Lean Six Sigma

About: Lean Six Sigma is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 1919 publications have been published within this topic receiving 29142 citations.

Production systems: successful applications and new challenges part one – lean, six sigma, inventory, JIT and TOC

Abstract: The contributions to this special issue of Production Planning and Control reveal a rich variety of case-based papers with different approaches to a wide set of problems in real-life systems, which...

Integrating lean six sigma and supply chain approach for quality and business performance

Abstract: Lean manufacturing is one of the initiatives that major businesses all around the world have been trying to adopt in order to remain competitive in the increasingly global market and six sigma was an American “invention”. The central idea behind six sigma is that if you can measure how many “defects” you have in process, you can systematically figure out how to eliminate them and get as close to “Zero Defect” as possible and supply chain is the systematic and strategic coordination between supplier and customer. Integrating supply chain objectives with lean practices and six sigma methodologies can lead to superior benefits including process variation reduction, dramatic business improvement and has a substantial effect on achieving to the targets. Ultimately that integrating Lean Six sigma and supply chain can be combined for optimal results first the six sigma processes are changed from slow to fast by lean manufacturing. Six sigma and lean manufacturing provide the structure easily for optimum flow and integrating lean six sigma and supply chain has a large effect on achieving the targets and competitiveness. In plain language that the ultimate goal for the company is to create value to the customer hence the customer settles the quality and cost for the product. The quality and cost of the product is its ability to satisfy and preferably exceed the needs and expectations of the customers. Integrating lean six Sigma and supply chain approachgrowing prevalence and importance in industry, presently companies have acknowledged that integrating lean six sigma and supply chain share a common objective: to create value based end customer requirement.

Integrated product and process system with continuous improvement in the auto parts industry

Abstract: Purpose: Quality systems (QS) update must be based on the enterprise organization to assure customer satisfaction, as Deming, Juran and Feigenbaum did in their time, to seek improvement processes to reach high quality performance. This way, the proposal of this paper is the development of quality system integration model of product and process with continuous improvement. Design/methodology/approach: To reach this goal, a Brazilian automotive parts quality system was improved through the Computer Integrated Manufacturing (CIM), Design for Manufacturing and Assembly (DFMA) and Lean Six Sigma (LSS) methodologies. Findings: The paper shows what the problems are during the factory quality system management. The results achieved in the studied company show the performance quality evolution through their indicators. Research limitations/implications: The article presents quality system problems of only one Brazilian plant of an automotive industry. Practical implications: Presented in this article should be a way to look for continuous improvement methods. Originality/value: The paper is supported on the authors’ practical experiences to improve the quality system at a Brazilian plant.