Ambience of Six Sigma in Indian foundries – an empirical investigation

For global competitiveness, Indian industries are striving to achieve overall operational excellence in their business (Snee, 2009). Six Sigma has evolved into a powerful business improvement methodology in many Indian industries and its importance is growing (Antony and Fergusson, 2004). Within Indian SMEs, this paper has validated the concept of Six Sigma successfully by unveiling a tested DMAIC methodology, especially for foundry SMEs. A thorough literature survey has been performed to highlight the status of foundry industry at global level and position of India in context to other countries has been found. The present Indian foundry scenario has been reviewed in terms of types of foundries, their production trend and geographical clusterification. The concept of Six Sigma has been defined and further surveyed deeply with respect to more frequently used themes. The proposed approach has been tested and validated by performing a case study in a medium scale die–casting foundry.

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