Critical success factors of Lean Six Sigma for the Malaysian automotive industry

Purpose - The objective of this paper is to explore the critical success factors (CSFs) for Lean Six Sigma (LSS) in the Malaysian automotive industry. Design/methodology/approach - Structural equation modeling (SEM) was employed to test the model drawing on a sample of 252 Malaysian automotive organisations. Exploratory factor analyses (EFA), confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), and reliability analysis empirically verified and validated the underlying items of CSFs of LSS. Findings - The results of EFA, CFA, and reliability analysis show that two items for supplier relationship are recommended to be excluded from the analysis. The result indicates that LSS has identified 40 items as compared to the original questionnaire which had 42 items. Based on the survey of empirical data, the two factors of leadership and customer focus have been shown to be the extremely important factors for LSS implementation in the Malaysian automotive industry. Research limitations/implications - Firstly, this survey is based only on the automotive industry in Malaysia, and therefore it is not generalisable to other industries. Secondly, there may be other CSFs for LSS such as culture change, projectmanagement skill, and employee involvement, whichwere not included in this study. Finally, for future research agenda, the authors are looking at the structural relationship between LSS practices and organizational performance in the Malaysian automotive industry. Originality/value - The developed and tested content of this study fills the research gap by providing reliable and useful reference material on the CSFs of LSS. On top of that, the contribution for academic researchers and practitioners is to provide important guidelines for automotive and related companies to implement LSS strategic practices to improve organizational performance.