Influence of Organization Factors on Implementation of Lean Six Sigma Projects in Kenya’s Service Sector: Case of Stanbic Bank’s Operations Department

Abstract

Lean six sigma is a combination of two powerful improvement methodologies, lean and six sigma. Though it promises a lot, the results so far however indicate that not all the organizations implementing the concept have achieved dramatic results. In East Africa, several organizations have implemented lean six sigma with varying levels of impact to their bottom line, with some even abandoning it prematurely. This research focuses on organisations factors influencing the implementation of lean six sigma projects at Stanbic bank’s operations department. Four organisation factors will include communication, organisation culture, reward and recognition and top management commitment. Literature has been reviewed on the key thematic areas. The study was based on Womack and Jones framework on lean thinking published in 1996 and business process change theory by Antony et al. published in 2004.This research has adopted descriptive research design with a target on implemented lean six sigma projects at Stanbic’s operations department. The target population is 138 staff in the operations department at Stanbic bank, where the researcher adopted a census for this study. The sample was categorized in three strata namely; Head of units, Unit managers and processing staff. A six level data collection questionnaire, comprising of open and closed questions was utilized. Content and Construct Validity of the research instrument was determined through a review of the questionnaire by an expert in lean six sigma and my supervisor. A pilot study was conducted on 13 individuals. Test re test was the method used to conduct the reliability test. Pearson product moment correlation coefficient (r) was employed to test reliability of the questionnaires which was found to be 0.8901 hence the questionnaires deemed to be reliable. Collected data was cleaned, coded, organized and analysed using SPSS software version 21 and descriptive and inferential statistics were used for analysis. It was found that if all other factors were held constant a unit increase in communication, the organisation’s culture, reward and recognition and top management commitment would improve the effectiveness of lean six sigma implementation by 0.752, 487, 0.545 and 0.439 respectively. Thus, from the study, the researcher concludes that these four factors influence the implementation of lean six sigma projects where open communication and clarity of responsibilities being crucial aspects. The researcher recommends that in order to increase ownerships of the projects by employees, emphasis should be laid the benefits LSS projects will bring to the employees, competing value framework should be utilized in improving the department’s culture towards one that is positive towards process improvement, reward and recognition should be predictable and pegged on the indicators identified by LSS projects and that top management should spend more time with LSS committees and allocate LSS projects adequate resources.