Lean Six Sigma and Operational Performance of Internet Service Providers in Nairobi

Abstract

Lean six-sigma is regarded as one of the most effective approaches to increasing productivity in organizations. It describes a set of tools and methodologies that can be used to improve the quality of operational processes by minimizing on the inherent variation. Process quality enables an organization to produce quality products at lower costs, which ultimately creates competitive advantage. The main objective of the study was to establish the relationship between the level of implementation of lean six sigma practices and operational performance in Internet Service Providers. The study employed a cross-sectional survey targeting the top ten internet service providers in Nairobi by market share in 2018.Questionnaires with closed ended questions were used to gather data on the study population. Three respondents – a senior-level, a mid- level manager and a junior-level manager from each of the organizations. Out of the thirty questionnaires shared, only twenty-five responded representing 83.33 per cent response rate. Data analysis was done on excel and SPSS. The results show that the level of implementation of the various lean six-sigma practices vary within organizations and across the board in the population under study. When linear regression was done on the data sets, equipping people was found to be the most effective lean six-sigma principle in service quality with the highest statistical significance and coefficient. Reducing the inherent level of variation in a process was found to be the most effective lean six-sigma principle in minimizing operational cost. The study recommends that organizations should adopt lean six-sigma wholly to enable them optimize their operations and improve on their competitiveness.