• Journal of Korean Institute of Industrial Engineers
• /
• v.32 no.4
• /
• pp.268-278
• /
• 2006

Ten years have passed since Samsung SDI and LG Electronics introduced six sigma. Six sigma spreads on the wide industry areas such as service and public sectors as well as manufacturing industry. Six sigma speaks for Korean enterprise's management innovation now. Then, can we evaluate that Korean enterprise's six sigma has settled down successfully? This study compares Korean enterprise's six sigma with those of Japanese and American enterprises in the view of leadership, project, people, and methodology. We suggest five topics for the successful settlement of six sigma in Korean enterprises; 1) Role of executives and managers should be changed more actively, 2) Strategy-connected projects should be excavated, 3) Utilization and development plan should be made for black belt and master black belt, 4) Six sigma methodology should be advanced, especially DFSS methodology, and finally 5) Several innovation methodology should be integrated.

• Journal of Korean Society for Quality Management
• /
• v.32 no.4
• /
• pp.140-155
• /
• 2004

Six Sigma Management has been introduced as a management strategy by leading companies and some small and medium-sized companies in Korea. But it is not easy for small and medium-sized companies to implement this new management system because of their business environment such as poor manpower or lack of time, etc. This paper proposes an effective implementation model of the Six Sigma Management for small and medium-sized companies using the management by process. First, We review the concept of Six Sigma Management and consider the problems of introducing the system for small and medium-sized companies. And then, Six Sigma Management model for small and medium-sized companies named SIX SIGMA-s is presented. Finally, we present a case study of applying SIX SIGMA-s for a medium- sized company.

• Journal of Korean Society for Quality Management
• /
• v.37 no.3
• /
• pp.10-17
• /
• 2009

This study developed a new model for evaluating effects about the success of six sigma activities. This model consists of four constructs such as success of six sigma, employee's success experience, customer satisfaction, and business performance. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) is used to analyze causality among the four constructs. Hypothesis were tested through a field study conducted for one hundred and thirty-one project leaders, who were asked to evaluate their experiences of six sigma projects. The results indicate that six hypothesis are statistically significant. As a result, the success of six sigma doesn't influence the customer satisfaction directly, but it influences customer satisfaction indirectly through employee's success experience. We find out that control for employee's success experience is important as well as success of six sigma in business innovation. Otherwise business performance is influenced directly by success of six sigma, that is business performance isn't influenced directly by employee's success experience but influenced indirectly through customer satisfaction. This study found that the change management raising employee's success experience is important in Six Sigma.

• Korean Management Science Review
• /
• v.24 no.1
• /
• pp.147-160
• /
• 2007

Six Sigma's concept has long been used as an effective way of restructuring the management process of a firm. In literature regarding Six Sigma, a number of successful cases were reported, where Six Sigma based management activities could enhance firm's strategic performance dramatically for year. However, there exist very few researches investigating the effect of Six Sigma on process innovation and quality improvement. Therefore this study propose a research model testing whether Six Sigma innovation could improve process innovation and quality improvement by industrial classification. We collected 332 valid questionnaires from expert in Six Sigma activities, and applied PLS. Empirical results showed that Six Sigma activities could contribute to process innovation and quality improvement.

• Journal of Korean Society for Quality Management
• /
• v.39 no.2
• /
• pp.256-270
• /
• 2011

The study attempts to propose and test a causal research model using SEM (Structural Equation Model) to determine whether there is a relationship between six sigma champion's transformational leadership and belts' creativity based on the mediated effects of intrinsic motivation and project's learning and growth. The subjects of the study composed of 134 belts from manufacturing and service firms implemented six sigma. Empirical results show that transformational leadership is positively related to intrinsic motivation and project learning and growth. In addition, intrinsic motivation and project learning and growth are positively related to creativity. The results of the study imply that creativity of six sigma belts would be enhanced by implementation of six sigma projects and utilizing six sigma tools and methods.

