=Paper=
{{Paper
|id=Vol-1764/6
|storemode=property
|title=The use of Lean Six Sigma methodology in digital curation
|pdfUrl=https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-1764/6.pdf
|volume=Vol-1764
|authors=Gabriele Arcidiacono,Ernesto William De Luca,Francesca Fallucchi,Alessandra Pieroni
|dblpUrl=https://dblp.org/rec/conf/mtsr/ArcidiaconoLFP16
}}
==The use of Lean Six Sigma methodology in digital curation==
https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-1764/6.pdf
THE USE OF LEAN SIX SIGMA METHODOLOGY IN DIGITAL CURATION
G. Arcidiacono1, E. W. De Luca1, F. Fallucchi1, A. Pieroni1
1
Department of Innovation & Information Engineering (DIIE)
Guglielmo Marconi University, Via Plinio 44, Rome 00193, Italy
Abstract.
In this paper, we give an overview about the current research in Big Data and
Digital Curation with a focus on Lean Six Sigma and discuss how this methodology
can help the Digital Curation lifecycle. For instance, the application of the Lean Six
Sigma methodology is presented and discussed with a special focus on the selection,
preservation, maintenance, collection and archiving of digital information, the so-
called Big Cultural Data. The aim of our work is to present a methodology for
Digital Curation lifecycle, asserting that all the actions belonging to the Data
Curation may be performed and optimized by using DMAIC (Define, Measure,
Analyze, Improve, Control) phases of Lean Six Sigma.
Keywords: Lean Six Sigma, Big Data, Digital Curation, Digital Humanities
1 Introduction
The vast amount of data in the field of cultural heritage makes it often difficult for
the interested person to retrieve the desired information. It has been thus imperative
need to introduce automatic methods that increase the relevance of hits by semantic
search. This can be achieved with the use of the Semantic Web. However, the various
meta-languages that have already been adopted in the Semantic Web are usually not
compatible with each other.
Furthermore, Digital Curation is generally referring the process of establishing and
developing long-term repositories of digital assets for research issues. Enterprises are
starting to utilize Digital Curation to improve the quality of information and data
within their operational and strategic processes.
One of the biggest challenges is to extract the relevant information from the huge
amount of data available in the digital world. In this paper, we give an overview about
the current research in Big Data and Digital Curation with a focus on Lean Six Sigma
(LSS) and discuss how this methodology can help the Digital Curation lifecycle.
2 Literature Review and research scope
The connection between Lean Six Sigma (LSS) and Big Data has been increasingly
established by the contribution of LSS to accelerate the process of extracting key
insights from Big Data, while highlighting how Big Data can bring new light and
innovation to projects requiring the use of Lean Six Sigma (Fogarty 2015). Big Data
have been given different definitions (Franks, 2012; Dumbill, 2012; Gobble, 2013);
however, it is commonly agreed that Big Data is often defined as an increased amount
of data thanks to the internet, and to the data related to the use of wireless devices,
leading to the opinion that Big Data are the next step in innovation (Gobble, 2013).
While the connection between LSS, Big Data and Digital Humanities Research is
still under preliminary debate, the connection between LSS, Big Data and
manufacturing has been established and discussed in previous research. In fact, as
regards manufacturing systems, the influence of the onset of Big Data and Big Data
analytics has been well identified, as well as the relationship of IoT (Bi & Cochran
2014; Bi, Xu, & Wang 2014) and Big Data analytics (Mo & Li 2015), which
facilitated information visibility, and increased the level of automation in design and
manufacturing engineering (Wang & Alexander 2015). However, Parker (2014)
commented that only about 10% of the value potential of the information collected
was actually utilized to enhance the level of management productivity. This because
high volume manufacturing system architecture may be different than low volume
products and there may be great difference in initial system maturity (Bi 2011).
