Prioritizing the CSFs of design for Six Sigma with a Fit-Sigma approach based on supplier and process integration

Purpose Identifying and prioritizing the Design for Six Sigma (DFSS) critical success factors (CSFs), based on the supplier integration and process integration factors in the supply chain of the home appliance industry. Design/methodology/approach The literature has been reviewed and the viewpoints of 20 experts in the relevant industry have been studied. The Pareto principle has also been used to select the most important factors obtained. Finally, to prioritize the most important selected factors of DFSS, a model has been developed with a two-stage Fuzzy House of Quality (FHoQ). To perform this research and consider that Polar Heating and Cooling Manufacturing Company (PHCMC) is one of the pioneers of the home appliance industry in recent decades in Iran, the supply chain of its chimneyless gas heater product has been considered as the case study. Findings Findings indicated that the priorities of the CSFs of DFSS based on the definite weights obtained from the results of the research model are linking Six Sigma to suppliers, project management, linking Six Sigma to business strategy, linking to organizational learning, considering customer needs and management commitment, respectively. Also, the priorities of supplier integration factors based on the definite weights obtained from the model are suppliers’ partnership, information sharing, top management commitment and support, supplier strategic integration, cost, and supplier evaluation and selection, respectively. Practical implications According to the findings, it is recommended that the design, research and development unit focus more on the processes and opinions of suppliers and with the special use of data categorization software such as MATLAB, it is also possible to improve the processes and optimize them in further integration of the supply chain. It is also possible to improve the suppliers’ integration in the supply chain with the help of correction analysis and improvement tools in the field of quality management. Originality/value Supplier integration, process integration and DFSS are three strategic areas in supply chain management that have been addressed in this research, simultaneously. The use of two-stage FHoQ, in obtaining the priority design for the CSFs of DFSS, is one of the significant innovations of this study, which can be used for greater supplier integration and also to improve supply chain integration.