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9 CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE SURVEY 2. 1 INTRODUCTION As mentioned on the previous chapter, the research work being reported in this thesis was initiated on observing two kinds of researches and practices that occur during the contemporary days. In the first kind of linking Six Sigma with other strategies has found to support the organisations while striving to face the increasing competition. In the other kind, ‘customer voice’ adoption and translation have been given maximum thrust by the researchers and practitioners. These kinds of developments induced the author of this thesis to review the literature in three main directions. In the first direction, the literature was surveyed to study the researches and practices on Six Sigma concept. In the second direction, the literature was surveyed to trace the history, development and application of QFD technique. The literature on QFD was surveyed as it is the technique that is predominantly adopted by the world community for customer voice adoption and translation. In the third direction, the literature was reviewed to compare Six Sigma and QFD from the perspectives of their researchers and practice. The details of these works are presented in this chapter. 2.2 LITERATURE SURVEY ON SIX SIGMA CONCEPT The literature world has been witnessing the emergence of plenty of papers on Six Sigma. Brady and Allen (2006) have appraised this trend and surveyed literature covering wide aspects of researches on Six Sigma. Some

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Page 1: CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE SURVEY - Shodhgangashodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/bitstream/10603/32878/7/07_chapter 2.pdf · CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE SURVEY 2. 1 INTRODUCTION ... As shown in Figure

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CHAPTER 2

LITERATURE SURVEY

2. 1 INTRODUCTION

As mentioned on the previous chapter, the research work being

reported in this thesis was initiated on observing two kinds of researches and

practices that occur during the contemporary days. In the first kind of linking

Six Sigma with other strategies has found to support the organisations while

striving to face the increasing competition. In the other kind, ‘customer

voice’ adoption and translation have been given maximum thrust by the

researchers and practitioners. These kinds of developments induced the

author of this thesis to review the literature in three main directions. In the

first direction, the literature was surveyed to study the researches and

practices on Six Sigma concept. In the second direction, the literature was

surveyed to trace the history, development and application of QFD technique.

The literature on QFD was surveyed as it is the technique that is

predominantly adopted by the world community for customer voice adoption

and translation. In the third direction, the literature was reviewed to compare

Six Sigma and QFD from the perspectives of their researchers and practice.

The details of these works are presented in this chapter.

2.2 LITERATURE SURVEY ON SIX SIGMA CONCEPT

The literature world has been witnessing the emergence of plenty of

papers on Six Sigma. Brady and Allen (2006) have appraised this trend and

surveyed literature covering wide aspects of researches on Six Sigma. Some

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more authors have also reviewed papers on Six Sigma (Tannock et al 2007).

Hence, it was anticipated that an exhaustive literature survey on Six Sigma

would not only consume enormous amount of time and money but also would

overlap with some of the earlier reviews to a larger extent. In this context, it

was decided to review only the papers whose titles contained the term ‘Six

Sigma’.

The papers containing Six Sigma in their titles were collected from

Science direct (address: www.Scirus.com) and the databases maintained by

emeraldinsight (address: www.emerealdinsight.com), Springer (address:

www.Springer.com) and Interscience (address: www.interscience.wiley.com)

publishers were gathered. Few papers from inderscience (address:

www.inderscience.com) publishers were also downloaded. The total number

of such papers collected was 155. A preliminary reviewing of these papers

indicated that the following three issues are dominantly addressed in those

papers:

(i) Fundamentals of Six Sigma

(ii) Case studies on Six Sigma, and

(iii) Six Sigma in non- manufacturing arena

The rationale behind pinpointing these issues during this research work is

described in this section.

A considerable number of researchers have dealt exclusively the

fundamentals of Six Sigma concept (Kumar et al 2006). Particularly this kind

of papers was predominant during late 1980’s during which the evolution of

Six Sigma concept occurred. Later on, the Six Sigma researchers worked on

implementing it in real time situations and studied its outcome. Hence many

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researchers have reported the case studies on Six Sigma concept. After

making inroad into manufacturing sector, researchers have been examining

the working of Six Sigma concept in non-manufacturing arena (Chakrabarty

and Tan 2007). The statistics of these categories of research papers are shown

in Figure 2.1.

