Ranking the solutions of Sustainable Lean Six Sigma implementation in Indian manufacturing organization to overcome its barriers

ABSTRACT

In today’s globally competitive market, manufacturing organisations must find innovative ways to delight stakeholders while achieving profitable growth. Lean Six Sigma is one of the best techniques which has been used for more than two decades to make quality products by reducing defects. The current scenario for the development puts more effort towards sustainability, and hence stakeholders and consumers are all demanding for sustainable products. Nowadays, an integrated approach of sustainability and Lean Six Sigma has started to gain attention from researchers, which includes the financial, environmental, and societal factors of the organisation. The present study is a case study-based implementation of a hybrid framework of Sustainable Lean Six Sigma for manufacturing organisations. Through literature review and experts’ opinions, a total of thirty-four barriers and twenty-nine solutions were identified. For the ranking of barriers, the Best-worst method technique has been applied, and the Weighted Aggregates Sum Product Assessment technique is used for prioritisation of the solutions. The top barriers found out as lack of top management attitude towards sustainability concept, lack of project plans, techniques, and standard practices, lack of continuous improvement culture. The top solutions found are management participation to Sustainable Lean Six Sigma implementation, provide consulting to top management regarding Sustainable Lean Six Sigma benefits, develop a cooperative organisational culture. The obtained results are expected to be helpful to the managers for the implementation of the Sustainable Lean Six Sigma in their organisations. Hence, the present study will provide valuable insights to the researchers and practitioners.

KEYWORDS:

• Sustainable Lean Six Sigma
• barriers
• solutions
• best-worst method
• weighted aggregates sum product assessment

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Pranay Sureshbhai Parmar

Pranay Sureshbhai Parmar is pursuing his Ph.D. in the area of Sustainable Lean Six Sigma from the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Sardar Vallabhabhai National Institute of Technology, Surat, India. His areas of interest are Lean Six Sigma, Sustainable Lean Six Sigma, Operations management, and Industry 4.0.

Tushar N. Desai

Dr. Tushar N. Desai is Professor at the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Sardar Vallabhabhai National Institute of Technology, Surat, India. His areas of interest are Lean Six Sigma, Total Quality Management, and Operations Management. He has about more than 40 years of experience in industry, teaching, and research. He has co-authored more than 200 research papers in international journals, national journals, and conferences.