Development of Lean Six-Sigma conceptual implementation model for manufacturing organisations

Due to the importance of manufacturing management models in enhancing the process performance and obtaining continuous improvement, it is apparent that both Six-Sigma and Lean management are two continuous improvement methodologies for improving the operation process and achieving high quality performance. The purpose of this paper is to develop a conceptual Lean six-sigma implementation model (LSS-M) for manufacturing organisations in order to entrench the strategic thinking into long term planning. The paper explores the literature pertinent to the topic and the necessary tools to carry out this research, the study used survey questionnaires to gather practitioners and academic opinion aiming at validating the proposed integrated model, its suitability for manufacturing organisation and identifying the barriers for successful implementation. The results clearly demonstrate that the proposed model is valuable to practitioners and academics and can assist manufacturing organisations to achieve competitive advantage if embedded in their long term strategic thinking.