Figure 2.1 Statistics of Six Sigma papers

As shown in Figure 2.1, the papers dealing with case studies were

found to dominate the Six Sigma literature arena. In the following three

sections of this chapter, the contributions of the papers under the above three

categories of papers are briefly described.

2.3 FUNDAMENTALS OF SIX SIGMA

A careful overview of the papers dealing with the fundamentals of

Six Sigma revealed that, Six Sigma concept’s success is due to the two values

gained through its implementation. These values are ‘customer satisfaction’

and ‘financial gain’ (Snee 2004, Gowen III and Tallon 2005 and Miles 2006).

In fact, these two values are the main reasons for the rapid initial growth of

Six Sigma concept across the globe. The subsequent growth of Six Sigma

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concept occurred due to six factors. The characteristics of these six factors are

briefly explained in the following six subsections.

2.3.1 Adoption of Six Sigma by giant companies

Motorola, an American giant company, introduced the Six Sigma

concept in the year 1980 (Banuelas and Antony 2003, Tannock et al 2007 and

Kumar et al 2007). Because of the reputation of Motorola, other companies

like General Electric (GE), Allied signal, Eastman Kodak, Borg Warner

Automotive, and Honeywell implemented Six Sigma concept and gained

financial benefits (Henderson and Evans 2000, Kumar et al 2007, Kwak and

Anbari 2006 and Heuvel et al 2004). Subsequently other giant companies like

Ford and Dow chemicals, Bombaridier and Sony adopted Six Sigma concept

(Motwani et al 2004 and Kumar et al 2006). The adoption by these giant

companies is the one of the reasons for fast dissemination of Six Sigma

concept across the world.

2.3.2 Project based approach

TQM envisages the adoption of totality concept (Love et al 2000).

However, it will be near impossible to achieve higher degree of quality by

considering a large size company in total as one system. Contrary to this

concept, Six Sigma concept proposes project based approach which enables

the companies to achieve continuous quality improvement in increments

(Hoerl 2004 and Kwek and Anbari 2006).

2.3.3 Well defined continuous quality improvement approach

Every Six Sigma project is required to go through a well defined

procedure, which is shortly known as DMAIC (stands for Define, Measure,

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Analyses, Implement and Control). (Pande et al 2002, Tong et al 2004, Frings

and Grant 2005 and Heuvel et al 2004, Nonthaleerak and Hendry 2008,

Kumar et al 2008). This procedure enables every Six Sigma project to focus

towards achieving continuous quality improvement.

2.3.4 Training infrastructure

Although TQM proponents have been emphasizing the need of

training and education, their implementation has been lacking focus (Ho and

Wearn 1995). This deficiency is overcome in Six Sigma concept in which the

employees are systematically trained. They are designated as master black

belt, black belt, green belt and white belt employees (Snee 2004, Ingle and

Roe 2001, Su and Chou 2008 and Antony et al 2007, Nonthaleerak and

Hendry 2008).

2.3.5 Distinguishing features of Six Sigma concept from TQM

elements

Despite the emergence of some criticisms on Six Sigma concept,

time and again its power has been proved through the reported benefits.

Some critics claim that Six Sigma is same as TQM (Ingle and Roe 2001 and

Besterfield et al 2004). However the researchers like Motwani et al (2004),

Snee (2004) Andersson et al (2006) and Schroeder et al (2008) have indicated

the distinguishing differences between TQM and Six Sigma concept. The

main differences indicated by these researchers are pinpointed here.

Six Sigma concept envisages the engagement of the corporate

leaders in improvement processes whereas this aspect is not specifically

insisted in TQM. In Six Sigma concept, training is rigorous and its

infrastructure is highly defined. This is not so in the case of TQM wherein the

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training is generally imparted during the initial stage of its implementation.

In the case of TQM, quality data reporting is oriented towards customer

feedback and quality costs. In Six Sigma projects, the data collection exercise

is focused on customer and financial performance metrics. Thus the Six

Sigma researchers have not only established the distinguishing features of Six

Sigma, but also its superiority over TQM.

