The Integration of Lean Manufacturing

Journal of Cleaner Production 139 (2016) 828e846
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Journal of Cleaner Production

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jclepro
The integration of lean manufacturing, Six Sigma and sustainability: A

literature review and future research directions for developing a
specic model
Anass Cherra a, *, Said Elfezazi a, Andrea Chiarini b, Ahmed Mokhlis a, Khalid Benhida a
a
b
Cadi Ayyad University, Av. Abdelkrim Khattabi, B.P. 511, 40000, Marrakech, Morocco
University of Ferrara, Via Savonarola, 9, 44121, Ferrara, Italy
a r t i c l e i n f o
a b s t r a c t
Article history:
Received 18 December 2015
Received in revised form
16 June 2016
Accepted 21 August 2016
Available online 22 August 2016
The purpose of this paper is to present a review and an analysis of the literature concerning a possible
model for integrating three management systems: lean manufacturing, Six Sigma and sustainability. In
particular, we analyzed current proposals and identied at the same time gaps in the existing literature
from which we suggested future research directions for developing a specic integrated model, suggesting new opportunities and challenges that should be addressed by future studies.
Both academicians and practitioners will nd our review useful because it outlines the major lines of
research in the eld and their limitations.
2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords:
Lean
Six Sigma
Sustainability
Integrated model
Literature review
1. Introduction
In the present global scenario, the main challenges our societies
face are climate change, poverty and inequity, population growth,
pollution, and the increasing cost of energy and resources. Companies across the globe are under pressure from customers, regulators, and other stakeholders to manage their operations in a
responsible manner to improve their environmental and social
performance. Thus, improving sustainability performance and
reducing the negative environmental and social impact of industrial processes is no longer just niceetoehave, but a business
imperative: sustainability has emerged as a new competitive criterion (Garza-Reyes, 2015b; Wong and Wong, 2014). One of the
most complex problems that organizations face today is achieving
success through strategies that are compatible with and supportive
of environmental and social sustainability (McCarty et al., 2011).
Efforts to improve environmental and social sustainability of industrial processes have traditionally been viewed as barriers to the
economic sustainability of an organization (Florida, 1996; Found,
2009; Khor, 2012; Wilson, 2010), but recently many businesses
* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: anass.charra@ced.uca.ma (A. Cherra).
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2016.08.101
0959-6526/ 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
have discovered that those efforts result in reduced operating costs

and improved employee satisfaction (Corbett and Klassen, 2006;
Hart, 1995; Porter and van der Linde, 1995; Simboli et al., 2014;
Wilson, 2010). In recent years, the use of management systems to
solve the current global challenge of sustainability has been
explored (Chiarini, 2015). It is in this context that lean
manufacturing (hereinafter lean) and Six Sigma have emerged as a
major parts of the sustainability answer.
The possible integration of lean, Six Sigma and sustainability has
received increasing attention; many academicians and practitioners have contributed to the research and development of this
eld resulting in more than 118 publications. In contrast to this
large number of publications, very few literature review articles
have been published to date. Among the articles we reviewed, only
six attempted to evaluate the stateeofetheeart of research into the
links between lean, Six Sigma and sustainability (Garza-Reyes,
2015a,b;
Gort,
2008;
Johansson
and
Sundin,
2014;
MartinezeJurado and MoyanoeFuentes, 2014; Mollenkopf et al.,
2010). However, no comprehensive review is available in which
the drivers, barriers, benets, and critical success factors (CSFs) for
a possible integrated model are analyzed. Current knowledge of
potential synergies and conicts between the three strategies is in
its infancy. In addition, the frameworks, patterns and methods
A. Cherra et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 139 (2016) 828e846
proposed for the integration of lean, Six Sigma and sustainability

have not been examined. Hence, starting from this lack of knowledge of a specic integrated model, we conducted a literature review to systematically collect and critically analyze all relevant
research in the eld of lean, Six Sigma and sustainability and provide directions for a possible model.
This paper is structured as follows. Section 2 presents the basic
terminology. Section 3 describes the research method we followed
within this paper. Section 4 presents a descriptive analysis of papers we the identied from our literature review. Section 5 describes the theoretical elements of our integrated model. Section 6
presents potential directions for further research. Finally, we draw
conclusions in Section 7.
2. Basic terminology
To prepare the groundwork for the subsequent literature review,
key terms are dened. In order to better understand the context of
the terminology, its practical application is discussed as well.
2.1. Lean
The concept of lean became popular through Womack et al.
(1990) book The Machine That Changed the World. Lean production has been dened in many different ways (Dahlgaard and
DahlgaardePark, 2006). One reason for the lack of a coherent
denition might be that the concept is still evolving (Hines et al.,
2004). However, the main goal of a lean system is to produce
products or services of higher quality at the lowest cost and in the
least time by eliminating wastes (Dennis, 2007; Liker, 1996). In the
lean context, waste is dened as anything other than the minimum amount of equipment, materials, parts, space and time which
are absolutely essential to add value to the product (Russell and
Taylor, 2000). Seven forms of waste were identied: transport, inventory, motion, waiting, overprocessing, overproduction, and defects. All of these wastes have a direct impact on performance,
quality and costs, and these are all nonevalueeadding operations
for which customers do not want to pay. With the rise of environmental and social consciousness, the denition of lean has been
expanded to incorporate concepts of economic, social, and environmental sustainability. The USA's Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA, 2003) dened the aims of lean as: Develop the
highest quality products, at the lowest cost, with the shortest lead
time by systematically and continuously eliminating waste, while
respecting people and the environment.
Lean applications are based on the maximum involvement of
people by means of tools and techniques such as 5S, SingleeMinuteeExchangeeofeDie (SMED), Total Productive Maintenance (TPM), Kanban (Chiarini and Vagnoni, 2015). Chiarini (2014)
discussed the practical applications of these tools and how they can
affect environmental sustainability.
2.2. Six Sigma
Six Sigma is an organized, parallel-meso structure to reduce
variation in organizational processes by using improvement specialists, a structured method, and performance metrics with the
aim of achieving strategic objectives (Schroeder et al., 2008). Six
Sigma has been successfully used and implemented in many
different contexts and processes by many worldeclass organizations (Snee, 2004). However, according to Linderman et al. (2003)
Six Sigma lacks a theoretical underpinning and a basis for
research other than best practice studies. The aims of Six Sigma
are to improve process performance and achieve high levels of
quality by investigating and eliminating the root causes of defects
829
and minimizing process and product variability (Zu et al., 2008).

The Six Sigma problemesolving algorithm includes ve phases
called the DMAIC cycle (Dene, Measure, Analyze, Improve, and
, 2003; Magnusson et al., 2003); it is
Control) (Bergman and Klefsjo
typically used to guide implementation of Six Sigma and to achieve
company objectives. From a practical point of view, professionals
named Black and Green Belts carry out problemesolving projects
using quality and statistical tools derived from the Total Quality
Management (TQM) world (Chiarini, 2013a). Typically, after having
stated the kind of problem in the Dene phase, particular tools are
employed for measuring the current state of the problem, analyzing
and nding what the rootecauses are. Then the causes are
removed, improving the process with specic action plans. Finally
in the control phase the achieved savings and the sigma level of the
CriticaleToeQuality (CTQ) characteristics are measured and certied for the senior manager who is sponsoring the project. From a
research perspective, the study conducted by Kuei and Madu
(2003) states that the domain of the traditional Six Sigma
approach should be expanded and extended to include the environmental safety, integrity and social responsibility that are
mutually dependent and are critical to achieving six sigma. In this
scenario, Lucato et al. (2015) have proposed a procedure to integrate environmental considerations into the Six Sigma technique as
a way to increase the eco-efciency level of the rms. In general,
the studies conducted in the area of Six Sigma and sustainability
seem to suggest that the adoption of Six Sigma has a benecial
effect on the sustainability performance. This is in line with Calia
et al. (2009), who have conducted an analysis of 2096 Pollution
Prevention projects between 1995 and 2007 and have concluded
that the performance of the Pollution Prevention program
increased after the implementation of the Six Sigma. Moreover, the
analyses of 1906 Pollution Prevention projects and 31,133 Six Sigma
projects for cost reduction in 27 countries indicate that in countries
where the implementation of Six Sigma is more expressive,
pollution is prevented more than in countries with less expressive
Six Sigma implementation. In fact, the Six Sigma implementation
improved the organizational capability for data based project
management. Similarly, Habidin and Yusof (2012) suggest that Six
Sigma can also improve characteristics related to sustainability,
especially environmental sustainability. In this respect, the recent
study by Garza-Reyes (2015b) state that the DMAIC model with Six
Sigma principles and tools can help organizations to implement,
manage, sustain and improve the sustainability performance. This
is highlighted in Section 5.
2.3. Lean Six Sigma

The term Lean Six Sigma was used in the late 1990s and early
2000s (Byrne et al., 2007; George et al., 2004) to describe the
combination of lean and Six Sigma philosophies (Sheridan, 2000).
This integration aimed to overcome the shortcomings of both. The
fusion of the two continuous improvement methodologies was a
way for organizations to increase their potential improvement
(Bhuiyan and Baghel, 2005). Lean Six Sigma is dened as a business
strategy and methodology that increases process performance, and
develops customer satisfaction, leadership, and bottom line results
by improving quality, speed and costs (Snee, 2010). It achieves this
by applying the tools and techniques from both lean and Six Sigma.
The success of Lean Six Sigma as one of the besteknown hybrid
continuous improvement methodologies has led many organizations across the globe to adopt it in order to address their operations and become more competitive.
830
2.4. Sustainability/sustainable development

