Impact of Industry4.0/ICTs, Lean Six Sigma and quality management systems on organisational performance

Abstract

Purpose

This paper compares impact of Industry 4.0 / emerging information and communication Technologies (ICTs), for example, Internet of things (IOT), machine learning, artificial intelligence (AI), robotics and cloud computing, on 22 organisational performance indicators under nine combinations of Lean Six Sigma (LSS) and quality management systems (QMS).

Design/methodology/approach

Survey of 105 Indian organisations was done about their experience of using QMS, Lean Six Sigma and emerging ICTs. Respondents included both manufacturing and service enterprises of different scales and sectors. The responses collected were compared, and statistically significant difference among them was evaluated using chi-square test.

Findings

The study confirmed statistically significant difference among 20 organisational performance indicators under different combinations of QMS, LSS and ICTs. These indicators include quality performance, delivery performance, sales turnover, inventory level and so forth. However, for two indicators, namely, absenteeism and throughput, significant difference in responses was not established.

Research limitations/implications

All possible combinations of QMS, LSS, only LSS tools and ICTs were not studied because of either theoretical impossibility (e.g. using LSS without LSS tools) or practically rare situations (e.g. organisations using ICTs and LSS without QMS). Furthermore, the impact from different sequences of implementing QMS, LSS and ICTs can be studied.

Practical implications

Using this study, practitioners can identify which LSS, Quality System and ICT combination results in best performance and quick success. On theoretical front, the study confirms impact of LSS and QMS on organisational performance.

Originality/value

This study evaluates organisational performance under several possible combinations of QMS, LSS, and emerging ICTs, which was so far unexplored.

Citation

Yadav, N., Shankar, R. and Singh, S.P. (2020), "Impact of Industry4.0/ICTs, Lean Six Sigma and quality management systems on organisational performance", The TQM Journal, Vol. 32 No. 4, pp. 815-835. https://doi.org/10.1108/TQM-10-2019-0251