Reviews (11)

Worth the time
This book is an excellenct introduction for those who just need to 'catch up' with eveyone else talking Six Sigma. It is an easy-read, well-written synopsis of Six Sigma and Six Sigma implementation. It is not an indepth look at statisitcs, SPC or implementation--there are plenty of books out there for that, several by the same author, but it is a very helpful book that I will keep in my library and have already worn the cover by lending it to colleagues.

Six Sigma Overview
If you are looking for a book to take you from no knowledge of Six Sigma to a very elementary level of knowledge, this could be useful. I found myself feeling like I was reading a company brochure for Six Sigma that was too long. The book falls into a middle ground of not having enough information to be useful in implementing Six Sigma yet might have too much for the average person.
I originally thought this would be a great book to give to people that congratulate me on being a Six Sigma Black Belt, that they once took Karate but never got that far, to understand Six Sigma. After thinking about the level of knowledge of many people regarding basic statistics I think as simple as this book is it may be over the general person's comfort level. I'm afraid it might cause people to shut down from feeling overwhelmed. If they have basic statistical skills, they should have no problem understanding this though.
Maybe the book is perfect for people being asked to participate in Six Sigma initiatives or working with a company that is implementing Six Sigma. I would be uncomfortable giving this to somebody with no Six Sigma knowledge and not being available to discuss it with them, hold their hand through it. If you have a real interest in Six Sigma, pick up one of the "heavier" books, including The Six Sigma Way by the same author. You can skim through it and get this same information. If you want more information it will be there, no need to buy another book.

Interesting, But Apparently Not Sufficiently Persuasive
This book circulated at my company while decisions were being made as to what management consultant vehicle to pursue. I thought it was quite interesting, and was ready to seek the training, become a black belt and so forth -- but our firm decided to go with Three Rho, because it's twice as efficient for half the price. Such is life. Rho Rho Rho.

All The 6 Sigma Basics and Just the Basics
Of the Six Sigma books I've read, this is the one I'd recommend most highly. It will give you the basic "tools" of Six Sigma in a compact, useable form. I feel that this would be an excellent text for corporate training on Six Sigma, certainly for an introductory course.

A quick read of the reviews on Amazon will give you a feel for why people are skeptical of 6 Sigma: the feel-good tone of most writing on 6 Sigma and the insistence that it "is not a flavor-of-the-month management trend" make many of us suspect that 6 Sigma is not much more than hollow jargon and acronyms.

Lets accept that these criticisms are valid and further that many "practitioners" are just self-aggrandizing or worse. But that still leaves us with the essential difficulties of positive change in any organization: you need to overcome assumptions that your organization's subculture may not even realize it has. What a corporation does by accepting Six Sigma is that it empowers people to gather data to challenge what "everybody knows". Most importantly, it sets a very high quality standard, which reinforces the sanctioning of data-driven change.

The authors of "What is Six Sigma" put it very well early on: "proactive management means making habits out of what are, too often, neglected business practices: defining ambitious goals and reviewing them frequently, setting clear priorities, focusing on problem prevention rather than firefighting, and questioning why we do things instead of blindly defending them."

I feel that the greatest flaw in Six Sigma is that many practitioners and even the books permit the basics to be lost in the shuffle. If one listens to people talk about Six Sigma, its easy to forget that a critical part of Six Sigma is that the data comes first, not the solution. I often hear co-workers say "we need to finish this project to improve our six sigmas" or "if we could get rid of this server we'll all get our green belts".

The term Six Sigma is derived from statistics and many books gloss over the statistics and move right on to basic project management techniques or how to overcome objections to Six Sigma. This book gives a clear and brief explanation of how to calculate standard deviations and includes a handy table to help with determine "sigma levels". Every Six Sigma book should respond to the challenge raised by this book and also include this information in the first 10 pages.

Finally, I recommend this book because it is concise and to-the-point. I feel that the fluff and/or Machiavellian advice in many of the other books just feed into people's healthy skepticism and distract people from the beauty of Six Sigma: the challenge to strive for near-perfect quality and the sanction to use statistics to cut through the inertia in our work lives.

I would also recommend Michael Lewis' "Moneyball" (ISBN 0393057658) as a companion book. Lewis (author of "Liar's Poker") uses Wall Street trading as an analogy to explain why the Oakland As baseball team is one of the successful teams with much less money than most. But I also see an analogy relevant to the topic of Six Sigma. "Moneyball" shows how one can achieve superior results by testing what everyone thinks they know with fact gathering and rigorous analyses. Moneyball and "What is Six Sigma" may prove to be an inspiring combination.

Perfect Company Primer
This short but insightful guide is the perfect reading assignment prior to a Six Sigma implementation. The book provides a brief overview of what Six Sigma is, who does what and how the most successful companies have implemented Six Sigma using the DMAIC process (Define, Measure, Analyze, Input, and Control)
If you are thinking of implementing Six Sigma. Keep this little book on your desk or in your back pocket for immediate reference. We use a copy at my office to gain an organizational understanding of Six Sigma. In the future we will implement Six Sigma, using some of the basic principles outlined here. ... Read more

Book Description

Bestselling Lean Six Sigma author Michael George provides the first pocket guide for deployers of Lean Six Sigma

The Lean Six Sigma Pocket Toolbook blends Lean and Six Sigma tools and concepts, providing expert advice on how to determine which tool within a "family" is best for different purposes. Packed with detailed examples and step-bystep instructions, it's the ideal handy reference guide to help Green and Black Belts make the transition from the classroom to the field.

