A SWOT analysis on Six Sigma: some perspectives from leading academics and
practitioners
Jiju Antony
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Jiju Antony, (2012),"A SWOT analysis on Six Sigma: some perspectives from leading academics and
practitioners", International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management, Vol. 61 Iss 6 pp. 691 698
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REFLECTIVE PRACTICE
A SWOT
analysis on
Six Sigma
691
Received 11 July 2011
Accepted 11 July 2011
Abstract
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to present the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and
threats of Six Sigma based on the perspectives of leading academics and practitioners.
Design/methodology/approach The approach taken was to collate opinions from a number of
leading academics and practitioners from different countries. It was also important to ensure that all
participants in the study had a good knowledge and expertise in the field of Six Sigma.
Findings The key findings are presented in the paper.
Research limitations/implications The viewpoints expressed in the paper are based on leading
experts from both academic and industrial communities. Due to limited time constraints, the number
of people who participated in the study was relatively small.
Originality/value The paper provides an excellent resource for many researchers and practitioners
equally who are engaged in research and applications of the most powerful business process
improvement methodology we have witnessed for several years.
Keywords Six Sigma, Quality programmes, SWOT analysis, Process excellence, Strategy
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
Six Sigma as a business strategy is gaining ever increasing popularity within many
organisations world-wide including manufacturing, financial service companies,
health care providers and governmental agencies. Six Sigma, a trademark of
Motorola, was introduced nearly 25 years ago as a method to reduce manufacturing
defects. The concept behind Six Sigma was developed by Bill Smith, an engineer,
within Motorola as a powerful methodology to improve the reliability of products
by reducing excessive variation which results in defects in manufacturing
processes. Six Sigma is a systematic, project-oriented, statistically based approach
for removing defects from products, processes and transactions. Bill Smith was
quite successful with his idea of integrating hard-nosed applied statistical methods
into the powerful engineering processes which essentially laid out the foundation
of Six Sigma. It has been estimated that Motorola reduced defects on semiconductor
devices by up to 94 per cent between 1987 and 1993. Today Six Sigma has been a
powerful business strategy for improving business performance in many world-class
corporations by improving quality, reducing costs and creating value for the enterprise
and customers.
SWOT analysis is a strategic-level analysis and stands for strengths, weaknesses,
opportunities and threats. It is a method of analysing a business, its resources and its
environment. Strengths and weaknesses are positive and negative internal factors
whereas opportunities and threats are external factors. Strengths typically represent
IJPPM
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the internal strong points of an organisation and these are the things companies do
well over their competitors so that they would find it difficult to emulate. Weaknesses
are the weak points of an organisation. Weaknesses are the factors which do not meet
the standards we feel they should meet. Opportunities are presented by the
environment within which our organisation operates. Opportunities may arise from
market, competition, industry/government and technology. Threats are those factors
which can put in danger the survival of the organisation, if they are recognised on
time they can become opportunities. A panel of academic experts and practitioners
were chosen to discuss the topic a SWOT analysis on Six Sigma. The people who
have participated in this panel discussion include the leading practitioners and
academics in the field.
Professor T.N. Goh, National University of Singapore, Singapore
Strengths of Six Sigma
.
Customer focus in a typical Six Sigma programme, the aim is to build what the
customers want as reflected by what is known as critical-to-quality
characteristics.
Data-driven and statistical approach to problem solving Six Sigma is well rooted
in mathematics and statistics. Six Sigma adopts a systematic quantitative
approach that overcomes the difficulties associated with the abstract guidelines
in TQM.
Six Sigma combines the right people, right tools and the right projects for its
success;
As Six Sigma is a very powerful approach for solving problems with unknown
solutions, it can be equally applicable in all processes whether it is
manufacturing, service or transactional.
Lack of management commitment could be one of the top reasons for Six Sigma
not taking off in a big way.
A SWOT
analysis on
Six Sigma
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People selling Six Sigma should be far more insistent on helping with
infrastructural development and with hands-on project support; selling a
training course is not good for the image of Six Sigma in the long term.
quantitative analysis of the problem and its impact on the process performance;
and
applications of Six Sigma within supply chain is not fully explored; and
Misuse and abuse of the Six Sigma label and poorly executed projects tend
to diminish the confidence of business leaders in Six Sigma and associated
frameworks.
Alessandro Laureani, Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt, Google, Ireland
Strengths of Six Sigma
.
time consuming;
Six Sigma uses a belt system for systematic education system which is desirable
for human resource management.
speed, talk time and customer value are not much dealt with; and
since the history of Six Sigma is more than 20 years, many organisations may
seek new management initiatives; and
since corporate social responsibility will be much emphasised in the near future,
companies may lose their interest in Six Sigma.
