Operation management and business analytics provide key skills and knowledge that are necessary to effectively apply and implement statistical and quantitatively based modelling techniques to data and use the obtained information from the analyses to drive critical decisions concerning the improvement of a business enterprise (Choi, Tsan-Ming, and Hing 2017, pp.81-92). However, this study seeks to examine the management of lean and the six sigma approach, which is a tool that is applied in the management of operations and analyses in businesses.
This topic of management of lean and six sigma with environmental consideration was selected for study to bring to light the potential gains that can be brought about by improving the industrial management operations as well as sustaining the environmental conservations measures (Garza-Reyes, 2015, pp.226-248). Purpose of this research topic is to bring out an argumentative discussion that would promote lean manufacturing and the six sigma approach in the manufacturing industry as well as appreciating the environmental conservation by minimizing wastes and harmful industrial disposals.
(Cherrafi et al., 2017, pp.4481-4515) acknowledges that lean manufacturing is a methodology in industrial production, which aims to eliminate the wastes, simplify procedures, and speed up operations at the same time. However, six sigma is considered as an improvement strategy in business that aims to reduce the number of defects that usually occur during service operations or during manufacturing. Concisely, studies have indicated that the lean six sigma has been proven to have a positive environmental performance effect through the defect reduction and minimizing the process variations thus leading to a drastic reduction in consumption of raw materials, energy, and reduced scrap (Sagnak and Muhittin, 2016, pp.112-118). From the results and the findings of the available reports, it has been claimed that industrial wastes either disposed in waters or released in the atmosphere are the leading pollutants to the environment as well as harmful to the aquatic life. This has made most authorities and agencies to advocate for the adoption of the Lean Six Sigma approaches by the manufacturing firms in order to contain these pollutions (Garza-Reyes, 2015, pp.18-29).
In this context, this study aims to use the Lean Six Sigma framework with considerations of the environment to reduce or minimize the overall defects or the environmental impacts while targeting to boost the organisation’s operations and the environmental performance. However, this framework will be based on Define Measure Analyze Improve Control methodology whereby the Lean Six Sigma and the assessment tools of the environmental impact are integrated system to deploy LSS strategies as well as considering the impacts to the environment (Vinodh, Kumar, Vasantha, 2014, pp.288-302). Additionally, this framework will be validated using an industrial case study on an Indian automotive manufacturing company while deriving the inferences.
In India, the Six Sigma has been claimed to be the core domain of the large manufacturing organisations. A section of the small and medium-sized manufacturing business has been opened up to the new challenges that have made the organisations to begin thinking about adapting the Lean Six Sigma approach to enhance the required effectiveness in the daily operations (Sunder M, 2016, pp.132-150). The main challenge experienced by these medium and small organisations is that the scale of improvement in the quality of services or operations is directly driven by the consumers or the customers for their key improvement s instead of taking their own initiative to champion these improvements. Furthermore, these organisations perceive that the Lean six sigma will only increase their cost of operations while offering minimal returns to the business as supported by (Drohomeretski et al., 2014, pp.804-824). They further claim that this approach is well applicable for massive organisations with bigger financial resources and better work force.
However, other studies indicate some practitioners around the world have appreciated the use of the two methodologies, which are said to complement each other than yielding greater success for manufacturing companies. Lean Six Sigma is said to be an integrated system for managing project resources and the latest generation of improvements in the manufacturing sector in India. Contrary, the Lean Six Sigma approach is yet adopted by most of the small and medium-sized enterprises although the studies have indicated that the most of these firms are on their way to adopt this technique in the quest of expanding their operations to large-scale operations (Pyzdek and Thomas, 2014). This could be done through an integrated approach that studies claim might not be the best or effective option of transition. Concisely, different researches conducted previously on the Indian automobile manufacturing sector indicate that there are many hindrances initiating these techniques to the SMEs. Initially, the Lean Six Sigma approaches were separately suggested and applied to selectively recommended industries basing on their operations or the means of their services delivery. For instance, the individual process steps of different components in a manufacturing firm are highly varied and therefore not possible to run an operation with the minimum waste disposal or at a steady capacity. However, even though the processes could be complex but stable, the improvement in the reduction of waste in the production line cannot be achieved without lean tools. This has indicated that the organisations that have not yet adopted these techniques have been undergoing many inefficiencies in their production processes (Conger, 2015, pp.127-146).
