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Luis Fonseca1
David Leite SIX SIGMA METHODOLOGIES:
Vanda Lima IMPLEMENTATION AND IMPACTS ON
PORTUGUESE SMALL AND MEDIUM
COMPANIES (SMES)
Article info:
Received 20.09.2014 Abstract: Six Sigma is a disciplined approach for dramatically
Accepted 27.11.2014 reducing defects and producing measurable financial results
(Anand, 2006; Linderman et al. 2003). It should not be a
UDC – 638.124.8
simple statistical tool, but rather a strategic management
approach by supporting key projects aligned with the business
goals and customer requirements.
Although associated with considerable Return on Investments,
there is not enough evidence of Six Sigma application within
Portuguese companies. It is the aim of this exploratory
research to study Six Sigma utilization by Portuguese Small
and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). The descriptive analysis and
the statistical tests carried out, point to lack of knowledge with
this Methodology (Higher at Top Management level) and a
sense of comfort with the existing management systems (mainly
ISO 9001). The authors recommend increasing Six Sigma
training and education and additional studies to gather further
knowledge and contribute to more competitive and sustainable
organizations.
Keywords: Six Sigma, Quality Management, Quality
Improvement, SMEs
583
Evaluate the 2012 SMEs Excellency Six 2. Research methodology
Sigma application;
Identify benefits and problems in Six This research based on the methodologies
Sigma application; prescribed by Gil (1991) and Marconi and
Identify the methodologies and tools Lakatos (2003), comprehended the following
most adequate for Six Sigma six steps (Figure 1):
implementation in these type of
companies.
Six Sigma applications in SMEs was chosen The survey was developed using as reference
as study objective and we selected 2012 Alsmadi et al. (2012), Antony et al. (2008),
Excellence SMEs as study population due to Carvalho et al. (2007) and Antony and
its economic stability and access of contacts Banuelas (2002) and Google Docs software,
trough IPAMEI database. These companies with closed questions and a Likert 1-5 scale.
follow the classification of EU Commission Depending on the number of questions to
Regulation nº 2003/361/CE of 6 May 2003 answer, completion time estimation was
that includes amongst other the following between three and eight minutes.
criteria: less than 250 workers and 40 million After pre-test, the final survey was send to
euros sales volume or total balance smaller the available 2012 Excellency SMEs emails
than 27 million euros. in June 2014 and after one month we got 62
PME Excellency status is awarded by replies (estimated response rate of 5.6%,
IAPMEI (Agência para a Competitividade e based on the number of emails send).
Inovação) with the aim to identify and Microsoft Excel 2007 and Statistical
recognize SEMs with superior performance. Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS)
In 2013, there were 1.314 companies Version 22 were used for the subsequent
awarded as 2012 Excellency PMEs with analysis.
more than 45 thousand direct labor positions Statistical analysis and hypotheses testing
and responsible for a total sales volume were the methods used to draw conclusions
bigger than 6,3 thousand million euros in in this research.
2011 (Source: IAPMEI, FINCRESCE
Consolidar Lideranças).
3. Six sigma literature review
The research objectives have taken into
consideration the object being study and the
3.1 General Findings
possible interest of this research and
literature review focus was on Six Sigma
Six Sigma is a disciplined approach for
application in SMEs.
dramatically reducing defects and producing
585
companies. However, accordingly to Snee positive results.
and Hoerl (2003) there are no specific However, in reality there are few cases of
reasons why not to apply Six Sigma at Six Sigma application in SMEs and the
SMEs. literature review points out for the following
Due to its smaller size SMEs are more agile possible reasons (Table 1):
and providing there is Top Management
commitment and support it should be easier
to implement Six Sigma in SMEs and achive
In summary there are several reasons that While these standards do not cover yet the
might lead SMEs not to adopt Six Sigma, DAMAIC methodology they could be a
ranging from lack of resources and success good tool to help disseminate Six Sigma
stories, to poor leadership and knowledge. with the more than 1 Million SO 9001
certified organizations (source: ISO Survey
3.3 ISO 13053:2011 2013, available at www.iso.org).
In respect to formal education most (45) of However, more than half of the respondents
the 62 respondents had BSc degrees and nine (58%) stated they had poor (week or
had MSc (87% of the employees respondents insufficient) knowledge about Six Sigma,
with university/polytechnic education). with only 32% considering having a
587
sufficient knowledge of Six Sigma. This is respondents of the 2012 Excellency
clear evidence that Six Sigma is not yet a Portuguese SMEs.
known methodology within Portuguese As for the second open question concerning
Excellency SMEs, which is somewhat Six Sigma value for SMEs, answers were
surprising since 58% of respondent very similar with 49% of respondents with
companies are familiar with management no opinion and only 3% stating they don´t
systems and 50% has ISO 9001:2008 agree this methodology is value added for
certifications. SMEs.
