A bibliometric analysis of the evolution of Six Sigma in the context of Industry 4.0

Abstract

Contemporary world with constantly increasing speed of change and rapid development of technologies is challenging companies to accustom to existing complexity. This led to the fact that various methodologies change accordingly. Practitioners and researchers are seeking the ways to ameliorate processes using emerging technologies. One of the methodologies is Six Sigma that has always been connected with technologies necessary for data collection and analysis. The emergence of new technologies might benefit or challenge Six Sigma. In this paper an attempt has been performed to analyze the trends in research output of the conjunction of Industry 4.0 technologies and Six Sigma methodology. This paper is based on the bibliometric analysis. In the process of analysis, it was found that the combination of Six Sigma methodology and Industry 4.0 technology has positive potential, however, not all of the technologies have been analyzed.