2.3.6 Current status of Six Sigma

The reviewing papers on Six Sigma concept from perspective of its

current status revealed the increasing growth of researches on linking Six

Sigma with design function, lean manufacturing and ISO 9000 based quality

systems (Bendell 2006, Pfeifer et al 2004 and Tang et al 2007). Another

aspect noticed is that, Six Sigma concept was introduced by a rich company

and hence its structure has been friendly to financially wealthy companies. In

order to make the Six Sigma concept suitable for all types of organizations,

modern researchers are exploring the ways and means of applying Six Sigma

concept in small and medium sized companies.

2.3.7 Hidden facts of Six Sigma growth

On the whole, the study of research papers on the fundamentals of

Six Sigma concept indicated that, its foundation lies on achieving customer

satisfaction and financial gain. Then its growth was characterized by the

construction of pillars like project based approach. Currently Six Sigma

concept spreads across the areas in which various strategies are employed to

achieve competitiveness. This aspect is shown in Figure 2.2.

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Customer Satisfaction

Succ

ess i

ngre

dian

t of S

ig S

igm

a

Proj

ect b

ased

app

roac

h

Infr

astru

ctur

e

Six Sigma with ISO 9000

Six Sigma for Small and Medium size Companies

Figure 2.2 Hidden facts of Six Sigma growth

2.4 CASE STUDIES ON SIX SIGMA CONCEPT

A bird’s eyeview on the literature arena would indicate that,

majority of current papers report numerous case studies on Six Sigma

implementation (Snee 2004 and Coronado and Antony 2002). It is somewhat

a unique feature, because in other fields, majority of the papers report

researches, which are either only analyzed or experimented in laboratories.

The researchers are trying to report the case studies presumably to convince

the theorists and practitioners about the practical and business significance of

Six Sigma concept. The papers appeared in this direction have reported the

case studies from numerous companies including Motorola and GE. Table

2.1 shows the research papers in which this kind of case studies have been

reported. The names of the companies about which these case studies have

been discussed in those papers are also indicated in this Table. The

contributions of these papers are highlighted in the following subsections.

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Table 2.1 Companies dealt in case studies on Six Sigma

implementation

Paper Companies in which case studies are carried out

Raisinghani et al (2005) Motorola, Allied Signal, GE, Our Lady of Lourdes

Motwani et al (2004) Dow Chemicals

Banuelas and Antony (2003) Multinational Companies –Name not specified

Thomas and Barton (2006) Orange Box

Henderson and Evans (2000) GE

Snee (2004) Newspaper companies - Name not specified

McAdam and Evans (2004) Seagate Technology UK

Basu (2004) Solectron factory, Sweden

Maleyeff and Kaminsky (2002) Laser drilling process in aircraft parts

Kumi and Morrow (2006) New Castle University Library, UK

Ehie and Sheu (2005) ABC Corporation

Holtz and Campbell (2004) Ford

O’ Neill and Duvall (2005) Name not specified.

Montgomery et al (2005) Arizona State University

Kumar et al (2006) Automotive Company

Sharma (2003) Baxer Battery

Banueles et al (2005) Film coating process industry

Koch et al (2004) Automotive Industry

Li et al (2006) Numisheet- Tokyo, Japan

Hsu et al (2007) Integrated circuit packaging factory

Sokovic et al (2005) Cimos foundry, Buzet, Croatia

Miles (2006) Johnson & Johnson,USA

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Table 2.1 (Contnued)

Paper Companies in which case studies are carried out

Su and Chou (2008) Semi conductor foundry, Taiwan

Schroeder et al (2008) Electronic component manufacturing company

Immaneni et al (2007) Capital One Banks

Craven et al (2006) Presbyterian Hospital, New York

Pandey (2007) MNC Bank

Frings and Grant (2005) Charleston Area Medical Centre

Heuvel et al (2004) Red Cross Hospital, Netherlands

Cook et al (2005) Virginia Tech

2.4.1 Flexibility of Six Sigma concept

A review of the papers enumerated in Table 2.1 indicated that, Six

Sigma concept is adopted by many organizations by making slight changes to

its original structure. This observation is supported by Motwani et al (2004).

They have referred literature to enumerate the different approaches of Six

Sigma adopted in six companies, which include Motorola, GE and Dow

chemicals. In line to this fact, Henderson and Evans (2000) have described

the differences in the Six Sigma approach followed by GE and Motorola.

