Dissertation submitted in compliance with the requirements for the Masters Degree in Business Administration, Durban University of Technology, 2008. / Increasing competitive pressure from global markets and technological developments has resulted in the continual demand for business improvement philosophies and methodologies to address this challenge. The LSS approach to business improvement has emerged in both the practitioner and academic literature as having a significant role in this area. In 2006, The Valspar Corporation embarked on a LSS initiative as a way to improve the business globally, to achieve sustained profitable growth and to enhance customer value. Valspar (SA) found the implementation of LSS a challenge because the organisation could not afford the appointment of a full-time Black Belt to manage the programme locally. Green Belts were appointed to lead LSS projects part-time. Management wanted to know if they have applied the LSS methodology correctly within the scope of the business, especially since not all organisations were successful in the implementation of LSS. The objective of this study was to determine the critical factors that affect the successful implementation of LSS at Valspar (SA) and to assess the degree to which these critical factors exist at Valspar (SA). In a census, the researcher used the questionnaire to gain information about the current views of employees on the LSS programme at Valspar (SA). The research highlighted the critical success factors for LSS implementation and the results of the evaluation revealed both the positive and negative aspects of the LSS programme at Valspar (SA). / Valspar Corporation

The project degree is written within the department of Industrial Engineering & Management at Uppsala University. The object with this study is to improve the current capabilities of the Internal Collection process at the service credit company Hoist Finance with the improvement methodology Lean Six Sigma and associated DMAIC cycle. In order to find out how the methodology should be adapted a case study and a literature study was carried out. The literature study was about previous research in the area of processes, Lean Six Sigma and the company Hoist Finance. The case study was performed over 4 months at Hoist Finance in the operational excellence team to understand how the methodology should be used on the company. The degree project shows great potential to apply the methodology to improve the process and if the recommendations on how the process should be performed is implemented, the process time can be reduced with 25 days and the costs with 23.34 euros per debt.

Organizations worldwide have been turning to Six Sigma program (SSP) to eliminate the defects in their products or drive out the variability in their processes to attain a competitive advantage in their marketplace. An effective certification program has been touted as a major contributor to successful implementation of SSP. An effective certification program provides the professionals involved with SSP projects a clear understanding of what their responsibilities should be in reducing the variability in their processes. Despite the benefits, a significant number of professionals who attend certification training fail to become certified. This study aimed to develop a predictive model to address the certification challenges that organizations face in implementing SSP. Through a combination of qualitative and quantitative approaches, this study investigated the perceived responsibility factors of reducing inefficiencies in Information Systems (IS) processes and the influence of these factors on the intention of professionals to acquire SSP certification. The qualitative approach was employed to gather responsibilities in reducing process inefficiencies. The quantitative approach was used to uncover the responsibility factors for a large group of SSP certification candidates in an IS organization. Survey instruments were used to collect data from the IS department of a Fortune 500 company in both qualitative and quantitative phases. The results of the qualitative and quantitative approaches indicated that five responsibility factors of leadership (LDS), technical expertise (TEX), project selection and management (PSM), analysis (ANA), and certification (CET) would have significant contribution on intention of professionals to acquire SSP certification (INI). However, the results of the Ordinal Logistic Regression predictive model developed in this study indicated that only CET was a significant predictor of INI. This study makes two important contributions to successful SSP implementation in an IS organizations. The first contribution is that CET is a significant predictor of GB candidates' intention to acquire certification. The second contribution of the present study is that gender differences affect the intention to acquire certification.

