Lean Six Sigma (LSS) methodology is becoming popular in South African companies, motivated by the drive to reduce costs and optimise operational processes. There are indications from literature of various challenges experienced by companies in their journey to implement and sustain LSS. There is no authoritative statistics around the scale of LSS implementations in South African organisations or on the success and failure rates of these implementations. This research’s chief objective was the development of a dynamic model which could be used to predict and sustain LSS deployments in local companies. The research also purposed to expand the body of knowledge on factors affecting the sustainability of LSS.

Multiple case studies were employed for concept building in this research. A three phased approach using interviews and a survey was employed in conducting the research.

The research confirmed that companies were experiencing various challenges including lack of top management buy-in and support and lack of skilled and knowledgeable employees. Positive feedback was received, as the measures of LSS sustainability and existence of the predictors for LSS sustainability received generally high scoring. The data collected from the case studies was limited as the population of employees who have received various levels of LSS and actively participating in LSS projects was limited within organisations. This research contributed to the body of knowledge by increasing understanding on the sustainability of LSS implementations and by developing a dynamic model which could be used to predict and sustain LSS deployments.

Keywords

Lean Six Sigma, Implementation strategy, Sustainability, Institutionalisation, Routinisation, Change management forces.