This aspect indicates the flexibility of Six Sigma concept to allow deviation

for suiting the circumstances. However, the deviation in Six Sigma approach

is permitted as long as the concept allows only a maximum of 3.4 Defects Per

Million Opportunities (DPMO) (Linderman et al 2003 and Cook et al 2005).

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2.4.2 Tools and techniques deployed in Six Sigma projects

An important contribution of the papers reporting case studies are

the identification and enumeration of the tools and techniques employed while

implementing Six Sigma projects. Such tools and techniques indicated in

those papers are enumerated in Table 2.2.

Table 2.2 Tools and techniques used while implementing Six

Sigma projects

Name of the tool /technique used in Six Sigma projects

Papers

Pareto analysis

Thomas and Barton (2006), Snee (2004), McAdam and Evans (2004), Miles (2006), Banuelas and Antony (2003), Ehie and Sheu (2005), Pandey (2007), Cook et al (2005) and Banuelas et al (2005)

Cause and effect diagram

Snee (2004), Thomas and Barton (2006), Banuelas and Antony (2003), Kumar et al (2006), Taner et al (2007), Kumi and Morrow (2006), Cook et al (2005) and Basu (2004), Kumar et al (2008)

Cause and effect charts Schroeder et al (2008)

Histogram Miles (2006), Hsu et al (2007)

Run chart Banuelas and Antony (2003), Snee (2004) and Kumar et al (2006)

Control charts Ehie and Sheu (2005) and Maleyeff and Kaminsky (2002)

Statistical analysis Banuelas and Antony (2003), Thomas and Barton (2006) and Henderson and Evans (2000)

PDCA Cycle Craven et al (2006)

FMEA Kumi and Morrow (2006), Cook et al (2005), Su and Chou (2007), Schroeder et al (2008), Raisinghani et al (2005) and Banuelas and Antony (2003)

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Table 2.2 (Contined)

Name of the tool /technique used in Six Sigma projects Papers

Gamma distribution Hsu et al (2007)

Cause and effect matrix Banuelas et al (2005) and Sokovic et al (2005)

Process map Sokovic et al (2005), Basu (2004) and Banuelas and Antony (2003)

Regression analysis Kumar et al (2006), Akdag (2007)

Capability analysis Cook et al (2005), Raisinghani et al (2005) and Maleyeff and Kaminsky (2002)

Sampling plan Basu (2004)

Gap analysis Banuelas et al (2005)

Design of Experiments Koch et al (2004), Li et al (2006) and Raisinghani et al (2005)

Monto Carlo simulation Koch et al (2004)

Statistical process control Schroeder et al (2008), Cook et al (2005)

TRIZ Smith and Phadke (2005)

Measurement system analysis, Process control, Quality control charts

Raisinghani et al (2005)

T-test, Chi-square test, Scatter plot Henderson and Evans (2000)

Variational techniques, Process analysis

Tannock et al (2007)

Affinity diagram, QFD, Gantt chart, Stakeholder analysis,

Cook et al (2005)

Artificial Intelligence, Fuzzy logic, Neural net works

Patterson et al (2005)

ANOVA Kumar et al (2008)

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A careful overview of this enumeration indicates that, with the

exception of few techniques like measurement system analysis, all other tools

and techniques are already being used in TQM field (Pande et al 2002). This

superimposition leads to an impression that, Six Sigma concept is the

extension of TQM and hence, in a company implementing TQM, Six Sigma

concept could be easily implemented. However, the fact is not so, as

researchers have affirmed that certain ingredients are essential for

successfully implementing Six Sigma projects (Henderson and Evans 2000).

2.4.3 Success ingredients of Six Sigma projects

An interesting contribution of the papers reporting case studies is

the listing of the success ingredients of Six Sigma projects. This implies that

the researchers do not assume instant success of Six Sigma projects and rather

insist the practitioners to adopt precautious approach while implementing

them. In this direction, the enumeration of the success ingredients of Six

Sigma concept by Henderson and Evans (2000) is to be noted with interest.

They have enumerated the following as the success components of Six Sigma

implementation:

Upper management support/involvement

Organizational infrastructure

Training

Tools

Link to human resource development actions such as

promotions, bonuses etc.

Communication to the employees

Measurement systems and Information Technology (IT)

infrastructure

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Likewise, Basu (2004) has enumerated the following as critical

success factors for successfully deploying tools and technique in Six Sigma

projects.

