PONE-D-23-20942An experimental investigation of Lean Six Sigma philosophies in a high-mix low-volume manufacturing environmentPLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Normand,

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ACADEMIC EDITOR: A major revision, considering all the review comments is required.==============================​

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Agbotiname Lucky Imoize

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

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"I have read the journal's policy and the authors of this manuscript have the following competing interests: Amanda Normand was employed by the manufacturer while conducting this research.

Thomas Bradley declares no competing interests."

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Additional Editor Comments:

The authors are required to revise the manuscript according to the review reports.

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Reviewers' comments:

Reviewer's Responses to Questions

Comments to the Author

1. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions?

The manuscript must describe a technically sound piece of scientific research with data that supports the conclusions. Experiments must have been conducted rigorously, with appropriate controls, replication, and sample sizes. The conclusions must be drawn appropriately based on the data presented.

Reviewer #1: Partly

Reviewer #2: Partly

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2. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously?

Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: No

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3. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available?

The PLOS Data policy requires authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception (please refer to the Data Availability Statement in the manuscript PDF file). The data should be provided as part of the manuscript or its supporting information, or deposited to a public repository. For example, in addition to summary statistics, the data points behind means, medians and variance measures should be available. If there are restrictions on publicly sharing data—e.g. participant privacy or use of data from a third party—those must be specified.

Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: Yes

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4. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English?

PLOS ONE does not copyedit accepted manuscripts, so the language in submitted articles must be clear, correct, and unambiguous. Any typographical or grammatical errors should be corrected at revision, so please note any specific errors here.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: No

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5. Review Comments to the Author

Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters)

Reviewer #1: This article discusses the impact of three different LSS interventions on HMLV manufacturing. The article is well within the scope of the Journal. However, some shortcomings regarding the text, literature review, sufficient experimental details, and discussion need to be addressed before publication. These are some suggestions to improve the article's quality.

1. The article lacks a comprehensive literature review on LSS and HMLV manufacturing. It would be beneficial to add a dedicated section for this purpose.

2. Experiments data presented is insufficient to conclude the results.

3. The inclusion of better pictorial representations of the experiments would enhance reader engagement.

4. While LSS philosophies typically follow the DMAIC approach, this article does not delve into this aspect. A significant revision is required to improve the overall structure.

5. Review the sentences in line number 24 and line number 73 for accuracy and clarity.

6. The authors make use of VSM, but they have not provided an explanation of what it is or why it's being used.

7. The concept of staging events and their impact on process downtime is not adequately explained. This should be addressed for a more comprehensive understanding.

8. To enhance the quality of this article, it is recommended to refer to the following related sources: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2022.e09043, https://doi.org/10.1108/IJQRM-08-2022-0250, https://doi.org/10.1080/09537287.2016.1185188

9. The outcomes of the study are not presented in the conclusion section. Specific conclusions are required.

Reviewer #2: The presented article has potential, but in my view, it has some issues. The structure of the work is not adequate: i) the introduction is long and should not contain figures or tables. The research question, objectives, and hypotheses should be evident. Part of what is in the review should go to a literature review chapter; ii) the method is not clear. Statistical hypotheses are not defined, and independent or causal variables are not identified. The experiment design is not clearly explained. The estimates of the indicators are punctual. It would be more appropriate to consider the confidence intervals and statistical significance. For example, capability indices. iii) The tables are presented far from the text, in an unordered way, and are not clear. iv) The analyses should be based on the variables identified in the method section. v) The conclusions should adhere to the objectives and statistical hypotheses.

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Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: No

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An experimental investigation of Lean Six Sigma philosophies in a high-mix low-volume manufacturing environment

PONE-D-23-20942R1

Dear Dr. Normand,

We’re pleased to inform you that your manuscript has been judged scientifically suitable for publication and will be formally accepted for publication once it meets all outstanding technical requirements.

Within one week, you’ll receive an e-mail detailing the required amendments. When these have been addressed, you’ll receive a formal acceptance letter and your manuscript will be scheduled for publication.

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If your institution or institutions have a press office, please notify them about your upcoming paper to help maximize its impact. If they’ll be preparing press materials, please inform our press team as soon as possible -- no later than 48 hours after receiving the formal acceptance. Your manuscript will remain under strict press embargo until 2 pm Eastern Time on the date of publication. For more information, please contact onepress@plos.org.

Kind regards,

Agbotiname Lucky Imoize

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Additional Editor Comments (optional):

Accept in current form.

Reviewers' comments:

Reviewer's Responses to Questions

Comments to the Author

1. If the authors have adequately addressed your comments raised in a previous round of review and you feel that this manuscript is now acceptable for publication, you may indicate that here to bypass the “Comments to the Author” section, enter your conflict of interest statement in the “Confidential to Editor” section, and submit your "Accept" recommendation.

Reviewer #1: All comments have been addressed

Reviewer #2: All comments have been addressed

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2. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions?

The manuscript must describe a technically sound piece of scientific research with data that supports the conclusions. Experiments must have been conducted rigorously, with appropriate controls, replication, and sample sizes. The conclusions must be drawn appropriately based on the data presented.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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3. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously?

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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4. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available?

The PLOS Data policy requires authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception (please refer to the Data Availability Statement in the manuscript PDF file). The data should be provided as part of the manuscript or its supporting information, or deposited to a public repository. For example, in addition to summary statistics, the data points behind means, medians and variance measures should be available. If there are restrictions on publicly sharing data—e.g. participant privacy or use of data from a third party—those must be specified.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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5. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English?

PLOS ONE does not copyedit accepted manuscripts, so the language in submitted articles must be clear, correct, and unambiguous. Any typographical or grammatical errors should be corrected at revision, so please note any specific errors here.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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6. Review Comments to the Author

Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters)

Reviewer #1: The paper may be accepted for publication

Reviewer #2: The paper has been improved, and the reseach issue is very important: the application of Lean Six Sigma (LSS) principles in a High-Mix Low-Volume (HMLV) manufacturing setting. The introduction is shorter than in the first version. Everything has been improved.

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7. PLOS authors have the option to publish the peer review history of their article (what does this mean?). If published, this will include your full peer review and any attached files.

If you choose “no”, your identity will remain anonymous but your review may still be made public.

Do you want your identity to be public for this peer review? For information about this choice, including consent withdrawal, please see our Privacy Policy.

Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: Yes: Pedro Carlos Oprime

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