A study on critical failure factors of Design for Six Sigma in Indian companies : results from a pilot survey
- Authors: Bhat, Shreeranga , Antony, Jiju , Gijo, E. , Koul, Rajesh , Cudney, Elizabeth , Chakraborty, Ayon
- Date: 2023
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: TQM Journal Vol. 35, no. 4 (2023), p. 1072-1093
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- Description: Purpose: While Six Sigma (SS) has been deployed effectively in Indian manufacturing and service sectors as a process improvement methodology, the implementation of Design for Six Sigma (DFSS) for robust product and service development has not shown noticeable results. Therefore, this article aims to determine the critical failure factors (CFFs) of DFSS in the Indian context. Design/methodology/approach: The paper presents the results of a pilot survey on the CFFs of DFSS in Indian companies. The survey participants were specialists in DFSS who have been involved in DFSS projects in their past and present companies. Moreover, the pilot study participants were DFSS Champions, Master Black Belts, Black Belts and Green Belts from the manufacturing and service sectors. Findings: Company-wide applications of DFSS are very limited in India. Most of the DFSS project failures are reported in the Analyse phase of the project. The results indicated that all 18 CFFs used in the survey have a significant impact on project failures. Also, it was determined that all CFFs are positively correlated with each other. Further, a strong correlation was observed between the voice of the customer (VOC) and project selection and prioritisation. In addition, effective training showed a strong correlation with the right selection of tools. Research limitations/implications: The pilot survey was based on a limited sample size. Moreover, the study is confined to only the Indian context and data were collected through the authors' networks. However, respondents were proficient, certified and involved in DFSS project deployment in the manufacturing and service sectors. Therefore, the study's findings are useful and meaningful to draw robust inferences. Originality/value: To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first empirical study conducted in the Indian context to identify the reasons for DFSS project failures. The study's findings can aid academicians and practitioners in comprehending and critically examining the CFFs of DFSS before executing a project. Moreover, the research outcome motivates policymakers to create an ecosystem to effectively adopt DFSS for start-ups and micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) to ensure a circular economy and support the “Atmanirbhar Bharat” initiative. © 2022, Emerald Publishing Limited.
A systematic review of industrial wastewater management : evaluating challenges and enablers
- Authors: Singh, Bikram , Chakraborty, Ayon , Sehgal, Rippin
- Date: 2023
- Type: Text , Journal article , Review
- Relation: Journal of Environmental Management Vol. 348, no. (2023), p.
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- Description: The study provides a systematic literature review (SLR) encompassing industrial wastewater management research from the past decade, examining enablers, challenges, and prevailing practices. Originating from manufacturing, energy production, and diverse industrial processes, industrial wastewater's handling is critical due to its potential to impact the environment and public health. The research aims to comprehend the current state of industrial wastewater management, pinpoint gaps, and outline future research prospects. The SLR methodology involves scouring the Scopus database, yielding an initial pool of 253 articles. Refinement via search code leaves 101 articles, followed by abstract screening that reduces articles to 79, and finally 66 well-focused articles left for thorough full-text examination. Results underscore the significance of regulatory frameworks, technological innovation, and sustainability considerations as cornerstones for effective wastewater management. However, substantial impediments like; inadequate infrastructure, resource constraints and the necessity for stakeholder collaboration still exist. The study highlights emerging research domains, exemplified by advanced technologies like nanotechnology and bioremediation, alongside the pivotal role of circular economy principles in wastewater management. The SLR offers an exhaustive view of contemporary industrial wastewater management, accentuating the imperative of an all-encompassing approach that integrates regulatory, technological, and sustainability facets. Notably, the research identifies gaps and opportunities for forthcoming exploration, advocating for interdisciplinary research and intensified stakeholder collaboration. The study's insights cater to policymakers, practitioners, and researchers, equipping them to address the challenges and capitalize on prospects in industrial wastewater management effectively. © 2023 The Author(s)
A systematic review of Lean in healthcare : a global prospective
- Authors: Antony, Jiju , Sunder, Vijaya , Sreedharan, Raja , Chakraborty, Ayon , Gunasekaran, Angappa
- Date: 2019
- Type: Text , Journal article , Review
- Relation: International Journal of Quality and Reliability Management Vol. 36, no. 8 (2019), p. 1370-1391
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- Description: Purpose: Fostered by a rapid spread beyond the manufacturing sector, Lean philosophy for continuous improvement has been widely used in service organizations, primarily in the healthcare sector. However, there is a limited research on the motivating factors, challenges and benefits of implementing Lean in healthcare. Taking this as a valuable opportunity, the purpose of this paper is to present the key motivating factors, limitations or challenges of Lean deployment, benefits of Lean in healthcare and key gaps in the literature as an agenda for future research. Design/methodology/approach: The authors used the secondary data from the literature (peer-reviewed journal articles) published between 2000 and 2016 to understand the state of the art. The systematic review identified 101 articles across 88 journals recognized by the Association of Business Schools ranking guide 2015. Findings: The systematic review helped the authors to identify the evolution, current trends, research gaps and an agenda for future research for Lean in healthcare. A bouquet of motivating factors, challenges/limitations and benefits of Lean in healthcare are presented. Practical implications: The implications of this work include directions for managers and healthcare professionals in healthcare organizations to embark on a focused Lean journey aligned with the strategic objectives. This work could serve as a valuable resource to both practitioners and researchers for learning, investigating and rightly adapting the Lean in the healthcare sector. Originality/value: This study is perhaps one of the comprehensive systematic literature reviews covering an important agenda of Lean in Healthcare. All the text, figures and tables featured here are original work carried by five authors in collaboration (from three countries, namely, India, the USA and the UK). © 2019, Emerald Publishing Limited.