Top management commitment

Availability of resources

Well designed education and training concept

Rigorous project management approach

McAdam and Evans (2004) have dealt with the following aspects of

successfully implementing the Six Sigma programme.

The role of management

Empowerment, reward and cooperation

To cap it all, Hahn (2005) has enumerated 20 aspects under the

terminology ‘key lessons learned’ as the success ingredients of Six Sigma

concept.

2.4.4 Limitations of Six Sigma concept

In parallel to the researches on success ingredients, some

researchers have investigated the limitations of Six Sigma concept. McAdam

and Evans (2004) have claimed that the Six Sigma concept is weak in

understanding what the customer wants and using the information for

subsequent product development. An important feature emphasized in this

paper is the need of implementing tools for successful implementation of Six

Sigma concept coupled with strategic change management process. In line to

this development, Motwani et al (2004) have presented a theoretical

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framework for Six Sigma implementation in which strategic initiative is

placed at its core.

2.4.5 DMAIC Approach

A striking coincidence noticed in the papers dealing with the case

studies on the Six Sigma concept is the use of DMAIC approach (Ehie and

Sheu 2005). This indicates that the DMAIC approach is a well-proven

improvement methodology in Six Sigma arena (Hwang 2006 and Tong et al

2004). Presumably due to this reason, the researchers have tried to improve

further the result of Six Sigma concept by keeping DMAIC approach as the

reference framework. For example, Ehie and Sheu (2005) have integrated

theory of constraints with DMAIC for achieving continuous quality

improvement. Likewise Yeh et al (2007) have integrated DMAIC with a

model called Fuzzy Linguistic computing model to evaluate the performance

of Supply Chain Management (SCM). More importantly, Edgeman et al

(2005) has emphasized the need of linking ‘Voice of Customer’ concept with

DMAIC. On the whole, these papers indicate the need of the technique,

which would have DMAIC as its framework and facilitate the strategic

change for achieving higher degree of customer satisfaction.

2.5 SIX SIGMA IN NON-MANUFACTURING ARENA

During the initial period of its emanation, the Six Sigma concept

entered only into the manufacturing arena. This is due to the reason that, the

models of Six Sigma contributed by Motorola, GE and Allied Signals are

impregnated with manufacturing practices. However on seeing the

tremendous financial gains reaped through the implementation of Six Sigma

projects, the captains of service industries have also been showing interest to

implement them in their arena (Antony et al 2007, Frings and Grant 2005 and

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Pandey 2007). However, the same framework of Six Sigma concept could

not be adopted in service industries. Rather certain modifications had to be

incorporated into the framework of Six Sigma concept that originated from

manufacturing companies (Hensley and Dobie 2005). These modifications

have been enabling the Six Sigma concept to stand erect on the foundations of

service industry essentials. In consequence to this development, frequently

papers reporting the application of Six Sigma concept in non-manufacturing

arena have been appearing in literature (Heuvel et al 2004). The contributions

of some of those papers are described in the following subsections.

2.5.1 Six Sigma in Healthcare Industry

Black and Revere (2006) trace the history of Six Sigma penetration

in healthcare industry. They have pointed out that, Six Sigma concept entered

into the healthcare organization around the year 2000. The penetration of Six

Sigma concept into healthcare industry was not very effective during the

initial years. However, currently many healthcare organizations have reported

the implementation of Six Sigma concept with high financial success. These

authors have named some service oriented companies like Mount Carmel

Health (Ohio), Scottsdale Healthcare (Arizona) and Virtual Health (New

Jersey), which have implemented Six Sigma concept and reaped financial

gains. Finally they have foreseen the future of applying Design for Six Sigma

and Lean Six Sigma concept in healthcare industries.

Papers like Sehwail and DeYong (2003), Frings and grant (2005),

Craven et al (2006), Kwak and Anbari (2006) and Revere et al (2004) have

also presented the examples of applying Six Sigma in healthcare

organizations. Among them, Sehwail and DeYong (2003), Revere et al

(2004), Frings and Grant (2005) and Craven et al (2006) have pointed out the

challenges of modifying Six Sigma framework for its successful application

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in healthcare industry. While carrying out this exercise, they have used the

DMAIC methodology. More recently, Taner et al (2007) have reported seven

cases of applying Six Sigma concept in health care industry. They have used

cause and effect diagram to depict the problems and causes handled during

the Six Sigma concepts executed in these cases. They have enumerated the

impediments to be overcome for successfully implementing Six Sigma

concept in health care industry in the future.

