Abstract:
After events like the global financial crisis and the advent of globalisation, companies
have experienced increased competition and pressure to improve performance in the
new environments in which business is conducted. This has impacted the world of
manufacturing, among others, and has necessitated companies in this industry to
adopt improvement methodologies to assist in growing the business. This study looks
into the implementation of Lean Six Sigma (LSS) as one of these procedures and
highlights that most articles and studies on this process concentrate on the highvolume,
low-mix manufacturing environment. On account of this, a gap is left in the
application of these techniques in the low-volume, high-mix environment. The literature
highlights the differences in the two disciplines that have now evolved into one toolkit
that is applied as LSS and how that is achieved.
The cases highlighted do not, however, cover the low-volume, high-variety
manufacturers, and this paper seeks to use the expertise of LSS practitioners in this
environment to get information and derive a framework for successful implementation
of LSS in the capital equipment environment.
The main contributor to the study is a company that manufactures capital equipment for
the mines, with other respondents being practitioners in similar companies and
customers in the mines. Respondents were sent a survey to get their opinion on the
implementation of LSS in their environment. The survey attempted to gather
information through five key questions on how LSS was being applied and its impact on
the cost, cycle-time and on-time delivery of the organisation.
A quantitative study design was adopted to develop a framework for the successful
implementation of LSS in the capital equipment industry. A total of 38 respondents
gave feedback, which was analysed, and this showed what - according to the
professionals involved in this study - are the vital aspects of this implementation to
ensure success.