• Features brief summaries and examples of the 70 most important tools in Lean Six Sigma, such as "Pull," "Heijunka," and "Control Charts"
• Groups tools by purpose and usage
• Offers a quick, easy reference on using the DMAIC improvement cycle
• Provides comprehensive coverage in a compact, portable format

Reviews (1)

Outstanding Quick Reference Guide
This pocket toolbook hits the "sweet spot" as a quick reference guide for lean six sigma practitioners.Don't expect this to be an in-depth treatment of the 70+ tools covered in this book.If you're new to the lean/six sigma disciplines, you need to start someplace else.However, if you are currently working in these disciplines and you need a reference with enough meat to remind you of how/why/when a particular tool should be used and also a little of the statistical foundations supporting the tool, then you will find this to be a very valuable book to own.I own just about all of the "pocket guides" and I often find them to be a little too cryptic and abbreviated to meet my needs.This book is a very nice middle ground between the often complex and verbose "learning textbooks" and the often times overly brief pocket guides.As with any first edition, there are some errors that slipped through the editing process, but I can still highly recommend this book as one to keep handy when your out there fighting those "quality and productivity" battles. ... Read more

Book Description

Improve quality and productivity in most any organization

Based on W. Edwards Deming's model, this guide offers an integrated approach to testing and improvement?one that is designed to deliver quick and substantial results. Using simple stories to illustrate core ideas, the authors?all active consultants?introduce a new, flexible model for improving quality and productivity in diverse settings. They draw from research conducted in a variety of areas?manufacturing, government, and schools?to present a practical tool kit of ideas, examples, and applications. What's more, they've included a Resource Guide to Change Concepts so even beginners can utilize the tested techniques of some of the world's most experienced practitioners.

... Read more

Reviews (6)

A must read for all Black Belts
This is a very practical and powerful guide for improvement.

1. The first revelation this book brings is: improvement is a change. From this viewpoint, the fundamental questions faced by the improver (e.g. Green Belts and Black Belts) are:

(1) What are we trying to accomplish? (Define phase)
(2) How will we know if a change will result in an improvement? (What are the key Y's?)
(3) What changes can we make that will result in improvement?
(What are the key X's and their settings to affect Y's)
Appropriate tools from '6-sigma' tool sets can be used to seek answers to (2) and (3).

2. The Guide emphasizes testing a change in small scale before full implementation so we can learn and improve the proposed change using the Plan-Do-Study-Act cycle. This significantly improves our typical 'trial-and-error' approach.

3. The Guide classifies improvement into 3 categories:
(1) Eliminate Quality Problems (the aim of many '6-sigma' projects)
(2) Reduce Costs while maintaining or improving quality (the goal of many internally focused improvement efforts)
(3) Expanding Customer Expectations
Specific advises and examples are presented for each of these categories.

4. Best of all is a list of 70 Change Concepts categorized under 9 sessions, e.g. standardization under Manage Variation, Synchronize under Improve Work Flow.
Using these change concepts can significantly reduce the time to develop the specific changes.

This book is very easy to follow and contains a lot of examples. It is a must read for all improvement practitioners including Green Belts and Black Belts.

Improvement viewed as a science.
Whether involved with improving products/processes within a business or coaching little league baseball, The Improvement Guide provides a practical and fundamental approach for improving performance. The book serves as an excellent reference for those involved with change, specifically, change that will result in improvement.

A few of the items from the book which ring in my mind continuously include:

Improvement can be viewed as a science (in fact, some of us do!).

Three questions provide the framework for improvement: 1. What are we trying to accomplish? 2. How will we know if we if a change will result in an improvement? 3. What changes can we make that will result in improvement?

While there are many opportunities to change, there are only 70 change concepts (included in the Appendix) available to us today.

Any system for improvement will include five activities: 1. Establishing and communicating the purpose of the organization/team. 2. Viewing the organization/team as a system. 3. Designing and managing the a system for gathering information for improvement 4. Planning for improvement and integrating it with business planning. 5. Managing individual and team improvement activities.

Leaders are required to implement change that will result in improvement and they draw their power from three sources (the informal leader gets his/her power from sources 2 and 3 below). 1. Authority or position 2. Knowledge 3. Personality and persuasiveness (caring about people)

These items and many more, are introduced in the book via an easy-to-understand model that uses proven methodology for developing, testing, and implementing change that produces specific, identifiable improvements.

The Answer to Dr. Deming's question: "By What Method?"
Dr. W. Edwards Deming, whose management ideas and Profound Knowledge provide the theoretical underpinnings of this book, continually asked the question to anxious audiences: "By what method? How do you go about it?" As a professional in the quality sciences field, I believe this book has the answer to those questions as it relates to improvement. The Improvement Guide defines improvement and describes in complete detail workable, easy to use techniques that are effective and time-tested. The book is based around the Improvement Model, an expanded and improved version of the Deming-Shewhart cycle, whose historical roots trace are grounded in applications of the scientific method and applied scientists since Roger Bacon. The principle of testing on a small scale, learning using the Plan-Do-Study-Act cycle, and building knowledge sequentially using the Improvement Model are some of the most practical and useful aspects of the book. Part I is written on an introductory level and provides lots of simple examples that guide the beginner through theory and practice. The heart of the book, and some of its most useful content, describes ways to develop, test, and implement a change. The insights provided, based on decades of experience and knowledge of the authors, are invaluable. They are followed up by thoroughly documented and easy to understand case studies that ring true using real life examples related to manufacturing, services, health care, and a variety of standard business and educational processes. Finally, the third section describes an integrated approach to various standard improvement goals and useful strategies for achieving them. This section also includes extremely insightful guidance for leaders trying to promote and enable improvement, and an innovative and thought-provoking section suggesting techniques for expanding customer expectations to increase demand for products and/or services. This section, too, is replete with examples and case studies to support and illustrate methods and concepts.

This book should be studied by anyone, beginner or experienced professional, interested in a systematic method for improving processes, products, or services. I strongly recommend it.

The definitive book on performance improvement
I think this is the most important and practical book available on performance improvement since Deming's "The New Economics". I found this book to be highly useful and well articulated around the practical application of Deming's system of profound knowledge, authored by some of the world's most preeminent thought leaders and practitioners in quality improvement. Chock full of relevant and easy to understand examples. The Model for Improvement, introduced in this book, is an amazingly simple way to bring about improvement in any undertaking. If you are interested in performance this book is a must.

