Impact of perceived importance of cultural readiness factors on perceived importance of Lean Six Sigma success factors for manufacturers

Purpose
This study aims at investigating the impact of the perceived importance of critical cultural readiness factors (CRFs) is on perceived importance of Lean Six Sigma (LSS) technical critical success factors (CSFs) in UK manufacturing sector.

Design/methodology/approach
A survey questionnaire through a multiple embedded case study was conducted. The study involves surveying people in the manufacturing firms followed by non-parametric Kruskal–Wallis test to study the relationships.

Findings
It was found that the people's perception towards impact of CRFs on technical CSFs of LSS projects is different depending upon each CRF, demographic factors and technical CSFs. This means that particular CRFs need to be prioritised to address LSS technical CSFs.

Research limitations/implications
The study fills the research gap in investigating the perception of people towards inter-relationship of cultural or soft CSFs of LSS and technical or hard CSFs of LSS in manufacturing firms. Nevertheless, the authors suggest further multi-case study analysis covering different manufacturing fields as future studies.

Practical implications
The study is crucial for managers financially to be ready to invest on a successful LSS project and it helps them to diagnose the cultural causes of failure in a more timely way and effectively.

Originality/value
This is a preliminary study focussing on analysing inter-relationship between perceived importance of soft readiness factors and perceived importance of implementing success factors as a missing jigsaw in the current literature.