Relevance of Barriers for Six Sigma Implementation in Industrial Organizations

Abstract Six sigma offers several benefits to organizations, but its implementation is frequently inhibited by numerous barriers for which there is no clear classification based on their relevance order in the literature. Moreover, there are few studies regarding the relevance of these barriers in relation to Brazilian organizations. Thus, this research aimed to identify and classify the main barriers to six sigma implementation in their order of relevance and to test if some organizational characteristics can change this classification. A survey was conducted by sending a questionnaire to 95 of the 473 Brazilian organizations in the automotive sector associated with the National Association of Auto Parts Manufacturers and 40 responses were obtained. The survey revealed that for the organizations analyzed, the most relevant barrier is the lack of skill and adequate training for implementing six sigma. It also showed that organizational characteristics, such as size or breadth (multinational or national) can influence the order of relevance of the barriers. This study is relevant due to its attempt to identify the main barriers that inhibit six sigma implementation and to order them by their level of relevance. This is important so that organizations that are in the process of implementing or want to implement six sigma can either deal with them or make efforts to overcome them.