• Journal of Korean Society for Quality Management
• /
• v.43 no.4
• /
• pp.559-572
• /
• 2015

Purpose: Many firms have implemented Six Sigma in order to improve employee's creativity and performance. However, few researchers have studied the effect of Six Sigma on performance through creativity process. This study aims to investigate the impact of Six Sigma, exploitation, and exploration on performance. Methods: Based on literature review, this paper develops hypotheses and tests them by employing a structural equations model. Using survey data of 209 Six Sigma experts who have conducted Six Sigma projects from different companies, this study empirically shows that the activities for Six Sigma enhance exploitation, exploration, and performance. Results: Six Sigma affects exploration and exploitation, each of which in turn enhances performance. It is noted that Six Sigma has an indirect influence on performance through exploitation and exploration. Conclusion: Apart from Parast(2011) who insists that Six Sigma is effective in improving exploitation rather than exploration, this study suggest that Six Sigma can affect both in order to enhance corporate performance.

• Journal of Korean Society for Quality Management
• /
• v.34 no.4
• /
• pp.22-32
• /
• 2006

In these days, most of Korean industries advocates and utilizes Six Sigma as an integrated innovation tool for all their business and manufacturing processes. Six Sigma is known to bring more financial and managerial achievements than other innovation methods and tools. However, such successes are not always guaranteed. To adopt and implement Six Sigma successfully, it is necessary to grasp and understand essential characteristics of Six Sigma and then identify suitable elements and complements in consideration of vision, strategies, capability, circumstance and environment of the company. Step by step implementation plan may be built based on those ingredients. This study is to find out key ingredients (KIs) of Six Sigma. Potential ingredients selected from previous studies of success factors and ingredients of Six Sigma and TQM, and criteria of quality awards like MBNQA, EFQM, Deming prize and Korean National Quality Awards (KNQA) are classified into 11 categories based on experts' opinion and affinity analysis: management leadership, belt system, training, six sigma system, compensation, organization, corporate culture, customer focused, project selection, management of project results, and managerial achievements. Irrelevant or ineffective potential ingredients are discarded using factor analysis for the questionnaires answered by champions, MBB's and BB's of 90 Korean companies that have more than 3 years experience of Six Sigma. Also from the factor analysis, 3 factors are derived for each categories respectively except the managerial achievement category. Those 11 categories and 30 factors are defined as KIs of Six Sigma. This study also reveals that there is difference according to enterprise size, type of business, and implementation time in terms of KI's, and prioritizes KI's that an enterprise to pursue Six Sigma successfully should consider according to its characteristics.

• Journal of Korean Society for Quality Management
• /
• v.31 no.2
• /
• pp.220-229
• /
• 2003

The methodology of Six Sigma originated at Motorola in the early 1980s is nowadays proved to be an effective way in Improving the quality. Many companies find adding Six Sigma to their current business system gives them all or almost all the elements of total quality management(TQM). However most companies where Six Sigma is implemented confront many difficulties in non-manufacturing parts such as transactional and administrative processes. In this paper we discuss distinct aspects of such non-manufacturing process, and investigate activating scheme of Six Sigma in those parts of industry.

• IE interfaces
• /
• v.16 no.spc
• /
• pp.60-64
• /
• 2003

This study proposes a method of implementing Six Sigma linking Lean approach and/or TOC(Theory of Constraints). A case study carried out in a PCB production line is examined to compare Lean Six Sigma and TOC Six Sigma. Implementing guidelines are given to achieve the whole company's optimum.

• Journal of Korean Society for Quality Management
• /
• v.35 no.1
• /
• pp.97-112
• /
• 2007

Six Sigma methodology has been evolved since it was first introduced in late 1980's and the number of company which adopts Six Sigma is getting increased. Therefore, it is timely that ire review research papers on Six Sigma extensively. We review 85 papers published in Korea by April 2006 and classify them based on research contents and methodology. We suggest future research issues and fields which can adopt Six Sigma methodology.