The concept of sustainable development rst evolved in 1972 at
the UN Conference on the Human Environment held in Stockholm
(Rogers et al., 2008). There are several denitions of sustainable
development. The most welleknown denition of sustainable
development is that of the World Commission on Environment and
Development (1987): economic development that meets the
needs of the present generation without compromising the ability
of future generation to meet their own needs. A similar denition
that insists on maintaining a balance between prot, planet, and
people has been given by the EPA (2003): Sustainability creates
and maintains the conditions under which humans and nature can
exist in productive harmony, that permit fullling the social, economic and other requirements of present and future generations.
In the manufacturing sectors, sustainability aims to create manufactured products which use processes and practices that maximize
prots, minimize negative environmental impacts, conserve natural resources and energy, and are safe for employees, consumers,
and communities (NACFAM, 2010). The products should also ensure
that the needs of a population are met (Zhou et al., 2000). Hence,
achieving sustainability in manufacturing requires a complete view
covering not only the product and the processes involved in its
production, but also the entire supply chain and the manufacturing
system (Faulkner and Badurdeen, 2014).
Over time, sustainability has been implemented through several
systems concerning environmental management, health and safety
management as well as social responsibility management (Qi et al.,
2013). For this purpose, many standards and guidelines have been
issued by private organizations as well as institutions in order to
help companies to implement a proper corporate social
responsibility.
3. Research method
The purpose of the present study is to identify and evaluate the
current stateeofetheeart of research into the links between lean,
Six Sigma and sustainability, and then, to classify the relevant articles so as to identify possible gaps, issues and opportunities for
further research. A literature review seems to be a valid approach
because it is a necessary step in structuring a research eld and it
advances our understanding of any emerging research eld
(EasterbyeSmith et al., 2002). A literature review helps to identify
the conceptual content of the eld (Meredith, 1993) and can
contribute to theory development (Seuring and Mller, 2008). Also,
it has been shown that a literature review is a crucial step to
discover areas that need further detailed study to be done (Webster
and Watson, 2002).
Our
literature
review
is
driven
by
theoretical
preeconsiderations and follows a clear process (our research process is summarized in Table 1), as this reduces chance effects of
reviewing irrelevant papers and of introducing bias. This process
leads to more reliable results that form the basis for drawing conclusions (Hart, 1998). The same method has already been used
successfully in recent works on topics closely linked to operation
management and environment management, including green
supply chain management (Srivastava, 2007), sustainability (Lorenz
and Ltzkendorf, 2011) and supply chain management and sustainability (MartinezeJurado and MoyanoeFuentes, 2014).
The process of analysis contains four steps (Mayring, 2003;
Neuendorf, 2002): dening unit of analysis, classication context,
material evaluation and collecting publications and delimiting the
eld. Following this process guarantees a structured and effective
literature review.
Our literature review includes peerereviewed journal articles
and paradigmatic books with managerial impact on the subject. For

the sake of rigor, unpublished working papers and conference papers were excluded. The search was done for the period 1990 to
2015. The reason for selecting 1990 as the starting point was the
debate on lean and sustainability can be traced to this period
(Moreira et al., 2010; Larson and Greenwood, 2004; Verrier et al.,
2016).
For the search criteria, the researchers used terms related to
lean management, Six Sigma and sustainability (see Table 1). The
development of the keywords and terms employed in searches
followed an iterative process. The authors rst used a brainstorming technique and then used a snowballing process to add
keywords to the search as they were found in the literature.
The resulting search terms were combined using the Boolean
operators (AND and OR) in searches of keywords, titles, abstracts
and full article text.
To supplement the keyword search and ensure that all articles
related to lean, Six Sigma and sustainability were checked, the
authors determined to generate through discussions with experts
in the eld a list of journals that routinely publish articles in the
area of our research; all electronic editions of Journal of Cleaner
Production (JCLP), International Journal of Production Economics
(IJPE), International Journal of Production Research (IJPR), Production
and Operations Management (POM), and Environmental Quality
Management (EQM) were systematically searched. All selected papers were analyzed briey to ensure that their content was relevant
to our review. Three researchers jointly carried out the examination
and selection of the papers in order to reduce the risk of miscomprehension of the papers. The result of this process was that 118
articles were eventually selected for reading and evaluation in
detail. A database was subsequently created in Excel to codify and
classify all the relevant articles with the purpose of grouping them
according to where they best t in the interrelationships found
among lean management, Six Sigma and sustainability. These articles were grouped by theory, method, scales, ndings, and key
aspects of discussion.
A summary of the method used is shown in Table 1; it was
inspired by the method used by MartinezeJurado and
MoyanoeFuentes (2014) in their literature review.
4. Descriptive analysis
4.1. Distribution across the time period and main journals
This study carried out an analysis of the distribution of publications per year across the period studied in order to see the trend
of research over the years. Fig. 1 presents the year wise distribution
of all 118 papers from 1990 to June 2015. Although the starting
point was in 1990, the rst selected article appeared in the 1993
(Maxwell et al., 1993) as part of the research effort conducted by the
International Motor Vehicle Program, in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Maxwell, Rothenburg and Schenk asked the
question: Does Lean Mean Green? and concluded that there was a
relationship between lean and environmental practices. The
graphical representation of Fig. 1 clearly indicates the increasing
number of research articles published over the last decade of the
period: 82.2% of the articles were published between 2005 and
June 2015. The year 2014 has the highest number (18) of published
articles and year 2013 has the second highest; this is easily
explained. In 2014 a special issue of JCLP titled Making Progress
Towards More Sustainable Societies through Lean and Green Initiatives was published with eleven articles in the area of our
research. In 1999, Pojasek led an effort to create a body of knowledge on sustainability using qualityebased tools; this effort led to
three articles in EQM which explains the relatively high number of
831
Table 1
Summary of research methods.
Unit of analysis
Type of analysis
Period of analysis
Search engines
Keywords used in searches
Main journals in Operations

Management
Total number of articles
evaluated
The sources include books, peerereviewed papers, theses published on the links among lean management, six sigma, and sustainability,
from both professional and scholarly publishers.
Textebooks, unpublished working papers, and conference presentations were excluded.
Qualitative
1990 to June 2015
The following databases were used to search relevant publications:
Elsevier (www.sciencedirect.com), Emerald (http://www.emeraldinsight.com), Springer (http://www.springerlink.com), Taylor &
Francis (http://www.taylorandfrancis.com), and the Google Scholar database, or library services (e.g., Wiley online library www.wiley.
com, Ebsco www.ebsco.com, Scopus www.scopus.com, Metapress www.metapress.com, or Subito www.subitoedoc.de).
For the search criteria, the authors used a combination of the following terms:
1. Lean Manufacturing, Lean Management, Lean Production, Lean
2. Six Sigma
3. Lean Six Sigma
4. Green, Sustainability, Environment, Sustainable Manufacturing, Pollution Prevention, Sustainable Operations, EcoeSustainability,
Environmental, EcoeEfciency, Ecological, Clean, Industrial Ecology.
5. Lean Sustainable Manufacturing.
Journal of Cleaner Production, International Journal of Production Economics, International Journal of Production Research, Environmental
Quality Management, Production and Operations Management, International Journal of Lean Six Sigma.
Taking the stated delimitations into account, a total of 118 papers were identied.
Number of publications
Number of paper: 118

20
18
16
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
18
16
14
9
7
4
1
4
1
3
1
8
6
Publication year
Fig. 1. Distribution of publications per year across the period studied.
publications at this early date. Several special issues are going to

appear in 2016 such as the special issue of the International Journal
of Lean Six Sigma titled Achieving Environmental Sustainability
through Lean and Six Sigma. This special volume will be dedicated
to exploring the synergies between lean/Six Sigma and green paradigms. This suggests that the integration of lean, Six Sigma and
sustainability is an emergent research eld. As an increasing
number of organizations are forced to make their operations sustainable due to many drivers (see Section 5.1), research in this eld
may be expected to continue to increase (Garza-Reyes, 2015a).
More than 48.2% of the research articles were published in three
journals: JCLP, EQM, and Journal of Industrial Engineering and Management (see Fig. 2). The highest number of relevant articles published by any journal for any year is 11 articles by JCLP in 2014. The
second highest number of articles was published in Quality Management Environment (eight papers). The JCLP played a leading role
in this eld because it published 13.6% of the papers considered for
this review.
It can be deduced that research on the integration of lean, Six
Sigma and sustainability is likely to be published in a range of
highly specialized journals (e.g. JCLP or EQM e specialize in sustainable topics e and IJLSS e specializes in Lean Six Sigma topics), it
is also appropriate for publication in journals with an operation
management focus (e.g. IJPE and IJPR). This may explain the range of
different journals in which the lean, Six Sigma and sustainability
research papers have been published (Garza-Reyes, 2015a).
4.2. Geographical application area

Fig. 3 presents the information on the geographical application
area of lean, Six Sigma and sustainability. An original contribution
of this paper is to show that USA is the country leader where lean
and Six Sigma approaches are linked to sustainability. In fact, this
nding can be explained rstly by the high degree of sustainability
awareness among the large USA companies (Gutowski et al., 2005)
and secondly by the concerted effort made by EPA and Washington
State Department of Ecology over the past several years to provide
lean, Six Sigma and sustainability technical assistance to
manufacturing facilities in order to improve the sustainability of
their operations (EPA, 2003; Washington State Department of
Ecology, 2008b). Brazil and Scandinavian countries also feel concerned about the integration of lean, Six Sigma and sustainability,
from which some of the most interesting papers that we found
originate (Hajmohammad et al., 2013b; Pampanelli et al., 2014). We
also noted an increased interest in lean, Six Sigma and sustainability in the UK and Canada. Additionally, this study observes the
growing interest of countries with very high level of public
awareness of sustainability issues. This is the case for European
countries like France, Spain and Portugal, which face high sustainability concerns and pressures to devise sustainable strategies
(Gutowski et al., 2005). This nding likely reects the increasingly
important role of the developed countries to promote the integration of lean, Six Sigma and sustainability. However, we observed
832

Journal of Cleaner Production
Environmental Quality Management
Journal of Industrial Engineering and Management
International Journal of Production Research
Production and Operations Management
Supply Chain Management: An International Journal
International Journal of Lean Six Sigma
International Journal of Production Economics
International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management
Lean Construction Journal
International Journal of Advanced Mechanical Engineering.
Resources, Conservation and Recycling
Journal of Engineering and Applied Sciences
Sustainable Operations Strategies
Science Journal of Environmental Engineering Research
Administrative sciences
Indiana Law Journal
IEEE Transactions On Engineering Management
Clean Technoloy and Environnment Policy
International Journal of Mechanical, Aerospace, Industrial and
Journal of Energy Research and Environmental Technology
Measuring Operations Performance
International Journal of Enterprise Network Management
Journal of Industrial Ecology
Business: Theory and practice
Journal of Business Case Studies
California Management Review
10
12
14
16
18
Fig. 2. Distribution of reviewed papers by journal.
Others
Portugal 14%
4%
Spain
4%
France
4% Canada
6%
UK
7% Scandinavia
12%
USA
37%
source of innovation and have developed organizational approaches that contribute to improving the company's performance
(e.g. TQM, Lean Manufacturing, Six Sigma; Florida, 1996). Thus, it is
not surprising to see that most of the studies, when analyzed per
sector, have been concentrated in the manufacturing industry
(Fig. 4).
4.4. Dimensions of sustainable development addressed in the
research papers
Brazil
12%
Fig. 3. Geographical application area of lean, Six Sigma and sustainability.
a lack of interest in many underdeveloped and developing

countries.
4.3. Distribution of papers by sectors
Fig. 4 gives the distribution of empirical research by sectors. It
shows that the majority of publications are related to the automotive industry (28.3%) followed by metal industry and by infrastructure (both 13.2%). The distribution also reveals that 11.3% of
papers covered several different sectors. The aerospace, textile and
auto components sectors drew least attention from the researchers
compared to the other sectors. The number of articles published on
other sectors, such as chemical, agriefood and electronics, were
minimal.
The dominance of the automotive industry could potentially be
explained by the fact that lean was started in this sector and
improvement processes combined with sustainability can be
applied easily (Chiarini, 2014). The metal industry is an industry
permanently looking for a clean process in order to face specic
challenges related to the environment (Moors et al., 2005). In
general terms, more pressure has been applied to manufacturing
industries than to other sectors to integrate a sustainability
dimension in their processes and operations (Garza-Reyes, 2015a).
Traditionally, manufacturing industries have acted as a major
According to the present study, the majority of the publications

