Integration of Ergonomics and Lean Six Sigma. A model proposal

Lean Six Sigma (LSS) aims to help companies continuous improvement (CI), coping with the strong business competition and gaining organizational effectiveness. Both Ergonomics and LSS are system-oriented approaches and could have a synergistic effect in CI. The integration of Ergonomics and LSS requires a new methodological framework that evolves from their single approaches, which coherently applies the principles of both and simultaneously ensuring gains in productivity and in working conditions. To help SME (99% of all businesses in EU) to realize their full potential a tool that supports the implementation of the mentioned framework is also desirable. A practical tool to fulfill this goal can assume the form of a Decision Support System (DSS). Therefore the objective of this paper is to present the model of a framework and of an associated DSS. (C) 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.