African Journal of
Business Management

  • Abbreviation: Afr. J. Bus. Manage.
  • Language: English
  • ISSN: 1993-8233
  • DOI: 10.5897/AJBM
  • Start Year: 2007
  • Published Articles: 4188

Article in Press

Performance improvement through Six Sigma methodologies: A plastic firm case approach

Value stream mapping, process capability, on-time delivery, variability

  •  Received: 17 June 2016
  •  Accepted: 19 July 2018
Six Sigma is a set of techniques and tools for process improvement. The term Six Sigma originated from terminology associated with manufacturing, specifically terms associated with statistical modeling of manufacturing processes. The study was adopted at a Plastic firm. The basic purpose of undertaken this study is to explore the effectiveness of using six sigma technique while manufacturing and to explore the environment that hinder the implementation of Six Sigma production principles of material flows, and also the objectives of the study is to identify and analyze the root cause of problems that occurred during the manufacturing process, and to find the effective remedial measures for eliminating the root cause of the problems of production using six sigma methodologies at the firm. The research design adopted for this study was Experimental research design. The study make use of secondary data which was collected from the company’s production reports for a period of 6 months (July, 2015 to December, 2015) and also study collected literature review from journals, internet and magazines. The collected data was analyzed and interpreted by making use of tools like Why-Why analysis, Fishbone diagram, Pareto analysis, Trend analysis, Value stream mapping and Histogram. The major findings from this study are lengthy times taken for manufacturing process and lack of knowledge among operators and in-charges. The study also recommended identifying the likely causes of the problems, taking preventive action and planning contingent action. Finally, the study was concluded by reducing non-value adding hours in industry to increase the efficiency of production.