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This paper reports the results of a pilot study on the implementation of Lean Six Sigma (LSS) in East African service and manufacturing organizations. The purpose of this paper is to determine the critical success factors for implementation of such a strategy as well as any barriers. A further aim was to determine the knowledge, usage and usefulness of LSS tools and techniques within those organizations.

A quantitative approach was taken utilizing a survey questionnaire which was sent to a sample of organization employees who had attended Yellow, Green or Black Belt LSS training courses organized by the Kenya Institute of Management in Nairobi. Employees attending such courses came from Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Rwanda.

Results indicate that the most useful tools are most of the original seven tools of quality improvement proposed by Ishikawa over 50 years ago and the most important factor for successful implementation of LSS is management involvement and participation.

The main limitation is that this is a pilot study so to confirm the findings a full survey of East African organization needs to be undertaken.

The findings have implications for trainers, consultants and practitioners with regards to the implementation of LSS within organizations as well as the focus of the content of LSS training courses.

This paper reports the first study on the implementation of LSS in East Africa and will be of value to practitioners, trainers, consultants and researchers of LSS in East Africa and beyond.

The purpose of this paper is to provide various perspectives on the future of quality professionals from a number of leading academics and practitioners around the world.

The approach taken was to collate opinions from a number of leading academics and practitioners from different countries. It was also important to ensure that all participants in the study had a good knowledge and expertise in the field of quality and operations management. Most of the participants had over 30 years of experience in quality and related disciplines and some of them are pioneers in their respective fields of quality management/engineering.

As the global economic forces were radically changing, it is essential that quality managers face the future with quality-based integrated management programmes that fit the new business era rather than continuing with systems that may have worked in the past.

Due to time constraints, the number of people participated in the study was relatively small. However, the author is currently pursuing a larger study looking into the future of quality professionals within the context of Scottish Manufacturing and Service companies.

The paper provides an excellent resource for many researchers and practitioners equally who are engaged in research and applications on this topic. Moreover it was observed during the review of current literature that very few studies are related to the topic on the future of quality professionals and their future roles in modern organisations.

The purpose of this paper is to examine what mystery shopping is, why it is used and how mystery customers are trained and how the information collected is fed back to the client organisation.

The approach was to use an online survey of mystery shoppers compares the reality of the situation with the best practice identified from the extant literature.

The main outcome was that results identify good and bad practices in all areas of the process and guidelines for the recruitment, training and monitoring of mystery shoppers are proposed including in-depth training in all aspects of the job.

A sample of 85 mystery shoppers was used and only in the UK. It would be interesting to widen this out internationally.

Mystery shoppers are used worldwide by services to evaluate the performance of their front-line people and processes but are their evaluations valid and reliable? This research identifies good and bad practice which should help managers to design their training for mystery shoppers.

The paper addresses a gap in the literature on the perceptions of mystery shoppers.

The purpose of this paper is to determine the effect of strategic alliances on firm performance and the moderating effect of firm size in retail firms in Nairobi County in Kenya.

Resource Dependency Theory was used to guide the study. The study adopted explanatory research design. Questionnaires were used to collect data from sample of 216 respondents through stratified and simple random sampling technique. The study used inferential statistics to test hypotheses.

Study findings indicated that joint marketing alliances, procurement-supplier alliances, joint manufacturing alliances and technology development alliances have significant and positive effect on firm performance. Based on the findings, creating a joint marketing, procurement-supplier, joint manufacturing and technology development alliances mostly enhance firm performance.

The study considered only one county out of 47, although this county hosts the capital city, where most of the firms considered are located. It therefore is representative of all counties and firms considered in this study. It also considered top management staff and thus may have an effect since the lower cadre staff were not considered. However, most of the required information was expected from top management since these are the ones who make decisions, and hence most affected by strategic alliances.

This study has practical implication on firm performance because it has established that strategic alliance improves on overall firm performance. This manifests itself in terms of improve productivity, production efficiency and profitability. It also helps in the availability of products to the end users.

Through improved productivity, efficiency and profitability, this translates to improved terms of payment of staff and hence improved quality of lives of their families and communities within which they live. It also enables the firms to participate more in corporate social responsibility projects which in turn improves the standard of living of the communities around them.

The study has provided an empirical insight on the importance of strategic alliance on firm performance. This is the first study done in the Kenyan context concerning strategic alliances formed by firms to improve on their performance especially on retail firms.

The purpose of this paper is to determine the effects of head teachers’ motivational practices on teacher performance in public secondary schools in Kenya. The objectives of the study: to determine the influence of staff recognition; shared leadership by teachers; participation in staff development programmes; and head teachers’ support for the teachers on performance.

The study design was descriptive survey involving 186 teachers and 32 head teachers from Koibatek district. The instruments comprised of a questionnaire and an interview guide. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics, and presented using tables and pie charts.