A SWOT
analysis on
Six Sigma
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six Sigma offers a complementary tool set which, together with each other and
with other best management practices, offer a comprehensive means of
transforming a business from operational chaos at one extreme to operational
excellence at the other;
weaknesses are human in the sense that people can become so enamoured with
Six Sigma that they attempt to apply it to everything more or less like the old
saying when the only tool one has is a hammer, all problems LOOK like nails
and we all know that all problems ARE NOT nails;
with Six Sigma, business processes are viewed in terms of their event-to-event
variation but are not seen in the broader context of their relationship to the
overall operation of the business (perhaps systems thinking can be used here to
rectify this limitation);
the statistical definition of Six Sigma is 3.4 defects per million opportunities. In
service processes, a defect may be defined as anything which does not meet
customer needs or expectations. It would be illogical to assume all defects are
equally bad when we calculate the sigma capability level of a process. For
example, a defect in a hospital could be a wrong admission procedure, wrong
drug prescription, wrong diagnosis, unacceptable waiting time to provide
a service to patients, lack of training required by a staff member, unwillingness
to help patients when they have specific queries, etc.;
six Sigma can easily digress into a bureaucratic exercise if the focus is on such
things as the number of trained Black Belts and Green Belts, number of projects
completed, etc. instead of bottom-line savings;
the relationship between cost of poor quality and process Sigma quality level
requires more justification; and
the savings generated from Six Sigma belts in the context of SMEs requires more
justification. There is a lack of research carried out around this topic and
therefore sets the foundation for future research.
A SWOT
analysis on
Six Sigma
Six Sigma s not very well developed in many developing nations such as
Brazil, India, Thailand, Malaysia and China. I think Six Sigma will continue to
grow in these countries and we are yet to see the best-n-class practices from such
countries.
The application of Six Sigma in the context of SMEs is in its infancy. There
are opportunities to develop a roadmap for the development and deployment of
Six Sigma in SMEs. There is lack of research on the Six Sigma infrastructure
required for the implementation as well as the type of training required and the
savings to be generated from the execution of projects.
lack of courses on Six Sigma in academic institutions across Europe and other
parts of the world is a big concern;
very few empirical studies have been carried out on Six Sigma topics apart
from the applications of Six Sigma in various industrial sectors especially in
manufacturing and services;
lack of collaboration between industrial and academic worlds on Six Sigmarelated topics; and
Further reading
Antony, J. (2004), Some pros and cons of Six Sigma: an academic perspective, The TQM
Magazine, Vol. 16 No. 4, pp. 303-6.
Antony, J. (2007), Six Sigma: a strategy for supporting innovation in pursuit of business
excellence invited paper, International Journal of Technology Management, Vol. 37
Nos 1/2, pp. 8-12.
Antony, J. (2008), What is the role of academic institutions for the future development of Six
Sigma, International Journal of Productivity & Performance Management, Vol. 57 No. 1,
pp. 107-10.
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Linderman, K., Schroeder, R.G., Zaheer, S. and Choo, A.S. (2003), Six Sigma: a goal-theoretic
perspective, Journal of Operations Management, Vol. 21 No. 2, pp. 193-203.
Snee, R. (2004), Six Sigma: the evolution of 100 years of business improvement methodology,
International Journal of Six Sigma and Competitive Advantage, Vol. 1 No. 1, pp. 4-20.
About the author
Jiju Antony, Director of the Centre for Research in Six Sigma and Process Improvement
(CRISSPE) and Director of Knowledge Exchange within Strathclyde Institute for Operations
Management in his ten year research career, has published more than 200 refereed journal and
conference papers and five textbooks in the area of Reliability Engineering, Design of
Experiments, Taguchi Methods, Six Sigma, Total Quality Management and Statistical Process
Control. He successfully launched the (first) International Journal of Lean Six Sigma in April
2010 and has been invited several times as a keynote speaker to national conferences on Six
Sigma in China, South Africa, Netherlands, India, Greece, New Zealand, South Africa and
Poland. He has also chaired the First, Second and Third International Conferences on Six Sigma
and First and Second International Workshops on Design for Six Sigma. His recent work
includes collaborations with organisations such as Thales Optronics Ltd, Scottish Power, RollsRoyce, Tata Motors, Bosch, Nokia, GE Domestic Appliances, Scottish Widow, 3 M, Land Rover,
GE Power Systems, NHS Ayr and Aaran, Kwit Fit Financial Services, Clydesdale Bank, etc. in
the development of Six Sigma, Lean and Continuous Improvement programmes within these
organisations. He is on the Editorial Board of over eight international journals and a regular
reviewer of five leading international journals in quality, operations and production
management. Jiju Antony can be contacted at: jiju.antony@strath.ac.uk