INTEGRATION OF SIX SIGMA AND PROJECT MANAGEMENT
LITERATURE RESEARCH

1. Introduction

In today's global business environment, the importance of first-to-market, customer service, cost-competitiveness, and quality are key factors in determining an organization's success, or undesirable failure. Manufacturers, engineering and transactional firms share a drive to lower costs, reduce cycle time and offer a diverse product mix as they pursue higher profits and an increased market share in a growing global environment.

As an effort to secure a competitive edge in its respective industries, organizations are seeking ways to increase efficiency and guarantee successful execution of critical business processes. A variety of systems – such …show more content…

In fact, we can properly summarize the Six Sigma Management method using the following Equation developed by Anbari F.T. [2, 3]:

Six Sigma = Total Quality Management (or Continuous Quality Improvement) + Additional Data Analysis Tools + Stronger Customer Focus + Financial Results + Project Management
According to the previous definition, the Six Sigma methodology can be explained from two points of view [4]: the Statistical point of view, and the Business point of view. In the first point of view, Six Sigma represents a level of quality equivalent of having less than 3.4 defects in one million of opportunities, which demands a great effort since "many organizations still perform at three sigma level". At the same time, from the business point of view, Six Sigma is a strategy to increase "business profitability" that can be used in any area of a company to improve the efficiency of any kind of process that will generate additional value for the company and more importantly for its customers.

3.1. DMAIC and DFSS Models

The implementation of the Six Sigma methodology as strategy of continuous improvement is developed using the steps of a "life cycle process model" [9] called DMAIC (Define, Measure,