The relationship between Lean Six Sigma, Industry 4.0 and sustainable manufacturing has been evaluated only to a limited extent within this domain of the published literature. A DMAIC-DMADV-based framework along with a phase-by-phase implementation path is proposed in this study to integrate Lean Six Sigma and Industry 4.0 technologies for achieving sustainable manufacturing. The paper also focused on identifying and prioritizing the critical success factors for the implementation of the proposed framework. The critical success factors identified through a literature review are ranked using the multi-decision criteria technique TOPSIS, with input from selected experts across various manufacturing companies. The results highlight that the most important enablers set clear sustainability goals, regularly monitor progress and have a skilled workforce. The findings provide actionable guidance for practitioners, and the study contributes to the existing body of knowledge by offering a comprehensive methodology to integrate Lean Six Sigma and Industry 4.0 for sustainable manufacturing. Further research must focus on the validation of the framework in diverse industrial settings and refining the sustainability assessment model to enhance its adaptability.

Hexagonal commercially pure titanium (cp-titanium) plates were subjected to unidirectional-rolling (rolling), accumulative roll-bonding (ARB) and cross-rolling in a laboratory rolling mill. Rolling and cross-rolling were carried out to impart 90% reduction in thickness and ARB processing was performed for six passes. The deformed plates were then subjected to annealing at 600 °C for a large range of soaking time starting from 0.17 min (10 s) to 30 min. It was observed that the samples were fully recrystallized after 5 min of annealing, irrespective of the rolling processes employed in this study. Also, the samples were seen to develop almost similar texture when annealing was carried out beyond 5 min of annealing time. However, before annealing, the texture development was seen to be different in the respective samples subjected to different rolling processes. The initial texture present in the deformed structure got strengthened during annealing of the samples under investigation. It was also observed that the texture development was insignificant in ARB-processed samples after annealing.