A significant contribution to quality literature
In the extensive library of quality material, a select few items stand out for their practical approach to implementing powerful quality principles in such a manner to be understood by everyone. These authors, strongly tied to Deming principles, are consultants with Associates in Process Improvement, a national quality consulting firm, and have consulted on quality with numerous industries in the US, Canada, and Europe. They are heavily schooled in statistics and quality engineering and now add this valuable item to the elite group of quality tools. The book is driven by their simplified approach to the now well known PDSA cycle, preceding this with their three fundamental questions: What are we trying to accomplish?, How will we know a change is an improvement?, and What changes can we make that will result in improvement? After considering these questions, the authors then take the reader through the classic PDSA steps in this useful model of quality improvement easily adaptable in any business. Part 1 introduces and explains this model, part 2 further applies the model in exemplary business situations, and part 3 offers solid advice for leadership in a quality organization. The added resource guide, alone worth the investment in this work, further explains how different executives are applying in their business the numerous concepts that fill this excellent guide to improvement. This is a very useful addition to the library of any quality professional, and will be most useful to those newly entering the endless road to quality improvement. ... Read more

Book Description

The only user-friendly beginner's guide to Six Sigma
Six Sigma is the most common-and perhaps least understood-methodology for streamlining processes in manufacturing, service delivery, management, and almost any other business activity. For business leaders seeking increased efficiency and customer service, Six Sigma is the key.

Written specifically for Six Sigma beginners-whether they're small business owners who want to implement Six Sigma, or professionals and students who need to get up to speed fast-Six Sigma For Dummies is the most straightforward, non-intimidating guide on the market. Hundreds of thousands of professionals work in Six Sigma companies such as GE, Sony, Toshiba, Microsoft, and Nokia, but have a hard time fully understanding the methodology. This simple, friendly guide makes Six Sigma make sense.

Intended to help readers implement Six Sigma in their small and medium-sized businesses to improve quality and reduce costs, this no-nonsense guide explains:

• What Six Sigma is
• What Six Sigma's goals and objectives are
• The benefits of Six Sigma in both large and small businesses
• How the belt system works
• The DMAIC approach
• How to implement Six Sigma
• How to use Six Sigma tools
• How Six Sigma's approach aims for zero-defects

Neil DeCarlo (Fountain Hills, AZ) is Chief Knowledge Officer and Craig Cygi (Eden, UT) is Chief Product Officer for Six Sigma Technologies, an Arizona-based firm that provides low-cost, high-quality Six Sigma solutions to small and medium-sized companies and organizations. Neil also owns DeCarlo Communications, while Craig is founder and President of TolStack, Inc., a provider of advanced analysis software tools designed to assist Six Sigma practitioners. Both men have worked directly with Dr. Mikel Harry, a member of the team that developed Six Sigma in the mid-1980s and one of the world's recognized authorities on Six Sigma management. ... Read more

Book Description

The market leader in quality management, this text is built upon the strength and experience of well-known authors in the field. As a past president of the Decision Sciences Institute and examiner for the Malcolm Baldrige Award, Evans is able to integrate the framework and essential content of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award criteria throughout the text. The principles of total quality, as reflected in the Baldrige Award, provide what the authors feel is the best overall synthesis of the concept of quality. This edition continues to provide a managerially oriented, integrated view with a blend of pertinent technical topics. All chapters have been updated to reflect the most current thinking in the profession. ... Read more

Reviews (4)

Very comprehensive book!
This is a required book in Keller Graduate School of Management for GM588 (Managing Quality). It is an exceptionally comprehensive title.

Old School
This book is tired and out of date. It is time to retire this textbook.

It's All Beef and No Bull
This is one of the most comprehensive references on the subject of managing and controlling quality one could want -- and all under one cover. The authors' points of reference in the development of their subject matter are documented with case after case supporting their views. No light reading, this work will serve well both faculty, of undergraduate and graduate students alike, and professionals serious about the business of continuous improvement and quality. The work is also accompanied by a student CD.

A Great Textbook--Thumbs up!
After reading this book, and studying the various applications used in the study of statistical analysis of quality control; it has facilitated my understanding of the subject beyond my horizon. I highly recommend this textbook for students as well as those who value the importance in the management of quality control. ... Read more

Reviews (7)

An Excellent Tool for all!!
This book has helped in all areas of our business. We are incorporating it into all of our processes!! Wonderful training tool for any organization.

Great tools for Leaning your facility
This book gave me great insight to re-initialized our lean efforts. We have been so busy and got caught up in the value stream mapping craze and kaizen events, but little impact. This book did a superb job in laying out the eight steps, with all the forms, templates necessary to ensure sustainable results. Great work by the authors!

Great Selection of Lean Tools
There are a considerable number of very useful tools contained in this book that we used immediately. This book allowed us to put in a process of lean implementation, simple in nature, and very effective.

Move Beyond Mapping...Value Stream Management
Great basic, easy to follow plan for implementing lean. Takes us far beyond just the mapping craze. Highly recommended for small and large organizations.

The Lean Book for Lean
What I found most beneficial in this book were the ready to use forms/worksheets/templates that I used with my lean team immediately. As a supervisor, this gives the structure for implementing lean, just what is needed, when it is needed. Lean design and very, very practical! ... Read more

Book Description

A quick introduction on how to use Lean Six Sigma to improve your workplace, meet your goals, and better serve your customers.

Lean Six Sigma combines the two most important improvement trends of our time: making work better (using Six Sigma) and making work faster (using Lean principles).In this plain-English guide, you’ll discover how this remarkable quality improvement method can give you the tools to identify and eliminate waste and quality problems in your own work area.

Packed with diagrams, cartoons, and real-life examples, What is Lean Six Sigma? reveals the “four keys” of Lean Six Sigma and how they apply to your own job:

• Delight your customers with speed and quality
• Improve your processes
• Work together for maximum gain
• Base decisions on data and facts

You’ll see the big picture of what your company hopes to gain with Lean Six Sigma, how it may affect your work area, and what it can mean to you personally.

