Understanding Performance Variation at a Goods Reception

Abstract

This study aims to investigate what factors that affect performance variation at a goods reception through the application of Six Sigma‘s DMAIC methodology. The study adopts a comparative case study design where the main site has been compared to a benchmarked site, operating under largely the same conditions. This has been done by conducting a gemba walk to gain a better understanding of what quantitative data then needed to be collected. The quantitative data consisted of the case company’s own data. The data was then summarized and visualized using exploratory data analysis (EDA) tools, to gain a comprehensive understanding of what differed between the two sites. To explain the findings from the quantitative data, qualitative data was collected through semi structured interviews. From triangulating the quantitative and qualitative data, several root causes to why the main site performed worse than the benchmarked site were identified. Based on identified root causes the study proposes several improvement initiatives, with the purpose of contributing to a better and mitigated performance variation. To ensure successful implementation, the study adopted a change management methodology, where the chosen tool is the Kotter's 8-step change model.