Prevention of industrial accidents using Six Sigma approach

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to utilize the power of Six Sigma, a disciplined approach to improve quality of product, process or service quality, for accident prevention in the manufacturing industry.Design/methodology/approach – This paper presents the basic features of DMAIC methodology of Six Sigma and its application for the purpose of accident prevention; illustrates the set of tools and techniques to be used at different phases of DMAIC for accident data analysis; and outlines the DMAIC methodology by analyzing accident data from a large process industry in India.Findings – The systematic and logical approach of Six Sigma problem solving could identify many root causes for accident and identification and deployment of corrective actions horizontally to relevant processes.Originality/value – Six Sigma has been successfully implemented in improving manufacturing processes but its application for the purpose of accident prevention is still limited. This paper demonstrates that Six Sigma princ...

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