This paper presents a review of the Six Sigma concept and applications employed in manufacturing industries that were analyzed based on published articles. The Six Sigma concept is widely recognized and utilized by worldwide organizations, especially in continuous improvement activities solving the production issues. This research was conducted by chosen articles related to the implementation of the Six Sigma in selected case study industries. The main objectives of this research are to identify the success factors of Six Sigma implementation, to define the suitable tools applied in the Six Sigma methodology, and to identify the constraints and limitations of the Six Sigma implementation. The outcomes obtained from the review articles showed that even though the implementation of Six Sigma is generally similar in terms of methodology, the application of the tools is significantly different based on the problem statement, and the completion time is also different due to complexity of the selected process. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2024.