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The purpose of this paper is to develop a model to help service organizations assess their readiness for a six sigma program and to provide suggestions for methods of introducing the six sigma process. The organizational readiness model is then applied in an actual service setting.

A review of relevant literature is used to identify two proposed components of organizational readiness: organizational experience with improvement programs and organizational understanding of processes.

The proposed model is applied in an urban public transit company. The application includes an analysis of the transit company's readiness for six sigma, the design and administration of a survey to identify perceptual differences between customers and the organization and the statistical analysis of the survey. The survey analysis is then used to identify differences in perceptions between service employees and customers. These differences provide the basis for the development of a process improvement that employees should be able to undertake.

The proposed organizational readiness model is of interest to both researchers and managers. Researchers should find the construct organizational readiness and the proposed components of interest because they provide an area for research related to successful implementation of six sigma programs. The model, as it is developed in the paper, along with the example should provide managers considering the adoption of six sigma with a usable method for assessing their particular organization.