ABSTRACT

For the past few decades, efforts have been made and various approaches have been developed to improve the competitiveness of industry. Lean and Six Sigma are the two most popular approaches that address efficiency and quality, respectively, within an organization. Many organizations have selected either Lean or Six Sigma as the primary brand to promote and implement change according to their focus of strategy. Even when organizations have adopted both Lean and Six Sigma, this is normally done from a perspective of implementing two complementary yet distinctly different programs. This is evidenced by many organizations that have functional and Six Sigma silos. There are often several programs that are simultaneously

being implemented in the organization that may overlap or at least impact each other. The current mode is to manage each program independently through the appropriate department or function.