2.1 Metadata, Digital Curation and Digital Humanities
Metadata is used to describe objects or processes regardless of the domain. There
exist a large number of metadata standards and formats. The cultural heritage domain
deals with developments like EAD (Encoded Archival Description), EAC-CPF
(Encodes Archival Context - Corporate Bodies, Persons, and Families), CIDOC-CRM
(CIDOC Conceptual Reference Model) or METS (Metadata Encoding and
Transmission Standard) to describe specific objects. EAD is an XML-based standard
for representing the structure of archival finding aids. Developed in 1993 it is based
on ISAD(G) (General International Standard Archival Description). EAD is widely
used in the USA. In Europe it is implemented more and more. It is expected, that most
of the data collected by the project will be in EAD. EAC-CPF was developed as a
supplement to EAD and was introduced in 2008. The description of persons, families
and institutions that are associated with the creation, preservation or use of the archive
or in any other way is in the focus of this standard. CIDOC-CRM is the acronym for
International Documentation Committee of the International Council of Museums -
Conceptual Reference Model. The data model has the goal of data sharing and data
integration of heterogeneous data sets between different systems and disciplines of the
cultural heritage sector, primarily museums but also archives. Semantic definitions are
proposed for the transformation of distributed information into comprehensive global
resources. METS is the XML-based description of descriptive, administrative and
structural metadata for a digital collection. Here, the digital objects are in the
foreground.
To represent and use the metadata provided by different institutions in different
metadata formats a top level exchange format is needed. Additionally, we need
automatic processes to support data curation. For using such automatic processes in
Digital Humanities, we need to first understand or give the definition of ‘Digital
Humanities’. This research field is a building bridge between information sciences
and the various humanities disciplines.
However, openness was always associated with a need for introspection and some
tentative boundaries definitions (Risam 2015). This research domain is defined
dynamically in the negotiation of these tensions as discussed by several Digital
Humanities scholars (Unsworth 2002; Svensson 2009; Rockwell 2011). In this paper,
we understand Digital Humanities as a scenario for the Lean Six Sigma and its use
with Big Data.
2.2 Lean Six Sigma and Big Data
Big Data processing can successfully be integrated by Lean Six Sigma (LSS) can,
as LSS is a strategy addressing entire process systems, aimed at reducing non-value-
adding activities, this by processing a huge amount of data. Ideally LSS can be
implemented to optimize performances of a varied range of systems, from the least to
the most complex, even when limited resources are available, to allow those same
limited resources to be spent most productively, such as within hospitals
(Arcidiacono, Wang, & Yang 2015). This because LSS isolates the main critical
stages and features of the whole process in sub-phases: problems are deconstructed
into smaller areas, to make process knowledge more accessible, and to solve process
issues with surgical precise actions (Arcidiacono, Costantino, & Yang, 2016).
Axiomatic Design (AD) is the tool to design the LSS training and process
management model, because it provides relevant criteria to critically analyse design.
Most significantly within the scope of this research, AD is indeed a flexible tool
suitable to be effectively applied to varied range of context and scenarios whereby
process improvement and optimization is required (Arcidiacono, Giorgetti, &
Pugliese, 2015; Arcidiacono & Placidoli, 2015). The DMAIC (Define, Measure,
Analyze, Improve, Control) could be applied as the methodology framing the entire
optimization process, to determine the dependence of a system and process reliability
(Arcidiacono & Bucciarelli, 2016). Therefore, LSS could be effectively implemented
in Digital Humanities Research, specifically within Digital Curation, to isolate
relevant data, avoid data obsolescence, and enhance data availability and high-quality
research, by optimizing data extraction and its related functions.
3 Our Approach: the use of LSS Methodology in Digital Curation
The exploration and the definition of the context and boundaries that belong to the
Big Data Digital Humanities Research area continue to be considered as an unsolved
and complex system. There are studies in literature (Kaplan, 2015) that attempt to
represent Big Data Research in Digital Humanities as a structured field, by proposing
a division of three concentric areas of study: Big Cultural Data, Digital Culture and
Digital Experiences. The aim of the author consists of proving that this huge amount
of information can be organized as structured field and, consequently, can be
characterized by common methodologies.
