Identification of factors affecting production-worker-effectiveness for Six Sigma output level in small and medium size manufacturing enterprises

Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) are the driving force behind a large number of innovations and contribute to the growth of the national economy through employment creation and investments and exports. For manufacturing SMEs in countries like India, production-worker is one of the key elements in the conversion process of inputs to outputs. Therefore, it becomes imperative for such SMEs to focus on production issue, namely, the importance of role of production-worker for turning out an output of near Six Sigma quality level for Six Sigma approach has been accepted as the standard for world class manufacturing. As a step towards achieving this level of output quality, production-worker related problems that afflict the growth and success of manufacturing Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs), especially, in the North Karnataka must be resolved. This paper focuses on developing a holistic approach for enhancing the output level of a manufacturing SME towards Six Sigma level by way of improving the ´overall effectiveness of production-worker´. This approach can help manufacturing SMEs across the nation to implement strategies like Six Sigma from the root level. The research study has: (1) Identified a set of production-worker related factors that act as barriers or boosters (success factors) for achieving Six Sigma quality output from the worker. (2) Conducted necessary statistical tests to know the contribution of various production-worker related factors on the effectiveness components of the worker, and in turn on the overall effectiveness, and (3) Suggested countermeasures for the enhancement of overall effectiveness of production-worker at work. The research study has clearly brought out the possible hindrances in enhancing the overall worker effectiveness and in turn the output level of a manufacturing SME towards Six Sigma. This will be of great importance for owners of manufacturing SMEs intending to apply the Six Sigma concept in their industrie- - s and willing to enter global market.