Why has Six Sigma succeeded where TQM often failed?
There are many similarities between Total Quality Management (TQM) and Six Sigma. In fact, Six Sigma has been described as “TQM on steroids”. In the 80’s and 90’s, TQM was responsible for turning around the fortunes of a few companies in the West and for enabling astonishing economic growth of industries in the Far East that embraced this Japanese-led style of management. However, in Europe and the Americas, only a few companies embraced TQM with the same passion and succeeded as well. One way of thinking about Six Sigma is that it incorporates many of the recognisable features and improvement tools of TQM and also has fundamental requirements that eliminate the common causes of failure of TQM.