2.5.2 Six Sigma in Simulation and Software development fields

Mahanti and Antony (2005) have dealt with the application of Six

Sigma concept in simulation and software development fields. They have

pointed out the difference between software development and manufacturing

process. Particularly they have claimed that the software development is an

intellectual process whose visuability has to be ensured through

documentation. In order to implement Six Sigma concept in software field, a

tool kit and a set of techniques have been proposed by these authors. They

have also dealt with the ‘voice of customer’ and explained the features of

software QFD. Further they have compared the differences between the

Capability Maturity Model (CMM) and Six Sigma. They have indicated that

the CMM deals with the maturity of practices, whereas Six Sigma deals with

the maturity of result. In their research, they have tried to interlink DMAIC

methodology with simulation and software development fields. They have

pointed out that it is highly feasible to apply Six Sigma concept in simulation

and software development fields.

Patterson et al (2005) have applied Design For Six Sigma (DFSS)

in an automated decision System. They have employed DMAIC methodology

in their research. Hong and Goh (2003) have dealt with the application of Six

Sigma in software development. They have used the DMAIC methodology to

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design a Six Sigma framework for software development. They have also

compared the strengths and weaknesses of Six Sigma with an approach called

“Goal–Question–Measurement” (GQM) (Hong and Goh 2004). Finally they

have recommended the synergizing of Six Sigma and GQM for reaping the

outstanding fruitful results.

2.5.3 Six Sigma in Educational Service

A series of papers have emerged in the direction of applying Six

Sigma concept in educational service. Maleyeff and Kaminsky (2002) have

dealt with the introduction of Six Sigma concept in statistic education. Little

(2003) has dealt with the application of Six Sigma concept in improving the

quality of e-learning. He has cited the case of implementing Six Sigma

approaches in Tata group, which is one of the largest business organizations

of India. Mitra (2004) has pointed out the goal of educational institution in

disseminating Six Sigma concept into the society. He has also suggested the

curriculum for Six Sigma education.

Cook et al (2005) have described a course on Six Sigma concept

taught at Virgina Tech. They have also presented the outline of the Six Sigma

course. The feedback indicated that majority of the students are appreciating

the Six Sigma course. Similar exercise on conducting Six Sigma program at

Arizona State University has been reported by Montgomery et al (2005).

These papers have indicated the entry of Six Sigma concept in educational

arena. However the treatise in this regard by these authors has been minimal

and peripheral indicating the need of pursuing deeper research in this

direction.

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2.5.4 Success ingredients of Six Sigma in Service Industries

Knowles et al (2004) have presented a case study on applying

DMAIC methodology of Six Sigma concept in a United Kingdom (UK) based

confectionary plant. They have indicated the financial and non-financial

savings achieved through this exercise. Antony (2006) has presented a pilot

survey to assess the extent of Six Sigma application in the UK service

organizations. He has mentioned that, about 75 percent of the service

organizations that they have surveyed are implementing Six Sigma concept.

Some of the commonly used tools in these organizations are brainstorming,

process mapping and benchmarking. However it is surprising to note that,

QFD is one of the least commonly used techniques in these service

organizations. Throughout this article, the success ingredients of Six Sigma

concept are appraised. Two similar articles by Mahanti and Antony (2005)

and Antony et al (2007) also deal with the success ingredients of applying Six

Sigma in service organizations. These papers also highlight the benefits

reaped by several service organizations by implementing Six Sigma concept.

On the whole, the review of papers presented in this section has

indicated that the Six Sigma framework may be suitably modified and refined

to suit specific applications and nourish its inherent financial and non-

financial benefits. Further, the reviewing of these papers indicated that the

researches in this direction shall be started by keeping DMAIC methodology

as the foundation (Walters 2005).

