SIX SIGMA IN ITALIAN FIRMS

Six Sigma In Italian Firms

Six Sigma In Italian Firms

1. Introduction

The present paper describes the results of a research project focused on Six Sigma implementation process, with a particular attention to understand which is the situation of the enterprises operating in Italy and, consequently, which are the managerial implications of a Six Sigma implementation in the typical Italian company.

As it is well known, the Six Sigma methodology, born at the end of the 80s in Motorola, is strongly oriented to measurement, and in particular to the adoption of statistical techniques, since long used in other quality philosophies and approaches, and now encompassed in a comprehensive framework advocating the adoption of some basics quantitative tools for the resolution of the most common problems which characterize the organizations.

The objective of the present research work consists in proposing a reference model for Six Sigma implementation in Italy, based on four macro-areas considered as critical, following the analysis of some cases of implementation:

• sponsorship;

• approach towards training;

• number of staff involved in the project;

• performance measurement.

The paper is structured as follows:

Section 2 is devoted to a brief overview of the literature on Six Sigma, both from an international and an Italian perspective, showing the lack of bibliography, describing Italian implementation case histories.

Starting from this simple finding, the research going on at Politecnico di Milano along with its research questions are then presented in Section 3.

In Section 4, a selection of the most significant case studies will then be presented, in order to highlight with practical examples the peculiarity of the Italian context and how managers and entrepreneurs are trying to adapt an original Six Sigma approach for a better fit with the idiosyncrasies of an Italian company.

In Section 5, the results of a workshop with Six Sigma experts are presented, in terms of critical success factors of an implementation of Six Sigma in an Italian SME, as compared with the set of factors singled out in the international literature.

In the concluding section, the authors argue that such insights could serve as a basis to build a road map for Six Sigma implementations in Italy.

2. Scientific background

2.1. TQM, the “father” o f Six Sigma

It is here interesting to devote a short paragraph to the main concepts of total quality management (TQM), since it can be considered as the father of Six Sigma: many of the principles constituting the basis of TQM are also paramount in Six Sigma.

TQM is a management philosophy originated in the 50s and has steadily become more popular since the early 80s. Total quality is a description of the culture, attitude and organization of a company striving to provide customers with product and services satisfying their needs.

Total quality control was the key concept of Armand Feigenbaum's 1951 book “Quality Control: Principle, Practice and Administration” - a text that was lately revised under the title “Total Quality Control” - and many other quality gurus, like Deming, Juran and Ishikawa—also contributed to the body of knowledge now known as ...