Lean Six Sigma through ISO 9001 standard-based quality management system: an investigation for research

In the recent past, researchers and practitioners have been attempting to integrate various manufacturing managerial models. One of such endeavours has resulted in the conglomeration of Lean manufacturing and Six Sigma concepts under the title 'Lean Six Sigma'. Parallel to this endeavour, few researchers have integrated the Six Sigma concepts with ISO 9001 standard-based quality management system (QMS). However, there has been no significant effort made by the researchers to integrate Lean Six Sigma with ISO 9001 standard-based QMS. This research gap has been indicated and explored further by reporting a literature review in this paper. By conducting this literature review, the research investigations in the direction of drawing synergy out of Lean Six Sigma and ISO 9001 standard-based QMS have been drawn. A roadmap for implementing Lean Six Sigma through ISO 9001:2008 standard-based QMS has also been contributed in this paper.