Development of Dynamic Lean Six Sigma Model for Enhancing Stability, Capability and Robustness Metrics in Small and Medium Enterprises and Pilot Implementation in a Plastic Industry

Abstract

Lean and six sigma are key business process strategies, which are employed by companies to enhance their manufacturing performance. Lean and Six Sigma are two widely acknowledged business process improvement strategies available to manufacturing organisations today for achieving dramatic results in cost, quality and time by focusing on process performance. In the current manufacturing scenario, many of the large scale manufacturing industries are adopting the Lean Six Sigma (LSS) concepts for the sustainable development. However, the manufacturing industry belongs to small and medium enterprises (SME) are unable to effectively adopt the LSS concepts. This is due to the reason that the SME are following the stringent production orders, schedule, routing, and production deficiencies with meticulous due date requirements. There are many LSS models are already available for large scale, medium scale and small scale manufacturing industries. However, there is no exclusive integrated model for manufacturing industries of SME. This situation indicates the need for developing a dynamic model that can enable the implementation of the LSS concept for achieving prosperity in SME. Hence the main purpose of this investigation is to develop and implement a dynamic Lean Six Sigma Model (DLSS) for enhancing stability, capability and robustness metrics in a systematic and streamlined manner. Due to the response and commitment for follow up initiatives, a small scale plastic industry has been considered in this investigation. The level of response, practicality and willingness for adopting the change management with respect to LSS concepts are found to be appreciable in that small scale plastic industry. After pilot investigation, it is suggested that the advanced LSS concepts by applying certain optimization techniques can also be initiated in SME for achieving more effectiveness. Thus, the proposed framework systematically integrates the required LSS tools such as current state map, 5S System, design of experiments and Define-Measure-Analyse-Improve-Control (DMAIC) methodology to enhance the performance of the SME to enhance the overall bottom-line results and win customer loyalty progressively. In future, the developed model can be reviewed and revised suitable to face the real time difficulties.