literature review on six sigma

Quality improvement in healthcare: Six Sigma systematic review

Affiliations.

• 1 Business Management Department. University Rovira i Virgili, Reus, Spain. Electronic address: [email protected].
• 2 Business Management Department. University Rovira i Virgili, Reus, Spain.
• PMID: 32156468
• DOI: 10.1016/j.healthpol.2020.01.002

Six Sigma has been widely used in the healthcare sector as a management tool to improve patient quality and safety. The objective of this study is to identify opportunities for its implementation through literature analysis. A literature review has been carried out since the first publication of Six Sigma in the sector appeared until 2017, 20 years in all. To this end, it has been used three databases: MEDLINE, Web of Science (Core Collection) and Scopus. Accordance with the 196 articles of our database, it is found that: (1) Six Sigma publications in healthcare sector have been carried out mostly in the USA, (2) multiple specialities and services have used this tool, among them, we can emphasize the operating room and radiology service, (3) the case study has been the most used methodology and, (4) the objectives are focused mainly on achieving reductions of time, costs and errors, for the improvement of the quality and the satisfaction of the patients. This review seeks to serve healthcare professionals to know the benefits that Six Sigma can generate in processes that take place in a health center, hospital or other organizations in the sector.

Keywords: Bibliometric; Literature review; Quality improvement; Six Sigma; healthcare.

Copyright © 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Publication types

• Systematic Review
• Delivery of Health Care
• Health Facilities
• Quality Improvement*
• Total Quality Management*

Assessment of the Effectiveness of Six Sigma Methodology Implementation - A Literature Review

• Conference paper
• First Online: 10 October 2023
• Cite this conference paper

• Paula Kolbusz   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-6058-041X 15 &
• Katarzyna Antosz   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-6048-5220 16  

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems ((LNNS,volume 790))

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• International Conference on Intelligent Systems in Production Engineering and Maintenance

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Within the application of Six Sigma philosophy, the DMAIC methodology (D-Define, M-Measure, A-Analyse, I-Improve, C-Control) to analyse existing processes is used. The aim of this paper is to analyse the current state of the art of assessing the effectiveness of the implementation of manufacturing process improvement projects using this methodology. The methodology of the work was carried out according to the following steps: 1) identification of relevant data sources and keywords; 2) definition of the timeframe; 3) search of databases; 4) analysis of the review and summary of the results obtained. The following databases were analysed as part of the study: Science Direct, Web of Science and Scopus from 2017 to 2022. The result of the re-search is the identification of performance indicators used in Six Sigma projects, which were related to the different phases of the DMAIC methodology. The result of the analyses is the identification of groups and areas of indicators that would allow the effectiveness of improvement activities to be assessed at each phase of a Six Sigma project using the DMAIC methodology.

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PhD School of Engineering and Technical Sciences, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Aeronautics, Rzeszow University of Technology, Al. Powstancow Warszawy 12, 35-959, Rzeszów, Poland

Paula Kolbusz

Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Aeronautics, Rzeszow University of Technology, Al. Powstancow Warszawy 12, 35-959, Rzeszów, Poland

Katarzyna Antosz

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Correspondence to Paula Kolbusz .

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Wroclaw University of Science and Technology, Wrocław, Poland

Anna Burduk

Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool, UK

Andre Batako

School of Engineering, University of Minho, Guimarães, Portugal

José Machado

Katedra Budowy Maszyn, Politechnika Śląska, Gliwice, Poland

Ryszard Wyczółkowski

Rzeszow University of Technology, Rzeszów, Poland

Lublin University of Technology, Lublin, Poland

Arkadiusz Gola

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Kolbusz, P., Antosz, K. (2023). Assessment of the Effectiveness of Six Sigma Methodology Implementation - A Literature Review. In: Burduk, A., Batako, A., Machado, J., Wyczółkowski, R., Antosz, K., Gola, A. (eds) Advances in Production. ISPEM 2023. Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems, vol 790. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-45021-1_15

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DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-45021-1_15

Published : 10 October 2023

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International Journal of Lean Six Sigma

ISSN : 2040-4166

Article publication date: 11 January 2021

Issue publication date: 16 July 2021

This paper aims to develop an initial understanding of the Lean Six Sigma methodology since its inception and examine the few Lean Six Sigma dimensions as a research domain through a critical review of the literature.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper is structured in two-part. The first part of the paper attempts to dwell on the evolution of the Lean Philosophy and Six Sigma methodology individually and the emergence of Lean Six Sigma methodology, covered under the Lean Six Sigma: a historical outline section. The second part of the study examines the dimensions associated with Lean Six Sigma such as frameworks, critical success factors, critical failure factors, type of industry, performance metric, year, publisher and journal, based on a total of 223 articles published in 72 reputed journals from the year 2000 to 2019 as a literature review.

The adoption of Lean Six Sigma, as a continuous improvement methodology, has grown enormously in the manufacturing and few service sectors such as health care and higher education during the past decade. The study revealed that researchers came out with conceptual frameworks for the implementation of Lean Six Sigma, whereas the validation through case studies seems to be lacking. The integration of Lean Six Sigma and other approaches with a focus on sustainability and the environment has emerged as a research field. A few of the most common critical success and failure factors were identified from the articles studied during the study.

Research limitations/implications

This paper may not have included some of the studies due to the inaccessibility and selection criteria followed for the study.

Originality/value

This paper will provide an initial introduction on Lean, Six Sigma and Lean Six Sigma and research insights Lean Six Sigma to beginners such as students, researchers and entry-level professionals.

• Lean Six Sigma
• Success factors
• Failure factors

Patel, A.S. and Patel, K.M. (2021), "Critical review of literature on Lean Six Sigma methodology", International Journal of Lean Six Sigma , Vol. 12 No. 3, pp. 627-674. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJLSS-04-2020-0043

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