Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the limitations and emerging trends of Six Sigma through an empirical study. Six Sigma is one of the most powerful business process improvement strategies used by numerous World Class corporations for over three decades. A handful of existing publications address some limitations and potential trends of Six Sigma, yet there are no empirical studies investigating the fundamental limitations and emerging trends of Six Sigma. Design/methodology/approach: The authors developed an online survey instrument based on the existing literature addressing the above. In this study, 61 Six Sigma Master Black Belts and Black Belts from large manufacturing companies and 25 academics who are familiar with the Six Sigma topic participated and contributed to the research. Findings: The study reports the top 5 limitations and emerging trends of Six Sigma from the viewpoints of both academics and experts from large manufacturing companies. These are: integration of Six Sigma with Big Data, use of Six Sigma in small medium and micro enterprises, over emphasis of Six Sigma on variability reduction, poor implementation of Six Sigma and its negative impact on employee satisfaction and non-exploitation of integration of Six Sigma with Industry 4.0. Practical implications: In order to sustain Six Sigma initiatives, it is imperative that limitations and fundamental gaps are understood, and strategies developed to address them. The authors argue that leading academic scholars have a vital role to play in working with industry practitioners to overcome the limitations and emerging trends addressed above. Originality/value: To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first empirical study looking into the limitations, research gaps and emerging trends of Six Sigma.

In order to stay competitive and relevant in the business environment, companies need to embrace and address internal and external change and understand how to deal with it. It is necessary for them to develop knowledge about the success and failure factors of handling change and how the latter can be resolved. The aim of this study was to identify change management success and failure factors and provide a method dealing with failure factors. In the systematic literature review, 38 success factors and 23 failure factors from 2006 to 2021 were identified. In comparing the frequency of the occurring factors, 4 main success and 3 failure factors emerged. The success factors included: communication, create a vision/change message, early active participation of all individuals and top management commitment. The failure factors included; resistance to change, standardised concepts and viewing change initiatives as short-term. Complementarity and dependency links between failure factors and success factors were highlighted. Solutions for resolving three failure factors were found using Ishikawa-Diagrams and applying root cause analysis. Identifying key factors that affect project success is part of handling change. To support any necessary change a consistent change management framework that is adaptable to individual organisations is also recommended.

Studies show that reduced literacy skills can negatively influence a childs self-esteem and future career opportunities. Literacy is significantly affected when problems exist understanding the phonological component or sound structure of language i.e. phonological awareness. Children with dyslexia in particular, experience difficulties in spelling and reading accuracy due to a deficit in this phonological component of language. To support children with dyslexia and reduced literacy skills, intervention programmes which focus on phonological awareness elements are recommended. Studies show that game based learning (GBL) interventions can enhance learning for children with dyslexia. The purpose of this pilot study was to partner with children with dyslexia aged between 9 to 12 years, to develop a game toolkit called Cosmic Sounds, to support the teaching of phonological awareness skills. The content for the Cosmic Sounds games was informed by a pedagogical expert in dyslexia. This pilot study addressed the following; Can a toolkit of games, co-designed by children with dyslexia improve the teaching of phonological awareness skills Our findings showed that by including children and their teacher as part of the design team, they were more invested in using the games for learning. Furthermore, when children with dyslexia played Cosmic Sounds, there was a positive impact on their phonological awareness skills progress whilst their engagement in learning also increased.

This study aims to identify effective ways to design virtual rehabilitation to obtain physical improvement (e.g. balance and gait) and support engagement (i.e. motivation) for people with osteoporosis or other musculoskeletal disorders. Osteoporosis is a systemic skeletal disorder and is among the most prevalent diseases globally, affecting 0.5 billion adults. Despite the fact that the number of people with osteoporosis is similar to, or greater than those diagnosed with cardiovascular disease and dementia, osteoporosis does not receive the same recognition. Worldwide, osteoporosis causes 8.9 million fractures annually; it is associated with substantial pain, suffering, disability and increased mortality. The importance of physical therapy as a rehabilitation strategy to avoid osteoporosis fracture cannot be over-emphasised. However, the main rehabilitation challenges relate to engagement and participation. The use of virtual rehabilitation to address such challenges in the delivery of physical improvement is gaining in popularity. As there currently is a paucity of literature applying virtual rehabilitation to patients with osteoporosis, the authors broadened the search parameters to include articles relating to the virtual rehabilitation of other skeletal disorders (e.g. Ankylosing spondylitis, spinal cord injury, motor rehabilitation, etc.). This systematic review initially identified 130 titles, from which 23 articles (involving 539 participants) met all eligibility and selection criteria. Four groups of devices supporting virtual rehabilitation were identified: a head-mounted display, a balance board, a camera and more specific devices. Each device supported physical improvement (i.e. balance, muscle strength and gait) post-training. This review has shown that: (a) each device allowed improvement with different degrees of immersion, (b) the technology choice is dependent on the care need and (c) virtual rehabilitation can be equivalent to and enhance conventional therapy and potentially increase the patient’s engagement with physical therapy.

To remain competitive, it is important for organizations to be aware of the success factors for effective conventional project management. It is equally important for them to develop knowledge about project management challenges and how such challenges can be addressed. Organizations and their project management teams are influenced by the three categories of enablers, limitations and challenges. In this study, a review was carried out to highlight the challenges impacting the effectiveness of conventional project management. The review process comprised; identifying the research question; identifying relevant references; selecting studies; charting the data; and collating, summarizing, and reporting results. This process resulted in the inclusion of eight relevant references. Based on the frequency of challenge occurrence, the following five significant challenges have been identified; communication, control, competence, culture, and complexity. Complementarity and dependency links between these five challenges have been highlighted in this paper. In this review paper, some project management challenges may not be presented. Due to the selected databases, search terms, chosen publications, and the authors’ assessment, the research may have some limitations. Furthermore, the challenges of conventional project management can partly be overcome by a mixture of other project management methods and identified recommendations.