Table 2. Academic weight and citation trends based on initial search results (n = 262).

Rank	Author(s)	Year	Title	Journal	Citations
1	Laureani and Antony [8]	2018	Leadership - a critical success factor for the effective implementation of Lean Six Sigma	Total Qual Manag Bus Excell	150+
2	Al-Balushi et al. [4]	2014	Readiness factors for Lean implementation in healthcare settings--a literature review	J Health Organ Manag	120+
3	Noori [9]	2015	Identifying critical issues in Lean implementation in hospitals	Hosp Top	100+
4	Kumar et al. [10]	2015	Conceptualisation of sustainable green Lean Six Sigma: an empirical analysis	Int J Business Excell	80+
5	Swarnakar et al. [7]	2023	Prioritization of critical success factors for sustainable Lean Six Sigma implementation in Indian healthcare organizations using best-worst method	TQM J	65+
6	Ali and Alolayyan [11]	2013	The impact of total quality management (TQM) on the hospital's performance: an empirical research	Int J Serv Oper Manag	60+
7	Spagnol et al. [12]	2013	Lean principles in healthcare: an overview of challenges and improvements	IFAC Proc Vol	55+
8	Sidek and Martins [13]	2017	Perceived critical success factors of electronic health record system implementation in a dental clinic context: an organisational management perspective	Int J Med Inform	50+
9	Rathi et al. [14]	2022	Lean Six Sigma in the healthcare sector: a systematic literature review	Mater Today Proc	40+
10	Naidoo and Fields [15]	2019	Critical success factors for the successful initiation of Lean in public hospitals in KwaZulu-Natal: a factor analysis and structural equation modelling study	Hum Resour Health	38+