A Critical Review of Six Sigma: Exploring the Dichotomies

Abstract

Increasing competitive pressure from global markets and technological developments has resulted in the continual demand for business improvement philosophies and methodologies in operations management to address this challenge. The Six Sigma approach to business improvement has emerged in both the practitioner and academic literature as having a significant role in this area. There are many documented case studies of organizational applications of Six Sigma, where large-scale improvements in defect and process measures have been attributed to this approach, mainly in the mass-manufacturing sector. Moreover, there are claims, less well documented, that Six Sigma can be used as a change management approach at a strategic level and thus it can be applied to other sectors such as service industries. It is contended that there is a paucity of critical reviews of the Six Sigma literature, beyond that of descriptive accounts. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to critically review the literature of Six Sigma in relation to its effect on organizations and those that work in them. A broad theoretical perspective is used to guide the review process. The paper structure is based on the dichotomies within the Six Sigma literature, namely, what is Six Sigma -strategic change or operational methods;

Quality management in heavy duty manufacturing industry: TQM vs. Six Sigma

“…It is mainly due to the relatively large operations performance variances that this approach may tolerate, comparing to other quality approaches, which indicate 15 that TQM may lose focus in time; thus supporting the claim by McAdam et al (2005). Despite this drawback, TQM should not be treated as a management fad, due to the evidence of its success in systematic and continuous quality improvement, as argued with the case of JCB in this research.…”

Integrating the Balanced Scorecard with Six Sigma

“…Six Sigma is a business problem‐solving methodology that provides the capability to effect measurable process improvements (Montgomery, 2001; Goh and Xie, 2004; McAdam et al , 2005; Snee and Hoerl, 2003). The capability for effective business process improvement is provided through the “structured methodology that is uniquely driven by a close understanding of customer needs, disciplined use of facts, data and statistical analysis, and diligent attention to managing, improving and reinventing business processes” (Pande et al , 2000).…”

Total Quality Management and Six Sigma

“…The Six Sigma journey started from Motorola in 1980s and spread its importance through adoptions by different high profile organizations such as General Electric (GE), Honeywell, Asea Brown Bovari (ABB), Lockheed-Martin, Polaroid, and Texas Instruments Hahn et al, 1999). This initial success of Six Sigma has seen its implementation spreading in several other organizations mostly in mass-manufacturing sector (McAdam et al, 2005). These organizations adopted the systematic framework of Six Sigma through training and project management practices (Brady and Allen, 2006).…”