Title: Antecedents to successful implementation of Six Sigma

Authors: Agnes Y.T. Szeto, Albert H.C. Tsang

Addresses: Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Kln, Hong Kong. ' Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Kln, Hong Kong

Abstract: Increasing competitive pressure in all business sectors drives the continuing quest for business improvement philosophies. Six Sigma has proven to be a popular approach to driving out variability from processes through the use of statistical tools among the various management approaches that have been put into practice in industry. Many large companies have adopted this methodology as a business strategy, expecting to make quantum gains in product/service quality. However, the achievement of these Six Sigma initiatives varies considerably. One must understand the critical success factors that will make the application successful for the effective implementation of Six Sigma projects in organisations. The objective of this paper is to review the related literature to the critical success factors for effective implementation of Six Sigma projects. It is concluded that |Management involvement and commitment|, |Linking Six Sigma to business strategy|, |Change of organisational culture|, |Organisation infrastructure|, |Training|, |Tools applications|, |Linking Six Sigma to stakeholders|, |Project selection, prioritisation and management| are the key ingredients to the successful execution of the Six Sigma approach.

Keywords: Critical Success Factors; customer satisfaction; culture; change management; change; leadership; six sigma; business strategy.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSSCA.2005.008094

International Journal of Six Sigma and Competitive Advantage, 2005 Vol.1 No.3, pp.307 - 322

Published online: 16 Nov 2005 *

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