The other previous studies similar to this research have claimed that the order of application of the Lean manufacturing solves the waste problem and the environmental conservation measures should be implemented first then the subsequent complex problems should be solved by the use of the Six Sigma approach (Belekoukias, Ioannis, and Jose, 2014, pp.5346-5366). According to their assessment, the Indian middle-sized firms have started realizing that Lean is all about the elimination of the wastes but the deeper understanding of the adoption is yet to take place. It is indicated that these firms define waste as any effort that does not directly contribute to the customer value and satisfaction. They claim that the client will pay for the part of an assembly but rather not for the technicians’ time incurred in searching for a part. Moreover, the extra movements, idling workers that might be waiting for parts, unused storage, disorganized work, and stacks of inventories are all wastes and should be eliminated. The managers claim that targeting these could lead to improvements in the lead-time, costs of operations, inventor, and productivity among others (Panwar et al., 2015, pp. 564-587).
Reports indicate that it takes nearly 4-5 years to create a lean culture in an organisation. From the findings of other studies, it can be deduced that adoption of the Lean and Six Sigma techniques is not an overnight transformation as the respective companies are expected to dedicate more efforts in making the follow up to this approach for it to be successful (Dorota Rymaszewska, 2014, pp.987-1002). This call for a continual support from the management with regular consultations in order for the techniques to be absorbed into the organisation’s culture. The findings from the studies further attribute the failure to the implementation of the Lean Six Sigma approach to the following. Lack of sufficient resources, internal resistance, lack of knowledge and information about the sigma six, lack of adequate leadership to drive the adoption, and the existence of insufficient Organisational alignment. Additionally, other barriers are poor training and coaching, Organisational cultural barriers, wrong identification of the parameters to the process, inadequate data collection for the project, poor selection of the Six Sigma project, and the false notion that the technique is a complex process among others.
The main aim of this tool is to reduce three types of wastes during manufacturing. These are the no-value-adding work (Muda), overburden (Muri), and the unevenness (Mura) as ascertained by (Vamsi Krishna Jasti and Naga, 2014, pp. 1080-1122). However, the company has mastered a design that will offer a wider variety of products aimed at replacing their mass-production competitors in the market. The Lean tool applied indicated there were wastes in work force, materials, time, efforts, and space. The following are some of the non-value adding practices at the company. Overproduction in the company where it was observed that the company was producing more and sooner than the customer needs. Another practice was the waiting time for the machinery, tools, raw materials, and maintenance among others. Moreover, the transportation of the materials and people over long distances was also considered to be non-value adding to the company (Kurdve et al., 2014, pp.180-190). The inappropriate or inefficient processing was also categorized as non-value adding with the work-in-progress inventories causing extra handling, space, and the costs. Moreover, excess and unnecessary motion of the people and machinery that does not add value to the services or products were termed as wastage. The defective products such as those returned by the customers, rework, customer dissatisfaction, and scrap was considered as the wastes thus they should be minimized as much as possible. However, a system was developed in Lean manufacturing to reduce the Muda known as Just-In-Time that relies on the signals between the different points in a process to determine when the production will make the next part (Rohani and Jafri, 2015, pp.6-10).
However, according to (Thurston and Joanathan, 2016), the principles of Lean include, application of the pull system instead of pull, no inventory or the waiting time, reduced processes cycle, and line balancing. These principles have made the Lean tool to guide the company to think in the following ways. First, value specification during manufacturing has enabled the company to deliver the required product to the customers, at the right time, and with quality customer specifications. The tool has also enabled the company to identify the value stream for each product, make the value flow without any interruptions, and pursue perfection. Moreover, the Lean tools adopted by the company include the quick changeover or setup reduction, value stream mapping, single minute exchange of dies, cellular manufacturing, the Total Productive Maintenance, and the five S. The 5S tool enabled the company to achieve efficient Organisation, Orderliness, Cleanliness, Standardized conditions, and Discipline that has enabled the habit of maintaining an established procedure (Jaca et al., 2014, pp.4574-4586). The combination of these Lean manufacturing tools has ensured that the production is efficient and preserves the environment concurrently.
The Six Sigma is a system with very many statistical aspects that are fit most businesses and companies (Albliwi et al., 2015, pp.665-691). In the case study, the system has helped the manufacturing company to speed up its operations by acquiring the right projects and conducting them in the right way. The company implemented the Six Sigma approach through taking up small projects using the five-steps, Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, and Control (DMAIC) methodology (Evans and James, 2014). The details of the activities carried out by the manufacturing company are briefly explained below.
