IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/pal/jorsoc/v59y2008i4d10.1057_palgrave.jors.2602437.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Gearing Six Sigma into UK manufacturing SMEs: results from a pilot study

Author

Listed:
  • J Antony

    (Glasgow Caledonian University)

  • M Kumar

    (Glasgow Caledonian University)

  • A Labib

    (University of Portsmouth)

Abstract

Approaches to business improvement have evolved and grown since the early 1900s and today the process focused, statistically driven Six Sigma methodology has been widely used by companies such as GE, Motorola, Honeywell, Bombardier, ABB, Sony, DuPont, American Express, Ford and many other companies in improving the business performance and optimizing the bottom-line benefits. Although Six Sigma business management strategy has been exploited by many world class organizations as mentioned above, there is still less documented evidence of its implementation in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). This paper reports the key findings of a Six Sigma pilot survey in UK manufacturing SMEs. The results of the study are based primarily on descriptive statistics. The results of the study show that many of the SMEs are not aware of Six Sigma and do not have the resources to implement Six Sigma projects. It was also found that Lean Sigma was not generally popular among SMEs. Management involvement and participation, linking Six Sigma to customers and to business strategy are the most critical factors for the successful deployment of Six Sigma in SMEs.

Suggested Citation

  • J Antony & M Kumar & A Labib, 2008. "Gearing Six Sigma into UK manufacturing SMEs: results from a pilot study," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 59(4), pages 482-493, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:pal:jorsoc:v:59:y:2008:i:4:d:10.1057_palgrave.jors.2602437
    DOI: 10.1057/palgrave.jors.2602437
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1057/palgrave.jors.2602437
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1057/palgrave.jors.2602437?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ghobadian, A. & Gallear, D. N., 1996. "Total quality management in SMEs," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 24(1), pages 83-106, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Tonderai Nyamwanza & Severino Mavhiki, 2014. "Business Financing Options for SMEs in Zimbabwe Post February 2009," International Journal of Business and Social Research, MIR Center for Socio-Economic Research, vol. 4(1), pages 124-129, January.
    2. Francesca Gennari, 2023. "The transition towards a circular economy. A framework for SMEs," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 27(4), pages 1423-1457, December.
    3. Tonderai Nyamwanza & Severino Mavhiki, 2014. "Business Financing Options for SMEs in Zimbabwe Post February 2009," International Journal of Business and Social Research, LAR Center Press, vol. 4(1), pages 124-129, January.
    4. Georgiana CIOANÃ & Cãtãlina RADU, 2015. "Lean Six Sigma Strategy at Work: Ups, Downs and Lessons Learned From Implementation - A Literature Review," Economia. Seria Management, Faculty of Management, Academy of Economic Studies, Bucharest, Romania, vol. 18(1), pages 139-149, June.
    5. Ediz Atmaca & S. Girenes, 2013. "Lean Six Sigma methodology and application," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 47(4), pages 2107-2127, June.
    6. Monika Wieczorek-Kosmala & Joanna Błach & Anna Doś, 2021. "COVID-19 Interruptions and SMEs Heterogeneity: Evidence from Poland," Risks, MDPI, vol. 9(9), pages 1-21, September.
    7. Michael Mutingi & Ayon Chakraborty, 2021. "Quality Management Practices in Namibian SMEs: An Empirical Investigation," Global Business Review, International Management Institute, vol. 22(2), pages 381-395, April.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Francesca Gennari, 2023. "The transition towards a circular economy. A framework for SMEs," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 27(4), pages 1423-1457, December.
    2. Álvarez García, José & De la Cruz del Río Rama, María & Vila Alonso, Mercedes & Fraiz Brea, José Antonio, 2014. "Relação de dependência entre os fatores críticos de qualidade e impacto social," RAE - Revista de Administração de Empresas, FGV-EAESP Escola de Administração de Empresas de São Paulo (Brazil), vol. 54(6), November.
    3. Yi-Chan Chung, 2016. "Study on Total Quality Management Activities in Taiwan Tourism Factories," International Journal of Business and Social Research, MIR Center for Socio-Economic Research, vol. 6(8), pages 1-14, August.