This research report aims to provide an insight into the implementation of multiple concurrent IT frameworks, and how to best implement each of the chosen frameworks resulting in a hybrid of best practices for implementing multiple concurrent IT frameworks

Dissertation submitted in compliance with the requirements for the Masters Degree in Business Administration, Durban University of Technology, 2008. / Increasing competitive pressure from global markets and technological developments has resulted in the continual demand for business improvement philosophies and methodologies to address this challenge. The LSS approach to business improvement has emerged in both the practitioner and academic literature as having a significant role in this area. In 2006, The Valspar Corporation embarked on a LSS initiative as a way to improve the business globally, to achieve sustained profitable growth and to enhance customer value. Valspar (SA) found the implementation of LSS a challenge because the organisation could not afford the appointment of a full-time Black Belt to manage the programme locally. Green Belts were appointed to lead LSS projects part-time. Management wanted to know if they have applied the LSS methodology correctly within the scope of the business, especially since not all organisations were successful in the implementation of LSS. The objective of this study was to determine the critical factors that affect the successful implementation of LSS at Valspar (SA) and to assess the degree to which these critical factors exist at Valspar (SA). In a census, the researcher used the questionnaire to gain information about the current views of employees on the LSS programme at Valspar (SA). The research highlighted the critical success factors for LSS implementation and the results of the evaluation revealed both the positive and negative aspects of the LSS programme at Valspar (SA). / Valspar Corporation / M

The importance of quality improvement and excellent performance in the highly competitiveworld market, lead many organizations, their top managers, project managers, and engineers toimplement the new philosophies such as pull scheduling and lean principle at their organizations.This paper describes the Six Sigma principle and framework as a quality improvement strategythrough the successful business.Firstly, the background of the Six Sigma in industry will be described and statistical theorybehind it will be illustrated. Although the Six Sigma concept will be presented in terms ofprinciples, methodologies and framework, the main focus in this report is on adopting the SixSigma approach in construction projects which is still new concept in construction industry.Hence, adopting DMAIC procedure in the construction projects will be examined in this reportto give an overview of what is called Performance Improvement in Construction Projectbased on Six Sigma Principles.

Thesis (M.B.A.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 68). / In the early 1980's and 1990's, companies began to build upon the principles of Total Quality Management and developed there own unique quality systems. The most popular and well known of these systems is Six Sigma that was developed by Motorola and successfully adopted by others such as Allied Signal (now Honeywell) and most notably, General Electric. Six Sigma can be characterized as a highly formalized, process oriented improvement tool that is data focused. The Six Sigma process is normally performed by a diverse team, who attack a quality/process problem by analyzing process variation or in statistical terms, sigma. The foundations of Six Sigma are commitment from upper management, detailed training and a regimented diagnostic approach. Another quality operating system is the less known, but very successful, Achieving Competitive Excellence (ACE) operating system. This system was developed and is practiced by United Technologies Corporation (UTC). The ACE system is broader based than the Six-Sigma approach, however, ACE is not as data oriented as the Six Sigma approach. ACE revolves around the three principle categories of process improvement and waste elimination tools, decision-making tools, and problem solving tools. These tools impact issues as diverse, but not limited to, factory floor cleanliness, market feedback analysis, machine tool preventative maintenance and set up reduction. ACE is a combination of lean manufacturing and quality improvement philosophies. This paper provides an analysis of both the Six Sigma and ACE Quality Operating Systems. In the paper the systems are compared and contrasted. Further, strengths and weaknesses of each system are discussed. In particular, the analysis focuses on how ACE can leverage elements / (cont.) and aspects of Six Sigma. The analysis concludes that there are elements of Six Sigma that would benefit ACE. The paper identifies that the strength of Six Sigma's statistical approach and its positive impact on process certification could be beneficially applied to the ACE system. Further, there are recommendations for UTC to place more of an emphasis on ACE training and to accelerate its current efforts to better link quality and lean improvement to product engineering and design. / by Thomas C. Hutton. / M.B.A.

The thesis work is done at STENA Recycling Halmstad. The recycling facility has a yearly capacity to process 110.000 tonnes of material. There is an internal water system that circulates water to each of the separation processes and cleans before recirculation. Due to environmental concerns and government regulations the internal water cannot be let out of the facility. In addition, the internal water treatment system at STENA was not efficiently cleaning the internal water causing frequent plant maintenance issues.    The aim of the thesis is to improve the quality of the cleaned water from the internal water system. Qualitative data such as interviews and observations were combined with quantitative data that is measurements to reach the results, using a method called triangulation. Six Sigma (DMAIC) model was followed for the work execution.   The internal water treatment has five process steps. Five improvements are identified, implemented and evaluated. The thesis work goal of less than 2% dirt in the clean water is achieved by improving the overall performance of the cleaning system by 48.5% after implementing improvements. As a part of the last phase of six sigma approach which is control phase, an operation manual is developed to maintain the internal water treatment system.

