Driving quality excellence through Industry 4.0 and Lean Six Sigma integration: An empirical structural equation modelling approach

This study investigates the integration of Industry 4.0 (I4.0) and Lean Six Sigma (LSS) in automotive manufacturing, focusing on the relationships among Critical Success Factors (CSFs), Challenges (Ch), Workforce Skills (WS), Industry 4.0 Technologies (I4T), and Lean Six Sigma Tools (LSST), and their collective impact on Performance Measures (PM). An empirical survey of automotive manufacturing companies was conducted to test a conceptual model linking CSFs, Ch, WS, I4T, and LSST with performance improvement. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was employed to validate the hypothesized relationships. The analysis revealed that CSFs strongly influence I4T (0.510), LSST (0.520), and PM (0.471). LSST and I4T were also significantly improve the performance (0.538 and 0.371), indicating that combined structured process improvements and digital technologies enhanced operations. The findings are consistent with the existing literature (Sony et al. Citation2021; Vinodh and Wankhede Citation2021), emphasizing the importance of top management support, transformative leadership style, strategic business alignment, and organizational readiness. This study has the limitation of cross-sectional design and targeting a specific automotive segment. The future work should focus on longitudinal designs, environmental and market influences, and technology maturity to enhance knowledge on digital and lean transformation.