The role of experience in six sigma project success: An empirical analysis of improvement projects

摘要

Purpose: To examine multiple measures of experience: individual experience, organizational experience, team leader experience, and team familiarity experience, and their relationship to the performance of work teams. Summary: One of the emerging trends of empirical evidence points out that experience and improvement over time, which is termed as learning by doing, are beneficial in several team projects. The research work has tried to test the same in the context of quality improvement project (Six Sigma) teams of multiple business groups. In a quality improvement team such as six sigma systems, teams engage in a structured problem solving approach thereby engaging in deliberate learning activity. The research has tried to examine the relationship between experience and organizational learning outcome, particularly the role of individual experience, organizational experience, team leader experience, and team familiarity and whether one of these types of experience play a larger or smaller role in improving organizational learning outcomes than the others. The analysis was done from the archival data from one hundred and fifty-nine improvement projects conducted over a six-year time period in multiple business groups of a Fortune 500 consumer products manufacturer that has successfully implemented six sigma extensively throughout their firm.