Quality Movement of the 90's

Anyone remember the big quality movement in business that began back in the 90's?  This was basically the precursor of today's Six Sigma (which I admit to knowing almost nothing about).

I was at the forefront of this movement -- and from about 1992-96, pretty much made a short career out of it.  Aside from the fact that once I found out how much the whole thing was involved in numbers, there was something else that happened that exposed its flaw.

In 1995, I remember attending a Service Quality conference being given in Baltimore by the American Society for Quality (then the American Society for Quality Control), of which I was a prominent member and held a chair position for my local chapter.  In it, I attended a seminar given by a woman who had this story:  She was from Connecticut, and lived near a small local hamburger stand that had apparently gained quite a cult following throughout the area and the state, for that manner.  The name of it I remember she said was Pilot Burger.  According to her, the stand just served darn good hamburgers.  She said that when you went there, you were greeted by a sign that said, "If you want it your way, go to Burger King".  Her talk began after this story with her saying, "that's fine for that little hamburger stand out in the middle of nowhere Connecticut.  But, realize this -- they are never going to achieve the mass global appeal of a franchise conglomerate like Burger King."

I don't know about you, but I almost immediately realized the problem with this thinking.  The service quality movement said in effect, it's the customers who determine what is good based on their purchasing preferences.  OK, but if the mass appeal churns out more Burger Kings, that's not good at all for society in the long run.

I could easily continue to write about this for another hour or two.  Any comments?