Six Sigma for workplace safety improvement: improving hazards and unsafe conditions in a metallic packaging manufacturing company

Abstract

Six Sigma has been applied as a business process improvement strategy in many companies worldwide with great results. On the other hand, workplace safety constitutes a key issue for company managers due to their responsibility. The aim of this article is to demonstrate how using Six Sigma can reduce accidents. A case study is conducted on a large European metallic packaging manufacturing company. As a result, the company presented a reduction of lost time accidents from 97 to 30 that saved a lot of time and cost. The σ value achieved was 4.24. This project shows the effectiveness of Six Sigma as an improvement tool in the human resources area, despite most of the previous Six Sigma research being focused on manufacturing aspects. The case studied can be useful either for large companies or small and medium-sized companies interested in improving safety.

Keywords:

• Six Sigma
• case study
• workplace safety
• define
• measure
• analyse
• improve and control
• process improvement

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 ‘Recordable incidents are incidents that resulted from an exposure or event in the workplace and that required some type of medical treatment or first-aid’ (https://www.rit.edu/academicaffairs/outreach/OSHA/documents/Module5/M5_IncidentRates.pdf).