Integration of Six Sigma with a QMS based on the ISO 9001 requirements: A Portuguese SME case study

Organizations around the world are increasingly striving to adopt internal management systems and continuous improvement strategies to be able to compete in the global marketplace. In this context, Six Sigma and ISO 9001 quality management systems (QMS) are two well-known and popular approaches. Although their scopes diverge, there are many potential beneficial synergies between them, which can be useful for companies to take advantage of. By exploiting the relationships between Six Sigma and QMS based on the ISO 9001 standard, this paper proposes ways to integrate them attending to the structure and common elements of the ISO Guide 72.