Lean Six Sigma and Zero Defects: An Entropy-Based Approach to Optimizing Productivity in Modern Manufacturing Processes

Abstract

The order gets transformed into disorder in the process of production; this disorder may show up in different forms, including process variability, unexpected occurrence of changeovers, rework loops, and instability in scheduling. The authors interpret this disorder in terms of process entropy and examine its connection to productivity in manufacturing plants that are employing the Lean Six Sigma (LSS) techniques formally. The data on the survey was collected from the manufacturing professionals and analyzed using the PLS-SEM SmartPLS 4. The analysis considered five reflective variables for each construct there were, namely, Process Entropy (PE), Manufacturing Productivity (MP), and Zero Defects Orientation (ZDO). The measurement model has shown positive internal consistency scores (0.740–0.844) and the composite reliability of over 0.824 but the construct ZDO has demonstrated a lower validity result compared to the rest of the constructs in terms of the criteria. The structural model explains 58.7 % and 66.8 % of the variance in MP and ZDO, respectively being considerable on size both (f² = 1.423; f² = 2.012). Discriminant validity is absent between PE and ZDO that indicates that the instrument used in the study did not create the possibility to differentiate between PE and ZDO phenomena.