Continuous improvement through Lean Six Sigma: a systematic literature review and bibliometric analysis

Purpose - Lean Six Sigma (LSS) improves the efficiency of organizations by systematically reducing variability, optimizing processes and eliminating waste to promote quality, productivity and customer satisfaction. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impacts of LSS on promoting continuous improvement practices and enhancing organizational efficiency. Design/methodology/approach - The method of this study involves a comprehensive systematic literature review and bibliometric analysis, which encompasses the time period between 2001 and April 2024 and collecting 1,992 articles from the Scopus database. The study uses several advanced tools such as RStudio for data processing, Biblioshiny for interactive analysis of bibliography and VOSviewer for illustrating scientific landscapes and research clusters detection. Findings - The findings of the study point out that efficiency, quality improvement and cost minimization are significantly affected through the application of LSS tools and techniques, which is consequently leads to promoting organizational excellence through continuous improvement across a variety of industrial sectors. Furthermore, the study focuses on the recent trends in the LSS's application including the integration of digital tools with LSS to grow the significance on sustainability. These trends are following to find out directions for further research by fostering continuous development in the business processes. Originality/value - The study is distinct in terms of its originality as systematic literature review and bibliometric analysis are coordinately demonstrated to provide a robust understanding about the impacts of LSS implementation in promoting organizational efficiency. The findings of the study generate new opportunities for the LSS sphere in the coming years. Using of modern technologies including Biblioshiny, VOSviewer and RStudio to analyze nearly two decades' scientific literature. Thus, valuable insights offered by this research into the practical implications of LSS tools from the economic and social context to boost organizational performance through continuous improvement.