Lean Six Sigma Approaches Trend: A Bibliometric Review

Abstract

Companies and organizations worldwide have used approaches based on Lean Six Sigma to improve the quality of their processes and products. Although there are literature reviews on this topic, the number of papers published on Lean Six Sigma has increased in recent years. Therefore, it is important to analyze the trends of the Lean Six Sigma approach to process improvement and locate the most relevant research centers, authors, and articles. This article presents a bibliometric review of the trends of the most used Lean Six Sigma approaches, analyzing 1,874 documents found in Scopus databases using PRISMA methodology and VosViewer software. The results indicate that the United States, the United Kingdom, and Brazil publish the most articles. Likewise, Heriot-Watt University is the institution with the most consolidated research groups. Antony, J., Does, R.J.M.M., and Cudney, E. A. are the most prominent authors in this topic. The most cited authors were Antony and Does. At the same time, the most published journals are the International Journal of Lean Six Sigma, Proceedings of the International Conference on Industrial Engineering and Operations Management, and the International Journal of Quality and Reliability Management