(99.1%) discuss environmental issues (see Fig. 5). This line of
research has received and continues to receive the most attention
from researchers. The social dimension drew the least attention
from the researchers compared to the economic and environmental
dimensions. This nding is supported by MartinezeJurado and
MoyanoeFuentes (2014), who also concluded that researchers
pay less attention to the social dimension of sustainable development than to economic and environmental dimensions. Sustainability is based on three pillars. If any one pillar is weak then the
system as a whole is unsustainable. According to Gladwin et al.
(1995), the three dimensions must be satised at the same time
to achieve a better position in the market. For this reason the social
pillar should be placed at the center of discussions about lean, Six
Sigma and sustainable development. Some authors dealt with the
difculty of integrating the three pillars and arrived at conclusions
mainly related to the performance measurement system employed
5.7%
5.7%
3.8% 1.9%
Others
28.3%
13.2%
Metal industries
Multi sectoral
Infrastructure
17.0%
11.3%
Automotive
13.2%
Aerospace
Textile
Auto components
Fig. 4. Distribution of empirical research by industry sector.
(Schilizzi, 2002) or to senior management's decisions oriented by

the particular kind of market with which they have to cope (Brown
et al., 2006).
We recommend that future research focus on these areas (see
Section 6).
833
Lean
4.5. Research streams

An analysis of the studies reviewed shows that the majority
(85.9%) of the papers are associated with lean and sustainability
(see Fig. 6). It can be deduced that the lean and sustainability topic
has received and continues to receive more attention from researchers. We also observed that research on the integration of Six
Sigma or Lean Six Sigma and sustainability is scarce, due to the fact
that most researchers have started to concentrate on these elds of
research after successful integration of lean and sustainability.
Recently, some authors, including Garza-Reyes et al. (2014), Banawi
and Bilec (2014) and Garza-Reyes (2015b) have recognized the need
to integrate Six Sigma as part of the lean and sustainability
approach. This recognition will provides the opportunity of
generating new studies not only regarding the integration of lean,
Six Sigma and sustainability but also with other performance
enhancement paradigms related to improving the resilience, agility, and quality of processes and supply chains. For all these reasons,
in the next section, our literature review will primarily focus on
lean and sustainability.
5. Theoretical elements of our proposed model
Having found a precise lack in terms of a structured and complete model for lean, Six Sigma and sustainability, we propose a
specic integrated model for implementing the three systems
based on our combination of theoretical elements which emerged
from the literature review. In particular, from the literature review,
nothing related to the fundamental theoretical elements of this
model emerges. The model and the theoretical elements are illustrated in Fig. 7. The model follows a typical deployment approach
from a rst strategic process to the CSFs where strategies are
translated into operational processes. The model starts with the
reasons that push companies to adopt of the integrated model;
which we call drivers of the integration. For instance, at this stage
companies could think about the integration of lean, Six Sigma and
sustainability with the strategic goal in mind to improve economic,
environmental and social performance with the help of lean Six
Economic
91.2 %
63.6%
0.1%
26.3%
Environmental
99.1 %
1.7%
Social
29.7%
Fig. 5. Distribution of the papers according to the three dimensions of sustainability.
85.9%
5.6%
%
Six Sigma
8.5%
Sustainability
Su
Fig. 6. The distribution of research streams.
Sigma patterns and tools. Indeed some authors highlighted this

potentiality (Chiarini, 2014; Pampanelli et al., 2014). In this
particular strategic process, companies also have to evaluate the
kinds of barriers can impede the integration. Barriers could be
cultural as well as technological. They can be considered as strategic variables. For example, in the particular area where the
company is located it could be difcult to nd professionals who
are certied as Black Belt, or the best technologies for the environment. The deployment of an integrated model brings benets
and synergies which can be measured through the typical and well
deepened indicators related to lean, Six Sigma and sustainability.
Like every other integration of complex management systems, issues related to compatibility and some conicts among the systems
can jeopardize the integration, and even create potential shortcomings. For instance, some authors highlighted how sometimes
lean and Six Sigma can be managed in a separate way creating some
conicts (Bendell, 2006), and similarly for the sustainability management system which tends to have its own processes, engineers
and results. The operative part of the model shows that we need
specic tools, techniques and methods to implement and support
the integration; we have also to think about how to combine them
depending on the strategic goals we want to achieve. According to
George et al. (2004) the DMAIC stages could be a container for all
methods and tools derived from lean, Six Sigma and even sustainability (Chiarini, 2014). Besides, the DMAIC pattern can create
compatibility and synergies among the tools mitigating conicts.
Also, the DMAIC pattern can be considered as the common thread
that links drivers, strategies, tools and methods improving economic, environmental and social performance (George et al., 2004;
Chiarini, 2013b). Lastly, CSFs underpin and bolster the integrated
model. CSFs are specic conditions and variables, usually a limited
number, which could have a relevant effect on the results and
performances (Rockart, 1979) of the integrated model.
The proposed model is based on the integration of lean, Six
Sigma and sustainability approaches in order to generate a system
that is efcient and well organized devoted to continuous
improvement. Many recent studies indicate that the integration of
lean and sustainability have inherited the same limitations as the
individual lean and sustainability approaches, but these may be
overcome through the integration of Six Sigma (Garza-Reyes,
2015b). Lean, sustainability and Six Sigma are three strategies
that are compatible and complementary; thus, each strategy has
the capacity to reduce the shortcomings of the others (Banawi and
Bilec, 2014; Garza-Reyes, 2015b). Lean is characterized by its ability
834
Adds environmental and social dimension to the

consideration of economic earnings
Sustainability
Six Sigma
Lean
Offers a rigorous and disciplined

structure for executing problem
solving and improvement
initiatives
Enhance value by identifying and

eliminating waste to work more
efficiently with limited resources
DRIVERS AND
BARRIERS
Lean, Six Sigma,
Sustainability
D
Benefits of the integration
M
A
Tools, techniques and

methods
SYNERGIES,
CONFLICTS AND
COMPATIBILITY
I
C
CRITICAL SUCCESS
FACTORS
Improve economic, environmental and social performance
Fig. 7. The integrated model and its theoretical elements.
to identify and eliminate waste (Klotz et al., 2007; Womack and

Jones, 1998), but it does not take into consideration the environmental and social impacts (EPA, 2006; Pampanelli et al., 2014). So,
organizations have implemented sustainability to ll this gap (Ng
et al., 2015; Sharrard et al., 2008). Later, studies have proposed to
integrate lean and sustainability in order to reduce or eliminate
environmental and social wastes of manufacturing processes, but
their integration have not helped organizations to achieve peak
sustainability performance. Six Sigma approach has the capacity to
address this gap (Banawi and Bilec, 2014; Han et al., 2008; GarzaReyes, 2015b). It offers a rigorous and disciplined structure for
executing problem solving and improvement initiatives (GarzaReyes, 2015b).
The proposed model is a system that characterizes the strong
connection between the three management systems lean, Six
Sigma and sustainability (see Section 5.4) and the three constructs
drivers and barriers, synergies, conicts and compatibility and
critical success factor, which in turn are linked to benets of the
integration and to tools and techniques. The arrows in Fig. 7 show
the hard link between the elements of the model. These elements
work together as a unique, integrated model to help the organization to identify strengths and opportunities for improvement,
and to assess the breadth and depth of transformation within the
organization to achieve economic, environmental and social
performance.
The model empowers organizations to benet from the integration of lean, Six Sigma and sustainability in order to improve
performance by identifying, drivers and barriers, synergies, conicts and compatibility, critical success factor and using the tools
and techniques of lean Six Sigma.
The proposed model in Fig. 7 can be structured with just a
couple of management systems. Literature has already demonstrated that we can combine lean and Six Sigma (Assarlind et al.,
2012; Hilton and Sohal, 2012; Salah et al., 2010), lean and sustainability (Duarte and Cruz-Machado, 2013; Des et al., 2013;
Galeazzo et al., 2013; Pampanelli et al., 2014; Simpson and Power,
2005), as well as Six Sigma and sustainability (Banawi and Bilec,
2014; Garza-Reyes, 2015b). These reasons lead us to suggest that
our model is still valid even if one of the three constructs would be
omitted. However, we consider that business performance is multidimensionally affected by different factors and hence can be
enhanced not only through the adoption of lean and sustainability
but also by incorporating others management systems. Consequently, for better performances and results, we recommend
implementing the model with the three management systems, and
in this way, fully exploit the coaction effect.
A discussion of the theoretical elements that emerged from the
literature review follows.
5.1. Drivers and barriers to integrate the systems and their
relationships
Since lean/Six Sigma and sustainability initiatives are inuenced
by a variety of drivers and barriers to their implementation, it is
necessary to explore the major drivers and barriers of the integration of lean/Six Sigma and sustainability. The integration of lean/
Six Sigma and sustainability is driven by both internal and external
pressures.
Table 2 summarizes the driver forces which encourage and
enable companies to implement lean/Six Sigma and sustainability.
For each driver, the table also shows whether the other systems can
create synergies (moderate, strong), conicts (- moderate, e
strong) or no inuence (0).
The internal drivers can include cost reductions, protability,
risk management, as well as improvement of the corporate image
and resources management (Herrmann et al., 2008; Kleindorfer
et al., 2005; Kleindorfer and Saad, 2005). For instance, the cost of
raw material, energy and resources are constantly increasing due to
rising demand and the resulting shortages of resources
(DiazeElsayed et al., 2013). Furthermore, it is difcult to forecast
trends in costs, so rms need higher material efciency to achieve
better performance and competitiveness (Allwood et al., 2011;
DiazeElsayed et al., 2013; Wong and Wong, 2014). In the same
way, Gladwin et al. (1995) report that the triple bottom line of
sustainability must be satised at the same time to achieve a better
position in the market. Many authors have suggested that reducing
waste, emissions, and increasing recycling are associated with
nancial performance (King and Lenox, 2001a; Wadhwa, 2014).
According to King and Lenox (2001b), the commitment to minimize
environmental impact may improve a rm's brand image, positively inuencing market performance. In fact, improved environmental performance is seen as positive corporate social
performance (Luo and Bhattacharya, 2009; Orlitzky et al., 2003;
Pagell and Gobeli, 2009). However, we did not nd in our review
of the literature explanations of how to measure social performance, in particular positive impacts on human resources.
External drivers include consumers, regulators, and shareholders (Kadry, 2013; Park and Linich, 2008). All rms, regardless of
their size, location and industry, are pressured by customers, regulators, competitors, and other stakeholders to evaluate and adapt
their processes in order to improve their environmental and social
performance (Wilson, 2010). In addition, the public's environmental awareness is growing, and consumers actively seek
greener options. Regulators and legislators are changing the
landscape for environmental reporting, compliance, and transparency. Shareholders, investors, banks and assurance companies
have made environmental and social performance a top consideration (Kadry, 2013). Many rms have reacted to these drivers by
implementing lean/Six Sigma and sustainability that allow them to
improve their operational environmental and social performances
(Herron and Braiden, 2006).
Despite successful integration of lean/Six Sigma and sustainability in many rms and industries, the journey is not easy and
835
barriers are bound to be encountered. These barriers include: a lack