The define phase
This begins with identifying the critical customer requirements followed by the selection of the projects where the goals and targets are set with the identification of the project metrics using the VOC tools, benchmarking, and the process map among many others. The next step is to implement a balanced score card with cost considerations then set up the project team and prepare schedules for periodic meetings.
Measure phase
This involves the creation of charts for key process output variables to determine the long-term capabilities and baseline performance (Sahno et al., 2015, pp.169-180). In this phase, the control charts and Pareto diagrams are used. An example of a control flowchart and a Pareto diagram used in the measuring phase is shown below (Akpolat, 2017). The chart shows the process from the beginning to the end while outlining the defects and the hindrances that might affect the output of the results or the project aims and objectives.
Development of a process map comes in place where the measurement of the system analysis is carried out with strategic baseline figures, process capability, and an improvement goal (Muralidharan, 2015, pp.1-18).
This involves developing a cause and effect diagram that identifies the variables that affect the process outputs then create a matric that assesses the relationships among the variables. The analysis phase can make use of several methods including correlation studies, regression analysis, the response surface analysis, hypothesis testing, and ANOVA analyses methods.
This essentially involves brainstorming to address the possible counter measures that would ensure the long-term improvements are advocated for in the project. In this phase, the Force field diagrams, project planning and management tools are deployed for the study. The improve phase also seeks to determine the optimum operating levels and the response surface methodology.
This oversees the timely updates on the control plan, implementation of statistical processes, the process improvements, and the stability of processes. These processes can be summarized using a diagrammatic presentation as shown below.
Both the Lean manufacturing and the Six Sigma approach are aimed at improving the efficiency of the operations management and the critical business analyses. When combined, these tools require a lot of effort in making them a cultural practice for the company. The lean tools are effective in minimizing the wastes, both industrial and wastage of resources. Through the implementation of this tool, the company achieved an improved utilization of resources while minimizing the scrap products. Reports indicate that should all the manufacturing companies adapt to this system, the evidenced disposal of the industrial wastes could be eradicated in dumping sites of India thus upholding the conservation of the environment (Singh et al., 2014, pp.800-812).
(Latino, Robert, and kenneth, 2016) attains that the Six Sigma team is mandated to establish the quantifiable and verifiable measures as it reports directly to the top management. This technique is effective due to the application of vast statistical tools used such as the regression analysis, correlation analysis, and hypothesis testing among many others. These tools most rely on the quantitative data collected for analysis thus making the research study reliable. The use of secondary sources of data makes it easier for the managers to device measures that caters for the improvements in the operations of the company thus increasing productivity. Moreover, the regression analysis techniques provide insightful views by comparing the variables in the case study thus leading to better decision making in the organisation.
The one-size-fits-all approach can be limited to organizations that rely on the creativity of the employees such as in marketing of the manufactured products (Albliwiet et al. 2014, pp.1012-103). Another limitation is that the technique does not allow other concurrent methodologies to be tested along during the adoption and implementation of the technique. It is also important to acknowledge that the technique requires a lot of time to be fully implemented into the system and requires a lot of commitment across all departments for it to be effective.
Conclusion
From the literature reviews, findings and analysis, it is evident that the application of the Lean Six Sigma techniques is vital to the improvements of operations as well as caring for the environment. These techniques are proven to demand commitment and efforts in implementing them but yield benefits to the company should they be launched. Moreover, it has been demonstrated that the best way to implement these techniques is by selecting smaller projects within the company and applying them gradually until they fully adopted by the entire company. The Lean Six Sigma technique can be applied to both the medium-sized or small companies and the big companies despite the initial costs being higher (Bamiatzi and Vassiliki, 2014, pp.259-284). The negative notion of the technique concerning the small companies can be changed through sufficient leadership that drives the required changes aimed at eliminating wastes and streamlining the processes.
The manufacturing companies should be able to align with the policies that would promote the effective and continuous improvement of services delivery and market performance as well as environmental conservation. The findings from the previous studies clearly bring it to light that should just not learn how to do things better but rather learn how to do better things in regard to profit generation and the environmental conservation. However, when the companies are not performing well, the only way is through the restructuring of their business operations by focusing on the cost reduction and the growth of the organisation. Additionally, the companies need to compete fairly, react fast to during their decision-making processes, and respond positively to the internal and external matters that could be affecting the organisation or the other way round (Hair Jr et al., 2015). These practices will enable the organisation to achieve more using fewer inputs using the techniques like the sigma six and the Lean manufacturing.
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