Title: Six Sigma in services – challenges and opportunities

Authors: R. Nat Natarajan, Jason Morse

Addresses: College of Business, Tennessee Technological University, Cookeville, TN 38505, USA. ' Middle Tennessee Natural Gas, P.O. Box 670, Smithville, TN 37166, USA

Abstract: In recent years, many organisations have used Six Sigma for process improvement. The success stories of Six Sigma applications are usually that of large organisations like General Electric and many of these successful applications have been in manufacturing. However, service processes and smaller organisations pose a different set of challenges in implementing Six Sigma. Such processes and organisations can take advantage of opportunities provided by information technology (IT), which can be a powerful enabler. The paper addresses those challenges and opportunities in the context of an actual application of Six Sigma principles to a core service process in a mid-sized organisation.

Keywords: six sigma; services; information technology; medium-sized enterprises; service process improvement; mid-sized organisations.

DOI: 10.1504/IJPQM.2009.025190

International Journal of Productivity and Quality Management, 2009 Vol.4 No.5/6, pp.658 - 675

Published online: 16 May 2009 *

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