Reducing the delivery lead time in a food distribution SME through the implementation of six sigma methodology

Purpose – Six sigma is a systematic data driven approach to reduce the defect and improve the quality in any type of business. The purpose of this paper is to present the findings from the application of six sigma in a food service “small to medium sized enterprise” (SME) in a lean environment to reduce the waste in this field. Design/methodology/approach – A simplified version of six sigma is adopted through the application of appropriate statistical tools in order to focus on customer's requirements to identify the defect, the cause of the defect and improve the delivery process by implementing the optimum solution. Findings – The result suggests that modification in layout utilization reduced the number of causes of defect by 40 percent resulting in jumping from 1.44 sigma level to 2.09 Sigma level which is substantial improvement in SME. Research limitations/implications – Simplicity of six sigma is important to enabling any SME to identify the problem and minimize its cause through a systematic approach. Practical implications – Integrating of supply chain objectives with any quality initiatives such as lean and six sigma has a substantial effect on achieving to the targets. Originality/value – This paper represents a potential area in which six sigma methodology along side the lean management can promote supply chain management objectives for a food distribution SME

Evaluating sustainability in the UK fast food supply chain: Dimensions, Awareness and Practice

Purpose - This paper investigates the level of concern and practice of sustainable management in the fast food supply chain in the North of England, targeting a business population with cultural, social and economic diversity. Methodology – A questionnaire using Likert Scoring recorded variations in current practice and attitudes towards sustainable business. A two-stage Cluster Analysis was conducted to analyse the multi-attribute ordinal data obtained from the questionnaire. Findings - Significant differences were found among clusters of Fast food businesses in terms of their sustainability concern and practice, which is of interest to policy makers, consumers and supply chain partners. Medium-sized fast food dealers emerge with high environmental and social concern, but poor practice; larger retailers and fast food chains appear to have both fair social and environmental awareness and practice; and there is a cluster of small takeaway-specific outlets that have particularly low levels of knowledge of sustainability or sustainable practices. Market failure is prevalent amongst these businesses and without regulation this represents a possible threat to the sector. Research limitations – Reliance on stated rather than revealed preferences and the regional focus of the study may limit the implications of this analysis but it is a major step forward in understanding what has in the past been a very difficult sector to investigate due to data paucity. Practical implications - Fast food is a sector with a lack of transparency which has attracted little academic attention to date, due to the difficulties of empirical analysis rather than lack of interest in a key food consumption sector. The message for the sector is to monitor its act, across all business types or face regulatory and policy intervention. Originality - The research conducts a three-dimensional sustainability analysis of fast food supply chains to investigate the differences and trade-offs between different sustainability dimensions

Assessment of key sustainability indicators in a UK fast food supply chain: a life cycle perspective

The purpose of this article is to investigate the understanding of businesses and end consumers of key sustainability measures in the UK fast food Supply Chain. A quantitative method was used in which two sets of well-structured questionnaires were designed separately for fast food businesses and end consumers. The data analysis was conducted through “cluster analysis”. It was found that social responsibility was scored as the most important fast food sustainability concern for businesses, whilst the end consumers were found to be more concern about environmental impact of fast food industry. However, no statistical difference was found between fast food businesses and end consumer views. This research was carried out in north of England, where may have different proportion of cultural, social and economical diversity. The collected data from fast food businesses was also not scattered evenly, as there were more responds from smaller fast food firms than food manufacturers and processers. More research attention is needed in this field in which there are various issues and challenges to promote a lean and green food supply chain. This research could partly investigate these challenges including the different trade-offs between social, environmental and economic measures of sustainability in a specific food supply chain. This article conducts a research investigation in three dimensional sustainability of fast food supply chain, which includes all types of businesses in this sector to investigate the differences between end consumers and businesses to promote lean and green fast food supply chain

LSS, a problem solving skill for graduates and SMEs: Case Study of investigation in a UK Business School curriculum

Purpose - This research aims to investigate the feasibility of a systematic Lean Six Sigma (LSS) education through the curriculum of business schools to respond to the existing gap between the graduate’s expectation of employability and skill requirements by the Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs). Design/approach/methodology - One UK business school has been used as a case study to conduct an extensive module and programme review followed by a semi-structured interview with the potentially suitable core and programme-specific module leaders and also the comparative Analysis between content of these modules and the existing LSS high-street training themes. Findings – The result revealed a high potential of the existing modules in the business schools equivalent to the private sector training providers to increase the level of LSS problem solving knowledge and skill for all graduates and improve their employability and productivity for the SMEs. Practical implications/limitations – This research has been carried out in a single UK–based Business School through a qualitative approach. A further in-depth analysis in a broader scale is required to investigate the practical implications in a better way. Originality/Value – The result of this study highlights the role of LSS to reduce the knowledge and skill gap between the business schools as the source of the explicit knowledge, graduates as the knowledge and skill bearer, and SMEs as the knowledge and skill users

