Title: Total performance excellence - a model for successful implementation of Six Sigma

Authors: Muthuswamy Shanmugaraja; Muthuswamy Nataraj; Nallasamy Gunasekaran

Addresses: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Government College of Technology, Coimbatore – 641 013, Tamilnadu, India ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, Government College of Technology, Coimbatore – 641 013, Tamilnadu, India ' Angel Collège of Engineering and Technology, Angel Nagar, Dharapuram Main Road, Tirupur – 641 665, Tamilnadu, India

Abstract: In the recent past, Six Sigma approach had been the methodology of choice for achieving quality and productivity through streamlined business practices that would eventually delight customers. Though Six Sigma had been expanded to several industrial sectors presently, only few research attempts have been noticed to examine the successful implementation of the method in the organisations. Despite the fact that organisations achieve benefits from Six Sigma implementations, such benefits are not sustainable until Six Sigma programme gets incorporated with its critical success factors while implementing to improve product or service quality. From a comprehensive literature review it has been understood that quality function deployment and the theory of inventive problem solving could be integrated with Six Sigma to develop an extended model of Six Sigma to incorporate some of its critical success factors. Accordingly, a model named 'total performance excellence' (TPE) is designed and presented in this article.

Keywords: six sigma implementation; quality improvement; productivity; critical success factors; CSFs; quality function deployment; QFD; theory of inventive problem solving; TRIZ; total performance excellence; TPE.

DOI: 10.1504/IJPM.2013.053651

International Journal of Procurement Management, 2013 Vol.6 No.3, pp.297 - 328

Published online: 30 Jan 2014 *

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