Reviews (1)

A Must Read!
The authors did a great job on the book. I read it on an airplane earlier this week and really enjoyed it. It is very well written - very understandable at a novice level and insightful at the "supposed expert" level. I think it is
a "must read" for everyone in an organization deploying Lean Six Sigma or anybody interested in improving the economic value of their business. ... Read more

Reviews (12)

A excellent book for learning and practicing QE
'Design for Six Sigma: Roadmap to Excellent' is a great book for learning and practicing quality engineering principals in product development. This book mainly focuses on how to apply the most popular and the latest quality engineering techniques to a products design cycle.

Actually I used the coursepack version of this book in my quality engineering class in the last term. This book is very easy to understand and includes a lot of real world examples. After reviewing basic theories and going through these on-hand industrial case analyses, I could apply these powerful tools to solve my own project problems immediately. Since this book coves DOE, Taguchi Robust Design, Tolerance Design, RSM and many other subjects, I am using this book as my handbook.

This book is not only a great textbook for engineering students who are learning product design, but also an excellent reference book for engineers who work on product design at a daily base.

Excellent Source for DFSS
I have read several books about DFSS before this book and find the concepts in most books are not clearly defined. Most DFSS books do not cover the newly promoted design theories such as TRIZ and Axiomatic Design, which are ASQ Six Sigma Black Belt Certification Body of Knowledge required.

Yang¡¯s book is the best resource I have found so far for engineers like me in understanding and implementing DFSS in new product development. I especially like the topics of TRIZ, Axiomatic Design, tolerance design and Taguchi parameter design presented in the book. Before this book, I had worked very hard to figure out these theories, but still not clear where are directions and benefits. This book uses very simply descriptions and examples or cases to make some ambiguous concepts very clear. Taking TRIZ chapter for example, the authors made a link between TRIZ theory and the function analysis concepts in Value Engineering and cleared some fuzzy concepts.

I highly recommend this book for all engineers who want to implement Six Sigma in the product development because it not only offers the a road map for ¡°do the right thing¡±, but also provides hand on techniques to help you ¡°do right things all the time¡± in product development. This book is a very valuable resource for Six Sigma Black Belts or Black Belt candidates because DFSS will play more and more important roles in Six Sigma practice.

Worth the buy!
I have not found such a comprehensive book for design of six sigma. I started using this book for advanced experimental design and taguchi methods, but ended understanding the complete roadmap for design of six sigma. The systems approach allows an enthusiast reader to start anywhere, without having to spend time refering back to earlier chapters. The relatively newer trends as TRIZ and axiomatic design have also been nicely dealt with.
Overall, this is a very nice and easy read book, with excellent and well defined examples. A must for everyone who wants a quick refresher on the design principles of six sigma.

A book serves all your needs
This is an outstanding DFSS book for production development. It contains integrated information and some of which you could hardly find anywhere else, thus with one book in hand, you have all the tools to get to your destination. This is also a easy to read book providing the reader with a solid understanding- Concepts are clearly defined, real world examples/ case studies are fully described and the chapters are well organized. It can serve as a textbook for students/beginners and also can serve as a handbook for experienced engineers.
The title says it all- this is a roadmap for you to find the way correctly and easily. I am reading the book right now, and the book is really beneficial to me.

Full of information and errors
This is a book with a lot of information. Each chapter can be used as a starting point for a specific six sigma technique. However, this is the worst edited book I have ever read. You can hardly find one page without errors/typos. ... Read more

Book Description

A user-friendly guide to the basics of Six Sigma

From noted Six Sigma consultant and author George Eckes comes Six Sigma for Everyone, a practical guide that explains the underpinnings of the revolutionary quality assurance methodology. Appropriate for employees and top management alike, this book is the only one you need if your company is currently implementing or contemplating Six Sigma. It tells you what Six Sigma is and is not, what it does and how it does it, and what your role likely will be in the implementation process. Eckes uses straightforward definitions and in-depth examples to outline the processes, impact, and desired end result of implementation–eliminating the confusion and fear many feel when first introduced to Six Sigma. If you need to understand the basics, then this is the book for you. Topics include:

• The origins and history of Six Sigma
• Business Process Management: Six Sigma as management philosophy
• Individual and team tactics
• The ten basic tools each team member needs to succeed
• How you and your organization must change to make Six Sigma work

Reviews (4)

Highly Recommended!
George Eckes has written a concise, thorough introduction to the theory and practice of Six Sigma, the management philosophy that Jack Welch called the most important initiative of his entire career at General Electric. The book provides a look at every aspect of Six Sigma. In some places, it seems a bit too detailed for so short a book - particularly when the author introduces the variety of statistical charts, graphs and tables used in the analysis phase of Six Sigma. But that is a quibble. Eckes also gets a bit self-serving when, in the question and answer chapter, he takes a swipe at consultants who agree to work on a contingency basis, for a percentage of the savings a client achieves, instead of for a fee. In fact, we, where we are always glad to avoid a squabble, note that managers who use this book may achieve some level of business improvement without hiring any consultants at all.

Good intro readings on Six Sigma
Just finish reading this book. Good introduction-level material on the Six Sigma topic. This is not to say that the book is superficial or obvious. The book takes a logical cook-book approach to explane Six Sigma and how to implement a Six Sigma effort. If you are a manager that wants to understand Six Sigma and the esstntial elements of a Six Sigma program, this book is a good start. I really liked the section on the 10 Common questions about Six Sigma. However, if you want examples of detailed statistical models and metrics, then look elsewhere.

Good book for Six Sigma implemention at all level
This book provides a simple description on Six Sigma concept and how to use in practice. It will be more useful to Six Sigma experienced person.

