Purpose

This study aims to present an overview of leading research trends in the lean six sigma domain published in the International Journal of Lean Six Sigma (IJLSS) since its inception.

Design/methodology/approach

The study analyses articles published between 2010 and 2019 in IJLSS using the bibliometric technique. The results of data analysis identify the most prolific authors, their affiliation, citation trends and highly cited articles from the journal. Further, a graphical analysis involving bibliographic coupling and co-citation analysis of the corpus enriches the investigation.

Findings

The results of the bibliometric analysis suggest that the number of IJLSS’s publications and citations grew markedly over time (from 4 citations in 2010 to nearly 1,324 in 2019). The organizational diversity and collaboration among authors publishing in IJLSS are trending upwards. Case study and focus group are the two most common research designs in publications. In the study, three major themes emerged: implementation of lean on business, integration of lean and six sigma and the effects of lean six sigma on businesses.

Practical implications

The study finding informs and educates practitioners and scholars about various qualitative research tools, applications and methods of implementing lean six sigma tools in different industry sectors.

Originality/value

The study uses bibliometric analysis to propose a novel categorization of research published in IJLSS and to report on the utilization of various lean tools in the journal. The study provides guidance for new future research besides offering a thorough introspection of the lean and six sigma domains.

中文翻译：

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国际精益六西格玛杂志的十年：文献计量学概述

目的

本研究旨在概述自国际精益六西格码杂志( IJLSS)成立以来发表的精益六西格码领域的领先研究趋势。

设计/方法/方法

该研究使用文献计量技术分析了 2010 年至 2019 年间在 IJLSS 上发表的文章。数据分析的结果确定了最多产的作者、他们的隶属关系、引用趋势和该期刊中被引用次数最多的文章。此外，涉及书目耦合和语料库的共引分析的图形分析丰富了调查。

发现

文献计量分析的结果表明，随着时间的推移，IJLSS 的出版物和引用次数显着增加（从 2010 年的 4 次引用增加到 2019 年的近 1,324 次）。在 IJLSS 上发表文章的作者之间的组织多样性和协作呈上升趋势。案例研究和焦点小组是出版物中最常见的两种研究设计。在研究中，出现了三大主题：精益对业务的实施、精益与六西格玛的整合以及精益六西格玛对业务的影响。

实际影响

该研究结果向从业人员和学者提供了有关在不同行业部门实施精益六西格玛工具的各种定性研究工具、应用和方法的信息和教育。

原创性/价值

该研究使用文献计量分析对发表在 IJLSS 上的研究提出了一种新的分类，并报告了该期刊中各种精益工具的使用情况。该研究除了对精益和六西格玛领域进行全面反思外，还为未来的新研究提供了指导。