Analysis of TPM barriers using ISM-MICMAC approach
- Authors: Sharmaa, Anita , Mishra, Rajesh , Chakraborty, Ayon , Gupta, Gajanand
- Date: 2017
- Type: Text , Conference paper
- Relation: 7th Annual Conference on Industrial Engineering and Operations Management, IEOM 2017 p. 1394
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- Description: Total Productive Maintenance in the organizations is a challenging issue for Indian manufacturing industries. There is a rapid need to analyze the behavior of the barriers faced by Indian manufacturing industries for efficacious implementation of TPM. The purpose of this study is to recognize the mutual interaction among the barriers of Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) and to develop a hierarchy of barriers to TPM implementation. An interpretive structural modelling (ISM) - MICMAC methodology is employed to identify the inter-relationships among the barriers of TPM implementation. A hierarchy model of these barriers is developed; by driving and dependence power of the barriers. MICMAC methodology determines driving and driven barriers based on their driving and dependence power. © IEOM Society International.
Assessment of critical failure factors (CFFs) of lean Six Sigma in real life scenario : evidence from manufacturing and service industries
- Authors: Sreedharan, Raja , Gopikumar, V. , Nair, Smitha , Chakraborty, Ayon , Antony, Jiju
- Date: 2018
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Benchmarking Vol. 25, no. 8 (2018), p. 3320-3336
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- Description: Purpose: Many projects focus on the reliable operation of the activities in the project. Any failure in the process activities leads to major problems resulting in waste, defects, equipment damage, which has a direct impact on the consumers. In addition, Lean Six Sigma (LSS) is not new to this issue. LSS projects have faced an interruption in the process flow and unforeseen defects. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to identify the vital failure factors of LSS projects. Design/methodology/approach: Through extant literature review, the researchers found 44 critical failure factors (CFFs) of LSS. Using the Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) SIMOS approach, the decision makers’ (DMs) rating and weight for each factor were collected. Moreover, the study was conducted in both the manufacturing and service industries to identify the impact of CFFs in LSS projects. Findings: CFFs and their evaluation have received little attention in the literature. Most of the previous studies deal only with the identification of the success factors in general. Therefore, the study identified 44 CFFs and ranked them through DMs. In addition, the TOPSIS SIMOS approach ranked the vital failure factors enabling the management to avert the LSS project from failures. Research limitations/implications: The study focused on project failures due to CFFs of LSS. Nevertheless, it did not consider other failure factors of project and knowledge management. Further, the sample used to test the approach was considerably small. Therefore, the study can be repeated with significant samples and the vital failure factors compared. Practical implications: In real-life application, all the parameters in the LSS project need to be understood in a better manner. In such a condition, the practitioner needs to know that the project never fails due to the CFFs and TOPSIS SIMOS approach can prevent the LSS project failures. Originality/value: The study applied TOPSIS SIMOS approach to rank the CFFs in an LSS project, which is first of its kind and aids the practitioners to make the right decisions in the business environment. © 2018, Emerald Publishing Limited.