Finally yet importantly, how many of the 62
respondents 2012 Excellency PMEs had 5. Tests performed: Relationship
implemented Six Sigma methodology: The between the level of Six Sigma
answer was Zero; none had implemented Six
Sigma Methodology. knowledge and the function in
The following were the main reasons
the company
appointed for not implementing Six Sigma:
As shown by descriptive results analysis
There are already satisfactory 58% of respondents answered to have low
improvement mechanism implemented Six Sigma knowledge levels. We believe this
(Mean: 3.39; Standard Deviation: 0.93); might be a major reason for the non-
Satisfaction with existing management implementation of Six Sigma in Portuguese
systems (Mean: 3.42; Standard SMEs.
Deviation: 1.05); Considering the final decision to implement
Satisfaction with present quality levels or not this methodology belongs to Top
(Mean: 3.44; Standard Deviation: 1.07); Management and Quality Managers, we are
Lack of knowledge of Six Sigma (Mean: going to try to find out if there is indeed a
3.05; Standard Deviation: 1.19) relationship between the level of Six Sigma
Lack of Human Resources (Mean: 3.02; knowledge and hierarchy of the decision
Standard Deviation: 1.03). 4.2. makers and its implementation in SMEs.
Intentions to implement Six Sigma
We started by Case Processing Summary
Concerning the intention to implement (or test, with the purpose of validating the
not) Six Sigma in the future only 6% answers received by checking if there are
answered in a positive way (with 65% some missing data. With this test, we
stating maybe and 29% saying no). confirmed there was no missing, so we have
all the complete data and can proceed with
4.1 Open questions the statistical analysis.
Next, we made descriptive analysis of “Six
The survey section three had two open
Sigma Knowledge Level” by “Function at
questions about adequacy of Six Sigma to
the Company”, in order to get a detailed data
their companies and Six Sigma value for
analysis.
SMEs.
Through this analysis, we can verify that the
Concerning adequacy of Six Sigma to SMEs
level of Six Sigma Knowledge of Top
51% of the answers was neither
Management is considerable lower than the
agree/neither disagree. On the other hand,
correspondent level of knowledge of
45% of the respondents agreed that Six
Quality/Environmental/Health and/or Safety
Sigma is adequate for SMEs with only 4%
Managers and Other Functions, as per Table
stating it as not adequate. In the authors’
Two and Three:
opinion, this is an indication of a severe lack
of knowledge about Six Sigma, by the
With the purpose to check if there is Wilk tests (Table 4). In case the data have a
correlation between Function at the normal distribution we can use parametric
Company and Six Sigma Knowledge Level, testes (also called T Test), and in case this
we first test the normality of the sample does not occur we should use non-parametric
trough Kolmogorov-Smirnov and Shapiro- tests.
589
H1: Six Sigma Mean Knowledge Level 6). This test is used to test the null
is different between the three different hypotheses that all populations have the
groups of functions in the company. same distribution functions versus the
For the study of the hypotheses, we have alternative hypotheses that at least two of the
used non-parametric Kruskal-Wallis test that populations have different distribution
is an extension of Wilcoxon-Mann-Whitney functions.
test and is a non-parametric test used to
compare three or more populations (Table
Source: www.iso.org
Figure 5. Evolution of ISO 9001 in Portugal
We have already concluded before that there In the United Kingdom Antony et al.
are no intrinsic reasons for the non- (2008) confirmed that 27% of SMEs
application of Six Sigma in SMEs. How can were implementing Six Sigma, although
we then explain the situation that we have very recently started.
found that none of the 62 Excellency PMEs The fact that none of the 62 respondents
that responded to our survey are using Six in this study was not using Six Sigma
Sigma? doesn´t mean there are no Portuguese
We think there are several factors to SMEs implementing and having benefits
consider: with Six Sigma. Again the low response
level and population size are and advice
Previous studies about Six Sigma
for some care in those analysis.
adoption by Portuguese companies have
shown that Six Sigma use in Portuguese Six Sigma is indeed less known in
Companies to be around ten to eight Portugal than ISO International
percent (Conceição and Major, 2011; Standards, Lean and Kaizen. If we make
Fonseca et al., 2011) although the an analysis of the articles presented in
populations were not the same. conferences or published in Portuguese
Journals we should come to these
In Brazil, Andrietta and Miguel (2007)
conclusions. When asked for the main
identified that Six Sigma utilization
reasons for not implementing this
reached its top level in 2000, due to
methodology the 2012 Excellency
benefits of Brazilian Group Brasmotor
SEMs emphasized ”The existing of
and General Electrics, which triggered
satisfactory improvement mechanisms”,
the use of Six Sigma by Brazilian
“the satisfaction with existing
companies.
