Abstract:
In Indonesia, Six Sigma deployment is in its infant stage and most of the Six Sigma
applications have been with the joint venture companies driven by non-Indonesian
partners. One of the reasons for this is the relatively small portion of large
organisations in the Indonesian economy. More than 99% of all registered companies
in Indonesia are small and medium enterprises (SMEs) which employ 99.5% of the
entire workforce. Despite the fact that SMEs employ the majority of the Indonesian
work force, their contribution to the GDP is less than 60% and their share in export is
less 10%; a result which appears b be due to low productivity and poor quality of
products and services.
Some of the typical challenges being faced by the Indonesian SMEs include lack of
training and quality awareness at all levels, poor communication and coordination, and
lack of commitment by upper management. Other challenges include lack of
knowledge of modem production and quality control methods. These problems were
recognised by the Indonesian Government that initiated a productivity and quality
improvement program as part of the Japan/ASEAN TQM Projeet in 1995.
Using the experiences gained from the TQM implementation, in this paper the authors
discuss and analyse Six Sigma applications to the Indonesian SMEs.
