الفهرس 
INTRODUCTIONOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
Lean six sigma is a potent methodology that uses the statistical tools of six sigma to reduce product variability and enhance its quality. Meanwhile, it uses lean techniques to decrease process wastes which negatively impact the environment. Lean six sigma initiatives can improve the firm processes and environmental performance by reducing wastes such as excess raw material consumption and harmful air emissions. The immense research in this area promoted applying sustainability measures within quality improvement techniques to attain economic, social, and environmental improvement inside any large/multinational organization. Lean six sigma impacts were considered on small and medium-sized enterprises in the services sector, but seldomly in manufacturing sectors. Due to their limited resources and low experienced workforce, especially when any sustainable goal is accompanied with quality improvement inside the enterprise. The current research proposes a lean six sigma framework while considering small and medium-sized enterprises limited resources and limited workforce experience to improve their process and environmental performance. The framework simultaneously integrates six sigma “DMAIC” approach and its statistical tools with the lean tools that small enterprises could apply, such as value stream maps and 5S. For investigation of the significance of parameters affecting product quality, a Design of Experiments (DOE) is employed, and several output responses are measured and statistically analyzed. The studied methodology is divided into two phases. Initially, the lean six sigma framework and its simultaneous use of lean and six sigma statistical tools was proposed. A SWOT analysis was first applied to investigate strengths and weaknesses inside the firm together with threats and opportunities associated with the external market. The second phase is validating the proposed framework by deploying it inside an Egyptian small-sized candle manufacturing firm to attain better eco-friendly processes and improve its quality-related performance. Moreover, the standard work procedures for the daily processes were documented to create a better and more disciplined working environment and significantly enhance the firm’s operational performance. Among the current investigation, findings are the significance of lean six sigma statistical tools to attain eco-friendlier processes and meet the SMEs’ management goals considering limited resources and low workforce experience. Tools such as the Design of Experiments, Regression analysis, Analysis of Variance, and process capability analysis had the main contribution to reduce the mean soot index, which was improved by 14.5%, sooting sigma level was increased by 69.2%; on the other hand, the wax waste decreased by 29.6%. The current research outputs include quality-related improvements. The candle burning lifetime was improved by 12%, and daily candle production increased by 32.2%. Moreover, the overall process flow time has been improved by decreasing cycle time by 19.8%. The overall equipment efficiency of pulverization process improved from 72% to 76%, also in packaging & inspection process from 76% to 86% by implementing environmental value stream maps, root cause analysis, and overall efficiency tracking.