Six Sigma in Synergy with Risk Management

Because of globalization, stiff competition, Rapid market change?higher environmental uncertainty and lower technology cycle time, it is inevitable to include risk management in the six sigma methodology no matter whether the organization is manufacturing concern or service concern. Risk management is to play a basic role in Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve and Control phase (DMAIC) and Define, Measure, Analyze, Design and Verify  phase (DMADV) in the supply chain. In this paper a need is established using exiting literature to include risk management into six sigma methodology and its potential benefits are described. Keywords: Six Sigma, Risk Management, Supply Chain Managemen

Diversity in Software Development Routines are Attractive: A Preliminary Analysis of GitHub Repositories

Free, libre, open-source software projects (FLOSS) are known for their chaotic development style and unique collaboration model. How does such chaotic development produce high quality software and attract users and developers? To provide insight into this conundrum, this study explores the roles of diversity and change in design routines. It investigates the relationship between routine diversity and change on project attraction to users and developers. Various sequence-mining techniques such as motif analysis and hidden Markov models (HMM) are applied to examine design routines of 88 FLOSS projects on GitHub.com. Regression analysis reveals that development processes with high routine-diversity and relatively low change-magnitude attract more users and developers

IT-enabled Process Innovation: A Literature Review

The importance of Information Technology (IT) is growing, and in a hypercompetitive market IT must be used as a strategic asset for companies to succeed. In order to gain strategic benefits from IT, companies need to be innovative when deploying IT. This can be achieved by reengineering business processes to take advantage of the possibilities IT provides. In 1993 Thomas H. Davenport presented a framework describing the role of IT in process innovation . Based on this framework, the purpose of this paper is to conduct a literature review to answer the following research question: What kind of opportunities does IT provide for process innovation? . Davenport\u27s framework is used as an analytical lens to review articles from the top 20 IS and management journals. The paper provides an overview and an in-depth analysis of the literature on IT-enabled process innovation and suggests avenues for future research as well as recommendations for practitioners. Our analyses reveal five distinct themes related to opportunities for IT-enabled process innovation, all of which offer guidance to practitioners and highlight gaps in our current knowledge about how to leverage IT for innovation purposes

A conceptual framework for SPI evaluation

Software Process Improvement (SPI) encompasses the analysis and modification of the processes within software development, aimed at improving key areas that contribute to the organizations' goals. The task of evaluating whether the selected improvement path meets these goals is challenging. On the basis of the results of a systematic literature review on SPI measurement and evaluation practices, we developed a framework (SPI Measurement and Evaluation Framework (SPI-MEF)) that supports the planning and implementation of SPI evaluations. SPI-MEF guides the practitioner in scoping the evaluation, determining measures, and performing the assessment. SPI-MEF does not assume a specific approach to process improvement and can be integrated in existing measurement programs, refocusing the assessment on evaluating the improvement initiative's outcome. Sixteen industry and academic experts evaluated the framework's usability and capability to support practitioners, providing additional insights that were integrated in the application guidelines of the framework

A critical evaluation of the application of Six Sigma as a business transformation methodology at Lonmin South African Operations.

Thesis (MBA)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Westville, 2010.One of the major challenges for organisations operating in today's global business environment is to improve productivity, reduce costs and enhance customer service. Six Sigma methodology has become a popular approach in a number of organisations as a business improvement tool. This research presented Six Sigma as a business transformation methodology within Lonmin operations. The purpose of this research was to identify the primary factors in the Six Sigma framework, and to evaluate the relationship between these factors in the framework and their contribution towards transformation in terms of business improvement. This research critically evaluated the application of Six Sigma within Lonmin in the South African context. Quantitative data was obtained from questionnaires distributed to the different Six Sigma role players within Lonmin. A probability sample was used; sixty five (65) Six Sigma candidates were drawn from Lonmin with a Six Sigma population size of one hundred and twenty (120) employees listed in the Six Sigma database. Data was collected using an e-mail based questionnaire developed by the researcher. The main contributions of this study showed that communication and organisational culture were the most important factors to transform business performance when Six Sigma was integrated with business principles. The study revealed that project selection was a vital element in the process that determined the value towards business improvement. Six Sigma must be supplemented by other programmes (Theory of Constraints, Design For Six Sigma) in order to be more effective in attaining business performance. This research will benefit management to evaluate and structure an aligned methodology for transformation. Employees will be motivated to attain greater knowledge and skill. Research will prove beneficial to organisations that need to transform their organisation

Proposal of a Lean Six Sigma methodology implementation in a service process

[ANGLÈS] The main goal of this study is to propose improvements for processes in a Service Department of an ERP company, using the perspective of the Lean Six Sigma, which could reduce significantly the time in solving incidences and increase the level of customer's satisfaction, achieving important improvements in the performance of this company. The general objectives are, therefore, to validate that is achievable the applicability of Lean Six Sigma in this Department and to perform a depth review in the Incident Management processes that could be improved. This project is based on empirical data obtained as a part of the ERP implemented by this company in several cardboard manufacturers. The data analysis also will be based on observation and semi-structured interviews with employees working in such department. The aim is to achieve improvements using as reference previous implementations of the theoretical Lean Six Sigma tools and techniques in other Service Departments.[CATALÀ] L'objectiu principal d'aquest estudi és proposar millores per als processos en un Departament de Serveis, utilitzant la perspectiva del Lean Six Sigma, el que podria reduir significativament el temps de resolució d'incidències i augmentar el nivell de satisfacció del client, aconseguint importants millores en el rendiment d'aquesta empresa. Els objectius generals son, per tant, validar que es pot aconseguir l'aplicabilitat de Lean Six Sigma en aquest Departament de Servei i dur a terme una revisió en profunditat dels processos de Gestió d'Incidències que es podrien millorar. Aquest projecte es basa en les dades empíriques obtingudes com a part de la ERP per aquesta empresa en diversos fabricants de cartró. L'anàlisi de dades es basa també en l'observació i les entrevistes semi-estructurades amb els empleats que treballen en aquest Departament. L'objectiu és aconseguir millores utilitzant com a referència les implementacions anteriors dels eines i tècniques teòrics de Lean Six Sigma en altres Departaments de Servei

Methods, Techniques and Tools to Support Software Project Management in High Maturity

High maturity in software development is associated to statistical control of critical subprocesses performance and the use of gained predictability to manage projects with better planning precision and monitoring control. Although maturity models such as CMMI mention some statistical and other quantitative approaches, methods and techniques that can support project management in high maturity, they do not provide details about them neither present their available types. Therefore, there is a lack of knowledge on how to support software process improvement initiatives to choose and use statistical and other quantitative approaches, methods and techniques on such context. The objective of this study is to identify different approaches, methods and techniques that can assist on managing projects in high maturity. By conducting a systematic literature mapping on major data sources, we identified 75 papers describing 101 contributions. We briefly describe identified approaches, methods and techniques grouped by similar types and provide some analysis regarding technological maturity stage and evaluation method, and supported development methods and characteristics and process/indicator area in which they were applied. We hope this information can fill some of the statistical and quantitative knowledge gap about the actual types of approaches, methods and techniques being proposed, evaluated, experimented and adopted by organizations to assist on quantitative project management in high maturity