After Six Sigma — What ’ s Next ?

s Six Sigma a fad that has now run its course? If you have been around long enough to have experienced Philip Crosby’s zero defects and quality is free approach, Armand Feigenbaum’s total quality management (TQM), Joseph Juran’s trilogy, W. Edwards Deming’s 14 points, Japanese style TQM, quality circles, Taguchi methods, kaizen, ISO 9000, the Baldrige criteria and now Six Sigma, not to mention reengineering, poka yoke and lean manufacturing, it seems legitimate to ask what will come next. Cynics, of course, have already gleefully begun to ask whether it will be called Seven Sigma. Others hope it will all fade away. To hope quality management will go away is wishful thinking. It would be like reasoning that once you cleaned your house you never needed to do it again. Dealing with airlines and doing internet shopping provide daily reminders we still have a long way to go to achieve quality. Thus, if quality problems will require continued attention, what will come after Six Sigma? The short answer is labels may come and go, but a scientific approach to problem solving will remain. Indeed, history supports this assertion. If we look back to Walter Shewhart’s days, the fundamental principle he promoted was the use of a systematic scientific approach to dealing with problems of variability that caused costly defects and quality problems. This idea has endured through all the numerous incarnations of quality management. We predict a scientific approach to problem solving will remain the foundation of our profession. I