Highly Recommended!
George Eckes has written a concise, thorough introduction to the theory and practice of Six Sigma, the management philosophy that Jack Welch called the most important initiative of his entire career at General Electric. The book provides a look at every aspect of Six Sigma. In some places, it seems a bit too detailed for so short a book - particularly when the author introduces the variety of statistical charts, graphs and tables used in the analysis phase of Six Sigma. But that is a quibble. Eckes also gets a bit self-serving when, in the question and answer chapter, he takes a swipe at consultants who agree to work on a contingency basis, for a percentage of the savings a client achieves, instead of for a fee. In fact, where we are always glad to avoid a squabble, notes that managers who use this book may achieve some level of business improvement without hiring any consultants at all. ... Read more

Book Description

A 5S initiative offers a cost-effective approach to enhancing safety, quality, and the work environment. It provides clear and measurable bottom-line results. This system can be especially useful in companies with ISO and QS-9000 initiatives.

Authors Peterson and Smith present a pocket-sized illustration of implementation methods and the benefits of implementation. Great for awareness training, The 5S Pocket Guide can start your company on the road to a safer, cleaner, more productive workplace. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Not what I expected
I was expecting a memory jogger, but this was a fast paced marathon! Instead of being a few, quick, easy to read points, the pocket guide read more like a book. The formating was difficult to follow and the font was difficult to see. ... Read more

Reviews (20)

A Helpful Guide and Reference
Lean Six Sigma: Combining Six Sigma with Lean Speed
By Michael George

This latest book by Michael George has been an extremely helpful guide and reference for our implementation team members and myself. For seven years we have been in the most critical part of our journey toward a Lean Enterprise. An enterprise where the management system includes the principles of total quality, variation management, value creation, and just-in-time production. I have been recommending Michael George's book to freshman implementers and company executives to help them deal with the perceived dilemma many are experiencing. Do they pursue 'Lean' or do they pursue 'Six Sigma Quality'? And of course the answer is 'yes'. The rush to operational productivity in the last decade has distilled many of the key components and techniques of a 'Lean Enterprise' and marketed them as a complete 'Lean Manufacturing' recipe. Unfortunately this selective design has resulted in diluted capabilities and mediocre results for most. The same is true for those who solely depend on managing by constraints or reducing variation incrementally as their core activity. What Michael George offers in his book is a straightforward and field-tested approach for bringing the critical pieces of the 'Lean/JIT' business model, metrics, and leadership behaviors back into perspective. A perspective that helps either the new implementer or the experienced implementer clear up this perceived dilemma. Michael George says the purpose of the book is to show that the combination of Lean and Six Sigma - when focused on the highest-value projects... can produce remarkable results... This is his simple straightforward message that no one else recently has bothered to tackle.

Don A. Blake, Director
Boeing Production System Implementation
Quality & Process Improvement Dept.
Boeing Wichita Division

Packed with Knowledge!
Six Sigma devotees may dispute the need to add anything to Six Sigma, but a shot of lean thinking provides a production boost. Author Michael L. George contends that Six Sigma reduces product quality variation but does nothing to improve delivery time. That may not be strictly true, and certainly is not beyond cavil. Nonetheless, the author's analysis and presentation of the Lean Six Sigma approach is lucid and straightforward. He explains Six Sigma itself much more clearly than some other writers on the subject. Even Six Sigma devotees will find nothing to object to in his treatment, and he provides some compelling examples of the success of the Lean Six Sigma approach. We recommend this book primarily to leaders and managers of firms that rely on factories and other production units. However, the author supplies practical information that may also be relevant to service providers and to every company that cares about customer service, efficient production and the bottom line.

Lean Six Sigma or a selling technique
Well I can say the book is ok. However, I do feel like this book is more about them trying to sell their services to me than to teach or explain Lean Six Sigma... If I wanted to buy consulting or training services I would rather not have it shoved down my throat in a book. .

Dissatisfied
If you are seeking substance and wish to learn, there are other products that better serve that purpose.
If you are interested in improving operations through Lean/6 sigma and have little or no concept of what is involved, this book may provide an adequate overview. In my opinion, however, the overview would be more effective if the book didn't try to keep putting it's foot in the door

An Excellent Book
I truly enjoyed reading this book and I highly recommend it to anyone interested in Lean or Six Sigma. Well worth the money!! ... Read more

Book Description

This hands-on book tells you how to quickly determine performance needs before investing precious time and resources. When trainers, consultants, and problem-solvers need to figure out what's wrong with an organization--and they need a solution fast--they need this book. Needs assessment is about doing things right; performance analysis guarantees doing the right thing.

Rossett offers extensive guidance on:

Book Description

"Long-term commitment to new learning and new philosophy is required of any management that seeks transformation. The timid and the fainthearted, and the people that expect quick results, are doomed to disappointment."

According to W. Edwards Deming, American companies require nothing less than a transformation of management style and of governmental relations with industry. In Out of the Crisis, originally published in 1986, Deming offers a theory of management based on his famous 14 Points for Management. Management's failure to plan for the future, he claims, brings about loss of market, which brings about loss of jobs. Management must be judged not only by the quarterly dividend, but by innovative plans to stay in business, protect investment, ensure future dividends, and provide more jobs through improved product and service. In simple, direct language, he explains the principles of management transformation and how to apply them.

previously published by MIT-CAES ... Read more

Reviews (27)

A great book about quality control
When I first saw this book a few years ago at a friend's house I never imagined that I would enjoy reading it. However, somehow my opinion changed recently while I was looking for a good book about manufacturing quality control. This book agrees with all that I believed to be true based on my limited manufacturing experience--the plant worker is very rarely to blame for quality problems, rather problems are usually the result of system issues.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book and couldn't put it down. It is a great overview of quality control methods and control charts. I also have Mary Walton's "The Deming Management Method", but I would strongly recommend to just read Deming's masterpiece.

Deming, the Root Cause of Quality Improvement
Having "seen the light" as spoken by Deming, I highly recommend this book and Deming's "The New Economics" to anybody interested in not only quality and business, but anybody working. If you aren't in a position having the power to change your workplace, be prepared to bite your lip when conventional management is used.
When you look at Six Sigma you can see much of Dr. Demings work and thoughts being used, thus one persons short review that Dr. Deming is the real father of Six Sigma. Six Sigma brings more of the cost savings aspect to process improvement which appeals to conventional business.
While people can look at Japan and say they are down now and Dr. Deming is wrong, there are plenty of Japanese companies that follow Dr. Deming's teachings still that are clobbering the competition. Toyota, the 2nd largest auto manufacturer in the world now (yes, ahead of Ford by most accounts) uses his teachings.
Don't just read the words, understand what is being said and learn from Dr. Deming.