Determinants of the intention to adopt digital-only banks in Malaysia: The extension of environmental concern
- Authors: Saif, Mashaal A. M. , Hussin, Nazimah , Husin, Maizaitulaidawati Md , Alwadain, Ayed , Chakraborty, Ayon
- Date: 2022
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Sustainability (Basel, Switzerland) Vol. 14, no. 17 (2022), p. 11043
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- Description: Digital-only banks have not achieved adoption expectations despite being one of the latest innovations in fintech. Several digital-only banks in the United States and Japan have gone bankrupt, and others continue to operate at a loss. Therefore, it is imperative to conduct this study in Malaysia to understand customers’ behavior, particularly regarding the adoption of digital-only banks. With climate change, environmental-friendly behavior, which has been ignored in digital-only bank literature, is becoming increasingly pertinent. This study addresses the lack of an integrated model that investigates the effect of external factors (i.e., critical mass, number of services, and environmental concerns), customer self-determination factors (i.e., trust), and mental perceptions of technology adoption (i.e., convenience, economic efficiency, functional and security risks, as well as perceived value) on the intention to adopt digital-only banks. Data were collected through an online survey targeting Klang Valley residents in the prime age range of 25–54 years old using stratified random sampling. The data was analyzed using structural equation modeling by performing confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and SEM path analysis in AMOS.v26 software. The results show that convenience, economic efficiency, number of services, trust, perceived value, and environmental concern all have positive significant relationships with the intention to adopt digital-only banks. Further, environmental concern is the strongest indicator of behavioral intention. In contrast, functional and security risks have a negative but non-significant relationship with the intention to adopt digital-only banks. Finally, critical mass has a positive but non-significant effect on the behavioral intention. This study is among the first to examine the influence of environmental concern on behavioral intentions in a digital-only banking context. It also contributes to an expanding body of research investigating environmental sustainability by presenting empirical results in the context of digital-only banks.
Exploring the adoption of lean principles in medical laboratory industry: Empirical evidences from Namibia
- Authors: Isack, Hilma , Mutingi, Michael , Kandjeke, Hileni , Vashishth, Abhishek , Chakraborty, Ayon
- Date: 2018
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: International Journal of Lean Six Sigma Vol. 9, no. 1 (2018), p. 133-155
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- Description: Purpose: As the demand for efficiency and quality in the health-care industry has increased over the past few years, adoption of Lean principles and tools in the medical laboratory industry has become increasingly crucial. The purpose of this study is to explore the level of adoption, barriers and enablers of Lean principles and tools in the Namibian medical laboratory industry. Design/methodology/approach: A descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out to examine the level of usage, barriers and enablers, impact of Lean tools and to suggest appropriate strategies for adopting Lean in the Namibian medical laboratory services. Findings: Research findings reveal that Lean tools are moderately implemented in most laboratories. Standard operating procedures, root cause analysis, overall equipment effectiveness and visual management are the important Lean tools used in the industry. Results of the survey also show that Lean tools had a positive impact on operational performance, employee motivation, turnaround time and cost reduction. Furthermore, top management involvement, adequate training and proper planning emerged as important enablers, while lack of support from the management, financial constraint and staff resistant to change are major barriers to the adoption of Lean principles in the Namibian medical laboratory industry. Research limitations/implications: The paper has inherent limitations of survey research, which the authors will overcome by using case studies with medical laboratories. Practical implications: The findings of the authors’ work will help in widening the application of Lean principles in more medical laboratories in Namibia and in other parts of the world. Originality/value: The paper is based on numerous health-care studies on Lean. This is one of the few papers investigating the adoption of Lean principles, specifically in medical laboratories, from an emerging economy such as Namibia. © 2018, Emerald Publishing Limited.
Identifying drivers of sustainability initiatives in manufacturing organizations—an exploratory study from the Indian cement industry
- Authors: Kumaravel, S , Chakraborty, Ayon
- Date: 2018
- Type: Text , Book chapter
- Relation: Sustainable Operations in India p. 11-20
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- Description: In the current business scenario, firms need to increasingly focus on environmental sustainability issues, as a result of stricter regulatory enforcements that lay emphasis on cleaner production, and also due to growing pressures from the stakeholders. This paper aims at understanding the organizational factors that contribute towards the successful implementation of sustainability initiatives in a process industry setup. A qualitative case study from a major cement manufacturing firm located in India helps us to identify the key drivers in the context of sustainability. The case findings reveal that organizational culture and practices followed lead to the emergence of innovative and economically viable solutions, which help in achieving the sustainability targets. These exploratory results obtained can be further analysed in the backdrop of other industries.
