How to compare six sigma, lean and the theory of constraints

community a multitude of process improvement champions are vying for leadership attention. Each champion advocates the adoption of his or her improvement methodology in your organization. Almost all plead that if you adopt their specific tools or follow a specific way of thinking, all your business problems will be solved. After listening to multiple champions advocate their special methodology, how do you choose what will be best for your situation? What methodology fits the culture of your organization? Many process improvement methodologies appear to conflict with each other or at least downplay the contribution of other methodologies. This montage of tools and philosophies creates the illusion of conflicting strategies. In this article, I will discuss the basics of the three improvement methodologies and present a model to help you understand their concepts and effects and similarities and differences. Table 1 describes the essence of each methodology.