Where Quality Begins
I first became aware of Dr. Deming through the Deming Management method. He affected so much change in Japan and was not known here in the USA. The chief reason for his lack of success here was probably that eliminating fear, one of his 14 points, has never really been a management method of American Management. Today people fear losing jobs, his method of quality was to lead to more jobs and more quality utilizing American pride in work. I do think his method had an impact, look at companies like Xerox, and others who continually improved, yet, our economy is so short sighted, we never seem to get past the view of everything this Quarter...we need to have a broader perspective. I find my coworkers in America to be very hard working people who have pride in what they do and accomplish. If only we would remember the red beads, we would get quality if we provide quality material. Demings last seminar was held in Pasadena, I wanted to go to that, yet I hesitated and well, had to learn from a friend second hand. This is a must buy for anyone who will manage people, engineers and corporations.

Brilliant!
It's a shame Deming was only listened to after American Industry humiliated itself in the international markets. It's a bigger shame that they forget their mistakes after realizing them for a while.

Deming is unquestionably one of the most original and brilliant thinkers of last century. This book WILL cause you to change your thinking about your job.

You don't have to be a statistician to understand this book either, b/c the crux of it has to do with a philosophy, and a very intelligent one at that, much more than math.

I liked this book so much, that I purchased a rather expensive autorgraphed version on an auction site, becuase it's really a masterpiece.

A quality classic
This is a classic in the world of quality assurance. It is fair to call Deming the father, godfather, grandfather and preacher of the quality movement. This book, written in 1986 after he achieved international fame for helping improve quality in Japan, captures the spirit and ideas that spawned a revolution.

The book captures many of the key points in Deming's philosophy:
1) Creating metrics based approaches to management, without falling into a quota system.
2) Differentiating between problems caused by the system and problems outside of the system.
3) Focusing on both doing things correctly, and identifying the right tasks to approach.
4) Introducing a Plan, Do, Check, Act cycle of continuous improvement.

If you look at this list, the book presents a blueprint for many of the so called management revolutions of the subsequent 15 years: Excellence, Re-engineering, Process Management, Systems Thinking. This book really is both a trend setter as well as highly important body of theory. The theory is relevant today, as many management problems today can be addressed by his 14 points of management. (Example: A reliance on inspection is bad - build quality into the process. This is highly relevant to software construction today.)

So are there any knocks?
1) You're left with many imperatives, but sometimes without positive prescriptions. For example: If you don't do annual performance reviews, what do you replace it with to determine who gets promoted?
2) The book can be dry and hard to follow. Sometimes it is written as notes pieced together.
3) Many of the companies that Deming held up as models have fallen on tougher times. It seems that today Quality alone is not enough.

Having said this, it should be required reading for any manager. The theory is good, and the book should spark your thinking. ... Read more

Book Description

Now get a great book with an electronic version! Sailing Through Six Sigma is the most user-friendly and comprehensive guide for implementing the Six Sigma performance improvement process. By the same authors of The Memory Jogger(tm) series, this book AND e-book(CD-ROM) set brings both the "Art" and "Science" of Six Sigma and is a great "how-to" book: "How managers can implement it to improve their organization" AND "How teams can improve processes using the DMAIC model." Use it as a training guide, course pre-reader, or handy desktop and computer reference source. The e-book includes everything in the book PLUS has "active" hyperlinks to hundreds of pages of additional resources, definitions, construction steps and examples that allow the reader to dig deeper into information that's comprehensive, yet user-friendly. ... Read more

Reviews (12)

Cutting through the Six Sigma hype
Michael Brassard and Diane Ritter have a gift for communicating important stuff in plain English. It's a rare gift in the Six Sigma world, and one that's been sorely needed. If you are wondering what Six Sigma is about, and it you want to use its ideas to make good changes in your organization, this book will help.

Six Sigma Deployment Help
"I have been certified as a Black Belt in a plant of Johnson Controls who manufactures Trim Covers during the last 2 1/2 years in Cd. Juarez, Mexico and when I saw the title of Sailing Through Six Sigma had the curiosity to see its content just to know more about this field that has captured my efforts during this time. My surprise was that this book is more oriented to the deployment of Six Sigma as a business strategy in any company who wants to be world class or simply to survive in the near future improving its processes, than the full exposition of a variety of statistical techniques. Although I knew how to deploy the strategy in our plant, I was not aware of the full implications of the deployment of Six Sigma as a business strategy. Reading this book helped me to see exactly what is needed, when is needed and how to do it and the people responsible to do it. Specially, the chapter of how to perform successfully a Six Sigma project since the very beginning to its conclusion was outstanding because during the time I have been involved in performing projects, my concern has been also how to be succesfull in this issue. So the book's structure is well planned and esy to follow, specially the formats are helpfull to see how to go from one step to the next one in order of importance. I highly recommned this book to those who are actully involved in deploying Six Sigma and to those interested just in knowing more about the theme"

Simplicity: Six Sigma for the rest of us..
Thank you for creating this reference for those of us who have to do real work. The resources at most of our finger tips is often a pile of 3 ring binders and reams of training documents. This handy reference makes it easy to pick the right tool and approach - especially in a pinch.

It's the kind of publication we've come to expect from the authors of the Memory Jogger - thanks Mr. Brassard and Ms. Ritter!

A wonderful & powerful resource for Six Sigma practitioners
In my review of the original book (sans CD), I wrote about how wonderful and alive the book itself is. The book - CD/E-book combo kicks it up more than a few notches. The E-book maintains the artistic and exciting aura of the original book. It is a must have, especially for laptop toting Black Belts such as myself. There are hundreds and hundreds of reference materials that a literally a click away. As a matter of fact, I leave the E-book open on my laptop all day long for quick reference.

