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Numerous attempts at installing six sigma (SS) have faced challenges and fallen short of the desired success. Thus, it becomes vital to identify the critical factors and characteristics that play a pivotal role in achieving successful adoption. In this study the research has aimed to highlight that a considerable number of corporate SS initiatives, around 60%, fail primarily due to the improper incorporation of essential elements and flawed assumptions.

To validate the influence of critical success factors (CSFs) on SS accomplishment, the study employed a research design combining exploratory and mixed-methods approaches. A Likert-scale questionnaire was utilized, and a simple random sampling method was employed to gather data. Out of the 2,325 potential participants approached, 573 responses were received, primarily from Germany, the United Kingdom and Sweden. The analysis focused on 260 completed questionnaires and statistical methods including structural equation modeling (SEM), exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) were utilized for data analysis.

The study acknowledged four essential components of CSFs that are imperative for sustaining the success of SS: (1) Competence of belt System employees; (2) Project management skills; (3) Organizational economic capability and (4) Leadership commitment and engagement. These factors were identified as significant contributors to the maintenance of SS’s success.

The practical implications of this research imply that institutions, practitioners, and researchers can utilize the four identified factors to foster the sustainable deployment of SS initiatives. By incorporating these factors, organizations can enhance the effectiveness and longevity of their SS practices.

The investigation's originality lies in its contribution to assessing CSFs in SS deployment within the European automobile industry, utilizing a mixed-methods research design supplemented by descriptive statistics.

The effectiveness of Six Sigma programs has varied across different industries and organizations, and leadership styles have been identified as a critical success factor for the installation of Six Sigma initiatives. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the specific elements of leadership styles that are linked with the successful deployment of Six Sigma programs in the automobile industry.

To conduct the study, the researchers utilized a Likert scale questionnaire with a rating system of 1–7 and a simple random sampling method. The survey was distributed to 2,325 potential participants, with 573 responses received, mostly from Germany, the United Kingdom and Sweden. Out of those responses, 260 completed questionnaires were received. The study utilized a mixed-methods research design and exploratory research approaches to investigate the implication of leadership style on the success of Six Sigma implementation. The research employed several analysis techniques, including Structural Equation Modeling (SEM), exploratory factor analysis (EFA), confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and Survey methods.

Through various SEM methods, such as EFA and CFA, the study revealed two vital leadership elements: (1) the long-term success of Six Sigma depends on leadership’s support and recognition of it as an improvement strategy and (2) leadership must commit to the organization’s suppliers to ensure quality and the provision of defect-free products.

By incorporating the identified key elements of leadership into their strategies, organizations and researchers can ensure the sustainable implementation of Six Sigma.

This research presents a distinct contribution to the evaluation of leadership style components within the European automotive sector, utilizing a mixed-methods research design and incorporating a variety of descriptive statistics.

Recent years have seen an increased demand for healthcare services, presenting a need to improve service quality through the deployment of sustainable Lean Six Sigma (LSS). This study aims to identify critical success factors (CSFs) of sustainable LSS and prioritize them based on their intensity of importance for the effective implementation of sustainable LSS in the healthcare environment.

The present study identified 33 leading CSFs through a comprehensive literature review and expert experience and classified them into six major categories based on organizational functions. The primacy of these CSFs is established using the best-worst-method (BWM) approach. The significant advantage of this approach is that the decision-maker identifies both the best and worst criteria among alternatives prior to pairwise comparisons, leading to fewer pairwise comparisons and saving time, energy and resources. It also provides more reliable and consistent rankings.

The findings of the present study highlight the economic and managerial (E&M) CSFs as the most significant CSFs among the major category criteria of sustainable LSS-CSFs, followed by organizational (O), knowledge and learning (K&L), technological (T), social and environmental (S&E), and external factors (EF). Similarly, management involvement and leadership to implement sustainable LSS (E&M1), structured LSS deployment training and education (K&L2), and availability of required resources and their efficient utilization (O2) are ranked as the topmost CSFs among sub-category criteria of sustainable LSS-CSFs.

