Design and development of Six Sigma implementation framework for Indian industries

Abstract

Six Sigma has emerged as a powerful tool in quality management over the recent years and the approach is widely used across all sectors of manufacturing, service logistics and health & hospitality. In today’s competitive environment to sustain global competition means to be the best in the field at each competitive priority and to demonstrate industry best quality improvement practices like six sigma. A little work has been done in the area of framework of six sigma implementation but none of the existing frameworks was found to be suitable for the Indian scenario, and the completeness of existing Indian six sigma frameworks was also found to be lacking. Hence this paper aims to focus on the development of a new framework for providing direction and guidance for implementation of six sigma in Indian scenario. Total 67 frameworks of six sigma implementation as proposed by various researchers, consultants, international agencies and individuals were indentified through literature review. Comparative analysis of these identified frameworks was carried out and a new framework is suggested after considering domain knowledge of six sigma and through discussion with experts. Some unique elements/attributes of six sigma were identified through comparative analysis which represent/forms the pillars of six sigma.