Identification of Critical Success Factors for implementing Six Sigma methodology and grouping the factors based on ISO 9001:2015 QMS.

In the present day scenario, many business and quality management methods are used in industries to improve quality and standardise the process. Six Sigma methodology (SSM) started by Motorola is one such methodology used by industries to reduce variability and cost, increase the profitability of the process. SSM will help to identify and reduce defects so that the process is standardised. In this paper, literature review is done to identify the critical success factors (CSFs) for the implementation of SSM. Further, the CSFs identified are categorised into various groups based on their relevance to various clauses of ISO 9001:2015 quality management system (QMS) standard. The identified CSFs are grouped in Clause 4: context of organisation; Clause 5: leadership; Clause 6: planning; Clause 7: support; Clause 8: operations; Clause 9: performance evaluation and Clause 10: improvement. The CSFs grouped as per various clauses could be used by the organisations which have implemented ISO 9001:2015 QMS to effectively implement SSM along with QMS standard.