Contents: Variety and Quality. Variability loss and tolerance. Determining tolerances. Tolerance design and experimental design. Offline and online quality control. Parameter design and tolerance design: case study. Experimental design for smaller is better characteristics. Experimental design for larger is better characteristics. Bypassing the S/N ratio: spring experiment. Experimental design for dynamic characteristics.

Introduction to quality engineering. designing quality into products a

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to focus on three fundamental human-related behaviour factors associated with Lean Six Sigma (LSS) projects in German manufacturing small-and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) on the readiness of people (managers and their staff) to commence LSS projects. These are core personal competence, strategic vision of the people and the organisational culture of the specific organisation. Design/methodology/approach – Based on a thorough review of the academic literature a set of hypotheses were constructed to examine the level of association between people’s competence, vision and culture with LSS readiness within SMEs. This was done using correlation and regression analysis. Data collection were carried out in seven different German manufacturing SMEs involved in aerospace supply and agro-food manufacturing using a survey instrument. Findings – It was found that there is a strong positive association between the core competence of people and organisational culture with readi...

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Investigating the readiness of people in manufacturing SMEs to embark on Lean Six Sigma projects: An empirical study in the German manufacturing sector

Purpose




The purpose of this paper is to extend previous studies to a hybrid analysis of three business improvement practices of Lean, Six Sigma and Lean Six Sigma (LSS) within last two decades and identify the research gaps and focusses in more comprehensive and robust classification framework.




Design/methodology/approach




A secondary data collection and a literature review were conducted to collect information about peer-reviewed journal articles under six dimensions of a tested classification framework. The frequency and distribution analysis was conducted followed by Pearson’s χ2 test to analyse any relationship between dimensions of framework in order to identify the gap.




Findings




Despite a relatively great deal of regular research outputs about Six Sigma, Lean and LSS, academic journal articles have been found mainly limited to a few industries, themes and countries. “General manufacturing”, “healthcare”, “automotive” and “electronic industries” as sectors; and “tools and techniques”, “benefits” and “success factors” as key themes have been mostly approached by LSS, Six Sigma and lean management articles. It was also found that there is still a great disparity amongst researchers and journals to publish about these three business improvement practices.




Research limitations/implications




The research publications for LSS, Six Sigma and lean management should have wider approach towards various manufacturing and service sectors, countries and journal publications. A greater level of research/enterprise activities has been found in relation to LSS and Six Sigma articles compared to lean management articles.




Originality/value




This research aims to identify the gaps in research publications during last two decades about three major business improvement practices in one package and through more comprehensive robust classification framework and also through comparative analysis.

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Quantitative analysis of Six Sigma, Lean and Lean Six Sigma research publications in last two decades

Historically, Lean Six Sigma (LSS) implementation has demonstrated a great deal of enhancement to process efficiency, profitability and customer satisfaction. The emerging market pressure for developing better quality, cheaper and greener products invokes a change of view in LSS economical effectiveness. The purpose of this study is to identify under which condition the final output of LSS projects with traditional strategic benefits are more environmentally friendly.,To investigate the choice of different types of LSS projects, the environmental impact under different conditions and the comparison of those conditions, the author developed an analytical mathematical model and analysed four different propositions.,The final price and production volume were recommended as mediating factors to leverage an LSS project to achieve a greener, customised and finance-oriented outputs.,This research contributes to existing LSS research and knowledge development via promoting the different perspectives of LSS and environmental sustainability integration.,This study further enables managers to identify the cut-off point in relation to the production volume and finished prices to leverage the expected financial outputs and environmental impact of the LSS project. This would potentially promote a green LSS project in both implementation and output, alongside its traditional values.,This study uses a modelling approach to identify the conditions under which the actual methodology of the LSS project could be green via less energy consumption with consideration of expected LSS values and outcomes.

