A Global Study Into the Reasons for Lean Six Sigma Project Failures: Key Findings and Directions for Further Research

Jiju Antony; Fabiane Letícia Lizarelli; Marcelo Machado Fernandes

doi:10.1109/TEM.2020.3009935

A Global Study Into the Reasons for Lean Six Sigma Project Failures: Key Findings and Directions for Further Research

Jiju Antony, Fabiane Letícia Lizarelli, Marcelo Machado Fernandes

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

28 Citations (Scopus)

1220 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

A low success rate of improvement projects is one of the causes of the discontinuity of lean six sigma (LSS) initiatives in companies. It is essential to identify and evaluate the reasons why LSS improvement projects fail in order to enable LSS, Lean, and six sigma sustainability. This article presents the findings from a global survey conducted with 201 LSS experts around the world in both the service and manufacturing sectors. The results of this article point out the significant failure rates for LSS projects and alert that projects had higher termination rates in the measure and analyze phases [define, measure, analyze, improve, and control (DMAIC)]. Failures occur primarily at the corporate level. The main causes of project failures identified were the lack of commitment by top management, resistance to change, inadequate rewards and recognition mechanisms, inconsistent monitoring and control of the projects, and poor communication. This article shows that there are some minor differences in terms of ranking of these factors between the manufacturing and service sectors, but there is a significant difference in terms of continent and belt level (master black belts, black belts, and green belts).

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	2399-2414
Number of pages	16
Journal	IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management
Volume	69
Issue number	5
Early online date	4 Sept 2020
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1109/TEM.2020.3009935
Publication status	Published - Oct 2022

Keywords

Belts
Continuous improvement (CI)
Organizations
Project management
Six sigma
Sustainable development
Tools
Training
lean six sigma (LSS)
project failures
six sigma (SS)
survey

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Strategy and Management
Electrical and Electronic Engineering

Access to Document

10.1109/TEM.2020.3009935

Download pdf
© 2020 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, including reprinting/republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works, for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted component of this work in other works.
Accepted author manuscript, 471 KB

Cite this

@article{bdabc737f3cc4d7289e7f23d0ad42e02,

title = "A Global Study Into the Reasons for Lean Six Sigma Project Failures: Key Findings and Directions for Further Research",

abstract = "A low success rate of improvement projects is one of the causes of the discontinuity of lean six sigma (LSS) initiatives in companies. It is essential to identify and evaluate the reasons why LSS improvement projects fail in order to enable LSS, Lean, and six sigma sustainability. This article presents the findings from a global survey conducted with 201 LSS experts around the world in both the service and manufacturing sectors. The results of this article point out the significant failure rates for LSS projects and alert that projects had higher termination rates in the measure and analyze phases [define, measure, analyze, improve, and control (DMAIC)]. Failures occur primarily at the corporate level. The main causes of project failures identified were the lack of commitment by top management, resistance to change, inadequate rewards and recognition mechanisms, inconsistent monitoring and control of the projects, and poor communication. This article shows that there are some minor differences in terms of ranking of these factors between the manufacturing and service sectors, but there is a significant difference in terms of continent and belt level (master black belts, black belts, and green belts).",

keywords = "Belts, Continuous improvement (CI), Organizations, Project management, Six sigma, Sustainable development, Tools, Training, lean six sigma (LSS), project failures, six sigma (SS), survey",

author = "Jiju Antony and Lizarelli, {Fabiane Let{\'i}cia} and Fernandes, {Marcelo Machado}",

year = "2022",

month = oct,

doi = "10.1109/TEM.2020.3009935",

language = "English",

volume = "69",

pages = "2399--2414",

journal = "IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management",

issn = "0018-9391",

publisher = "IEEE",

number = "5",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - A Global Study Into the Reasons for Lean Six Sigma Project Failures

T2 - Key Findings and Directions for Further Research

AU - Antony, Jiju

AU - Lizarelli, Fabiane Letícia

AU - Fernandes, Marcelo Machado

PY - 2022/10

Y1 - 2022/10

N2 - A low success rate of improvement projects is one of the causes of the discontinuity of lean six sigma (LSS) initiatives in companies. It is essential to identify and evaluate the reasons why LSS improvement projects fail in order to enable LSS, Lean, and six sigma sustainability. This article presents the findings from a global survey conducted with 201 LSS experts around the world in both the service and manufacturing sectors. The results of this article point out the significant failure rates for LSS projects and alert that projects had higher termination rates in the measure and analyze phases [define, measure, analyze, improve, and control (DMAIC)]. Failures occur primarily at the corporate level. The main causes of project failures identified were the lack of commitment by top management, resistance to change, inadequate rewards and recognition mechanisms, inconsistent monitoring and control of the projects, and poor communication. This article shows that there are some minor differences in terms of ranking of these factors between the manufacturing and service sectors, but there is a significant difference in terms of continent and belt level (master black belts, black belts, and green belts).

AB - A low success rate of improvement projects is one of the causes of the discontinuity of lean six sigma (LSS) initiatives in companies. It is essential to identify and evaluate the reasons why LSS improvement projects fail in order to enable LSS, Lean, and six sigma sustainability. This article presents the findings from a global survey conducted with 201 LSS experts around the world in both the service and manufacturing sectors. The results of this article point out the significant failure rates for LSS projects and alert that projects had higher termination rates in the measure and analyze phases [define, measure, analyze, improve, and control (DMAIC)]. Failures occur primarily at the corporate level. The main causes of project failures identified were the lack of commitment by top management, resistance to change, inadequate rewards and recognition mechanisms, inconsistent monitoring and control of the projects, and poor communication. This article shows that there are some minor differences in terms of ranking of these factors between the manufacturing and service sectors, but there is a significant difference in terms of continent and belt level (master black belts, black belts, and green belts).

KW - Belts

KW - Continuous improvement (CI)

KW - Organizations

KW - Project management

KW - Six sigma

KW - Sustainable development

KW - Tools

KW - Training

KW - lean six sigma (LSS)

KW - project failures

KW - six sigma (SS)

KW - survey

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85090953022&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1109/TEM.2020.3009935

DO - 10.1109/TEM.2020.3009935

M3 - Article

SN - 0018-9391

VL - 69

SP - 2399

EP - 2414

JO - IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management

JF - IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management

IS - 5

ER -

A Global Study Into the Reasons for Lean Six Sigma Project Failures: Key Findings and Directions for Further Research

Abstract

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Access to Document

Other files and links

Fingerprint

Cite this