Lean Six Sigma in manufacturing process: a bibliometric study and research agenda

Abstract

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to develop a bibliometric study about Lean Six Sigma (LSS) in the manufacturing process and to conduct an analysis of sources of publication, authorship, citations and other bibliometric indicators. This paper also identifies the research agenda for future research related to the LSS approach in manufacturing processes.Design/methodology/approachA total of 508 articles published during the period 2002 to 2017 were collected through an automated process from the Scopus and Web of Science databases and later analyzed using techniques such as data mining, bibliometric indicators analysis, cluster analysis, network analysis and word cloud. The boundaries of the study cover studies directed to the manufacturing processes.FindingsThe research identified 1,110 authors from 54 countries and 15 most prolific journals among the 162 journals investigated. The study unveils relevant articles, authors and journals that have discussed LSS initiatives in the manufacturing process.Practical implicationsThe study findings can make practitioners aware of the state of the art and the specificities of the most prolific studies. Furthermore, this paper also intends to clarify the project themes and tools most used in these works.Originality/valueThe geographical locations of influential articles and authors are revealed. Additionally, frequently used words are listed and helped to develop a research agenda that highlights relevant themes, methods and industries.

Industry 4.0, quality management and TQM world. A systematic literature review and a proposed agenda for further research

“…We excluded all the keywords connected with these management systems deciding to include Six Sigma as strictly connected with TQM (Sordan et al , 2020). Indeed, it is well known how Six Sigma has inherited many tools and principles from the TQM movement (Chiarini, 2011).…”

Lean Six Sigma competitiveness for micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME): an action research in the Indian context

“…Moreover, LSS reinforces competitiveness in the system by targeting customer specification, quality, cost, capital and process speed (George, 2003). Today, LSS is recognized as a business strategy to enhance company competitiveness through customer delight and improved bottom-line results (Sordan et al, 2020). LSS approach can be well-fitted in DMAIC (Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, Control) phases for effective deployment of the project, both in manufacturing and in service industries.…”

A Review of Data Mining Applications in Semiconductor Manufacturing

“…In Figure 7 the obtained frequency chart with biblioshiny can be observed with the distribution of the 47 most often found keywords in the selected sample of papers. A total of 349 keywords were found through the simplified technique employed in [37] to represent Zipf's law. This law stated that certain terms occur much more frequently than others and the distribution is similar to a hyperbole 1/n.…”

“…This law stated that certain terms occur much more frequently than others and the distribution is similar to a hyperbole 1/n. As the authors from [37], however, the occurrence of the keywords is stratified in decreasing order of frequency and categorized into three areas of analysis. First, the most important zone represents the basic or trivial information area, which shows the most essential terms on the subject.…”