The prioritization of sustainable LSS-CSFs determined in this study can provide healthcare managers, researchers and decision-makers with a better understanding of the influence on effective deployment of sustainable LSS, resulting in improved service quality in hospitals.

This paper is an original contribution to the analysis of CSFs in an Indian healthcare institute, utilizing the BMW method for ranking the sustainable LSS-CSFs. The advantage of utilizing and distinguishing the performance of this approach compared to other MCDA approaches in terms of (1) least pairwise comparison and violation, (2) consistency (3) slightest deviation and (4) conformity.

Some Six Sigma (SS) efforts have not been entirely successful. This research paper aims to investigate the leadership style and the elements of it that positively influence the attainment of Six Sigma programs within the automobile industry.

The study used a Likert-scale questionnaire and a simple random sampling method. 2,325 potential participants were approached, resulting in 573 responses, primarily from Germany, the United Kingdom and Sweden. 260 completed questionnaires were included in the analysis, utilizing an exploratory and mixed-methods research design to examine the impact of leadership style on Six Sigma success. Statistical methods such as SEM, EFA and CFA were used for data analysis.

The study utilized numerous SEM methods, including Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) and Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) and identified three key elements of leadership traits: (1) leadership support for long-term improvement strategies; (2) leadership commit to the supplier's organization to maintain quality and supply defect-free products.

Due to limited participants, the outcome of the research could lead to inadequacies in data interpretation regarding the contextual predispostions, and the research could develop weaknesses in the form of cross-sectional instead of longitudinal data and design.

The practical implications of this study suggest that institutions, practitioners and researchers can incorporate these two identified factors into leadership traits to promote the sustainable implementation of Six Sigma (SS) initiatives.

This study makes an original contribution to the assessment of leadership style and its elements in the European automobile industry, utilizing a mixed-methods research design along with descriptive statistics to provide valuable insights.

The objective of this paper is to investigate, assess and develop a hierarchical model to evaluate the interrelationship of critical success factors (CSFs) that influence the deployment of Sustainable LSS framework in hospitals. Further, developed model has been validated to investigate its applicability in hospitals towards sustainable LSS implementation.

“Interpretive Structural Modeling” (ISM) has been utilized to develop a convenient hierarchy and contextual relationship of key CSFs throughout the implementation pathway in Indian healthcare industry through systematic literature review and expert opinion, which is ensured by a taxonomy of CSFs using MICMAC (“Matrice d' Impacts Croisés-Multiplication Appliquée á un Classement”) and questionnaire-based survey to empirically validate the model through utilizing “Structural Equation Modelling” (SEM).

In this study, 17 keys CSFs to sustainable LSS implementation in healthcare industry have been investigated, and modeled. “Social and environmental responsibility,” “Financial return and project success stories,” “Top management involvement and leadership to implement Sustainable LSS,” “Availability of required resources, and their efficient utilization” are found to be the most essential CSFs for successful sustainable LSS implementation in healthcare industry. Further, classification of CSFs has been done for better interpretation of their nature using MICMAC approach. Moreover, the applicability of the proposed model has been empirically assessed utilizing SEM.

The scrutiny of data reveals that the initial inputs from experts throughout the ISM pathway could trigger biased inputs into the study and generalization of the results into others, it might be viable that this propounded model might trigger distinct outcomes for contrasting types of healthcare organizations.

This model on sustainable LSS would support the decision-makers, practitioners and researchers to predict key CSFs through deployment and support the existing academic research on sustainable LSS. Accordingly, the focus on the CSFs of the sustainable LSS can be prioritized to diminish waste, and enhance patient satisfaction and safety.

This paper is an original contribution of analysis of CSFs in Indian healthcare industry utilizing an integrated ISM-MICMAC and SEM approach.