2.6 LITERATURE SURVEY ON QFD

Being a technique that emerged during 1970s, a large number of

reports on QFD’s implementation have appeared in literature (Chan and Wu

2002). This trend even motivated few researchers to survey the adoption and

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the application of QFD. The most noticeable paper in this direction is Chan

and Wu (2002). These authors have reviewed as many as 650 research papers

covering wide areas of QFD applications and reported their findings. Hence,

any exhaustive survey on QFD will duplicate the majority of the works

reported by Chan and Wu (2002). Hence, the scope of the literature survey

reported in this section was restricted to the tracing of the growth of the QFD,

followed by identifying its application areas and recognizing its current trend.

The early researchers on QFD had concentrated to narrate its birth

and structure. All these researchers have mentioned that the development of

QFD is to be credited to Yogi Akao (1966) (Shen et al 2000a and Hunt and

Xavier 2003). Yogi Akao introduced QFD in the year 1966 which

subsequently found its application in Mitsubishi’s Kobe Shipyard in the year

1972 (Hunt and Xavier 2003, Bottani and Rizzi 2006). Thereafter the

implementation of QFD spread very fast across the world.

The early researchers had concentrated on sensing the power of

QFD. Particularly they have mentioned that QFD is a powerful tool in

converting customer voices into technically understandable languages (Akao

and Mazur 2003, Duffuaa et al 2003 and Politis 2003). They have also

pointed out that; the heart of QFD is the House of Quality (HOQ) matrix

(Kumar and Midha 2001, Braglia et al 2007). HOQ is the conglomeration of

many sub-matrices which are called as customer requirements matrix,

correlation matrix, relationship matrix, targets and goals (Duffuaa et al 2003,

Shahin and Nikneshan 2008, Almannai et al 2008). Soon researchers started

reporting the application of QFD in several types of industries. Some of the

papers are shown in Table 2.3.

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Table 2.3 Application of QFD in various types of industries

Paper Application of QFD

Lam and Zhao (1998) Teaching

Rahman et al (1999) Construction

Hwarng and Teo (2001) Higher education

Chan et al (2002) Distance learning program

Duffuaa et al (2003) Designing of Statistics course

Sahney et al (2004) Educational Institution

Korayem and Iravani (2008) Robotic System

Most of the researchers reporting the QFD implementation have

exclaimed the significant benefits achieved through the implementation of

QFD. Some of them are enumerated below:

Achievement of customer satisfaction

Prevention of future engineering changes

Acting as the linkage between several departments

Facilitating to benchmark the competitors’ performance

Identification of components for easy assembly and manufacturing

Despite the wide reporting of several kinds of the benefits like the

above, from 1990s, researchers began to point out certain drawbacks of QFD

(Buyukozhan et al 2007). Presumably to overcome these limitations,

researchers began to integrate QFD with other approaches and techniques.

Some of them are shown in Table 2.4.

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Table 2.4 Integration of QFD with other approaches and techniques

Paper’s Approaches/ technique

integrated with QFD

Shen et al (2000a) Kano’s model

Tan and Pawitra (2001) Serve QUAL and Kano’s model

Sahney et al (2004) Serve QUAL

Pramod et al (2006) Total Productive Maintenance

Shen et al (2000b), Kumar et al (2006) Benchmarking

Kwong et al (2007), Buyukozhan et al (2007) Fuzzy set theory

Shahin and Nikneshan (2008) Customer relationship management

Almannai et al (2008) FMEA

Ho (2008) Analytical hierarchical process

Further, in this direction of research, some authors have contributed

improved and extended models of QFD. A review of those models would

indicate that, TQFD is the model that overcomes many commonly cited

limitations of QFD (Devadasan et al 2006 and Kathiravan et al 2008).

Particularly it is stated that the application of QFD becomes difficult when the

volume of data being introduced in it is becoming excessively high. This

difficulty is overcome by TQFD by splitting the matrices of HOQ and

progresses through five stages.

TQFD starts with development of customer requirement matrix and

ends with work instructions. A QFD project ends by specifying the targets for

reacting to the customer voices in HOQ. However, the exact actions to be

taken for reacting in response to the customer voice are not explicitly derived

in a QFD project. This deficiency is overcome in the case of TQFD by

evolving work instructions. Work instruction indicates the actions to be taken

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by the personnel working in the place of work for reacting to the concerned

customer voice. In this background, during this research, TQFD was

considered as a prudent technique for the integration with Six Sigma.