A feature of the E-book that I really like is its searching capabilities. Type in your topic of interest, click on the search button, and the E-book returns a summary of your search with a hyperlink to go straight to the topic. Absolutely wonderful!

The E-book is great, however, I think the E-book should have come with reproducible templates.
In conclusion, the E-book is unquestionably awesome.

What a resource a book and a 1000 pages of back up material
The book is an excellent resource. The CD / ebook version that is contained in the back of the book has an almost unlimited range of materials. Everything and every term I could think of was there and immediately displayed. While I have seen e books before, this one was really neat, you can search by index, topic, chapter or term and get definitions, proceedures, applications, examples, case studies or a video. If you want more ask for a power point presentaion and it pops to the screen. The CD also has a search function. The backup material in the e book is over a 1000 items. ... Read more

Reviews (6)

Great Intro to Deming
Mary Walton presents a detailed biography of the Guru of Quality, Edward Deming, based on her lengthy involvement with Deming and his quality training programs. Also, this book features an introduction by Deming.

The majority of this book is dedicated to Walton's interpretation of Deming's 14 points, which encourages organizations to: have a constancy of purpose, adopt a new philosophy, not rely on mass inspections, not to accept contracts based on price alone, constantly improve processes, train and retrain, institute solid leadership, drive out fear in the workplace, breakdown departmental barriers, eliminate slogans, eliminate quotas, remove barriers to pride in workmanship, and take action to transform the organization.

Walton's book does a good job of presenting Deming's theories, which I highly recommend to newcomers to the quality movement. Those experienced in this area and familiar with Deming's 14 points may not benefit as much from this book, but may enjoy a different take on Deming's ideas and somewhat dated examples.

Deming Quality Primer
Anyone with an interest in QA, Quality improvement and TQM would have an interest in this book.

It is a great introduction and overview of Demings methods of improvement of organizational quality. It chronicles a history of Deming and his work with the Japanese, basically, he gave them what we finally agreed we needed 40 years later.

Deming left a legacy of quality. Walton, who worked closely with him all of those years reveals that legacy.

A great addition to any business library. This book will make you think differently about everyday management and how you approach business.

It is also a good primer for Demings works, Out of the Crisis and The New Economy.

A Great Book about W E. Deming and his work
Mary Waton does the impossible. She tells you about the life of the great Business Guru the late W.Edward Deming. The first part of the book is a short biography of the great man. Then she goes into his 14 points in detail. Another chapter is on Deming's ways to get improvement in any business.

And the following chapter shows the many companies that the Deming method and philosopy help in TQM.

I would recommed these method for any business, small or large.

You can tell the companies that use these methods ....there services and products shine with quality and more

Don't judge a book by (it's cover hype)
The old adage applies to this book. There is no management method inside. Walton's work is long in the tooth. Her superficial, journalistic treatment of quality and productivity is poorly understood. She attempts to cover too much ground with too little understanding. It is a stretch to claim Deming's lecture circuit talking points contains a management message.

Deming's genius was as a statistician. He was also a humanitarian. He integrated himself into the Japanese culture to better understand and develop lasting relationships with his hosts. His was generous in donating publication royalties to the fledgling Japanese Union of Engineers and Scientist (JUSE). JUSE's prize bearing Deming's name is a measure of his generosity and humanity, not his management competence. His Japanese lectures on statistical methods, along with the standardization movement were influential in setting Japanese quality efforts in motion. JUSE soon realized that quality, productivity, customer service management, and zero defects required more than Deming could provide.

American publishers elevated Deming to guru status. Written during the mid eighties, this book's target was the US manager starved for some direction with which to combat the Japanese methodical implementation of quality and productivity. The publisher simply cashed in on an American name that had a Japanese quality prize attached to it. Deming's message may have been innovative for the forties, but today statistics-based productivity programs like Six Sigma incorporate a true management method. If you need to learn management statistics, consult "Introduction to Quality Control" by Kaoru Ishikawa.

The Deming "cycle" and statistical analysis is taken from Dr. Shewhart's 1932 work. Deming's 14 "points" and 7 "deadly diseases" are simply exhortations, talking points for the lecture circuit. Two diseases are explained as "beyond the scope of his present discussion" with one sentence of explanation given to each. It is evident that neither Deming nor Walton have the simplest grasp of US labor law.

The case studies include a company that is on the corporate bone pile for failing its environmental management responsibilities, and another in bankruptcy for managing its bottom line with emotion rather than reason.

To be fair, Walton's reportage of the bead demonstration taken from a Deming statistical lecture is worth reading. If purchased used, the value of the bead vignette will recoup the $[money]spent.

Serious students of management philosophy, productivity, and quality should look beyond this meager work toward Ishikawa, Crosby, or Juran.

SIMPLY THE BEST BOOK ON DEMING THERE IS
What I really liked about Mary Walton's book is that it is ACCESSIBLE. While I certainly sympathize with Dr. Deming's eschewing simplistic slogans and posters to institute the notion of quality, I felt like Ms. Walton broke Deming's theories down into manageable chunks. Having survived reading Deming's "Out of the Crisis", I would have to say that Mary Walton's slim little volume is a much better way to glean the priceless gems of Dr. Deming's wisdom. This ranks right up there with "Liberation Management" as one of the best business books ever written. ... Read more