Quality management vision of future early career operations managers

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the gap between the current vision and knowledge of future early career operations managers (OM) and a common strategic total quality management (TQM) framework. Design/methodology/approach A survey questionnaire and a non-parametric test for different groups of participants were adopted to identify the gap and analyse the significance of these groups on the factors in the TQM framework. Findings A new set of TQM factors with the necessity of more knowledge and understanding of future generation were identified, followed by the identification of clear differences amongst different groups of this generation. Practical implications A sustainable OM practice needs managers and leaders with a sustainable knowledge development of quality management (QM); and as the result of this study, the current vision of future young OM would not echo this. Originality/value This study has a systematic, non-parametric approach towards currently fragmented QM analysis, and is integrated with human resource and visionary elements of future young OM and universal QM models and theories

Reducing the scrap rate in an electronic manufacturing SME through Lean Six Sigma methodology

Purpose – The aim of this project was to reduce the level of scrap rate in the production of a product known as the “Remote Acceleration Sensor (RAS)” that is used for Air Bags through Lean Six Sigma (LSS) methodology. Design/methodology/approach – This is an action research that was conducted in a single case study and used the LSS methodology of DMAIC concentrating on one fully automated sub-process of the production called the “Overmould line”. Finding – It was found that implementing DMAIC methodology had an effective impact on the production and scrap rate was reduced achieving the 99.03% First Run Yield (FRY) from 98.4% FRY before implementation. This was the improvement from 3.65 to 3.85 in the Sigma scoring term with significant financial impact at this scale. Research Limitations/Implications – This action research could be deployed in other sub- processes of the production line, other processes of the company and could also be conducted in more than one single case study from the same sector. The research investigation needs to be fully controlled by the team in order to correctly gauge the effect of any changes made to the process. Practical Implications – This project adds further evidence of effectiveness of the LSS methodology in manufacturing SMEs through adding value to the process and reducing the scrap rate and waste. The project had greater saving than expected by the managers at £98,000 per annum. This saving could even be higher when the company is expanded. Originality/Value- The approach of this research project combines proven statistical tools with some basic but effective lean tools to be applied in an original sequence in order to design robust product and match manufacturing capabilities. Key Words – Lean Six Sigma, Six Sigma, DMAIC, Manufacturing, SMEs, Scrap Rat

Spontaneous Spinal Epidural Hematoma; a Case Report

Spontaneous spinal epidural hematoma (SSHE) is a rare entity can have several reasons. Its prevalence in population is 0.1 per 100,000 with the male to female ratio of 1/4:1. For the first time Jackson in 1869 reported a case of SSHE and after that it was declared as several hundred cases in literatures. Here, a case of SSHE was reported in a 52 year-old male referred to emergency department following severe low back pain

Investigating the readiness of people in manufacturing SMEs to embark on Lean Six Sigma projects: An empirical study in the German manufacturing sector

Purpose – The research conducted within this article focuses on three fundamental human related behaviour factors associated with Lean Six Sigma (LSS) projects in German manufacturing Small and Medium Sized- Enterprises (SMEs) on the readiness of people (managers and their staff) to commence LSS projects. These are core personal competence, strategic vision of the people and the organisational culture of the specific organisation. Design/methodology/approach – Based on a thorough review of the academic literature a set of hypotheses were constructed to examine the level of association between people’s competence, vision and culture with LSS readiness within SMEs. This was done using correlation and regression analysis. Data collection was carried out in seven different German manufacturing SMEs involved in aerospace supply and agro-food manufacturing using a survey instrument . Finding – It was found that there is a strong positive association between the core competence of people and organisational culture with readiness for commencing LSS in the manufacturing SMEs studied. The core values of people, education level and the vision of making continuous quality improvement were identified as key variables in promoting LSS readiness in these manufacturing SMEs. This study indicates that these ‘softer’ variables can be essential to successful LSS implementation and need to be explored further before undertaking the process. Practical Implications – From the perspective of the implementers of LSS the results of this research could be of interest to different manufacturing SMEs intending to embark upon an LSS journey as it highlights the significance of human-related behavioural factors in the process. SME organisations may consider carrying out development or training with their managers and employees around personal and organisational values, addressing core competence and strengthening organisational culture in order to facilitate LSS readiness and enhance the prospect of its success. Originality/Value- It would appear that this LSS research has not been carried out within the German manufacturing SME context before and although discrete in nature has surfaced the ‘softer’ variables of core competence of staff and organisational culture as important readiness issues to address when undertaking LSS. This integrated approach of human behavioural factors, organisational culture, LSS and manufacturing SMEs demonstrates the originality of our research

Motives For Employee Profit Sharing Schemes In The U.S., U.K. And Canada

This paper discusses different motives for profit sharing adoption in the U.S., Canada and the U.K., and analyzes employment-based factors that could contribute to these differences. Motives for profit sharing are classified into two groups: motivational and non-motivational. A theoretical model is presented that suggests a firm’s ability to use profit sharing for non-motivational purposes is limited by the status of domestic employment-related factors. The analytical review indicates that the non-motivational use of profit sharing is limited by the status of employment-related factors in each of the studied countries. However, the non-motivational use of profit sharing is probable if higher labor productivity is expected through other means. Implication of the results is discussed for future studies in this area