The article, “Integrating Lean Six Sigma with blockchain technology for quality management – a scoping review of current trends and future prospects,” by Raja Wasim Ahmad, Walaa Al Khader, Raja Jayaraman, Khaled Salah, Jiju Antony, and Vikas Swarnakar, published in The TQM Journal, Vol. 35 No. 7 (2023), offers a comprehensive review of the integration of Lean Six Sigma (LSS) and blockchain technology for enhancing quality management.
The primary purpose of this research is to analyze existing literature concerning the application of integrated LSS and blockchain technology across various sectors, particularly focusing on the manufacturing and healthcare industries. The authors employed a scoping review methodology, examining existing blockchain-based solutions on multiple dimensions including their application area, technical approach, methodology, application scenario, the blockchain platforms used, their stated purpose, and monitoring parameters. The study further explores LSS approaches in detail and highlights the key benefits that blockchain technology can enable when integrated with LSS.
A significant finding of the study is that while blockchain technology adoption for quality management is influenced by factors like transaction execution speed, throughput, and latency, prior blockchain-based solutions have largely neglected to leverage the benefits of LSS methodologies for effective quality management. The article emphasizes that waste—in terms of time, resources, and monetary losses—significantly affects product quality and organizational reputation, an aspect often overlooked by existing studies that primarily focus on compliance monitoring and safety assurance.
The originality and value of this study lie in its pioneering exploration of blockchain’s influence on quality management and assurance within the manufacturing and healthcare industries, specifically by examining how the integration of the LSS methodology with blockchain technology can aid in controlling product quality.
The article delves into various key applications of blockchain technology for quality management, including:
- Healthcare: Vaccine anticounterfeiting and tracing systems, drug supply chain governance, drug tracking and tracing, counterfeit drug identification, and authentication of herbal products.
- Manufacturing: Material and product tracking, production quality control, and smart manufacturing initiatives.
- Food Supply Chain: Traceability in dairy supply chains, general food supply chain management, HACCP-enabled food quality control, quality control in the fish supply chain, and certifying virgin olive oil. The authors also briefly mention other potential applications in areas like energy, finance, government, education, and transportation.
Crucially, the study discusses the potential for integrating blockchain with Lean Six Sigma, proposing that blockchain’s characteristics such as operational transparency, confidentiality, security, and data immutability can significantly reduce waste and enhance audit and compliance monitoring. The article illustrates how blockchain features can improve each phase of the DMAIC (Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, Control) framework of LSS, from identifying project requirements using trusted data to validating transactions through consensus.
Finally, the review identifies several significant research challenges that impede the proper deployment of blockchain technology in product quality control. These challenges include scalability (due to high transaction volumes and data rates), interoperability (between heterogeneous blockchain platforms), the lack of established regulations and standards for blockchain, a shortage of adequate skillsets in this domain, and data storage issues related to the massive amounts of sensor data generated by IoT devices.
APA Reference: Ahmad, R. W., Al Khader, W., Jayaraman, R., Salah, K., Antony, J., & Swarnakar, V. (2023). Integrating Lean Six Sigma with blockchain technology for quality management – a scoping review of current trends and future prospects. The TQM Journal, 35(7), 1609-1631. https://doi.org/10.1108/TQM-06-2022-0181
