The first Curious Cat Management Improvement blog post was on the Six Sigma and Deming Philosophies
Recently the Deming Electronic Network has returned to this topic (broken link removed).
The Quality Advisor web site has an article on this topic: Deming and Six Sigma (broken link so removed):
The Six Sigma process can be seen to offer a parallel to Deming’s Plan-Do-Study-Act Cycle, although Six Sigma brings experimental design and regression analysis to the forefront in the “plan” phase. Six Sigma also emphasizes design as a key function for achieving six sigma performance levels, and devotes attention to planning the design phase of production. Deming, too, emphasized “Plan” in his four-state cycle, promoting the importance of establishing a relationship between desired output and required input as well as necessary production processes.
Perhaps the most striking difference between the approaches is Deming’s focus on the responsibilities of management, outlined in his “The 14 Obligations of Management,” and “The Deadly Diseases.” The Six Sigma approach, by contrast, lays out a more rigid structure of roles and responsibilities throughout an organization, including executive management, a senior champion, deployment champions, project champions, deployment master black belts, project master black belts, project black belts, process owners, and six sigma green belts.
What would Deming do? [link broken so I removed it] by David R. Schwinn
I started thinking that it might be interesting to ask, “What would Deming do (WWDD)?” as it relates to Six Sigma theory and practice…
The site doesn’t provide links form one part to the next so here those links are:
[More links broken so I removed them. People that manage web sites really shouldn’t waste incoming links by breaking them. I keep hoping finally people will adopt this simple idea that has been well know for more than a decade but still people keep doing it.]
(Posted by Slartibartfarst, 2009 0612)
Links will probably always be at risk of being broken, since change is a constant feature on the Internet. We probably need to get used to that and accept it.
Similarly, I would recommend that we need to accept and maintain a healthy skepticism about the self-conferred and self serving terms “Six Sigma”, “Lean Six Sigma” and “TQM”. (By the way, this is not to confuse Six Sigma with the Pink Floyd act Sigma 6.)
The redundant links that you refer to and have removed, and others still current, would seem to have held, or still hold a wealth of material illustrating:
(a) that Juran categorically showed his low regard for the self-conferred term Six Sigma – it lacks statistical veracity;
(b)that Deming would have nothing to do with Six Sigma – as he would have nothing to do with that other self-conferred term TQM;
(c) That that does not seem to have stopped these movements from trying to attach themselves through unsubstantiated supposition or reference to Juran’s/Deming’s names to gain credibility.