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Abstract
Six Sigma has been implemented at many organizations, and has reportedly generated billions of dollars in cost savings. Despite claims that Six Sigma is not another management fad. its basic tenets and history thus far appear analogous to total quality management (TQM), which was labeled by many as a management fad. By looking at the number of articles published by year, the degree of similarity between the two management philosophies was measured using the Kolmogoror Goodness-of-Fit test. This study found significant similarity between the distributions of TQM and Six Sigma article counts, and gave impetus for the authors' use of analogy forecasting to offer an estimate of Six Sigma's remaining life cycle. The authors' results show that Six Sigma has about seven years left in its life cycle.
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Notes on contributors
Richard J. Goeke
Richard J. Goeke is a teaching fellow in the College of Business Administration at Kent State University in Kent, Ohio. His teaching and research interests focus on issues germane to large corporations, including quality management, R&D management, information systems, and human resources. Previously, Goeke worked 17 years in industry, where he was a member of numerous quality improvement teams in retail, accounting, and information systems. He can be reached by e-mail at rgoeke@kent.edu.
O. Felix Offodile
O. Felix Offodile is a professor in the Management & Information Systems Department at Kent State University in Kent, Ohio. He received his doctorate in industrial engineering from Texas Tech University, and has taught graduate and undergraduate courses on a wide range of manufacturing and quality topics, including quality and cost control. Offodile has been a process and quality consultant to industry, and his research interests continue to focus on issues related to manufacturing and quality management. His research has been published in such journals as Technometrics, IIE Transactions, International Journal of Production Research, Journal of Manufacturing Systems, Omega, and International Journal of Management Science. He can be reached by e-mail at foffodil@bsa3.kent.edu.