'Doing things right first time': Promoting a '6S' quality cultural change

摘要

Based on previous "5S" studies, implementing "6S" in the workplace is the key fundamental requirement when establishing a "doing things right first time" culture. The present study tested out a modified version of a survey developed by Samuel Ho to determine the strength of support for this proposition, including an investigation of the correlation of "6S" implementation with employee attitudes. The data collected for this study is drawn from the logistics, manufacturing and distribution sectors located in five countries: UK, Uganda, India, South Africa and Philippines. It is based on two perspectives of quality - "management" and "employees". The management perspective is related to the provision of a quality environment conducive to prevent the occurrence of quality errors within an organisation. The employee perspective is focused on employees' attitudes which clearly have an impact on the performance and quality of work delivered The research involved an in-depth survey, the data which was then analysed using SPSS software. A random sampling method was used to select from the population. Not only do the results provide evidence that "6S" is highly correlated with employee attitudes in the workplace but, more significantly, they support the argument that the use of TQM cannot be fully realised without successful "6S" implementation. The study concurs with Deming's argument that the fundamental issue in quality is not employees who make errors, but that errors are a direct consequence of the workplace and management environment. "6S", therefore, has direct benefits when engendering a "right first time" culture.