2.6.1 Six Sigma and QFD: A comparative view

In comparison to QFD technique, the age of Six Sigma is shorter.

QFD emerged in the year 1966 (Duffuaa et al 2003 and Politis 2003), while

Six Sigma emerged during 1980’s (Tannock et al 2007 and Kumar et al

2008). However, the rate of growth of Six Sigma application has been higher

than that of QFD. QFD is found to be applicable in both large and smaller

organizations. However, Six Sigma finds its application only in large and

richer companies like General Electric (GE); Honey well, Motorola and

Allied Signal (Su and Chou 2008). Despite these differences, the growth

pattern and the current development status of both Six Sigma and QFD are

similar to each other.

During the initial period of its emanation, the researchers were

trying to define Six Sigma and ascribe its characteristics. A summary of

definitions on Six Sigma can be seen in papers like Chakrabarty and Tan

(2007). In a nutshell, these researchers have indicated that Six Sigma is a

disciplined methodology making use of statistical data to solve the problems

by adopting project approach and imparting vigorous training to the personnel

associated with it (Pandey 2007). All the researchers have pointed out that

Six Sigma progresses through two pillars. These pillars are called as DMAIC

‘improvement methodology’ and ‘belt system based training’. According to

the DMAIC improvement methodology, a Six Sigma project has to progress

through five phases namely Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve and Control

(Pande et al 2002, Tong et al 2004, Frings and Grant 2005, Heuvel et al 2004

and Tannock et al 2007).

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According to the belt system of training, the team members of a Six

Sigma project, are imparted training and given the designations as white belt,

green belt, black belt, master black belt and champion (Antony et al 2007). In

many companies implementing Six Sigma, the training with these

designations is integrated with the remuneration and incentives of the

associated employees (Park 2003).

Like in the case of QFD, during the earlier years of its emanation,

Six Sigma was applied largely in manufacturing companies (Snee 2004 and

Coronado and Antony 2002). Later on, its implementation was extended to

other industries. Particularly during the recent years, the implementation of

Six Sigma in service industries is noted with interest (Mahanti and Antony

2005 and Antony et al 2007).While extending its implementation to the

industry other than manufacturing, the methodology of implementing Six

Sigma has been suitably reoriented to fit to the type of industries in which it is

implemented. However, the two pillars of Six Sigma have not been altered.

This indicates the flexible nature of Six Sigma concept.

Like in the case of QFD, the literature on Six Sigma also witnesses

the emergence of extended models. Some of them are lean Six Sigma and

DFSS (Besterfield et al 2004). Six Sigma makes use of several TQM

techniques (Besterfield et al 2004). However, despite several commonalities

of its objectives and growth pattern, QFD does not find its authentic place in

Six Sigma projects.

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2.7 CONCLUSION

Although there have been few criticisms on Six Sigma concept, its

creditability has been well established and reported widely in literature

(Kumar et al 2006, Motwani et al 2004 and Hensley and Dobie 2005).

Particularly, its capability in bringing out financial gains is viewed with

interest by the practitioners. Besides, the world community has nourished

numerous other benefits by implementing Six Sigma concept (Tong et al 2004

and Schroeder et al 2008). The literature survey reported in this chapter

delineated certain interesting developments occurring in research and practice

arena. First of all, the review of these papers indicated the expanding domain

of Six Sigma. Particularly its scope of application has been extended from

manufacturing arena to service industry. Among all, its entry into the

healthcare industry is noted with interest (Sehwail and DeYong 2003). At the

same time, the Six Sigma researchers have proved that the integration of Six

Sigma with other strategies lead to synergic power (Arnheiter and Maleyeff

2005).

Amidst these developments, it is surprising to note that only

minimum interest is shown in practical and research arenas towards applying

QFD technique in Six Sigma concept. This is despite the fact that QFD has

spread to majority of the geographical parts of the world and fields (Chan and

Wu 2002). At the same time, the field of QFD has been witnessing the

emergence of its improved versions. These improved versions have made the

QFD application easier and specific to the applications. In this background,

during this research work, the TQFD technique was adopted (Devadasan et al

2006). During this research, TSSFD technique was designed by linking TQFD

technique with Six Sigma concept.