogonal Array design, specifically an L16 grid and the method is verified by conducting another review, replacing the term academic leadership with simply leadership.

The approach identified at first no research papers linking the terms; however, when academic leadership was replaced with university, 19 research papers where discovered. The verification exercise, linking just leadership with the other search string generated over 1,000 results – demonstrating that the tool can find large volumes of articles if they exist, the search was completed for a ten year time frame – 2004 to 2014.

The case study focussed on a field which is known to have little current research and the verification exercise deliberately targeted a known large body of research. The authors will continue to use the approach and refine the technique over time.

This approach would help any researcher despite of their discipline to identify opportunities and gaps in the current literature.

The paper shows how DoE can be used in an academic research-based process. No other literature review approach currently exists which uses Taguchi approach to DoE to filter the search criteria.

The purpose of this paper is to utilise the research patterns of the most prolific contributors to Lean and Six Sigma methodologies over a 15-year period to inform the discussion on whether the methodologies should be or are being integrated.

Structured searches using keywords were carried out using a single database (SCOPUS) to identify the most prolific contributors to research articles in the areas of Lean, Six Sigma and Lean Six Sigma, and thereafter patterns were analysed in five-year periods between 2000 and 2015.

This research demonstrates clear changing and evolving patterns of research activity. Not only is there a clear emergence of research focussed on Lean Six Sigma rather than a single methodology, there are also indications that researchers publish work using different methodologies in response to different challenges.

The research is restricted to a single database and includes only the 21 most prolific contributors in each five-year period. The analysis is based on the focus of each peer-reviewed paper contributed to.

This research is intended to support and inform organisations which are developing or running business process improvement approaches by demonstrating the flexibility of Lean and Sigma, and evidencing that researchers work across different approaches and combine them when appropriate.

This paper provides a unique perspective on the debate for the integration of Lean and Six Sigma by looking at the patterns of work of researchers themselves to identify whether the focus of research has in fact moved on from exclusively lean or Six Sigma to more integrated approaches as has been argued in individual pieces of research.