    4. Thomas Zobel, 2007. "The ‘pros’ and ‘cons’ of joint EMS and group certification: a Swedish case study," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 14(3), pages 152-166, July.
    5. D. Perez‐Sanchez & J. R. Barton & D. Bower, 2003. "Implementing environmental management in SMEs," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 10(2), pages 67-77, June.
    6. Abdulaziz M. Abdulsaleh, 2016. "Factors Affecting Libyan SMEs’ Selection of Banks as Business Partners," Quarterly Journal of Business Studies, Research Academy of Social Sciences, vol. 2(4), pages 201-210.
    7. Abdulrahman Alsughayir, 2014. "Barriers to TQM Implementation within a Private Medical Services Organizations in Saudi Arabia," International Journal of Business Administration, International Journal of Business Administration, Sciedu Press, vol. 5(3), pages 117-121, May.
    8. Lars Löfqvist, 2017. "Product Innovation In Small Companies: Managing Resource Scarcity Through Financial Bootstrapping," International Journal of Innovation Management (ijim), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 21(02), pages 1-27, February.
    9. Taylor, W. A., 1997. "Leadership challenges for smaller organisations: Self-perceptions of TQM implementation," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 25(5), pages 567-579, October.
    10. Colgate, Mark & Lang, Bodo, 2005. "Positive and negative consequences of a relationship manager strategy: New Zealand banks and their small business customers," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 58(2), pages 195-204, February.
    11. Albena Iossiofova, 2010. "Profile of Organizations in Bulgaria with Adopted ISO 9001," Economic Studies journal, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences - Economic Research Institute, issue 4, pages 154-171.
    12. Zuzana VIRGLEROVA & Kamil DOBES & Sergej VOJTOVIC, 2016. "The Perception of the State’s Influence on its Business Environment in the SMEs from Czech Republic," REVISTA ADMINISTRATIE SI MANAGEMENT PUBLIC, Faculty of Administration and Public Management, Academy of Economic Studies, Bucharest, Romania, vol. 2016(26), pages 78-96, June.
    13. Farnoosh Bagheri & Rassoul Noorossana & Manoochehr Najmi, 2019. "The extent of EFQM effectiveness in routine and non-routine organizations based on multivariate techniques: an empirical study," Operational Research, Springer, vol. 19(1), pages 237-267, March.
    14. Taylor, W. Andrew, 1998. "TQM implementation: organisation practices and information infrastructures," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 26(6), pages 715-727, December.
    15. Jyoti Prakas Majumdar & B. Murali Manohar, 2016. "Why Indian manufacturing SMEs are still reluctant in adopting total quality management," International Journal of Productivity and Quality Management, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 17(1), pages 16-35.
    16. Danquah Jeff Boakye & Ishmael TIngbani & Gabriel Ahinful & Isaac Damoah & Venancio Tauringana, 2020. "Sustainable environmental practices and financial performance: Evidence from listed small and medium‐sized enterprise in the United Kingdom," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(6), pages 2583-2602, September.
    17. Che Mohd Zulkifli Che Omar Author_Email: & Osman Jusoh, 2011. "Involvement Of Malaysian Smes In Logistics: Potential And Prospects," 2nd International Conference on Business and Economic Research (2nd ICBER 2011) Proceeding 2011-328, Conference Master Resources.
    18. Iryna Alves & Sofia M. Lourenço, 2022. "The use of non-financial performance measures for managerial compensation: evidence from SMEs," Journal of Management Control: Zeitschrift für Planung und Unternehmenssteuerung, Springer, vol. 33(2), pages 151-187, June.
    19. Parast, Mahour Mellat & Safari, Arsalan, 2022. "Enhancing the quality and competitiveness of small businesses: A pooled cross-sectional analysis," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 246(C).
    20. Ullah, Barkat & Wei, Zuobao & Xie, Feixue, 2014. "ISO certification, financial constraints, and firm performance in Latin American and Caribbean countries," Global Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 25(3), pages 203-228.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:pal:jorsoc:v:59:y:2008:i:4:d:10.1057_palgrave.jors.2602437. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.palgrave-journals.com/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.