Development of Lean Six Sigma training module: evidence from an emerging economy

Abstract

Purpose Nowadays, firms are keen on improving the quality culture in the organizations. The proven success of Lean and Six Sigma has given rise to the synergetic Lean Six Sigma (LSS) approach that has been catching fire in the past one decade. However, there exists a gap between the understanding and implementation of LSS in the organizations, especially in the emerging economies. Taking this as a valuable opportunity, the purpose of this paper is to present a development of LSS training module. Design/methodology/approach This study starts with a literature review of LSS to reinforce the understanding of the research subject in scope of manufacturing sector. Then, an online questionnaire was designed and used to collect responses from 181 companies located in the Indian sub-continent. Subsequently, the results obtained from the survey were analyzed using COARSE approach. Findings This study reveals two key findings and associated contributions. First, it was found that the overall awareness of LSS within the responded manufacturing firms is about 70.4 percent. Second, there is no single standard training module that exists in any of the sampled firms to cater to their quality programs. Hence, in order to improve the LSS awareness which could subsequently help managers as a resource for creating an efficient workplace, this paper presents a structured LSS training framework. Research limitations/implications Although this paper presents the importance of LSS and associated awareness level among the responded firms, more empirical evidence is required to generalize the model findings. Second, this study is scoped to firms that work out of the Indian sub-continent, and this provides a future opportunity to expand the scope of this research toward a global study for a comparison between emerging and developed economies. Third, this study is limited to manufacturing firms and hence paves an opportunity to research on a similar theme in services context as well. Practical implications Before embarking on an LSS journey, an organization can use the LSS training module proposed in this study to assess the employee awareness on LSS. Furthermore, organizations that already have a mature LSS practice can incorporate the LSS training module for periodic evaluation of the employees for effective change management. Originality/value The training module presented in this paper is the original contribution by the authors. This is no association to any single identifiable organization or associated funding. The direct practical implication of its application in real time is the value that managers could derive from the proposed LSS training framework.

Industry 4.0: key findings and analysis from the literature arena

“…Further, it helps the readers to know the developing trends in the context of Industry 4.0 over the years. The following fields were identified from the papers obtained in the descriptive analysis (Sreedharan and Raju, 2016; Sreedharan et al , 2019): journals; timeline distribution; authorship; geography; and keyword analysis.…”

Integrated modeling of “soft” and “hard” variables in manufacturing

“…Training is an important aspect for any manufacturing organization, especially in the industries that have stringent standards to operate within. It has the potential to improve the performance of an individual by increasing their abilities [ 24 ]. However, the outcome of the training and ultimately its impact on manufacturing performance is influenced by many variables [ 21 ], including the quality of the training program and its effectiveness, but also variables related to the employees, such as their years of experience, education level, resistance to change, motivation, and existing skill set.…”

Using Lean Six Sigma in small and medium-sized enterprises for low-cost/high-effect improvement initiatives: a case study

“…It is evident from the literature that the most significant parameters affecting the implementation of LSS in SMEs are similar to the factors affecting the adoption of LSS in general. Specifically, the parameters that were found according to the review conducted by Lande et al (2016), who evaluated the LSS adoption CSFs in SMEs reviewing 143 papers, Kanhu Gaikwad et al (2020), who analyzed LSS implementation barriers in SMEs, Sreedharan et al (2019), who researched the enablers driving SMEs to the LSS methodology, and Antony et al (2017) are the following: lack of employee training , lack of resources available (financial, human, time, etc. ), poor management engagement and dedication, non-dedicated leadership, weak prioritization and selection of projects, resistance to cultural change, not comprehending the LSS methodology, and failure to connect LSS to business strategy.…”