Recognition of teachers and good working conditions enhance teachers’ performance. Shared leadership between teachers and head teachers has a positive effect on teacher performance Teachers’ professional growth enhances performance. The teachers who receive head teachers’ support such as teaching materials are more motivated enhancing performance.

Administrators of schools should often recognize teachers. The Board of Management, Teachers Service Commission, and head teachers should provide opportunities for shared leadership. The Quality Assurance and Standard (QAS) Directorate, need funds to engage teachers in in-service courses.

Teachers should be supported by providing teaching resources and ICT, and be given opportunities for advancement by government agencies.

Teachers should be recognized through appreciation and other incentives during prize giving days and assemblies. Teachers be given responsibilities and freedom to act to develop abilities.

The research shows teacher motivation as a means of enhancing performance for quality management.

The purpose of this paper is to determine the level of Lean Six Sigma (LSS) implementation at National bank Operations Division by utilizing the five stages of progress identified by Gygi et al. (2005), namely, initialize, deploy, implement, expand and sustain. A further aim was to determine the impact of implementation so far on various operations within the division.

The study was conducted within the head office. Data were gathered through a questionnaire distributed to all employees working in the operations division via e-mail. Responses were analyzed using SPSS v20.

The results obtained indicated that 99 percent of the respondents agreed or strongly agreed that the bank has past stages 1 and 2 and are now implementing stage 3. The finding also showed that there was a significant impact on a number of operations including reductions in average process cycle times, reductions in costs, reductions in turnaround times and reductions in error rates.

The research findings are limited to National Bank of Kenya Ltd and may not be generalized to other organizations. Further research will have to be carried out to cover other types of organizations to establish general impact.

The findings of the study provide evidence of the practical benefits of LSS as well as justification for the adoption and implementation of LSS principles and techniques in the National Bank of Kenya with possible similar benefits for other financial services organizations.

This study is the first to report on the implementation of LSS in a Kenya bank.

The purpose of this paper is to present the experience and impact of implementing the ISO 9001: 2008 Standard at the University of Nairobi, in relation to effectiveness on service delivery, operational performance, automation, implementation challenges and related emerging issues.

The paper adopted a case study design approach based on qualitative analysis of internal audit reports, internal surveys and feedback, surveillance audits conducted by the certifying body, and rankings by external bodies, over a period of seven years.

Significant achievements have been realized with regard to institutionalization of quality into the university processes, work environment, documentation and record management, customer satisfaction, infrastructure and facilities, use of ICT as a prime mover of performance improvement, and ranking of the university. Opportunities for improvement as well as critical success factors are presented.

The paper reports successes that may encourage other institutions of higher learning that are not certified to implement Quality Management Systems (QMSs) according to ISO 9001 Standard by focusing on specific factors.

This paper shows how an ISO 9001 certified QMS can improve internal institutional practices and avoid frequently experienced drawbacks.

Statistical thinking is an intrinsic part of the quality movement. Helped by initiatives such as Six Sigma, there is greater acceptance of the importance of data analysis and a general trend towards embracing numeracy. It is timely to review the emergence of statistical thinking and consider the good and bad features resulting from its application in a wide range of sectors.

The paper first defines statistical thinking and justifies its importance to the quality movement. The achievements from the past 25 years are then considered sector by sector along with their collateral damage.

The following lessons are proposed for the next 25 years: statistical thinking needs to expand its remit to include more aspects of analytical thinking becoming what may be called wider statistical thinking; statistical thinkers have ground-breaking ideas and need to communicate with managers at the top of the hierarchy to ensure that both the thinkers and the ideas have the influence they deserve; whilst learning from past successes, the quality movement must be mindful of knock-on effects and nurse a holistic viewpoint; expect the unexpected.

Statistical thinking is gaining more prominence in all sectors and is used within the quality movement to make major progress as well as major upsets. It is important that the quality movement treads carefully and makes sure that society as a whole benefits from the ever increasing drive for improvement.

The purpose of the paper is to make a case for achieving business excellence through sustainable change management. Business excellence is defined through the Baldrige Performance Excellence Criteria. Sustainable change management has three pillars: enlightened leadership to provide change direction, great project management to manage technical aspects of change, and excellent talent management for implementing the change. All three pillars will be discussed in this paper along with successful examples of sustainable change management practices from various sectors.

The paper is a synopsis of professional work done by the author over 38 years in achieving business excellence and managing sustainable change in professional and personal arena.

The paper provides insights about how sustainable change is achieved to propel an entity toward business excellence. It suggests that leadership is central in initiating the change for the benefit of the enterprise. To successfully manage change, strong project management skills are crucial. Without proper talent management, change initiatives will falter.

This paper fulfills a global need on how to achieve business excellence through sustainable change management.