Impact of quality management tools and techniques : case of Namibian municipal water distributors
- Authors: Silombela, Timothy , Mutingi, Michael , Chakraborty, Ayon
- Date: 2018
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Journal of Quality in Maintenance Engineering Vol. 24, no. 1 (2018), p. 2-21
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- Description: Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to provide an understanding on the impact of quality management (QM) tools and techniques in water supply infrastructure maintenance and the generation of non-revenue water (NRW) by Namibian Municipal Water Distributors. Design/methodology/approach - In-depth interviews were selected as the primary data collection method, while secondary data were collected using document review and observations. In-depth interviews as primary method provided rich data and details on the subject matter from the respondents. Document review and observations provided a holistic perspective and understanding of the context within which the maintenance projects are handled by municipal water distributors. Findings - The study found that as the number of QM tools employed to analyze maintenance data increases, the generation of NRW by the municipality decreases. However, for the tools to be effective, they should cover applications such as problem identification, data analysis, process analysis, decision making, planning, quality control and statistical process control, this helped Namibian municipalities to produce low volumes of NRW. In contrast, municipalities using QM tools arbitrarily lead to high quantities of NRW generation. Originality/value - The World Bank recommends that NRW should be less than 25 percent of the total water produced, while in many countries NRW is up to 60 percent. Developed economies have made efforts to reduce NRW but efforts are still at nascent stage in emerging economies. This is the first study providing evidences of QM tools application in maintenance process and effect on NRW. © 2018 Emerald Publishing Limited.
Implementation of service systems on the shop-floor level in financial service companies. Empirical evidence from Australia and Germany
- Authors: Leyer, Michael , Kronsbein, Daniel , Willis, Richard , Chakraborty, Ayon , Moormann, Jurgen
- Date: 2016
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: International Journal of Production Research Vol. 54, no. 11 (2016), p. 3229-3242
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- Description: This article presents the practices of Australian and German financial service providers regarding the implementation of shop-floor control within different types of service systems. The results delivered in this article should serve as a guideline for future research to develop and adapt methods for shop-floor control in financial service systems. Interviews with 25 experts from the Australian and German financial services industry reveal novel insights into the practice of shop-floor control, suggesting that methods and concepts from manufacturing are only used to a limited extent for shop-floor control. Shop-floor control is mostly used to react quickly to unexpected deviations due to a low usage of forecasts and information systems. Thus, there seems to be improvement potential in the financial services industry in comparison with in the manufacturing industry in terms of shop-floor control. Further research within the production research area should use the empirical insights to test and adapt existing methods and to develop new ones, taking cultural differences into account. © 2015 Taylor & Francis.
Integrated management systems maturity : drivers and benefits in Indian SMEs
- Authors: Vashishth, Abhishek , Chakraborty, Ayon , Gouda, Sirish , Gajanand, M.
- Date: 2021
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Journal of Cleaner Production Vol. 293, no. (2021), p.
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- Description: This study aims to assess the impact of the antecedents of Integrated Management System (IMS) implementation on the IMS maturity and its subsequent impact on operational performance in the context of Indian Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). Using Theory of Planned Behavior, this study develops research hypotheses linking challenges and motivation to implement IMS with IMS maturity and its impact on operational performance. Using Structural Equation Modelling to analyze the primary data collected from 144 SMEs in India, this study finds that intrinsic motivation drives firms towards higher levels of maturity while extrinsic motivation for implementation leads to lower levels of IMS maturity. This study not only empirically evaluates a comprehensive framework on IMS maturity but also contributes to growing literature on analysis of Developing Economy SMEs. The findings of this research may drive SMEs to focus on IMS maturity, as the results suggest that it is positively related to operational performance. © 2021 Elsevier Ltd
Lean and its impact on sustainability performance in service companies: results from a pilot study
- Authors: Lizarelli, Fabiane , Chakraborty, Ayon , Antony, Jiju , Jayaraman, Raja , Carneiro, Matheus , Furterer, Sandy
- Date: 2023
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: TQM Journal Vol. 35, no. 3 (2023), p. 698-718
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- Description: Purpose: The purpose of this empirical research is to understand the application of Lean practices (technical and social) and tools in the service sector, whose implementation is less studied, despite its economic relevance. The study aims to extend previous studies that focused on the relationship between Lean and operational and financial performance, and analyzing the impact on sustainability, encompassing economic, social and environmental perspectives. Design/methodology/approach: A pilot survey was conducted with Lean experts in European service companies. The authors have utilized various professional contacts on LinkedIn and a satisfactory response rate was obtained for analysis. Findings: The results of the study showed that there are several motivating factors for the implementation of Lean, the highlights being improving customer satisfaction, efficiency, delivery and cost reduction. The most frequently used Lean tools are related to the identification of improvement opportunities and causes of problems. The pilot survey also made it possible to identify the greater use of technical practices than social practices. The sustainability performance analysis showed that the better performance of service companies is in the economic dimension. Originality/value: The authors have identified no empirical studies linking Lean and sustainable performance in the service sector. This study bridges this cognitive gap through a pilot study and therefore makes an original contribution to the current literature. © 2022, Emerald Publishing Limited.
