Search results

This paper is one of seven in this volume that aims to elaborate different approaches to quality improvement in education. It delineates a methodology called Six Sigma.

The paper presents the origins, theoretical foundations, core principles and a case study demonstrating an application of Six Sigma in a school-community partnership in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

The core principles underlying the approach are decreasing variability or unreliability in organizational work processes, eliminate waste or activity that does not add value to desired outcomes, identify defects and decrease their incidence, reduce the cost of work processes, and improve beneficiary/client satisfaction levels. The steps in this statistics-dependent method are design, measure, analyze, improve and control.

Few theoretical treatments and demonstration cases are currently available on commonly used models of quality improvement that might have potential value in improving education systems internationally. This paper fills this gap by elucidating one promising approach. The paper also derives value as it permits a comparison of the Six Sigma approach with other quality improvement approaches treated in this volume.

In this era of globalisation, as competition intensifies, providing quality products and services has become a competitive advantage and a need to ensure survival. The Six Sigma's problem-solving methodology DMAIC has been one of the several techniques used by organisations to improve the quality of their products and services. This paper aims to demonstrate the empirical application of Six Sigma and DMAIC to reduce product defects within a rubber gloves manufacturing organisation.

The paper follows the DMAIC methodology to systematically investigate the root cause of defects and provide a solution to reduce/eliminate them. In particular, the design of experiments, hypothesis testing and two-way analysis of variance techniques were combined to statistically determine whether two key process variables, oven's temperature and conveyor's speed, had an impact on the number of defects produced, as well as to define their optimum values needed to reduce/eliminate the defects.

The analysis from employing Six Sigma and DMAIC indicated that the oven's temperature and conveyor's speed influenced the amount of defective gloves produced. After optimising these two process variables, a reduction of about 50 per cent in the “leaking” gloves defect was achieved, which helped the organisation studied to reduce its defects per million opportunities from 195,095 to 83,750 and thus improve its sigma level from 2.4 to 2.9.

This paper can be used as a guiding reference for managers and engineers to undertake specific process improvement projects, in their organisations, similar to the one presented in this paper.

This study presents an industrial case which demonstrates how the application of Six Sigma and DMAIC can help manufacturing organisations to achieve quality improvements in their processes and thus contribute to their search for process excellence.

The Six Sigma phenomenon has followed the TQM movement as the latest thrust for many companies seeking to improve their performance and effectiveness. The purpose of this paper is to review the basic concepts of Six Sigma, its benefits, and successful approaches for implementation. In particular, we benchmark the practices of the General Electric Company, one of the leaders and innovators in implementing the process. We conclude that keys for successful implementation include upper management support and involvement, organizational infrastructure, training, tools, and links to human resources‐based actions.

This paper examined employee perceptions of the rewards associated with their participation in a six sigma program. Six sigma is an approach to organizational change that incorporates elements of total quality management, business process reengineering, and employee involvement.

A survey was completed by 215 employees (34 percent response rate). Respondents rated the extent to which they felt their participation in six sigma was “instrumental” for a range of outcomes, as well as valence (desirability) of each outcome (based on the VIE concept of instrumentality). The outcomes were classified into four categories: extrinsic, intrinsic, social, and organizational.

Valence ratings revealed that all 12 outcomes were perceived as desirable. Instrumentality ratings showed that extrinsic outcomes were rated significantly lower than intrinsic, social, and organizational outcomes. Additional analyses revealed significant differences on all four outcome categories between participants and non‐participants in the six sigma program.

The positive valence and instrumentality ratings for participants indicate they believe their participation will lead to valued outcomes for themselves and their organizations. However, employees who choose not to get involved in six sigma do not perceive that their participation would have led to desired outcomes. The results also show that while participants value extrinsic rewards, they do not see six sigma as instrumental in their receipt. These perceptions have important implications for attracting and retaining program participants.

While much has been written about the use of reward systems in supporting a successful six sigma effort, this study empirically examines how employees actually perceive the rewards associated with their participation. It also identifies which types of rewards are most instrumental for participants and non‐participants.

The aim of this case study‐based paper is to study the application of Six Sigma, a breakthrough improvement strategy in the field of cell site construction of a telecom company.

This research provides action research of a Six Sigma project using DMAIC methodology carried out in cell site construction function of a telecom company. The research illustrates how the various Six Sigma tools and techniques were applied in a mutually inclusive manner in one project. The infrastructure department of the company had constructed 900 cell sites last year, out of which 150 were not according to standards and were either disapproved by the operations department or underwent maintenance soon after their use. In 2010, the company spent US$ 0.5 million on rework and maintenance at these sites, thus highlighting the urgency of the problem.

The paper shows how, after the implementation of the Six Sigma project, the company made savings worth US$ 0.45 million.

Six Sigma as a means of waste reduction has gained popularity among researchers and practitioners. The literature on the methodology of Six Sigma and the management approach towards Six Sigma is burgeoning. While various Six Sigma tools and techniques and their application are discussed in literature independent of each other, the need has arisen to observe their systematic application as they apply in a project; every company can use this breakthrough improvement strategy to improve its processes by reducing waste and deriving the financial benefits.

