DEALING THE SUSTAINABILITY CHALLENGES WITH LEAN SIX SIGMA FRAMEWORK

Sustainability has become a very sensitive subject of the 21st century all over the world, especially for the business organizations, as the planet earth is dragged in to the effects of climate change. In the years to come this subject is going to be the top most agenda for all the countries, governments, public and private organizations. Companies will slowly exhaust all low hanging efforts to show the improvements in achieving the sustainability goals and the time will come when companies will have to adopt some structured and disciplined methodologies to achieve the stringent sustainable development targets and demonstrate consistent results to all the stake holders. The study of sustainability reports of select Indian companies reveals a need for a structured methodology for analysis and improvement actions such that significant improvements are seen and sustained over a long period of time. Lean Six Sigma is a proven methodology used by several organizations to achieve sustainable improvement results. This research paper suggests use of Lean Six Sigma as a strategic framework for Sustainability. The Sustainability objectives are required to be part of organizational goal tree. Six Sigma tools also help in prioritizing the projects along with other business initiatives with equal weightage to social and environmental initiatives. Lean Six Sigma improves the process efficiency, eliminates waste, making the Sustainability initiatives profitable for the organization.