of environmental awareness (Rothenberg et al., 2001), perception
of higher cost (Florida, 1996; Wilson, 2010), and organizational
structures separating environmental and continuous improvement
decisions (Dakov and Novkov, 2007; EPA, 2009). The lack of environmental responsibility has contributed to the persistence of the
old notion that the improvement of environmental and social
performance is an obstacle to economic growth (Florida, 1996;
Found, 2009). According to Simboli et al. (2014), companies will
only seriously integrate environmental and social dimensions
when they are convinced that it will dramatically boost prots.
Moreover, research has demonstrated that the lack involvement of
human resources into lean Six Sigma projects can decrease opportunities for realizing more sustainable benets (Dakov and
Novkov, 2007; EPA, 2009).
Table 3 summarizes the factors that are acting as barriers for
adoption of lean, Six Sigma and sustainability. For each barrier, the
table also shows the intensity of impact to the other systems (
strong, moderate, 0 no inuence).
Common barriers lead to complementary points across lean, Six
Sigma and sustainability. Although the result shows various hurdles to the implementation of these strategies, all these were
related to sustainability. This is most likely due to the novelty of the
sustainability system and different stages of development among
the three constructs'. Lean, Six Sigma was initially developed in the
western industry in the 1990s, and sustainability issues have
become pressing even more recently (Verrier et al., 2016).
The application of lean, Six Sigma and sustainability has the
potential to stimulate the drivers and mitigate the barriers identied by reducing the marginal cost of sustainability initiatives,
bringing greater awareness among employees (EPA, 2009; Dakov
and Novkov, 2007; Pampanelli et al., 2014). According to
Mollenkopf et al. (2010), organizations which had implemented
lean Six Sigma seem to be more likely to accept environmental
innovations. In addition, it has been proposed that the integration
of lean, Six Sigma and sustainability will lead to better performances and dramatic results for companies by developing an
organizational culture that takes into consideration internal and
external environments (Ng et al., 2015; Bergmiller and Mccright,
2009a,b,c,d; EPA, 2009). According to EPA (2009) lean Six Sigma
develops an organizational culture that is highly conducive to
sustainability. By connecting sustainability with lean and Six Sigma
projects, environmental specialists can help sustainable improvement ideas compete more effectively and embed them in culturechanging process improvement practices (EPA, 2009).
5.2. Benets of the integration of lean/Six Sigma and sustainability

Lean/Six Sigma and sustainability are business strategies and
Table 2
Drivers to integrate the systems and their relationships.
Management system
Driver
Inuence on the driver

Lean
Lean
Six Sigma
Sustainability
Cost reduction and protability (waste reduction)

Customer satisfaction (punctuality, quality)
Market increase
Cost reduction and protability (cost of poor quality)
Customer satisfaction (risk management)
Market increase
Firm's image
Consumer's and market request
Resources management
Market increase
0
0
Six Sigma
Sustainability
0
0
0
0
836
Table 3
Barriers to integrate the systems and their relationships.
Barrier
Lean
Six Sigma
Sustainability
Lack of awareness among managers

Lack involvement of human resources into lean Six Sigma projects
Lack of metrics
Perception of higher cost
Organizational structures separating environmental and continuous improvement decisions
0
0
0
0
operations that may benet rms. As various research has shown,

implementing lean/Six Sigma and sustainability may effectively
have a positive inuence on a rm's performance (Bergmiller and
McCright, 2009a; Carvalho and Cruz-Machado, 2009; Des et al.,
2013; EPA, 2009; Hajmohammad et al., 2013a; King and Lenox,
2001a; Larson and Greenwood, 2004). However, we did not nd
precise performance measurement systems dedicated to an integrated model, just performance indicators dedicated to a single
management system such as lean or Six Sigma. Moreover, lean/Six
Sigma and sustainability can have a more important, positive
impact on bottomeline performance when implemented together
rather than separately (Miller et al., 2010).
We synthesized and organized the data we extracted from our
literature review into benets of the integration of lean/Six Sigma
and sustainability in Table 4; we classied the benets regarding
their nature (internal or external) and their dimension (economic,
social, environmental, and sustainable).
From studying Table 4 reveals that the internal benets are more
important than the external ones, due to the fact that the drivers to
integrate the two strategies are more internal than external (as
discussed in the previous Drivers and barriers section), unlike the
decision to implement sustainability. In addition, the benets obtained from integration are more important than considering
strategies separately because of the wider scope considered in
integration.
5.3. Tools, techniques and methods
Lean Six Sigma offers several tools to assist organizations to
reduce wastes. Many authors suggest that these tools also seem to
have effects on the reduction of environmental and social impacts
of manufacturing companies (Chiarini, 2014; EPA, 2003; EPA, 2009;
Franchetti et al., 2009; King and Lenox, 2001b; Langenwalter, 2006;
Wilson, 2010). These methods include 5S, kaizen events, value
stream mapping, cellular manufacturing, standard work, visual
management, just in time, SMED, supplier relationship, pokaeyoke,
Six Sigma, statistical process control, analysis tools, and plant
layout reconguration. Many of these tools have been adapted and
extended in order to make more environmental and social progress
(Langenwalter, 2006). The use of lean/Six Sigma tools and techniques to improve environmental performance is supported by
many reasons. First, the tools already exist, and are welletested.
Second, employees are already familiar with them (Chiarini, 2014;
Pojasek, 1999a). By contrast, there are a few situations where lean/
Six Sigma tools and techniques have the potential to result in
increased environmental and social risks or impacts (EPA, 2003);
however, a proeactive and deliberate integration of environmental
and social dimensions during lean/Six Sigma implementation could
reduce or eliminate these risks (EPA, 2004). Implementing and
maintaining tools and techniques often requires extra investment
and effort. Thus, it is important to make sure that this effort actually
pays off over time in all dimensions (Herrmann et al., 2008).
Techniques and tools have been considered vital in the integration
of lean/Six Sigma and sustainability (Chiarini, 2014). However, it is a
big mistake to think that the simple introduction of such
techniques and tools would lead organizations to the successful

implementation of lean/Six Sigma and sustainability. The tools/
techniques need to be carefully selected and used judiciously, and
must t with the organization in place (EPA, 2003). Table 5 shows a
review of the literary contributions to present the multiple ways in
which the techniques and tools of lean/Six Sigma can improve
environmental and social benets. However, the current literature
still lacks a precise framework and model for implementing the
identied tools and methods.
5.4. Synergies and conicts between lean/Six Sigma and
sustainability
Several studies have investigated various aspects of lean/Six
Sigma and sustainability. Some looked at the synergies existing
between the two concepts (Bergmiller and McCright, 2009a;
Carvalho and Cruz-Machado, 2009; Florida, 1996; Larson and
Greenwood, 2004) while others have analyzed the link between
lean/Six Sigma and sustainability (King and Lenox, 2001b;
Rothenberg et al., 2001). These studies have suggested that the
integration of lean/Six Sigma and sustainability can have both
positive and negative effects on economic, social and environmental performance. Understanding the synergies and conicts
between lean/Six Sigma and sustainability can help companies to
bridge the gap between the two strategies.
Using our ndings from the literature review, this section analyzes the research, discusses the synergies and conicts between
lean/Six Sigma and sustainability, and analyzes their similarities
and differences.
5.4.1. Synergies and compatibility
According to Ng et al. (2015), lean/Six Sigma and sustainability
often go handeinehand; this relationship is evident in the academic literature. Many researchers including Bergmiller and
McCright (2009c), Herrmann et al. (2008), Garza-Reyes et al.

(2013), Langenwalter (2006), Pampanelli et al.
(2014), Kova
cova
(2014) and Yang et al. (2011) have concluded that a signicant
synergy exists between lean/Six Sigma and sustainability, suggesting that companies familiar with lean/Six Sigma will easily
grasp sustainability, and the opposite is also valid.
Bergmiller and McCright (2009a) and Franchetti et al. (2009)
stated that sustainability is a natural extension of lean/Six Sigma.
There are many researchers (Bergmiller and McCright, 2009b;
Carvalho and Cruz-Machado, 2009; Larson and Greenwood, 2004)
who concluded that synergies exist between the concepts of lean/
Six Sigma and sustainability. In this respect, Des et al. (2013)
recently found that there is a positive and strong synergy between the two worlds. This synergistic relationship was realized
more than 15 years ago by the U. S. EPA and they are adopting lean/
Six Sigma principles and tools to create economic, social, and
environmental benets. According to Larson and Greenwood
(2004), important opportunities exist for integrating these two
parallel universes, with substantial competitiveness and sustainability gains as the outcome. Lean/Six Sigma and sustainability
strategies are often seen as compatible initiatives. Recent research
837
Table 4
Benets of the integration of lean/Six Sigma and sustainability.
Nature
Aspect
Internal Social
performance
Economic
performance
Environmental
performance
Benets
References
Improve employee morale and commitment.

