Six Sigma is a business management strategy originally developed by Motorola for manufacturing processes, which seeks to improve the quality of outputs by identifying and removing the causes of defects and unacceptable variability in the process. Alongside its advantages come difficulties with its application across a service organization, and an in‐depth analysis and identification of its successful factors were required, as they differ considerably from a manufacturing environment. Preparing policies for Six Sigma activities is of the utmost importance. This paper aims to describe its implementation in Sungkyunkwan University Library and a determination of its success.
The success factors of Six Sigma were examined, as determined through interviews and surveys on the library staff's experiences.
Since Six Sigma pursues top‐down management, the managers' roles are very important. It was found that mental discipline is also a critical success factor that allows an organization to realize its vision, while focusing on the fundamentals of Six Sigma activities. According to the survey conducted for the study, the success of these activities depends on how well each element of the processes is implemented at specific stages, the level of the participants' interest in the improvement activities, how accurately the CTQ (critical to quality) characteristics are assessed, and whether the outcomes of improvements are measured based on quantifiable indices.
Introducing Six Sigma for the sake of quality improvement following a LibQUAL+ quality assessment of a library has proven effective. Sungkyunkwan University Library is thought to be the first academic library to practise quality management by incorporating Six Sigma in its practice as a library. It is hoped that the experiences of this library will provide guidance for its application in other libraries, and enable them to devise appropriate policies for its successful implementation.