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Green implementation of Lean Six Sigma projects in the manufacturing sector

Lean Six Sigma maturity model within Saudi Arabian organisations : an empirical study

. Across the world service industry organisations including SMEs have been facing unprecedented challenges in delivering best quality products at low costs and fast delivery speeds. Lean and Six Sigma are increasingly used as practical methodologies to improve delivery and quality and to reduce operational costs, to thereby enhance business competitiveness. This study aims to investigate the implementation of Lean Six Sigma by means of an empirical case study in food distribution SMEs in Saudi Arabia. Suitable statistical tools have been applied in each phase of the DMAIC cycle. The case study indicated that a combination of the strengths of each approach could bring about considerable performance improvements in SMEs.Keywords: Lean, Six Sigma, Lean Six Sigma, SMEs, Food distribution.1 INTRODUCTIONFor service industry businesses to succeed and prosper, it is essential for them to stay ahead of the competition and to respond to market changes rapidly. Nowadays SMEs face even greater challenges because they have to compete in the global economy. SMEs have been forced to respond more quickly in this new economic climate and to become more flexible operationally, tactically and strategically. The ever-increasing competitions in the current challenging business environment have meant that companies have to enhance their supply chain performance. This has resulted in supply chain management becoming a significant way for companies to achieve a competitive advantage. Food distribution firms provide the link between food manufacturers and end consumers. Important activities of a food distribution firm include procurement, inventory, warehousing, order processing, and customer service (Nabhani and Shokri, 2009).During the second half of the Twentieth Century, Lean and Six Sigma were the two most important structured process improvement methodologies. They each evolved separately; Lean concentrates on process speed and eliminating waste, and Six Sigma, like its forerunner TQM, aims to eliminate process variation which leads to defects. When the two methodologies are combined the results will be superior to the outcomes that would result from either one alone. The integrated approach is superior to earlier ones because it integrates the process elements and the human elements of process improvement. Lean concentrates on improving process speed and removing waste, while Six Sigma concentrates on eliminating the process variation which results in defects. 'Lean Six Sigma' combines Lean and Six Sigma to offer the best of both systems.The subject of this case study is a food distribution SME. The company faces many problems and difficulties in the process of delivering food, two of the most prominent being delays in the delivery of orders and low levels of quality, leading to customer dissatisfaction with the service provided. Customers have made negative observations and complaints, suggesting the potential for financial losses due to loss of customers. Prior to starting this Lean Six Sigma project to improve the quality of service at the company, the total cost of late deliveries was calculated, to justify the running of the project. This paper will address these issues, aiming to investigate the implementation of Lean Six Sigma by integrating some of its principles by means of a case study in food distribution SMEs.2 THE NEED TO INTEGRATE LEAN AND SIX SIGMALean six sigma is a methodology which strives to achieve maximum shareholder value by rapidly improving customer satisfaction, quality, and process speed and flexibility as well as reducing cost and increasing bottom-line savings (George, 2002; Shamou and Arunachalam, 2009; Snee, 2010). Lean strategies play a significant part in eliminating waste and non-valueadded activities throughout the organisations, while Six Sigma statistical tools and techniques allow an organisation to reach a higher standard of process performance and capability (Antony, 2011; Kumar et al. …

Application of Lean Six Sigma Principles to Food Distribution SMEs

This paper presents an approach for optimization of preventive maintenance total cost to address both quality and reliability issues simultaneously in a single-objective environment. The concepts of operation optimization, reliability and quality loss are brought together to build the model. The proposed approach can determine optimal maintenance interval and minimize the combined preventive maintenance cost and quality loss, ensuring reliable, robust, and concurrently cost-effective product design by satisfying all the desired quality characteristics. The technique is advantageous because it allows setting and achieving the target values for the quality characteristics, obtaining the expected values by minimizing their variances, and at the same time ensuring that the design meets the reliability target.

Joe Au

Papers

Application of Lean Six Sigma Principles to Food Distribution SMEs

Development of the Mathematical Model to Optimise Preventive Maintenance Activities for Service Organisations