Prioritizing Critical Success Factors for Six Sigma Implementation Using Interpretive Structural Modeling

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to provide a practical approach for prioritizing the most practiced Critical Success Factors (CSFs) for six sigma implementation. The most commonly accepted CSFs for six sigma were identified from the literature. Then, the interactions among twelve CSFs have been studied using one of the mathematical/soft-operational research tools, that is, the Interpretative Structural Modeling (ISM). The developed model was illustrated using a case study selected from an automotive service industry. The findings implied that almost all of the CSFs are classified as linkage variables. The developed model provides a road map that assists practitioners to understand the process through which six sigma is practiced in a certain enterprise. Although the studied case was selected from the automotive service industry, the outcome of the proposed ISM model supported the results of the previous empirical studies in a sense that all factors for six sigma implementation were in fact critical (i.e. none of them was located within the autonomous category).