3. Lean / Six Sigma in Construction Industry Six sigma has been equally successful in its application in the manufacturing and service industries, it is however new concept in the building and construction industry but the industry practitioner have been applying it successfully in the construction industry (Laugen, Acur, Boer, & Frick, 2005)
Therefore many of the quality management tools were applied in the organizations which generally were insufficient in its ability to provide simple, proven and convenient way of measuring and maintaining quality until Motorola came up with the concept of Six Sigma in business quality management strategy. Six Sigma has been successfully applied by many of the small, medium sized organization and also by the big companies listed in the fortune 500 (Linderman, Schroeder, Zaheer, & Choo, 2003)
The targets may seem high but it's important to note that once defect can lead to a loss of customer (Fine, Hansen, & Roggenhofer, 2009). The fact that Six Sigma / Lean is different and is more effective measure of the quality management and continuous improvement is because it provides an in-depth analysis of the problem and its solution in the statistical measurement form which can be easily valued and focused for it removal (Naslund, 2008)
Lean manufacturing is derived from the Toyota Production system-TPS and was named Lean in 1990s. It has been adopted by the industry for is popularity in reducing waste and improving customer satisfaction (Sahoo, Singh, Shankar, & Tiwari, 2007)
For its effective implementation it requires a complete transformation of the prevailing business operations. Lean approach takes a long-term view of the process under review (Womack & Jones, 1994)
¶ … CommLab India adopts Six Sigma CommLab India's adoption of the Six Sigma DMAIC methodology and its related processes signals the company is focused on streamlining internal processes to align with customer needs. The reliance on Six Sigma DMAIC methodologies and frameworks has increasingly been adopted in knowledge-centric organizations, specifically e-learning and knowledge management companies (Nold, 471)
Six Sigma is a tool, it is not an edict. Like many tools, it is dependent upon two things: 1) How it is used, and 2) The quality of the data (Adams, 2003)
If this criterion cannot be met then the report is inadequate in terms of knowledge transfer. The paper presented herewith is a thorough analysis and critique of research information reported in an article entitled Successful Implementation of Six-Sigma: Benchmarking General Electric Company (Henderson and Evans, 2000)
However, caution should be garnered as to the utility of the presentation with respect need. That is, if the author's purpose is to educate the reader on specific statistical processes contained within the six-sigma program then an earlier statement of purpose should have been declared (Ohlson, 1998)
It is almost the same as the structure of the research itself: the problem, the methodology, the results, the conclusions, and the interpretations. The purpose of the research report is to inform readers about the problem investigated, the methods used to solve the problem, the results of the investigation, and the conclusions inferred from the results (Polit & Beck, 2004)
Lean principles and 'Six Sigma' can be combined. (Bertels, 2003) The 'Six Sigma' is a topic that is vast and has received much attention
Thus there is an organizational divide that has changed the way the business views the processes and Japan which embraced the Kaisen model and 'Six Sigma' blends together. (Bhote, 2002) Likewise 'Lean' is a proven method to eliminate waste and streamline operations
In fact large corporations are equated by the customers with poor quality. (Brue, 2006) The processes of the 'Six Sigma' are versatile and combined with other strategies and tools like lean manufacturing makes the process fast, reduces cost and shows where improvement is needed and this can be applied with the Kaisen events which seeks to measure, analyze and improve processes
The organization thus not only becomes efficient but also eliminates wastage and the 'Six Sigma' concept drives the organization to near perfection -- even if absolute perfection is not possible. (Carreira; Trudell, 2006) Even there are differences the way the big and small companies approach the definitions of the concepts involved
(Carreira; Trudell, 2006) However the big industry that has better outlay can use the black belt system directly but the smaller industries have evolved a less costly, but highly effective system that is called the 'Six Step Program.' (Davis, 2003) The cost of training and implementation is lessened and the effectiveness of the system lends power in creating better quality goods and the big industries can also use this method thereby reducing costs and improving quality
Thus cost management is accorded better status than any other plan. (Gupta, 2004) Therefore the quality controls systems ought to be given priority from the beginning to avoid a cost spiral
The adjusted 'six sigma' need not be costly but can be effective in any industry as much as the automotive industry as the study shows. (Pantano; O' Kane; Smith, 2006) The 'six sigma' is a modern system with improvement strategies that can impact the very bottom of the organization pyramid
Large enterprises often have no trouble delegating the resources necessary to promote successful implementation. For years human resource management and financial resources have often been highlighted as primary concerns for SMEs (Aragon-Sanchez & Sanchez-Martin, 2005)
SMEs Six Sigma and SMEs SMEs Defined SMEs (small to medium enterprises) are defined by a number of telltale characteristics, none the least of which include the entrepreneur as "a key figure in business operations" (Bigras & Gelinas, 2004: p
Within SME's organizational structure and processes are often simpler. In many cases an owner-manager is responsible for carrying out corporate vision and translating objectives into action oriented processes (Filion, 1991: 45)