Lean Six Sigma in financial services industry : a systematic review and agenda for future research
- Authors: Vashishth, Abhishek , Chakraborty, Ayon , Antony, Jiju
- Date: 2019
- Type: Text , Journal article , Review
- Relation: Total Quality Management and Business Excellence Vol. 30, no. 3-4 (2019), p. 447-465
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- Description: The purpose of this paper is to explore the trend and most common themes about Lean Six Sigma (LSS) implementation in the finance sector, and also to identify gaps in the themes that may be preventing organisations from identifying benefits from their LSS strategy and developing an agenda for future research on LSS themes. The following research is based on a systematic literature review of 30 papers that were published on LSS in the finance sector, from 2005 to 2015. Many issues and important themes have emerged, which are benefits, motivation factors, limitations and reasons for implementing LSS in financial organisations. Review identified many gaps and limitations that need to be explored as future research since little have been written on LSS as a holistic strategy for business improvement. It is important for practitioners to be aware of LSS benefits, limitations and motivating factors before starting the implementation process. This paper is based on a comprehensive literature review which gives an opportunity to LSS researchers to understand some common themes about LSS implementation in depth. In addition, by highlighting gaps in the current literature and proposing an agenda for future research saves time and effort for readers looking to research topics within LSS. © 2017, © 2017 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
Managing the resource allocation for the COVID-19 pandemic in healthcare institutions : a pluralistic perspective
- Authors: Arunmozhi, Manimuthu , Persis, Jinil , Sreedharan, V. , Chakraborty, Ayon , Zouadi, Tarik , Khamlichi, Hanane
- Date: 2022
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: International Journal of Quality and Reliability Management Vol. 39, no. 9 (2022), p. 2184-2204
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- Description: Purpose: As COVID-19 outbreak has created a global crisis, treating patients with minimum resources and traditional methods has become a hectic task. In this technological era, the rapid growth of coronavirus has affected the countries in lightspeed manner. Therefore, the present study proposes a model to analyse the resource allocation for the COVID-19 pandemic from a pluralistic perspective. Design/methodology/approach: The present study has combined data analytics with the K-mean clustering and probability queueing theory (PQT) and analysed the evolution of COVID-19 all over the world from the data obtained from public repositories. By using K-mean clustering, partitioning of patients’ records along with their status of hospitalization can be mapped and clustered. After K-mean analysis, cluster functions are trained and modelled along with eigen vectors and eigen functions. Findings: After successful iterative training, the model is programmed using R functions and given as input to Bayesian filter for predictive model analysis. Through the proposed model, disposal rate; PPE (personal protective equipment) utilization and recycle rate for different countries were calculated. Research limitations/implications: Using probabilistic queueing theory and clustering, the study was able to predict the resource allocation for patients. Also, the study has tried to model the failure quotient ratio upon unsuccessful delivery rate in crisis condition. Practical implications: The study has gathered epidemiological and clinical data from various government websites and research laboratories. Using these data, the study has identified the COVID-19 impact in various countries. Further, effective decision-making for resource allocation in pluralistic setting has being evaluated for the practitioner's reference. Originality/value: Further, the proposed model is a two-stage approach for vulnerability mapping in a pandemic situation in a healthcare setting for resource allocation and utilization. © 2021, Emerald Publishing Limited.
Measuring the service quality of services : tradonic servqual model
- Authors: Vashishth, Abhishek , Chakraborty, Ayon
- Date: 2018
- Type: Text , Book chapter
- Relation: E-Manufacturing and E-Service Strategies in Contemporary Organizations. Chapter 9. p. 219-241
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- Description: SERVQUAL and e-SERVQUAL have been considered the most effective and powerful approaches in evaluating the quality and gaps in the service delivered in traditional and electronic services, respectively, but neither SERVQUAL nor e-SERVQUAL can measure the overall service quality of the firm. Therefore, this chapter aims to propose and test a new scale that can measure the overall service quality of the firm. © 2018 by IGI Global. All rights reserved.