Improve the working environment.
Optimize the human resources applied to waste
reduction.
Improve employee awareness about
environmental, health and safety issues.
Improve team spirit and cohesiveness.
Reduction of costs.
EPA (2009); Ng et al. (2015); Tice et al. (2005)

Dakov and Novkov (2007); Ng et al. (2015)
Bergmiller and McCright (2009a)
Improve the companys prot.

Improve marketability of the products.
Meet customer expectations.
Increase in the reliability of processes and
equipment.
Reduce environmental impact and increase
environmental benets.
Improve resources efciency.
Sustainable
performance
External Sustainable
performance
Dakov and Novkov (2007)

Ng et al. (2015)
Bergmiller and McCright (2009a); Department of Ecology (2008a); Herrmann et al. (2008);
Larson and Greenwood (2004); Mollenkopf et al. (2010); Pampanelli et al. (2011); Pampanelli
et al. (2014); Tice et al. (2005); Zhu and Sarkis (2004)
Bergmiller and McCright (2009d); Pampanelli et al. (2014)
Wilson (2010)
Langenwalter (2006); Ng et al. (2015); Pampanelli et al. (2014); Tice et al. (2005)
Dakov and Novkov (2007); Ng et al. (2015); Tice et al. (2005)
Calia et al. (2009); Dakov and Novkov (2007); EPA (2009); Kidwell (2006); Ng et al. (2015);
Pampanelli et al. (2014); Pampanelli et al. (2011); Washington State Department of Ecology
(2008a); Wilson (2010)
Bergmiller and McCright (2009d); Dakov and Novkov (2007); Langenwalter (2006); Ng et al.
(2015); Pampanelli et al. (2011)
Herron and Braiden (2006); Tice et al. (2005); Vinodh et al. (2011); Wilson (2010)
Avoid risks from noncompliance with

regulatory requirements.
Improvement of product durability and
Dakov and Novkov (2007)
reliability.
Improve the efciency and effectiveness of total Bergmiller and McCright (2009a); Dakov and Novkov (2007); Hajmohammad et al. (2013a);
waste reduction efforts.
Moreira et al. (2010); Pampanelli et al. (2014); Washington State Department of Ecology
(2008b)
Increase in organizational efciency and culture Calia et al. (2009); Dakov and Novkov (2007); EPA (2009); Tice et al. (2005)
improvements.
Improvement of measure and analysis of
EPA (2009); Verrier et al. (2014)
performance.
Better relationships with suppliers and other EPA (2009); Langenwalter (2006)
stakeholders.
Better reputations.
Kidwell (2006)
has found high levels of advanced pollution prevention occurring

among companies and countries that utilize lean/Six Sigma strategies (Calia et al., 2009; King and Lenox, 2001b; Rothenberg et al.,
2001). In addition, Prasad and Sharma (2014) argued that lean/Six
Sigma and sustainability can be integrated and can create superior
nancial and operational outcomes. Similarly, Bergmiller and
McCright (2009a), Carvalho and Cruz-Machado (2009), Hansen
et al. (2004), and Kleindorfer et al. (2005) concluded that there is a
strong correlation between a company's performance and the
marriage of lean/Six Sigma and sustainability; they found that the
combination of lean/Six Sigma and sustainability could generate
better results than just being lean/Six Sigma or sustainable.
To understand the synergies between lean/Six Sigma and sustainability, several researchers postulated that the two strategies
share several similarities (Dayna and Damien, 2005; McMahon,
2011; Torielli et al., 2011).
Table 6 summarizes the similarities obtained from our review of
the academic literature. Lean/Six Sigma and sustainability share a
focus on waste reduction, continual improvement philosophy
supported by performance measurement, supply chain relationships, management commitment and employee involvement,
customer satisfaction, and common tools and practices.
5.4.2. Conicts and potential shortcoming
Despite the several synergies identied in the previous section,
lean/Six Sigma and sustainability cannot be perfectly combined
(Des et al., 2013; Garza-Reyes et al., 2014). According to Helper
et al. (1997), the conicts between lean/Six Sigma and sustainability are due to the lean/Six Sigma tenet of being sure to meet
customer desires for quality and durability, even if that means extra
packaging, or more toxic chemicals used to ensure higher
rusteproong. Lean/Six Sigma focuses on reducing waste by

reducing defective products. However, this strategy pays limited
attention to the sustainable value of products, and to the environmental risk of the materials and transformation processes used to
produce products (Larson and Greenwood, 2004; Wilson, 2010). In
addition, some researchers have shown that lean/Six Sigma focus
their sustainable efforts on the transformation processes, missing
the extraction of material and the product's use and ultimate
disposition (Dakov and Novkov, 2007; Larson and Greenwood,
2004; Maskell and Pojasek, 2008). Moreover, there are some
areas where the use of some lean/Six Sigma principles is not
compatible with sustainability. Several studies demonstrate that
just eine time adoption increases the frequency of deliveries in
small lots and in smaller vehicles, it leads to greater trafc
congestion and can also increase greenhouse gas emissions
(Carvalho et al., 2011; Cusumano, 1994; Katayama and Bennett,
1996; Venkat and Wakeland, 2006; Zhu et al., 2005). Furthermore, the use of kaizen events can have negative effects on sustainability. The rapid improvement process can increase emissions
to air and water, as well as the generation of solid/hazardous waste
even though it improves efciency and reduces costs. The short
time to identify and solve issues of waste is not enough to measure
and analyze the effects of changes (EPA, 2009; Wilson, 2010). The
analysis may uncover that more resources or unsustainable materials are needed to improve processes. There is no evidence that
continuous improvement is necessarily a sustainable improvement.
Another area where lean/Six Sigma is not compatible with sustainability is in the use of continuous improvement. According to
Pagell and Wu (2009), the continuous improvement philosophy
might help a rm to become more sustainable. However, the same
philosophy might limit radical innovation when the rm needs to
838
Table 5
Environmental and social benets that can be achieved after the application of lean/Six Sigma tools.
Lean Six Sigma tools and
techniques
Environmental and social benets
References
5S
- Encourages maintenance of a clean and organized work environment, which can reduce
input consumption and motivate employees to properly dispose of production rejects.
- Can assist companies to improve energy and materials efciency by reducing space
required for the operation and calling attention to environmental wastes. A clean
workshop will quickly show a leak in a system, where resources are being wasted.
- Helps to improve the company's handling and storage of hazardous materials and waste,
and thus reduce the risks of spills and mishandling.
- Can help organizations to reduce risks, improve waste management, and minimize risks to
the health and safety of workers and the environment by providing clean and accident
efree work areas.
- Reduces the chance that materials expire or become offespecication before they can be
used and then require disposal.
- Provides a problemesolving culture with scientic and structured thinking, which will
help organizations to resolve environmental issues.
- Develops the engagement of employees and unleashes their creativity leading to the
promotion of innovation for environmental and social progress.
- It helps to reduce material wastes and pollution, which ensures a safe and healthy place to
work.
- Can serve as the driving force for improving manufacturing process resource productivity
by optimizing the performance of the supporting ows (i.e., material and energy
consumption and waste generation) and reducing the environmental impact of the
manufacturing process by reducing all environmental waste generated by production.
- Facilitates identication and visualization of no value added in the production line, thus
helping organizations to avoid excess consumption and environmental waste such as
water, energy consumption, and solid and hazardous waste and air emission.
- Through VSM, operators became aware of environmental impacts of production
processes. This leads to training on how to correctly use the resources, which allows
organizations to practically realize important environmental benets.
- VSM could be used as a support tool for lifeecycle analysis.
- VSM is one of the best visual tools that could be used to improve communication with
stakeholders to understand the generation and ow of value and environmental wastes
during processes.
- VSM could help to improve ergonomics, worker health and safety.
- Practice focuses on reducing inventory levels and provides the right materials at the right
time to support manufacturing needs. This concept could help to:
Reduce potential waste from damaged, spoiled, or deteriorated products.
Lead to a slight increase in energy, water consumption and hazardous waste volumes.
Provide workshop space utilization.
Facilitate identication of failures and unnecessary actions in an organization's
processes, thus helping it avoid excess consumption and waste.
- Could help companies to reduce the seteup times and change over time, which contribute
to a decrease in energy and resource consumption.
- Increased longevity of equipment decreases need for replacement equipment and
associated environmental impacts.
- Promotes preventive and proactive maintenance of equipment to increase its useful life
and avoid process failures that generate scrap and rework, leading to a reduced amount
of product, energy and raw materials waste.
- Helps to reduce breakdown labor rates, lost production, thus reducing energy and
material consumption.
- Increases worker health and safety because new technologies are often substituted for old
machines and there are fewer breakdowns with their potential for injury.
- The reduction of equipment seteup time helps to reduce both inventory and
overproduction. These reductions naturally lower the materials and energy
consumption while reducing emissions.
- Could help to reduce several environmental impacts of the machines, such as oil leakage
and emissions of dusts and chemical fumes into the atmosphere.
- Could help to extend environmental responsibility across the supply chain.
- Introduction of Lean Six Sigma to existing suppliers would lead to better realization of
environmental benets (e.g., decreasing waste through fewer defects, less energy usage,
less scrap, etc.) across the network.
- Contribute to reduce defects hence less waste, low energy usage, less scrap, low emissions,
etc.
- Presents a structured framework for problem solving and organizational leadership and
enables managers and leaders to use new ways of understanding and solving their
sustainability problems.
- Focuses on reducing defects to improve product quality, which helps to reduce
environmental waste (i.e. material, water and energy consumption and waste generation).
- Focuses attention on reducing the conditions that result in accidents, leading to safer and
healthier working conditions for the operators.
- Could be used to monitor and to develop better understanding of critical environmental
parameters such as water, energy and raw material consumption, CO2 emissions, etc.
- Will help to drive improvements in both process control and environmental control.
Fliedner (2008); Vais et al. (2006);

Langenwalter (2006); Wilson (2010);
Torielli et al. (2011); EPA (2006);
Washington State Department of Ecology
(2007a); Vinodh et al. (2011); Pojasek
(1999a); EPA (2004); Chiarini (2014); Bae
and Kim (2007)
Kaizen
Value Stream Mapping

(VSM)
Kanban/Pull
Cellular manufacturing
TPM
SMED
Supplier relationship
Pokaeyoke (errorproong)
Six Sigma
Statistical Process Control

(SPC)
Fliedner (2008); Pampanelli et al. (2014);

