Implementation of Lean Six Sigma in Saudi Arabian organisations: Findings from a survey

Saja Ahmed Albliwi is a PhD Candidate in the School of Management and Languages, Heriot-Watt University, UK. She received the Master of Science Degree in 2011 in Strategic Project Management from the School of Management and Languages, Heriot-Watt University, UK. She received the Bachelor of Science Degree in Housing and Home Management from the King Abdulaziz University, Saudi Arabia, in 2007. She is currently working as a Teacher Assistant at the King Abdulaziz University and she was awarded a scholarship from the same university for her PhD study. She presented in ICMR conference in September 2013, IEEM conference in December 2014 and EurOMA conference in June 2015 and she has published two papers in IJQRM in September 2014 and BPMJ in June 2015 in the topic of Lean Six Sigma. She is currently working on a journal article publication and a conference paper in the field of Lean Six Sigma. She has taught classes in Lean Six Sigma for postgraduate students in the University of Strathclyde. She is also a Member of the American Society for Quality and EurOMA. Her current research interests are centred in the field of Lean Six Sigma, quality management, operation management, and continuous improvement.

Professor Jiju Antony is recognised worldwide as a Leader in Six Sigma methodology for achieving and sustaining process excellence. He is a Professor of Quality Management in the School of Management and Languages at Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, Scotland. He founded the Centre for Research in Six Sigma and Process Excellence (CRISSPE) in 2004, establishing first research centre in Europe in the field of Six Sigma. He is a Fellow of the Royal Statistical Society (UK), Fellow of the Institute for Operations Management (UK), Fellow of the American Society for Quality (ASQ) and a Fellow of the Institute of the Six Sigma Professionals. He has recently been elected to the International Academy of Quality. He is a Certified Master Black Belt and has trained over 1,000 people as Lean Six Sigma Yellow, Green and Black Belts from 20 countries and 140 organisations in the last ten years. He has a proven track record for conducting internationally leading research in the field of Quality Management and Lean Six Sigma. He has authored over 280 journal and conference papers and six text books. He has published over 80 papers on Six Sigma topic and is considered to be one of the highest in the world. He was the past Editor of the International Journal of Six Sigma and Competitive Advantage and is currently serving as the Editor of the First International Journal of Lean Six Sigma and an Associate Editor for Total Quality Management and Business Excellence Journal. He is the Founder of the First International Conference on Six Sigma in the UK back in 2004 and also the Founder of the International Conference on Lean Six Sigma for Higher Education. He has been a keynote speaker for various conferences around the world and is a regular speaker for ASQ’s Lean Six Sigma Conference in Phoenix, USA. He is on the Editorial Board of eight international journals including the Quality and Reliability Engineering International, International Journal of Quality and Reliability Management, TQM Journal, International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management, Measuring Business Excellence, Managing Service Quality and a regular reviewer for International Journal of Operations and Production Management, International Journal of Production Research, Journal of Operational Research Society, IIE Transactions, European Journal of Operational Research and Production, Planning and Control. Professor Jiju has worked on a number of consultancy projects with several blue chip companies such as Rolls-Royce, Bosch, Parker Pen, Siemens, Ford, Scottish Power, Tata, Thales, Nokia, Philips, GE, and a number of small and medium sized enterprises. He has been recently appointed as the Strategic Advisor for Continuous Improvement Programme within Police Scotland.

Norin Arshed is an Assistant Professor of Management and the Programmes Director for Leadership and Organisational Performance suite of MSc programmes in the Department of Business Management at the Heriot-Watt University. She is an Economist by background, with professional experience both in the public and private sectors. Her work concentrates on enterprise policy. Norin investigates the role and contribution from those closely linked to the formulation process (ministers and civil servants), whilst also examining how enterprise policy is implemented (national, regional and local economic development agencies), and how entrepreneurs/SMEs experience and utilise such policy initiatives. Institutional theory is the theoretical lens used to highlight the dynamics of the enterprise policy process in her work.

Dr Abhijeet Ghadge has been an Assistant Professor in Logistics and Supply Chain Management at the Logistics Research Centre (LRC) since October 2012. He is also the Programme Director for MSc family programmes (CILT and CIPS accredited) in Logistics and Supply Chain Management. Before joining Heriot Watt University, he worked with manufacturing and service industries for over four years at different roles and levels. He received Bachelor Degree in Aeronautical Engineering and Post-Graduate Degree in Industrial Engineering and Management from India’s premier technological university, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kharagpur. He received the Doctorate Degree in Supply Chain Risk Management from the Loughborough University, UK, in 2013. He is a recipient of CILT’s prestigious “James Cooper Memorial Cup 2014” for the best PhD Thesis across UK universities for original research in Logistics and Supply Chain Management. He is also a recipient of “best doctoral paper award” in one of the leading conference in Logistics and Supply Chain Management. In the past, he has worked on different research (EPSRC) and industry (DRDO, TATA, BAE Systems) funded projects and carries research interests in broad domain of supply chain risk management, sustainability and resilience, supply chain contracts, reverse logistics and disaster management. He is an Advisory Board Member of International Symposium on Logistics (ISL) and serves as a reviewer for several reputed international journals in Operations, Logistics and Supply Chain Management.