THE IMPLEMENTATION OF SIX SIGMA IN MANUFACTURING ORGANIZATIONS: MOTIVATIONS AND RESULTS ACHIEVED

The competitive context forces organizations to choose improvement tools that yield maximum efficiency from their operations. There are many articles about Six Sigma in the technical literature but academic research is not so abundant. This research aims at evaluating how Six Sigma implementation takes place and identifies critical success factors, by analyzing six industrial organizations which have already adopted Six Sigma. The results show convergence between organizations and aspects that maximize gains beyond those publicized on Six Sigma methodology. The research concludes that adherence to the methodology, support from Upper Management and alignment with other initiatives are critical success factors