A structured review of Lean Six Sigma in various industrial sectors

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of present study is to expose the detailed review for benefits and challenges about implementation of Lean Six Sigma (LSS) in business organization and spread of LSS literature in term of various sectors wise, research methodology wise and journal wise. Design/methodology/approach This paper covers the literature on LSS from 2000 to 2018. The authors have selected a large number of research papers using the keywords as Lean Six Sigma implementation in automotive, micro small medium enterprises, health care, education, financial sectors and many more. A total of 216 research papers have been reviewed on LSS distribution of sector wise, research methodology adopted, active countries, year of publication and critical barriers in implementation of LSS. Findings The present literature classifies the spread of LSS in four important sectors of manufacturing, health care, human resource, financial and education. It presents the critical barriers and benefits of LSS implementation in various sectors mentioned above and an important research gap, where practitioner/researcher can focus more during their research on LSS. Practical implications It is important for industry, researchers and LSS practitioners to be aware about challenges and success factor during LSS implementation in various sectors such as manufacturing, education, financial, human resource and health care. Hence, this paper could provide significant and valuable insights to industry and practitioners for successful implementation of LSS projects. Social implications LSS results in reduced waste, defects and improve process, which in turn provide high-quality products at minimum cost, and this leads to customer delight, which ultimately raises the societal living standard. The results encourage LSS practices without fear because there is a huge discussion of near about all success and failure parameters about LSS. Originality/value To the authors’ best knowledge, no studies have still covered the literature review of LSS implementation in three different sectors: manufacturing, service and process. The present study was mainly focused on presenting a systematic review of literature in said sectors and found the gap between current status and future direction for the implementation of LSS in different areas.

Investigating the Theoretical Constructs of a Green Lean Six Sigma Approach towards Environmental Sustainability: A Systematic Literature Review and Future Directions

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Green implementation of Lean Six Sigma projects in the manufacturing sector

“…One of the most crucial steps of the LSS project is to identify the customer demand or voice of the customer and translate it to a prioritised Critical to Quality (CTQ) metric (Tenera andPinto, 2014 andLighter, 2014) that serves as the outcome variable. Despite longitudinal research with acknowledgement of the synergy between Lean and Six Sigma as combined initiatives to establish quality (Singh and Rathi, 2019;and Habidin, et al, 2016), there is a conflicting view to argue Lean and Six Sigma as two non-compatible management initiatives (Pepper and Spedding, 2010). The previous unsuccessful experience of implementing LSS in manufacturing criticised it as being slow, bureaucratic and exclusive (Geier, 2011).…”

Lean Six Sigma in Manufacturing: A Comprehensive Review

“…Singh and Rathi [28] have recently conducted a review research on LSS and covered papers from 2000 to 2018. They have selected a total of 216 research papers published in different countries on LSS implementation in various manufacturing sector such as automotive, micro small medium enterprises, health care, education, financial sectors etc.…”