Management Systems” and “the
591
satisfaction the present Quality levels”. We hope that by sharing this results we can
Indeed several studies (e.g., Antony et put focus more attention on Six Sigma
al., 2008) have already identified Six Training and Education leading to a much
Sigma lack of knowledge as the major more intense implementation of this proven
source for SMEs not implementing this effective and competitive improvement
methodology in Turkey and in the methodology.
United Kingdom.
In the authors opinion the fear of the 7. Research limitations and
unknown and the perception that present suggestions for future work
improvement systems are enough to
assure quality, productivity and The authors would like to point out the
companies competitive position are several limitations of this study:
enough, might also be an excuse for not
going after Six Sigma. A small sample size that could not be
Through the results of the Test of representative of the universe of
Hypotheses we rejected the null Portuguese SMEs;
hypotheses and can with a 95% Due to many obsolete email contacts, it
confidence level state that there are was not possible to establish with
significate differences between the three confidence the real response rate.
gropus of functions at the company and For future research, we have the following
their Mean Six Sigma Knowledge suggestions:
Level. It is particular relevant to notice To try and use a much bigger and
that it is the Top Management (Board representative sample size (e.g., ISO
Member CEO, General Director) that 9001 certified companies);
present a lower Six Sigma Mean To do more segmented studies by sector
Knowledge Level, although Six Sigma of activities, and company size;
is associated with considerable Return To do a study on those PMEs that
on Investments (Gupta and Sri, 2012), already have implemented Six Sigma
which should be particularly motivating (Conceição and Major, 2011; Fonseca et
for Top Mnanagement. This was also al, 2011) to check why and how they
confirmed by the response “Lack of did it, what benefits they got and what
knowledge of Six Sigma (Mean: 3.05; difficult those companies had to
Standard Deviation: 1.19)” as one of the overcome;
main reasons for not implementing Six
To complement this qualitative research
Sigma.
with a quantitative one to understand in
And last but not least we made a check a better way the results we get with
on curricula of the major Portuguese quantitative methodology.
Universities and Polytechnic Institutions
to find out that only one has Six Sigma
as a formal curricular unit in their
graduation courses.
References:
Alsmadi, M., Lehaney, B., & Khan, Z. (2012). Implementing Six Sigma in Saudi Arabia: An
empirical study on the fortune 100 firms. Total Quality Management, 23(3). 263-276.
Anand, G. (2006). Continuous Improvement and Operations Strategy: Focus on Six Sigma
Programs. The Ohio State University.
593
Linderman, K., Schroeder, R., Zaheer, S., & Choo, A. (2003). Six Sigma: A goal theoretic
perspective . Journal of Operations Management, 21, 193–203.
Marconi, M.D., & Lakatos, E. M. (2003). Fundamentos de Metodologia Científica – 5 Ed. São
Paulo: Atlas.
McAdam, R., & Lafferty, B. (2004). A multilevel case study critique of Six Sigma: statistical
control or strategic change? International Journal of Operations and Production
Management, 530-549.
McCarty, T., Bremer, M., Daniels, L., & Gupta, P. (2004). Six Sigma Black Belt Handbook.
The McGraw-Hill Companies.
Nonthaleerak, P., & Hendry, L. (2006). Six Sigma: Literature review and key future research
areas. International Journal of Six Sigma and Competitive Advantage,105-161.
Pyzdek, T. (2003). The Six Sigma Handbook. The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
QSP - Centro da Qualidade, Segurança e Produtividade . (2000). Accessed 20th March 2014,
From OS "PERSONAGENS" DO SEIS SIGMA: http://www.qsp.org.br/biblioteca/
os_personagens.shtml.
Raghunath, A., & Jayathirtha, R.V. (2013). Barriers for implementation of Six Sigma by Small
and Medium Enterprises. International Journal of Advancements in Research & Technology,
2(2), 1-7.