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5 authors, including:
Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these related projects:
Systematic Literature Review of Lean Six Sigma in the Public Sector View project
All content following this page was uploaded by Yevgen Bogodistov on 10 October 2017.
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Sample and Method
In order to test the LSS capability in the free text field, e.g. project manager, process
financial services sector, we started collecting manager, team manager etc.
data in Germany. We clearly outlined that we n/a
look exclusively for experts who apply or have
applied LSS in their organizations – thus having Gender Female
a certificate was not sufficient. We excluded distribution Male
professional consultants from participation in
the survey, since we wanted to survey real
business effects of Lean Six Sigma in the
financial sphere.
The final sample contained exactly 200 C-Level 10
questionnaires, which remained after all Senior Manager 49
withdrawals and data deleted through our
team due to a number of missing values. Middle Manager 30
Following groups appeared in our sample: 83 Employee 98
participants working in the banking sphere, 72
Other 13
in the insurance business, and 49 indicated
“other”. The latter participants mentioned as
their background for example, “payment We also asked about the level of LSS education:
provider”, “corporate payment”, “crediting 16 participants were Master Black Belts, 52
services” etc. None from the “other” group Black Belts, 98 Green Belts, 6 Yellow Belts, and
indicated a non-financial enterprise. 25 selected the “other” category (e.g., “in
certification process”, “Executive Green Belt”,
Banking 83 “Only theory part of…”). Our participants
obtained roles of LSS Project Champions (13
Insurance 72 participants), LSS Deployment Champions (9
Other 49
participants), LSS Program Coordinators (23
participants), LSS Project Leaders (98
A number of 12 participants were from small participants), LSS Project Members (31
financial service providers (less than 250 participants), and 8 participants selected
employees), 17 were from firms between more “other”.
than 250 up to 500 employees, 55 were from Master Black Belt 16
firms with more than 500 up to 2,000
employees, 22 from firms with more than 2,000 Black Belt 52
up to 10,000 employees, and 94 from firms with Green Belt 98
more than 10,000 employees.
Yellow Belt 6
<250 12
Other 25
250 – 500 17
5,001 – 2,000 55 We think that our sample is very interesting and
2,000 – 10,000 22 powerful due to all roles covered and a high
number of participants with a high degree of
>10,000 94
organizational responsibility (high number of
121 participants were male, 73 were female, 6 participants in managerial positions). To the
did not indicate their gender; the mean age was best of our knowledge, this is the largest data
42 years (SD = 8.8); 10 were C-level managers, base which has been collected for academic
49 senior managers, 30 indicated that they are reasons in the field of LSS in financial services
associate or middle managers, 98 obtained no up to now.
managerial positions. The rest selected the
“other” option and added their position as a
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Lean Six Sigma Performance
Having people with LSS certificates might not Important is also the view on routines as
be sufficient for a firm to achieve sustainable responses to environmental stimuli. An
results. Nevertheless, our research in progress environmental change can cause an unlimited
shows that a routinization of LSS activities, i.e. number of reactions of a firm. If a firm develops
regular application of LSS tools until an certain routines, however, the routines are
automatism is achieved, has a significant activated and executed – thus simplifying a
impact on the achievement of organizational firm’s decision making. Indeed, simply having a
goals. number of employees with LSS certificates
Routinization is a key for the development of a does not mean that an environmental change
capability. Put differently, “knowing what to do will activate those people. In contrast, a trained
with a resource” (capability) is of more team, regularly applying the LSS methodology
importance than simply possessing a resource would be the first group to be addressed by a
(e.g., number of LSS trained experts). firm’s management. Therefore, a LSS capability
A capability is a high-level organizational would save time and simplify the managerial
routine or collection of routines which are choice.
repetitive patterns of interdependent actions,
where multiple actors are involved.
5-point Likert-scale
Cycle time of the improved processes now as compared to
1 Year ago:
Full-time equivalent (FTE) needed for the
1 – much worse
improved processes 3 – the same
5 – much better
Reaching financial projects goals
Average
Growth of scope of the LSS initiative
1 2 3 4 5
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Why Is It Problematic to Implement Lean Six Sigma?