Download Description

"Achieving 100% Compliance of Policies and Procedures" is the third book of a four-part series on policies and procedures. This exciting new business book focuses on a subject that fills a major void for those individuals who are responsible for the life cycle of business processes, policies, and procedures. This 359-page book is all about change and continuous quality improvement as it applies to policies and procedures. A real-life case study is used to help explain the principles of this book. The reader is led from a labor-intensive system (procedure, procedure flow chart) through the necessary steps, including a cost-benefit analysis, to accomplish compliance and continuous improvement, resulting in a business process/procedure and a $2 million dollars savings. This book is about improvement and metrics and contains five quality tools for measuring policies and procedures. As the title suggests, the goal is to achieve 100% compliance, or complete acceptance by the customer. While a compliance goal of 100% is ambitious, you'll find the process of achieving the goal is just as important as achieving it. Through plans and goals, you'll increase productivity, profits, and customer satisfaction; as well as minimize process variation, enhance quality, reduce cycle and response time, and help the organization become receptive to change and develop a proactive (forward thinking) outlook. This book is a necessary addition to any procedures writer's reference library as it helps to ensure that the policies and procedures infrastructure remains stable by demonstrating to the reader how to write effective policies and procedures that can be measured, communicated, trained, mentored, audited, and improved. There are more than 75 illustrations, examples, tables, flow charts, and written procedures using the standard writing format introduced in my first book, "Establishing a System of Policies and Procedures." Most readers will find something useful in this book. ... Read more

Reviews (7)

Awesome books!
I bought and used all four of Stephen Page's policy and procedure books. From the very first day, I was able to get up and running on a project that was very demanding and challenging. Not only did he provide examples, but he was always there for advice when I hit a rough spot.

I HIGHLY recommend these books!

Dana Rosenboom

Processes, Procedures, and Quality
I was impressed with the amount of useful information included in this book; everything seems to have been well thought out. It would appear that the author has "lived" his words and this is what makes this make book so useful to me. Because I know that when I implement his ideas that they will probably work. His case study is also very meaningful as he very carefully explains how to go from a labor-intensive procedure and go through process improvement, metrics, and arrive at a streamlined, high cost saving, new procedure.

I have bought all four of his books on procedures and this book is what makes it all worthwhile. Though I found that each book is unique in its own way and that you really need all four to write a good system of policies and procedures.

I would definitely recommend this book. He has a 40-step plan of action at the front of the book that gives you an A to Z approach to the development of any policy or procedure or process. I have printed this list and I keep it tacked on my walls.

Jim T. Armstrong

Good book for quality professionals
Of Steve Page's 4 recent books, I found this one to be the most interesting. It contains all kinds of ideas for projects.

A communication strategy is obviously Steve's speciality. He knows how to use the various methods to the most advantage.

His idea for a compliance plan is a clever take-off on process control plans. He also adapts other quality tools, such as scatter and pareto diagrams to use with documentation. However, you would need another book for more details on the tools themselves.

Auditing is another of Steve's specialties which he shares with his readers.

I wish he had gone into more detail on determining the cost of documentation. He no doubt knows how to calculate it, as best as one can. He gives a detailed example on how a new (purchasing) procedure saved a company money, but not enough on the cost of producing the document itself.

I would definitely recommend this book to all who work with ISO 9000 compliance.

Essential for TQM, ISO 9000 and GMP organizations
Of the three books that the author has published on policies and procedures this one is a masterpiece, and is essential to anyone who works for a company that employ TQM, ISO 9000 or FDA GMP.

Where his first book, Establishing a System of Policies and Procedures, provides a roadmap for new policy writers, this book takes the subject to a much higher level by providing a process that encompasses communications and training strategies, a compliance plan, and continuous improvement. These align seamlessly with ISO 9000, as well as FDA GMPs, and is consistent with the TQM Plan-Do-Check-Act cycle. In addition, the self-assessment and auditing approaches set forth will assure policies and procedures that reflect a mature organization that is focused on quality and continuous improvement.

Among the highlights of the book are the numerous checklists, real-life examples, and an underlying strategy for the development of a comprehensive and complete system of policies and procedures, and a means to assure compliance. I particularly liked Appendix C, Cost of Quality, and the succinct description of tools and techniques in chapter 11.

Another strong point is the complexities of marrying policies and procedures writing with a continuous improvement cycle and auditing are handled in a structured, logical sequence. This is no small feat for a writer, and it is one of the reasons this book is so valuable. This book sets a standard in the field and is one that I'll always recommend to colleagues and clients.

TQM-Based approach to implementing and ensuring compliance
This book is one of the most eye-opening, practical and insightful books I have read in a long time. It's one thing to write effective policies and procedures, it's quite another to implement them, and more difficult still to ensure compliance. The author's approach addresses the implementation and compliance challenges head-on.

The key strength of this book is the continuous improvement approach. I am familiar with the TQM Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) cycle because I use a similar approach called Entry Criteria-Task-Validation-Exit Criteria (ETVX)when I am developing processes that are governed by policies and executed by procedures. What I had not thought of before reading this book was how to best implement and enforce policies and ensure procedure compliance. This book showed me how to superimpose the PDCA or ETVX cycle on communicating, measuring and continually refining policies and procedures by starting with writing policies and procedures that can be measured. I found the 40-step plan provided in this book to be straightforward and easy to manage. Do not let "40 steps" deter you because the steps are small and build upon one another. This is reinforced by a case study that completely illustrates how the 40-step plan is applied to a realistic example.

How to implement your policies and procedures is covered in the chapters on communications and training strategies, which are exhaustive and filled with tips and guidance. These chapters are fleshed out with a chapter on creating a review and communication control plan, which is essential for keeping your policies and procedures up-to-date and ensuring that they are living documents that are meaningful to your organization. Outdated policies are often ignored, which is worse than having no policy at all. Ignored policies undermine authority, which is the foundation of a policy. Outdated procedures can result in technical and cost risks at best and unsafe working conditions at worst. The next chapter on establishing a compliance plan is excellent. It incorporates measurements and validation, and shows how to develop and use the compliance plan. This is augmented by an invaluable chapter on developing self-assessment checklists, and how to evaluate the results of an assessment and how to rectify gaps.

Among the most valuable (to me) chapters in this book were: preparing an organization to be receptive to change (a major implementation barrier), conducting audits (key to compliance assurance), and conducting continuous improvement activities (keeping the policies and procedures relevant and aligned to changing requirements and business imperatives).

The information and approach given in this book will make the difference between policies and procedures that are "shelfware" and those that provide real guidance and are meaningful to an organization. I personally think this is one of the most important books on the topic, and the only one that I have come across that actually shows how to implement them and ensure compliance. ... Read more