The effective of lean manufacturing and six sigma implementation

Abstract

In this paper, we study the performance outcomes for industries practicing lean manufacturing and six sigma. Findings indicate that company size has no influence on operational performance outcomes. Also we found that lean manufacturing and six sigma practices such as DMAIC, Kaizen team, Visual Control, SMED, 5S, etc. support to increases companies performance. Investigation results indicate that an increase in the number of years in terms of implementing lean manufacturing and/or six sigma, corresponds with an increase in financial and operational performance. The results also of this study specifically revealed that use six sigma in all departments supportive of improving quality; whereas companies that implemented lean manufacturing in all departments created a safe environment and improved employee involvement within the organization. Moreover, findings illustrate that the use of a belt system supported the improvement in quality, reduced costs and reduced variation. The implementation of lean manufacturing and six sigma are important areas of study as there are few studies reported in the literature on implementing lean manufacturing and six sigma within French industries.