Multi-classifier predictive maintenance strategy for a manufacturing plant
- Authors: Singh, Prashant , Agrawal, Sunil , Chakraborty, Ayon
- Date: 2021
- Type: Text , Conference proceedings
- Relation: 2021 International Conference on Maintenance and Intelligent Asset Management (ICMIAM), Ballarat, Australia, 12-15 December 2021 p. 1-4
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- Description: Predictive Maintenance Management in an industry can play a pivotal role in asset management and revenue generation. This work proposes a data-driven-based multi classifier model for implementing predictive maintenance to simultaneously reduce the downtime and idle time of the machines in a manufacturing plant. A case study of the plant comprising of 100 machines has been done to identify the early prediction of failure, its nature, and the attributing cause. Gradient Boosting Tree Classifier and Random Forest Classifier machine learning algorithms have been used to develop the models for fault prediction. A comparative analysis of results obtained using these methods has also been done. Random Forest Classifier outperforms Gradient Boost tree classifier in all evaluation parameters - accuracy, precision and recall.
Qualitative and quantitative analysis of Six Sigma in service organizations
- Authors: Chakraborty, Ayon , Tan, Kay
- Date: 2013
- Type: Text , Book chapter
- Relation: Total Quality Management and Six Sigma p.247-286
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Qualitative and quantitative analysis of six sigma in service organizations
- Authors: Chakraborty, Ayon , Tan, Kay
- Date: 2015
- Type: Text , Book chapter
- Relation: Total quality management and Six Sigma Chapter 11 p. 257-296
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Quality Management Practices in Indian SMEs
- Authors: Chakraborty, Ayon
- Date: 2019
- Type: Text , Book chapter
- Relation: Quality Management and Quality Control - New Trends and Developments p.
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- Description: The purpose of this chapter is to provide an insight on the status of quality management practices in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) of South India. A survey-based approach was adopted to understand the established quality management practices in the SMEs. A short survey instrument was designed by reviewing the literature on quality management initiatives in SMEs. Sample of 270 manufacturing SMEs across Southern India was selected through stratified random sampling technique. Projects with small teams, management commitment and involvement, communication, and culture change have high influence as success factors in implementing quality initiatives. Overall equipment effectiveness, root cause analysis, bottleneck analysis, and PDCA are often used tools and techniques by the organizations. High cost of training and limited knowledge were the reasons cited for not implementing quality initiatives. The study is an attempt to understand the quality management practices application in SMEs from a specific geographic location. The strength lies in bringing a different perspective from the present studies, whereas specific context of the study limits its generalizability. The findings of this chapter will help the industry to identify current quality management practices in SMEs to focus on improving their performance.
Quality management practices in SMEs : a comparative study between India and Namibia
- Authors: Chakraborty, Ayon , Mutingi, Michael , Vashishth, Abhishek
- Date: 2019
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Benchmarking Vol. 26, no. 5 (2019), p. 1499-1516
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- Description: Purpose: Small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have now become an important part of economy for not only developed nations but also for emerging economies. Irrespective of the benefits that can be derived, SMEs in emerging economies still lack the will to implement quality management (QM) practices. Using a comparative study, the purpose of this paper is to understand the status of QM practices in SMEs of emerging economies. Design/methodology/approach: A survey-based approach was adopted to understand the established QM practices in the SMEs. A survey instrument was designed by reviewing the literature on QM initiatives in SMEs. A sample of 270 SMEs across Southern India and 189 SMEs in Namibia was selected through stratified random sampling technique. Findings: The overall response rate was 19.52 percent for India and 26.46 percent for Namibia, respectively. There were similarities and differences in responses from SMEs in both countries. Similarities are in terms of limited implementation of QM practices, and also less use of tools and techniques. Reasons for not implementing include unknown to the authors, and the high cost of training. Differences emerged in the type of market (Indian SMEs catering to one major customer), CSFs and business performance indicators. It was interesting to find that management commitment and involvement do not have a major influence as CSF for SMEs in both the countries. Originality/value: The research is the first attempt in bringing a comparative study about QM practices in SMEs from developing countries. The insights will help emerging economies to develop policies for education and training, and thus facilitate implementation of QM practices in SMEs. © 2019, Emerald Publishing Limited.