As we all know, there might be several reasons 1. Many project which run simultaneously and
for not implementing the LSS methodology. We cause ongoing changes.
proposed to our participants a set of reasons 2. A missing strategic meaning: LSS is used as
and asked to rate them. We also asked to one of many options.
propose other reasons which were not 3. A strong link to statistics makes LSS out-of-
mentioned in the list. First, we received 5 new favor.
propositions. Although they are not
overlapping and have only one vote, we would 4. The management seeks productivity and
like to list them here. Maybe it is something you new customers, but forgets about the
did not think of but makes your company less quality. We have many products, but
successful? nobody wants to buy them.
Added obstacles on the way of Lean Six Sigma 5. Keeping IT from choosing analytics
implementation: software.
Apart from the mentioned hindrances, we list a
table with a rank of most popular obstacles for
LSS implementation below.
5-point Likert-scale:
Dealing with people instead of machines in 1 – very weak
manufacturing companies
3 – partly
Company culture is not ready to change 5 – very strong
Very time-consuming
Unknown to us
1 2 3 4 5
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Lean Six Sigma Success Factors
In our study, we asked the participants to As one can see, the list of success factors is far
indicate success factors for high LSS from being complete. For instance, our list of 18
performance. We proposed a list of items and success factors was also developed by scholars
the participants had to rate them on their in cooperation with practitioners, but more
importance. We also asked to provide factors necessary items were indicated during the data
which were not in the list but were important collection phase. It brings us to the conclusion
for their companies. Interestingly, there were of a multidimensionality of LSS.
many options added and we list some of them: In our research, we therefore proposed the
1. Proactive, convincing, and empathetic LSS notion of a LSS capability – a multilevel concept
specialists which sheds light on why some Lean Six Sigma
2. Speed of implementation and prioritization initiatives become successful, whereas the
of LSS tasks others don’t.
3. Quality of HR resources, esp. of project You can find below the most important five
leaders success factors as indicated by our participants.
4. Binding character of LSS projects The full items list may appear in our subsequent
academic publications. Moreover, we plan the
5. Sufficiency of IT capacities analysis of the success factors: which factors
6. Stakeholder engagement are more important by which conditions? Which
7. Motivation and commitment at all levels factors provide a greater impact on LSS project
8. Acceptance of the project leader position outcomes? Which environmental triggers make
as a career path certain factors leading to success? These and
9. Focus on outputs at each phase of a LSS other questions are being answered in our
project study in progress. So, keep following our
research!
10. Routinization of the application of the LSS
methodology
5-point Likert-scale:
1 – least important Average
3 – average
5 – most important Sufficient employee
capacity for project
work
5
Existing company
Necessity for
culture for
process thinking at
continuous
management level
improvement
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Goal Achievement
Finally, we present some information on goal below the preliminary results.
achievement. It is all about the economic result, Please note that these results are only the first
isn’t it? So we asked our participants to descriptive part of our findings. After the study
estimate, in how much Lean Six Sigma projects is finished, we expect to find more interesting
were successful. We proposed a scale where 0 insights, such as the predictors for goal
mentioned “no success at all”, 100% mentioned achievement, moderators in this relationship,
“achieved as planned” and 200% mentioned and other interesting results. Keep tracking our
“twice as was initially expected or more”. The research and contact us for further details!
participants used a slider, i.e. they could be
pretty precise in their estimation. You can find
5-point Likert-scale:
Change of business culture 0% – no achievement
100% – as planned
Developing customer-focused end-to-end 200% – twice as planned +
processes
Increase in productivity
Increase in quality
Increase in revenue/yield
0 50 100
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What Can/Should/Must You Do?
We thank you for taking time and participating We also would like to announce our new
in our study! We very much appreciate your studies on process innovation, psychological
help. Moreover, your participation contributed factors influencing organizational capabilities,
to academic research and, thus, made our and new aspects of managerial decision
business world a little bit better. Hopefully. making. If you like science, if you liked this
As a research team, we keep working on the report, feel free to contact us! We can always
data analysis. We hope to provide more insights find an interesting topic for a conversation!
about the state of the art of Lean Six Sigma. We
also keep collecting data for a cross-cultural We wish you all the best!
study and ask you to invite more participants.
As you have seen, we not only collect data, but
also propose a research report: with a short
overview of most important data for single
participants or with a particular information for
those, who organized a representative sub- Please contact us at:
sample from one company. y.bogodistov@fs.de