En la presente tesis se abordó el desarrollo de la metodología Six Sigma a fin de establecer un conjunto de lineamientos y recomendaciones para el mejoramiento de la calidad en una determinada institución pública. Por ello, se tomó como base, los datos encontrados en una entidad denominada: Archivo Regional de Lambayeque, la misma que en adelante será llamada bajo el acrónimo ARL, basándose tanto en sus documentos de gestión técnico - administrativa así como del uso de varias herramientas y técnicas de recolección de datos como cuestionarios, entrevistas, encuestas y la observación detallada de los procesos existentes. En cada uno de los pasos definidos en el proceso DMAIC de la metodología, se detallaron los métodos y herramientas estadísticas utilizadas con el fin de lograr un mayor entendimiento de cada uno de los procesos del ARL y llegar así al ideal Six Sigma, reduciendo considerablemente el número de DPMO (defectos por millón de oportunidades). Finalmente, y luego de analizar minuciosamente la información recabada, se verificó la validez de la misma haciendo uso de un simulador predictivo previamente seleccionado y diseñado para trabajar bajo el entorno licenciado de Microsoft. / Tesis

Este presente trabalho visa avaliar a aplicação da metodologia Design for Six Sigma (DFSS) ao processo de desenvolvimento de veículos (PDV) visando atingir níveis de qualidade Seis Sigma quando do início do processo de fabricação. Na verdade, quando se fala em fabricar produtos que já nasçam com níveis de qualidade Seis Sigma, não significa que seja mandatório que se obtenha a honrosa relação de 3,4 defeitos por milhão de oportunidades, mas sim que proporcionem resultados positivos em relação à melhoria da qualidade, otimização de custos, redução do tempo de desenvolvimento, vislumbrando o mais importante de todos os aspectos: o total entusiasmo do cliente. Para tanto, quando se fala da aplicação do DFSS no âmbito do desenvolvimento de veículos, o panorama deste contexto torna-se relativamente mais amplo e complexo, face ao nível de desenvolvimento tecnológico deste setor. O assunto é introduzido descrevendo-se o processo de desenvolvimento de veículos em sua abordagem atualmente difundida, alicerçada por um processo bem definido e estruturado, para se poder introduzir o DFSS neste processo. Antes, porém, introduz-se toda a metodologia referente ao Seis Sigma, por ser o fundamento base para a criação do DFSS. Por fim, a colocação de um estudo de caso procura relatar a aplicação da metodologia DFSS aplicada especificamente para a GM, procurando relatar a estratégia da aplicação, bem como seus principais ganhos alcançados. / This present work aims to evaluate the application of the Design for Six Sigma (DFSS) methodology to the vehicle development process (VDP) seeking to reach Six Sigma quality levels when the beginning of the production process. Actually, when it is spoken in manufacturing products that are already born with Six Sigma quality levels, it doesn\'t mean that it is mandatory that must be obtained the honorable relationship of 3,4 defects per millions of opportunities, but that provide positive results in relation to the quality improvement, costs optimization, reduction of the development timing, glimpsing the most important of all of the aspects: the customer\'s total enthusiasm. For that, when it is spoken about the application of DFSS in the extent of the vehicles development, the scenery of this context becomes relatively wider and complex, face at the level of technological development of this section. The subject is introduced being described the vehicles development process in its approach currently spread, found by a very defined and structured process, to allow introducing DFSS in this process. Before, however, the whole methodology regarding Six Sigma is introduced, for being the foundation base for the creation of DFSS. Finally, the placement of a case study tries to demonstrate the application of the DFSS methodology applied specifically for GM, trying to report the strategy of the application, as well as their main reached benefits.