Mapping macro/micro level critical links for integrating Six Sigma DMAIC steps as a part of company's existing QMS: An Indian SME case study

Abstract

Industries are continuously facing fierce competition and the challenge of meeting increasing demands for higher quality products at economic costs. The success of an organisation is directly related to how effective its implementation of continuous improvement (CI) is. For any industry, quality management system (QMS) and Six Sigma are important CI methodologies. Effective understanding of these methodologies and their relationship will provide an industry with a competitive advantage. Many industrial organisations today are using either QMS or Six Sigma or both as the core for their CI efforts. As such, the relationship between QMS and Six Sigma is worth further investigation. In this paper, QMS and Six Sigma are introduced followed by a thorough comparison. More particularly, this work analyses Six Sigma-DMAIC methodology steps w. r. to QMS [viz. ISO 9000:2000, TS 16949, QS 9000] requirements and identified macro/micro level critical links between them. Further, managerial and operational level frameworks for the integration of the Six Sigma-DMAIC steps as a part of company's existing QMS is proposed. Finally, this case study based research work concludes that, integrating 'QMS + Six Sigma' is an effective and novel approach which will provide an improved approach for CI. Copyright © 2010 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.