Increasing competitive pressure in all business sectors (e.g. private, public SME) is reflected in the continuing quest for business improvement philosophies and methodologies to address this challenge. Recent developments have included increased organisational and academic interest in the six sigma approach to business improvement. There are many organisational examples (mainly USA and UK based) of large scale improvements in defect and process measures attributed to this approach. However, there is a paucity of critical studies on six sigma beyond that of “how to” and that of descriptive accounts, with a focus on measures and results rather than employee involvement and motivation. The aim of this paper is to explore the development of six sigma in a multilevel case analysis, from both a process perspective and a people perspective. The findings show that the case organisation had to widen its conception and application of six sigma to include people and organisational criteria to enable the approach to become embedded in the organisation.

This paper aims to develop an initial understanding of the Lean Six Sigma methodology since its inception and examine the few Lean Six Sigma dimensions as a research domain through a critical review of the literature.

The paper is structured in two-part. The first part of the paper attempts to dwell on the evolution of the Lean Philosophy and Six Sigma methodology individually and the emergence of Lean Six Sigma methodology, covered under the Lean Six Sigma: a historical outline section. The second part of the study examines the dimensions associated with Lean Six Sigma such as frameworks, critical success factors, critical failure factors, type of industry, performance metric, year, publisher and journal, based on a total of 223 articles published in 72 reputed journals from the year 2000 to 2019 as a literature review.

The adoption of Lean Six Sigma, as a continuous improvement methodology, has grown enormously in the manufacturing and few service sectors such as health care and higher education during the past decade. The study revealed that researchers came out with conceptual frameworks for the implementation of Lean Six Sigma, whereas the validation through case studies seems to be lacking. The integration of Lean Six Sigma and other approaches with a focus on sustainability and the environment has emerged as a research field. A few of the most common critical success and failure factors were identified from the articles studied during the study.

This paper may not have included some of the studies due to the inaccessibility and selection criteria followed for the study.

This paper will provide an initial introduction on Lean, Six Sigma and Lean Six Sigma and research insights Lean Six Sigma to beginners such as students, researchers and entry-level professionals.

To report on the collaborative project between Newcastle University Library and 3M which aimed to increase self‐issue levels using six sigma methodology.

The six‐month long project is outlined and gives an insight into the process improvement methodology called six sigma. An explanation of why we ran the project is given and the Define, Measure, Analyse, Improve, Control (DMAIC) phases of the six sigma are described.

Outlines the long and short term measures which were needed to improve the self‐issue service.

Useful source for other libraries who may wish to improve their self‐issue levels. It is also useful for those who are interested in the use of six sigma in the service sector, more specifically in an academic library.

It was a unique project in that it was the first time 3M had collaborated with a UK academic library on a six sigma project and the first time Newcastle University Library had engaged in this type of process improvement exercise. It shows how in working objectively together both parties improved the self‐issue service in a systematic way.

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the systematic application of Six Sigma tools for identification and reduction of cost of poor quality (COPQ). The study examines one of the chronic problems of failure of cooling fan assembly at repair division of a company dealing in helicopter components.

The case adopted Six Sigma Define-Measure-Analyze-Improve-Control (DMAIC) methodology to achieve the goal of reduction in COPQ.

After completing the Define, Measure and Analyze phase, it was found that use of extreme tolerances and cross-fitment of bearings are the root cause of cooling fan assembly failure. The major recommendations made during the Improve phase were to design a bearing matching software for improving the cross-fitment of bearings and to procure a hydraulic jig with electronic jig instead of manual jig. The value of implementing these recommended solutions equate to a saving of INR 34 lacs per annum. Since it was a chronic problem, the company expects this to be a recurring saving.

This specific case exhibits the successful application of Six Sigma DMAIC methodology in repair and maintenance for driving down the cost of failure and improved processes.

Face the process yield rate improvements of motherboard, although general enterprises finish deployment goal of each functions by overall quality managements, through quality improvement methods, industry engineering methods, plan‐do‐check‐act (PDCA) methods and other improvement solutions, but it is only can be improved partially and unable to enhance the yield rate of product to the target. It only can takes one step ahead to enhance the process yield rate of motherboard with six sigma (6 σ) overall DMAIC process and tactics. This research aimed to use six sigma quality improvement tactics by DMAIC systematic procedure and tactics, and find the key factors that effect to the process yield rate of surface mount technology. It also identified the keys input and process and output index to satisfy customer requirements and internal process index. The results showed that the major effective factors by fishbone and process failure modes and effects analysis (PFMEA). If the index of input and output that can be quantified, the optimum parameter can be found through design of experiment to ensure that the process is stable. If the factor of input and output that cannot be quantified, we found out the effective countermeasure by Mind_Mapping, make sure whole processes can be controlled stably, to reach the high product quality and enhance the customer satisfaction.