Performance measurement model for six sigma implementation: case study in Chinese enterprises

Abstract

The application of Six Sigma was blooming in the past decade in the US. Most of Fortune 500 companies like GE, Motorola, Ford, Bank of America and Citi Bank are using Six Sigma as their tools to strike for financial saving and performance improvement. This trend has been extended to Asian companies like Samsung, Toshiba, and Sony. In the last few years, some of the big corporations in China like TCL, Chunlan, Haier, and ZEL also adopted Six Sigma. However, there is no measurement model so far to reflect how successful Six Sigma implements in the Chinese enterprises. This paper is to discuss the performance measurement of Six Sigma implement in Chinese enterprises. This measurement model is based on the critical successful factors of Six Sigma. The model makes it possible to measure performance of Six Sigma implementation but also to provide guidance for improvement in the enterprise. Based on survey and qualitative observation on the enterprises having implemented Six Sigma, this paper reports a case study in order to develop this approach, in which questionnaire are designed to assess the performance.