An evaluation into the limitations and emerging trends of Six Sigma: an empirical study

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the limitations and emerging trends of Six Sigma through an empirical study. Six Sigma is one of the most powerful business process improvement strategies used by numerous World Class corporations for over three decades. A handful of existing publications address some limitations and potential trends of Six Sigma, yet there are no empirical studies investigating the fundamental limitations and emerging trends of Six Sigma. Design/methodology/approach The authors developed an online survey instrument based on the existing literature addressing the above. In this study, 61 Six Sigma Master Black Belts and Black Belts from large manufacturing companies and 25 academics who are familiar with the Six Sigma topic participated and contributed to the research. Findings The study reports the top 5 limitations and emerging trends of Six Sigma from the viewpoints of both academics and experts from large manufacturing companies. These are: integration of Six Sigma with Big Data, use of Six Sigma in small medium and micro enterprises, over emphasis of Six Sigma on variability reduction, poor implementation of Six Sigma and its negative impact on employee satisfaction and non-exploitation of integration of Six Sigma with Industry 4.0. Practical implications In order to sustain Six Sigma initiatives, it is imperative that limitations and fundamental gaps are understood, and strategies developed to address them. The authors argue that leading academic scholars have a vital role to play in working with industry practitioners to overcome the limitations and emerging trends addressed above. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first empirical study looking into the limitations, research gaps and emerging trends of Six Sigma.

Reducing medication errors using lean six sigma methodology in a Thai hospital: an action research study

“…However, the study highlights that an understanding of LSS methodology and top management support were key success factors in overcoming challenges of LSS implementation. This is in line with findings from Antony, Lizarelli, et al (2019) and Antony, Sony, et al (2019) which demonstrate that a lack of top management commitment can result in an unsuccessful implementation and a failure to address the identified issues. This is the first study applying LSS to the reduction of dispensing errors in the inpatient pharmacy in a teaching hospital.…”

What Drives the Usage of Management Tools Supporting Industry 4.0 in Organizations?

“…Treven, Uršič, and Rashad [ 1 ] reported that supply chain management—considered as enterprises’ operations in supply chains—is used more in manufacturing than in service organizations. Similarly, [ 33 ] reported that six sigma is used more in manufacturing than in the academic sector, especially six sigma “black and master black belt.” All these facts confirm the finding from prior studies that lean principles have their roots in manufacturing [ 113 ] and were dominantly implemented in manufacturing organizations [ 71 , 114 ]. Moreover, the supply chain management literature puts much more emphasis on manufacturing organizations, as focal organizations [ 115 ], than on service organizations.…”

“…A set of management tools is designed for the execution of business processes in organizations [ 59 ], where the management tools support business process reengineering, which is necessary due to the implementation of Industry 4.0 principles, as well as other changes to processes and functions. Those management tools are lean production [ 23 , 26 , 27 , 56 ], six sigma [ 32 , 33 ], and total quality management [ 60 ], which improve the processes and the overall organizational working. Additionally, outsourcing can also be considered important in the framework of optimizing organizational working [ 61 ].…”

“…A final driver of management tool usage considered in this paper is the industry of the organization, which, again, is often considered in research dealing with management tools. In those studies, researchers consider the industry as an important factor and often include organizations and participants from various industries in a study [ 35 , 37 , 39 , 71 , 72 , 74 , 82 ], distinguishing between manufacturing and the service industry [ 82 , 88 ], or focus on a specific industry, such as service [ 1 , 85 , 86 ] or manufacturing [ 33 , 78 , 83 , 87 ]. However, the organization’s industry is frequently considered as a control variable when studying select phenomena in business research; one of the few studies of management tools emphasized the organization’s industry as a driver of management tool usage [ 42 , 43 ].…”

“…Searching through the literature for drivers of management tool usage returns only partial evidence about potential drivers. This can be found in studies dealing with management tools [ 1 , 27 , 33 , 34 , 35 , 36 , 37 , 38 , 39 , 40 , 41 ], but the aim of these studies is not to reveal the drivers of management tool usage. Those studies are not addressing the drivers directly; rather, the potential drivers are included as “control variables.” Turning to the few studies addressing the drivers of management tools, the literature offers only modest evidence about drivers of management tool usage in organizations.…”