Relationship between Employee Education and Success of Six Sigma Implementation within the Automobile Industry in Europe

A. Bagherian; M.E. Gershon

doi:10.18311/sdmimd/2020/25170

Authors

A. Bagherian
International School of Management (ISM), 17 Boulevard Raspail, 75007 Paris, France
M.E. Gershon
Temple University, 533 Alter Hall, Philadelphia, PA 19122

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18311/sdmimd/2020/25170

Keywords:

Employee Education, Factor Analysis, Six Sigma, Success Factors, Survey

Abstract

Due to increased competition and the constant need to improve operations, most companies have implemented continuous improvement programs, most notably Six Sigma. However, not all the SS initiatives have always been successful. It is widely accepted that employee education is required prior to and during successful SS implementation. According to Chakravorty, 2010, however, nearly 60% of all corporate Six Sigma initiatives fail due to diverse misconceptions and inaccurate deployments of educating employees. This paper intends to delineate and set out what practices corporations should implement in the education of employees prior and through deployment of Six Sigma initiatives. The study is conducted within the Automobile industry in Europe. The results identify which taxonomies of education are most significant for successful SS initiatives. The outcomes strongly suggest that vital key ingredients of employee education are how to use the essential DMAIC tools and comprehensive education of metrics (PPM and Sigma level) throughout the implementation of Six Sigma.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Metrics

Metrics Loading ...

References

Banuelas Coronado, R. and Antony, J. (2002). Critical success factors for the successful implementation of six sigma projects in organizations, The TQM Magazine. 14(2):92-99. https://doi.org/10.1108/09544780210416702.

Chakravorty, S. (2010). Where process-improvement projects go wrong, WSJ. Accessed 5 Jun. 2019. Available at: http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748703298 004574457471313938130.

Community.tibco.com. (2018). TIBCO Statistica® Factor Analysis TIBCO Community. Accessed 6 Jun. 2019. Available at: https://community.tibco.com/wiki/tibcostatisticafactor-analysis.

Khanna, V. K., Vrat, Prem., Shankar, Ravi and Sahay, B. S. (2006). Usage of quality tools in the Indian automobile sector, Journal of Management Research. 6(3):156-69.

Liu, C. (2009). Effect of ISO/TS 16949 on Six Sigma: The empirical case of Taiwanese automobile and related industries, Total Quality Management and Business Excellence. 20(11):1229-45. https://doi.org/10.1080/14783360903247502.

McLean, R., Antony, J. and Dahlgaard, J. (2017). Failure of continuous improvement initiatives in manufacturing environments: A systematic review of the evidence, Total Quality Management and Business Excellence. 28(34):219-37. https://doi.org/10.1080/14783363.2015.1063 414.

Narasimhan, Ram and Nair, Annand (2015). Towards a theory-driven research agenda in six sigma quality innovation: Linking research opportunities with organization theory typology, International Journal of Quality Innovation. 1(5):1-25. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40887015-0005-7.

Pepper, M. and Spedding, T. (2010). The evolution of lean Six Sigma, International Journal of Quality and Reliability Management. 27(2):138-55. https://doi.org/10.1108/02656711011014276.

Raghunath, A. and Jayathirtha, R. (2013). Assessment of the status of adoption of Six Sigma by auto components sector - Literature review, Journal of Business and Management. 8(4):12-15. https://doi.org/10.9790/487X-0841215.

Taticchi, P. and Cagnazzo, L. (2009). Six Sigma: A literature review analysis, Recent Advances in E-Activities, Information Security and Privacy. (1):29-34. Web.csulb.edu. (2019). Sampling. Accessed 6 Jun.

Available at: https://web.csulb.edu/~msaintg/ ppa696/696sampl.htm#Simplerandomsample.

Yin, Robert K. (2014). Case study research (five). US: Sage.