Miller et al. (2010); Pampanelli et al. (2011);
Maxwell et al. (1998); Vais et al. (2006);
Soltero and Waldrip (2007); Rothenberg
et al. (2001); Nahmens (2009); Pojasek
(1999a); Bae and Kim (2007); Zhang and
Awasthi (2014); Wilson (2010); Pampanelli
et al. (2014); EPA (2003); Washington State
Department of Ecology (2007b); Vinodh
et al. (2011); EPA (2004)
Sobral et al. (2013); Langenwalter (2006);
Torielli et al. (2011); Park and Linich (2008);
EPA (2006); Maskell and Pojasek (2008);
Washington State Department of Ecology's
(2007a,b); Vinodh et al. (2011); Aguado
et al. (2013); EPA (2004); Chiarini (2014);
Bae and Kim (2007); Ng et al. (2015);
Marudhamuthu and Krishnaswamy (2011)
EPA (2004); Fliedner (2008); Herrmann

et al. (2008); King and Lenox (2001b);

(2013); Longoni and Cagliano
Kova
cova
(2011); Ng et al. (2015); Rothenberg et al.
(2001); Sobral et al. (2013); Vinodh et al.
(2011); Washington State Department of
Ecology (2007a)
Chiarini (2014); Fliedner (2008); Vinodh
et al. (2011)
Chiarini (2014); Fliedner (2008); Longoni
and Cagliano (2011); Marudhamuthu and
Krishnaswamy (2011); Pojasek (1999b);
Sobral et al. (2013); Vais et al. (2006);
Vinodh et al. (2011)

Chiarini (2014); Kova
cov
a (2013);
Marudhamuthu and krishnaswamy (2011);
Moreira et al. (2010); Ng et al. (2015);
Washington State Department of Ecology's
(2007a)
Corbett and Klassen (2006); Fliedner
(2008); Miller et al. (2010); Simpson and
Power (2005); Vinodh et al. (2011)
Pojasek (1999b); Vinodh et al. (2011)
Calia et al. (2009); Fliedner (2008); Kadry
(2013); Pojasek (1999b); Vinodh et al.
(2011); Wilson (2010)
GarzaeReyes et al. (2014); Torielli et al.

(2011); Wilson (2010)
839
Table 5 (continued )
Lean Six Sigma tools and
techniques
Visual management (Andon

line)
Analysis tools (5why's,

Pareto charts, causeeand
eeffect diagrams)
Standardized work/
Qualication
Plant layout
reconguration
Environmental and social benets
References
- Assess to understand the degree and causes of variation of environmental parameters and
thus will provide a quantitativeescientic base for analysis, decision making and
regulatory action.
- Help to identify and eliminate unwanted entities hence less material usage and wastes.
- The use of Andon line to stop production in case of quality problems until resolution of
problem leads to reduced energy and resource needs.
- Environmental issues can be integrated into Andon systems in order to call attention to
environmental problems when they occur.
- Could be used to stimulate the development of solutions:
To reduce/eliminate environmental wastes identied in the manufacturing processes.
To improve ergonomics, worker health and safety, and staff morale.
- Could be used to understand the rootecause of environmental wastes, which leads to
reduced excessive use of energy, water, raw material, emissions, etc.
- Promote the development of sustainable methods over time that will lead to reduced
variation in the process and products, which reduces the amount of product, electricity
consumption and raw materials waste.
- Can be a powerful way to help companies reduce wastes and improve environmental
performance leading to reduced materials, emissions, energy consumption and cost
savings.
- Reduce risks and improve the working environment, leading to safer and healthier
working conditions for the operators.
- Improved ergonomics and staff morale.
radically change what they do to become truly sustainable (Benner

and Tushman, 2002, 2003). On the social aspect, Wilson (2010)
pointed out that social dimensions are not addressed within the
lean/Six Sigma philosophy. The philosophy only addresses consumer safety without taking into consideration employees' health
and safety. In addition, other social sustainability issues, such as
human rights and community impact, are not governed by the lean/
Six Sigma process.
Table 7 shows an overview of synergies and divergences between lean, Six Sigma and sustainability. For each attribute, the
table shows the synergies (moderate, strong) and conicts (moderate, e strong) between the three systems.
For example, lean and Six Sigma aims to reduce waste and
variation, it offers a better culture to deploy sustainability philosophies, tools and methods. On the other hand, sustainability aims
also to reduce waste and improve process efciency by reducing
raw material consumption, energy consumption, water consumption, excessive CO2 emissions and recycling. In this context, the
similarity between the three systems seems logical: waste reduction. However, waste has different meanings in lean and sustainability (Des et al., 2013; Carvalho et al., 2011; Duarte and CruzMachado, 2013). For lean, waste refers to any activity that does
not add value to the product, while for the sustainability; waste is
related to the wasteful consumption of energy, water, raw material
or any natural resource (Duarte and Cruz-Machado, 2013).
From the previous discussion, it is evident that the three management systems are complemented by each other in terms of
many attributes. However, there are still some areas where lean, Six
Sigma and sustainability cannot be combined well as there are still
some limitations when considering the three initiatives as an integrated approach. However, these limitations do not block their
integration, but provide an opportunity to develop solutions to
overcome these difculties to achieve sustainability.
5.4.3. Causes of conict in the literature

In the debate about the relationships among lean/Six Sigma and
sustainability, academics and practitioners' views diverge without
arriving at a shared conclusion.
An analysis of the literature shows that this divergence is
essentially due to three reasons:
Herrmann et al. (2008); Sobral et al. (2013);

Vinodh et al. (2011)
GarzaeReyes et al. (2014); Langenwalter

(2006); Maskell and Pojasek (2008); Ng
et al. (2015); Washington State Department
of Ecology (2007b)
Chiarini (2014); Herrmann et al. (2008);
(2013); Washington State
Kov
a
cova
Department of Ecology (2007a)
Aguado et al. (2013); Washington State
Department of Ecology (2007a)
1. Type of manufacturing process under consideration: lean/Six

Sigma and sustainability can be compatible and even synergistic
for regular processes but may be in conict for environmentally
sensitive processes such as painting, chemical treatment and
metal nishing.
2. Lean/Six Sigma principles and metrics under examination. The
research often analyzes the relationship based on single lean/Six
Sigma principle or single sustainability metric rather than
analyzing multiple lean/Six Sigma principles over multiple
measures of sustainability, but different principles of lean/Six
Sigma seem to affect sustainability differently.
3. Organizational culture: organizations differ from each other in
their culture. The studies conducted in this eld have been done
in a heterogeneous organizational culture.
5.5. Frameworks, models and methods
The positive relationship between lean/Six Sigma and sustainability has encouraged companies to implement lean/Six Sigma and
sustainability to improve their performance (Biggs, 2009; Des
et al., 2013; EPA, 2003; Florida, 1996). Many researchers have
proposed various models, frameworks, and methods to integrate
and implement lean/Six Sigma and sustainability.
In total, 15 models, frameworks and methods were studied. A
literature review was conducted to provide a comprehensive understanding of each model, framework and method (Table 8).
Our study reveals a number of issues that are common to most
business models, frameworks, and methods. These models,
frameworks and methods refer to the need for leadership,
employee involvement, and a mature deployment level in using
and applying lean/Six Sigma tools and a good level of environmental awareness as important issues for cultural transformation
and a continuous improvement that leads to a high performance
organization (Ng et al., 2015; Pampanelli et al., 2014; Zhang and
Awasthi, 2014). All the models, frameworks, and methods are
based on a culture of continuous improvement. The methods
most applied are PDCA, DMAIC or Kaizen events.
5.6. CSFs for integrating lean/Six Sigma and sustainability
The integration of lean/Six Sigma and sustainability is a
840
Table 6
Similarities between lean/Six Sigma and sustainability.
Similarities
Denition
References
Waste elimination and Lean/Six Sigma and sustainability focus on reducing waste and
inefciency.
efcient use of
resources.
Continual
improvement and
implementation
strategies.
Management
commitment and
employee
involvement.
Measurement metrics
Supply chain
relationships
Satisfying customer
needs
Tools and practices
Bergmiller and McCright (2009a); Bergmiller and McCright (2009b);

Dayna and Damien (2005); Duarte and CruzeMachado (2013); Des
et al. (2013); EPA (2009); GarzaeReyes et al. (2014); Hajmohammad
et al. (2013a); Larson and Greenwood (2004); Maia et al. (2013); Marsh
(2009); Maxwell et al. (1998); Mollenkopf et al. (2010); Porter and van
der Linde (1995); Tice et al. (2005); Torielli et al. (2011); Wadhwa
(2014); Wilson (2010); Yang et al. (2011)
Lean/Six Sigma and sustainability are based on an approach of continual Bergmiller and McCright (2009a); Bergmiller and McCright (2009b);
improvement.
Dayna and Damien (2005); EPA (2009); Langenwalter (2006); Miller
et al. (2010); Pampanelli et al. (2011); Tice et al. (2005); Wadhwa (2014)
Lean/Six Sigma and sustainability require an organizational culture that Bergmiller and McCright (2009a,b,c,d); Bergmiller and McCright
emphasizes management commitment and employee involvement in (2009b); EPA (2009); Langenwalter (2006); Mollenkopf et al. (2010);
Pampanelli et al. (2011); Shah and Ward (2003); Tice et al. (2005); Tu et
problem solving.
al. (2006); Wilson (2010)
Lean/Six Sigma and sustainability emphasize the importance of using Des et al. (2013); EPA (2009); Mollenkopf et al. (2010); Tice et al.
metrics to inform decisions.
(2005);
Lean/Six Sigma and sustainability based on close collaboration, and the Des et al. (2013); EPA (2009); Mollenkopf et al. (2010)
sharing of information and best practices across the chain to improve
enterpriseewide performance.
Lean/Six Sigma and sustainability focus on improving a customer's
Duarte and Cruz-Machado (2013); GarzaeReyes et al. (2014); Torielli
satisfaction.
et al. (2011)
Chiarini (2014); Des et al. (2013); EPA (2009); Herrmann et al. (2008);
Lean/Six Sigma and sustainability use common tools and root cause
Pampanelli et al. (2014); Vinodh et al. (2011)
analysis.
Many lean/Six Sigma tools are easily adapted and extended for
sustainability.
complex process and the advantages are not easily achieved.

