Applying six sigma methodology to improve quality of information: Case of a manufacturing organisation

Information is the most important resource of any organisation. Its influence spans enabling business processes to strategic corporate decisions support. The ability to capture right information, process it in the right way, and communicate it to right stakeholders in right time is extremely important. Quality of information, therefore, has been the focus of research in academia and industry for the past two decades. However many organizations are still struggling with information quality improvement and to mitigate the impacts of poor quality of information. This is because information quality is a multi-dimensional concept and involves technical, organizational, and human dimensions of information system. This paper addresses the technical dimension of information quality and focuses on the relationship that information quality dimensions have with each other. It takes a product perspective of information and provides an application of six-sigma methodology to improve information quality in a Korean manufacturing organization. It focuses on correlation and relative importance of information quality dimensions through the use of Analytic Hierarchy Process. This paper, thus, demonstrates how to measure information quality and institute an ongoing process of information quality improvement in the organisation.