The goal of this paper, instead, consists of investigating the application of well-
known methodologies of process improvement and process optimization, such as
Lean Six Sigma methodology, to the Digital Curation aspects of the Digital
Humanities, where Digital Curation consists of selection, preservation, maintenance,
collection and archiving of digital information, with particular focus on the so-called
Big Cultural Data. In other words, Digital Curation involves maintaining, preserving
and adding value to digital data throughout its lifecycle. The active management of
data reduces risks to their long-term value and mitigates the threat of digital
obsolescence. Meanwhile, curated data in digital repositories may be shared among a
wider research community, increasing the intrinsic value of the Cultural Data, as
shown in Figure 1.
Fig.1: Digital Curation rules 1
Furthermore, Data Curation enhances the long-term value of existing data by
making it available for further high quality research. On the other hand, Cultural
humanists, involved in the Digital Curation aspects, are increasingly engaged with
curating and making accessible the digital materials.
As said above, Lean Six Sigma methodology is successfully and widely used in
many areas such as government, industry, healthcare, and education. The
1 The source of Fig.1 is the blog article “Digital Curation: putting the pieces together” by Sue Waters, available at
http://suewaters.com/author/suewaters/. [Last accessed 10th November, 2016]
methodology is based on the use of the DMAIC approach, a data-driven quality
strategy, as an instrument usable during the phase of extraction, analysis and sorting
of the data (Fogarty, 2015). DMAIC is an acronym representing the five phases that
make up the optimization process. In particular, Define the problem, the improvement
activity, the opportunity for improvement, the project goals, and the customer
(internal and external) requirements. Measure process performance. Analyze the
process to determine root causes of variation and poor performance (defects). Improve
process performance by addressing and eliminating the root causes. Control the
improved process and future process performance.
The processes of extraction, analysis and sorting the data allow to predict the future
trends and to achieve advantages in all environments. Lean Six Sigma is a complex
methodology where the accurate organization is able to observe and mitigate the
errors and the deviations occurring in its operations by applying strict rules. This
paper aims at initiating a new line of research that consists in investigating how
methodologies, such as LSS, may automate and optimize functions, such as
categorization, classification, clustering and digitalizing Big Cultural Data. This new
line of research should study, first of all, the meaning of Data Curation, which are the
actions to be performed and which actions may be automated and supported by digital
instruments, such as LSS. The first action, as shown in Figure 2, consists in describing
and representing the information: appropriate standards should be used in order to
describe metadata, so that it can be controlled over the long term.
Furthermore, all metadata and associated digital material should be represented in
appropriate formats. The second action consists in building a preservation strategy:
this action is important to plan for preservation throughout the data lifecycle.
Collaborating, supervising, and participating are the actions to be performed in
order to supervise data creation activities and to assist in the creation of the standards
to be used. Finally, curating and preserving represent the actions to be performed to
take into account the managerial and administrative aspects.
Fig.2: Actions of Data Curation Lifecycle 2
2 http://oxdrrc.blogspot.it/2008/12/research-data-management-services.html “Research Data Management and
Curation Services Framework”, Oxford University Digital Repository
4 Final Remarks and Conclusions
In this paper we have given a research overview on Big Data and Digital Curation
and we have proposed the application of well-known methodologies of process
improvement and process optimization, such as LSS methodology, to the Digital
Curation aspects of the Digital Humanities. Thus, the LSS is applied for the selection,
preservation, maintenance, collection and archiving of digital information, with
particular focus on the so-called Big Cultural Data. Furthermore, we have discussed
how this methodology may help the Digital Curation lifecycle, asserting that all the
actions belonging to the Data Curation may be performed and optimized by using
DMAIC phases of LSS.
5 References
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