Hence, the identication of CSFs is important as it helps companies to focus their efforts on these factors to increase the
chance of success. We identied CSFs for lean/Six Sigma and
sustainability implementation through our extensive literature
review. We extracted nine CSFs from 20 papers. Table 9 provides
an overview of these CSFs.
An analysis of the nding presented in Table 9 revealed that
most of the research dealt with soft elements (human and management aspects) rather than hard ones (technical aspects). Soft
elements are extremely important, are more regenerative, and are
enduring competitive advantage (Allen and Peter, 2009). However,
they are hard to imitate. These soft elements include: Human
resource management, top management support and leadership,
people involvement, teamwork, training and education, as well as
culture and communication.
slund (2013), CSFs related to lean are very
According to Na
similar to Six Sigma CSFs, in particular in terms of management
commitment, people involvement and training and skills. Being
sustainability a management system as complex as lean/Six Sigma,
its CFSs are basically the same, with a certain emphasis on
technological issues, depending on the kind of business (Triguero

et al., 2013).
6. Research gaps and directions for future research
This study is the rst to review the existing literature on lean/Six
Sigma and sustainability published during the period 1990 to 2015
and to extract theoretical elements to develop an integrated model.
To encourage research in the eld of lean, Six Sigma and sustainability, and to stop researchers and practitioners from going off
in unnecessary directions, here we highlight gaps in the existing
literature as a basis for developing a research agenda.
6.1. Research gap 1 (performance measurement system for specic
industries and processes)
Our literature review found that performance measurement is
discussed by several researchers. However, the performance
metrics in lean/Six Sigma and sustainability were examined
individually. Firms frequently use generic measures with little
consideration of their relevance to the three strategies. There is a
Table 7
Overview of synergies and divergences between lean, Six Sigma and sustainability.
Attributes
Lean Six
Sigma
Sustainability
Waste elimination and efcient use of resources.

Continual improvement and implementation strategies.
Management commitment and employee involvement.
Measurement metrics.
Supply chain relationships.
Satisfying customer needs.
Tools and practices.
Waste denition.
Social dimensions (consumer safety, employees' health and safety).
Attention to the sustainable value of products, and to the environmental risk of the materials and transformation processes used
to produce products.
Taking into consideration the lifecycle.
e
e
e
e
Synergies
Divergences
lack of integrated metrics and measurement system to measure

lean/Six Sigma and sustainability performance from social,
environmental, and economic aspects. Additionally, we have
noted that the majority of the studies have been focusing on
supply chain context (Cabral et al., 2012; Carvalho et al., 2011;
Duarte and Cruz-Machado, 2013; Folinas et al., 2014; Hassini
et al., 2012), while we have found only one paper, Verrier et al.
(2014), that has designed and veried in the logistics and
manufacturing areas. Hassini et al. (2012) developed a framework
for sustainable supply chain metrics in order to create reliable
performance measures for sustainable supply chains and to
summarize complex and multi-dimensional indicators. But they
did not give details of the different measures and sub-indicators
that can be used by different processes and industries as these
depend on the nature of operations and strategies for each
partner. Despite this possible explanation and justication, the
nding of the present study indicates that there is a lack of
measurement methods and models designed and tested for
specic industries and processes. As there are varied industries
and specic processes, there is a need for specic indicators and
metrics. This same gap was identied by Garza-Reyes (2015a).
Many research questions can be the subject of the research
agenda in this area such as: can the current indicators and
measurements models and methods and models be applicable or
adapted to specic industries and processes?
6.2. Research gap 2 (frameworks, models, and methods)
Our review revealed a scarcity of research in the eld of integration of lean/Six Sigma and sustainability. According to Park and
Linich (2008), lean/Six Sigma can be a major part of the sustainability answer and can help companies boost economic, social and
environmental performance. The number of frameworks, models,
or methods developed in the lean Six Sigma and sustainability
stream was huge compared to other streams. Only two frameworks
were found (Banawi and Bilec, 2014; Cluzel et al., 2010). Banawi and
Bilec (2014) propose a framework for integrating lean, Six Sigma
and sustainability philosophies for construction industry in order
to reduce environmental impacts. The structure of the proposed
framework is based on the DMAIC improvement cycle. The implementation of the model is organized into three steps:
Step 1: Dene and Measure,
Step 2: Analyze and Improve and
Step 3: Control.
The rst step aims to select a process for evaluation through the
application of Value Stream.
Mapping (VSM) and Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) for identifying
and quantifying the environmental waste. Step 2 aims to select the
right Six Sigma tools to reduce or eliminate different wastes. Finally,
step 3 aims to re-evaluate the environmental waste using VSM and
LCA tools to measure the reduction in terms of environmental
waste. However, the framework was developed and tested for
construction industry and the ndings may not be universally
applicable across different sectors and countries.
Cluzel et al. (2010) propose an original eco-design methodology
aims to integrate Green and Lean Six Sigma philosophies for complex product environmental assessment and improvement. The
proposed methodology is based on a DMAIC approach that covers
the entire eco-design process and permits to comprehend the
system complexity. However, the framework is developed and
tested for an eco-design process and may not be universally
applicable across different processes. In addition, even if the proposed methodology allows managing the eco-design project for
841
complex systems, some stages remain hard to perform. Some perspectives appear to simplify them. Hence, we request that future
researchers develop systematic frameworks, models, and methods
in the eld of lean Six Sigma and sustainability and to take responsibility for performing their validation by testing their applicability in a real environment. Most of the frameworks, models, and
methods are designed for a specic manufacturing process. The
development of an integrated model applicable to many industry
sectors, as well as to organizations of different sizes and functions,
would be very desirable.
6.3. Research gap 3 (application of lean/Six Sigma and
sustainability in SMEs)
SMEs play a pivotal role in the industrial economy all over the
globe. They contribute signicantly to economic growth, innovation, and employment generation. Globalization, rapid technological changes, and increased competitive pressure are having a major
impact on SMEs around the globe. SMEs need to upgrade their
professional management techniques to achieve economic, social
and environmental improvement without large investments or
extensive changes. The integration of lean/Six Sigma and sustainability is the best response to this challenge. However, the adoption
of lean/Six Sigma and sustainability in SMEs is not widespread due
to the fear of high implementation cost and the subsequent benets. Hence, our study strongly recommends that future researchers
focus more on the context of SMEs to assist them in their successful
implementation of lean/Six Sigma and sustainability, to involve
their own limited resources rather than resorting to external help.
6.4. Research gap 4 (service industry)
We observed that most research addressed issues from the
manufacturing sector, especially the automotive industry. We could
nd no research on lean/Six Sigma and sustainability in the service
industry. Considering that the service industry is a signicant part
of our economy (Vargo and Lusch, 2008), this can be considered a
key undereresearched stream. It should be noted that there are
many differences between the manufacturing sector and the service industry which may hinder the application of the lean/Six
Sigma and sustainability. The cultural differences between the two
sectors cannot be neglected. It is therefore proposed that further
studies take these differences into consideration when identifying
the applicability of lean/Six Sigma and sustainability in the service
industry.
6.5. Research gap 5 (social dimension)
The social dimension is very complex and involves a variety of
stakeholders; however, it is crucial to promote the integration of
lean/Six Sigma and sustainability. Achieving the successful implementation of these three strategies is the product of social (people)
transformation. Our study identies that the relationship between
lean/Six Sigma implementation and social performance has not
fully been discussed in academic research. In addition, the effects of
the integration of lean/Six Sigma and sustainability on social performance (health and safety issues, staff morale, stress levels, skills
development, etc.) seem unexplored. Hence, there is a need to
study the human side in a more comprehensive manner, and look
at the organizational challenges of launching, leading, and preparing people for the lean/Six Sigma and sustainability effort.
6.6. Research gap 6 (geographic context)
Research on lean/Six Sigma and sustainability is conducted
842
Table 8
Analysis of frameworks, models, and methods.
Authors
Year
Research
stream
Method
Sectors
Key contribution
Limitations
Proposed a model which integrates lean

and sustainability. The model adopts a
kaizen approach to improve energy and
mass ows in organizations that
already had the necessary deployment
level to apply lean production.
Proposed a framework to address
human integration in lean for
sustaining operations.
The model is developed and tested only

at the cell level, which is the rst stream
level of a manufacturing business.
The model need some preerequisites
that may be limit their applicability.
Pampanelli et al. 2013
Lean and Green Proposed and

implemented model
Automotive
Manufacturing
Wong and
Wong
2014

implemented
framework
Zhang and
Awasthi
2014
Six Sigma and

Green
Sawhney et al.
2007

implemented
framework
Torielli et al.
2011
Lean and Green Proposed framework
Bergmiller and
McCright
2009d Lean and Green Proposed model
The framework does not incorporate

the other two bottom lines of
sustainability (economic and
environmental).
e
Proposed a framework which combined The framework is not validated in
reality environment.
sustainable manufacturing with Six
Sigma. This framework gives detailed There is less focus on economic
dimension.
steps from problem denition to
achieving leadership in sustainability in
order to maintain the effort.
The framework is developed and tested
Metal cutting
Proposed a framework to assist in
for a particular manufacturing process.
industry
developing the relationship between
environmental concerns and Lean
principles for specic processes.
The framework is developed for a
Foundries
Proposed a framework for
implementing lean and sustainability. particular manufacturing process
(foundry industry).
This framework is supported by four
pillars: throughput improvement,
energy efciency, innovative
technology, and community
partnerships.
e
Proposed a model to integrate lean and The framework is not validated in
sustainability systems into one system reality environment.
that can contribute signicantly to long
eterm nancial and environmental
sustainability.
This model can be developed using an
e
Proposed a model for implementing
exploratory case study method to
lean and sustainability. The model
understand if it is important to industry
indicates how and when leanegreen
and where the compatibilities between
approach can be integrated in and
compatible, using principles and tools lean and green are.
that support both, a lean and a green
approach.
Forming tube
Propose a model which utilizes efcient The proposed model still has room for
improvement.
company
sustainable improvements in a lean
production system through processes of
environmental innovation.
The success of model needs
Automotive industry Proposed a model for approaching
development of new practices such as
issues of supplier environmental
information sharing and collaboration
performance through lean supply.
between supplier and customer.
Automotive industry Proposed a theoretical framework for The framework was developed for
the study and analysis of the inuence Portuguese automotive supply chain
and the ndings may not be universally
of Lean and Green upstream supply
applicable across different sectors and
chain management initiatives on
countries.
sustainable performance.
Metal industry
Proposed a method for integrating Lean Some of the supporting tools and
techniques used in this case study may
and Green Manufacturing in an easy
and practical manner. In this method, not be applicable in other case studies.
an easyetoetrack metric called Carbon
eValue Efciency, which aims to
integrate metrics derived from Lean
and Green implementation, is
introduced.
Some stages remain hard to perform
Proposed a new ecoedesign method
Aluminium
within this method.
based on Green Lean Six Sigma
Electrolysis
approach for complex product
Substations
environmental assessment and
improvement.
The framework is more appropriate and
Consortium of
Propose a framework for Lean and
companies
Green Manufacturing, which includes applicable if there is a consortium of
Lean and Green indicators and Green companies available to benchmark their
Lean and Green initiatives in order to
intentions indicators.
target the best in class and the
associated best practices.
e
Proposes a model of production
The model proposed need to be tested
management and its implementation to validate its effectiveness.
Proposed framework
Duarte and Cruz 2013

eMachado
Lean and Green Proposed model
Aguado et al.
2012

implemented model
Dayna and
Damien
2005

implemented model
Azevedo et al.
2012

implemented
framework
Ng et al.
2015

implemented method
Cluzel et al.
2010
LSS and Green
Verrier et al.
2014

implemented
framework
Alves and Alves 2015
Proposed and
implemented method
Lean and Green Proposed model
Semiconductor
manufacturing
843
Table 8 (continued )
Authors
Banawi and
Bilec
Year
2014
Research
stream
Method
Lean Six Sigma Proposed and

and Green
implemented
framework
Sectors
Construction
Key contribution
Limitations
method, integrating the principles of

lean manufacturing and sustainability,
supported by a cultural transformation
in the organization.
Proposes a framework and integrates The framework required additional
three different approaches e Lean, Six validation.
Sigma and Green e in a systematic
approach in order to improve the
environmental performance of the
construction process.
Table 9
CSFs to implement lean Six Sigma and sustainability.
S.
CSFs to implement lean Six Sigma and References
no. sustainability
1
2
Human resource management

Top management support and
leadership
Supplier partnership
4
5
Data and metrics

Culture and communication
6
7
8
9
People involvement
Training and education
Teamwork
Governance
EPA (2009); Langenwalter (2006); Pampanelli et al. (2014); Wong and Wong (2014); Zhang (2014)
Alves and Alves (2015); Bergmiller and McCright (2009a); EPA (2006); Longoni and Cagliano (2011); Maskell and Pojasek
(2008); Pampanelli et al. (2014); Park and Linich (2008); Vinodh et al. (2011); Washington State Department of Ecology
(2007a)
Dayna and Damien (2005); Helper et al. (1997); Galeazzo et al. (2013); Maskell and Pojasek (2008); Pampanelli et al. (2014);
Vachon and Klassen (2006); Vachon (2007)
EPA (2006); Pampanelli et al. (2014); Park and Linich (2008); Washington State Department of Ecology (2007b)
Alsagheer and Hamdan (2011); Department of Ecology (2007a); EPA (2006); Helper et al. (1997); Longoni and Cagliano
(2011)
Alves and Alves (2015); Longoni and Cagliano (2011); Longoni and Annachiara (2014); Pampanelli et al. (2014)
EPA (2003); Pampanelli et al. (2014); Park and Linich (2008); Sobral et al. (2013); Vinodh et al. (2011)
Calia et al. (2009); EPA (2009); Longoni and Cagliano (2011); Maskell and Pojasek (2008); Wong and Wong (2014)
Park and Linich (2008)
across the world. There are studies from developed, emerging, and
underdeveloped countries. However, the issue has mainly been
addressed by developed nations. Our study identies that the
geographical application area of lean, Six Sigma and sustainability
hardly comprises underdeveloped and developing countries. The
relationship between lean/Six Sigma and sustainability has not
fully been discussed in these countries. This can be clearly seen in
Fig. 3 by observing the geographical application area of lean, Six
Sigma and sustainability. Furthermore, globalization has led investors to move their production to underdeveloped countries with
lower labor costs and environmental standards. Increasing growth,
especially in industries that are environmentally resource intensive
and heavily polluting is a reality in many developing countries
(Sandhu et al., 2012). Governments in these countries often focus
on economic growth at the cost of environmental and social issues
(Economy and Lieberthal, 2007). However, according to OECD
(2012), the potential economic and social impacts of environmental degradation are particularly important for developing
countries given their dependence on natural resources for economic growth and their vulnerability to energy, food, water security, climate change and extreme weather risks. In addition, World
Bank (2003) highlights that Energy intensity is three times superior
in developing than in developed countries, carbon dioxide intensity
is four times higher and organic water pollutant (biological oxygen
demand) intensity is six times higher.
The practice of pollute now, clean up later caused many
environmental problems and created difculties for further
development efforts (Chiu and Yong, 2004). These reasons lead us
to suggest that there is a strong need to study how to extend the
implementation of lean/Six Sigma and sustainability to emerging
and developing countries.
6.7. Research gap 7 (preeimplementation phase)

Lean/Six Sigma and sustainability initiatives may be implemented either sequentially or simultaneously. However, the change
from a traditional system to an integrated approach might differ
signicantly from one rm to another and some difculties and
challenges will be encountered. Before starting a lean/Six Sigma
and sustainability project, it is important to overcome these difculties. This step could be considered a preeimplementation phase
which, once concluded, will enable rms to implement lean/Six
Sigma and sustainability with a greater chance of success. Hence,
the study hopes that future researchers may cover this issue.
6.8. Research gap 8 (others)

Other research gaps we identied are:
The design of global supply chains and collaboration among all
stakeholders has a signicant impact on sustainability. Hence,
there is a need for research in the eld of supply chains and to
expand study from manufacturing to all functions of the supply
chain with an analysis of the supplier e customer relationship.
The motivation to integrate lean/Six Sigma and sustainability
and the barriers to their implementation should be fully discussed in order to help rms to implement more sustainable
initiatives.
The negative effects of the integration of lean/Six Sigma and
sustainability still have to be explored. By understanding such
effects, it will be possible to investigate how they can be
ameliorated so that a compromise between business, environmental and social performance can be made.
844
7. Conclusions
In this study we conducted a review of the literature on the
integration of lean, Six Sigma and sustainability and the issues
emerging in this eld. We identied 118 papers published between
1990 and June 2015 that were relevant to our review. This review
enabled us to determine the gaps that exist and to extract the
theoretical elements of an integration model. We identied seven
major gaps that are suitable for further research in this direction:
the need to develop an integrated metrics and measurement system to measure lean/Six Sigma and sustainability performance; the
need to develop an integrated model applicable to many industries
and functions; the need to focus more on the context of SMEs to
assist them to successfully implement lean/Six Sigma and sustainability; the need to investigate the applicability of lean/Six
Sigma and sustainability to the service industry; the need to study
the human side in a more comprehensive manner, the need to
study how to extend the implementation of lean/Six Sigma and
sustainability to emerging and underdeveloped countries, and the
need to cover the preeimplementation phase.
This research makes multiple contributions to the body of lean/
Six Sigma and sustainability integration. This is the rst attempt to
review a large sample size of papers which increases the reliability
of our ndings. In addition, many issues are addressed which have
not been covered properly in the past such as drivers and barriers,
benets of the integration, and CSFs for the integration of lean, Six
Sigma and sustainability. It is hoped that the study will inspire
further research and exploration in the area of sustainability and
lean/Six Sigma.
In particular, we would like to emphasize the lack of a specic
integrated model. We have tried to ll this gap through our proposed model in Fig. 7, which is based on specic theoretical elements extracted from papers during our literature review, linked
together using the DMAIC pattern.
Practitioners can also try to integrate lean, Six Sigma and sustainability using the proposed theoretical elements as a guideline
and improving the model. There are two limitations to our study.
First, our literature review includes some theses and books; however, several measures were taken to ensure the quality of papers
selected. Second, we used conceptual categorization in this study,
especially to identify the theoretical elements of our model and the
gaps in the literature.
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank the members of ERGI laboratory
(a research laboratory at the University of Cadi Ayyad engaged in
applied research in several areas of operation management) who
participated in the comments which improved immensely the paper, as well as Dr. S. Azmoune, A. Mokhlis, H. Elayachi and R.
Boulguid for their support. We would also like to extend our gratitude to the reviewers for their valuable comments.
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The Integration of Lean Manufacturing

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The Integration of Lean Manufacturing

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Journal of Cleaner Production 139 (2016) 828e846

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Journal of Cleaner Production

The integration of lean manufacturing, Six Sigma and sustainability: A

have discovered that those efforts result in reduced operating costs

A. Cherra et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 139 (2016) 828e846

proposed for the integration of lean, Six Sigma and sustainability

and minimizing process and product variability (Zu et al., 2008).

2.3. Lean Six Sigma

A. Cherra et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 139 (2016) 828e846

2.4. Sustainability/sustainable development

and paradigmatic books with managerial impact on the subject. For

A. Cherra et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 139 (2016) 828e846

Keywords used in searches

Main journals in Operations

Number of paper: 118

publications at this early date. Several special issues are going to

4.2. Geographical application area

A. Cherra et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 139 (2016) 828e846

Fig. 2. Distribution of reviewed papers by journal.

Fig. 3. Geographical application area of lean, Six Sigma and sustainability.

a lack of interest in many underdeveloped and developing

According to the present study, the majority of the publications

Fig. 4. Distribution of empirical research by industry sector.

A. Cherra et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 139 (2016) 828e846

(Schilizzi, 2002) or to senior management's decisions oriented by

4.5. Research streams

Fig. 5. Distribution of the papers according to the three dimensions of sustainability.

Fig. 6. The distribution of research streams.

Sigma patterns and tools. Indeed some authors highlighted this

A. Cherra et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 139 (2016) 828e846

Adds environmental and social dimension to the

Offers a rigorous and disciplined

Enhance value by identifying and

Tools, techniques and

Improve economic, environmental and social performance

Fig. 7. The integrated model and its theoretical elements.

to identify and eliminate waste (Klotz et al., 2007; Womack and

A. Cherra et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 139 (2016) 828e846

barriers are bound to be encountered. These barriers include: a lack

5.2. Benets of the integration of lean/Six Sigma and sustainability

Inuence on the driver

Cost reduction and protability (waste reduction)

A. Cherra et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 139 (2016) 828e846

Lack of awareness among managers

operations that may benet rms. As various research has shown,

techniques and tools would lead organizations to the successful

A. Cherra et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 139 (2016) 828e846

Improve employee morale and commitment.

EPA (2009); Ng et al. (2015); Tice et al. (2005)

Improve the companys prot.

Dakov and Novkov (2007)

Avoid risks from noncompliance with

has found high levels of advanced pollution prevention occurring

rusteproong. Lean/Six Sigma focuses on reducing waste by

A. Cherra et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 139 (2016) 828e846

Environmental and social benets

Fliedner (2008); Vais et al. (2006);

Value Stream Mapping

Statistical Process Control

Fliedner (2008); Pampanelli et al. (2014);

EPA (2004); Fliedner (2008); Herrmann

GarzaeReyes et al. (2014); Torielli et al.

A. Cherra et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 139 (2016) 828e846