Six Sigma for Dummies

by Craig Gygi, Neil DeCarlo, Bruce Williams

The world’s largest and most profitable companies – including the likes of GE, Bank of America, Honeywell, DuPont, Samsung, Starwood Hotels, Bechtel, and Motorola – have used Six Sigma to achieve breathtaking improvements in business performance, in everything from products to processes to complex systems and even in work environments. Over the past decade, over $100 billion in bottom-line performance has been achieved through corporate Six Sigma programs.  Yet, despite its astounding effectiveness, few outside of the community of Six Sigma practitioners know what Six Sigma is all about. With this book, Six Sigma is revealed to everyone.  You might be in a company that’s already implemented Six Sigma, or your organization may be considering it.  You may be a student who wants to learn how it works, or you might be a seasoned business professional who needs to get up to speed. In any case, Six Sigma For Dummies is the most straightforward, non-intimidating guide on the market. This simple, friendly book makes Six Sigma make sense. With a compelling foreword by Dr. Stephen R. Covey, the internationally recognized leadership authority and bestselling author of The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People and The 8 th Habit , and an afterword by Roxanne O’Brasky, President of the International Society of Six Sigma, Six Sigma For Dummies is the most complete and objective book in the market today. Unlike most other works that are either graduate-level statistics treatises or thinly-veiled autobiographical success stories, Six Sigma For Dummies teaches the reader all the foundation principles, methods, and tools of this magnificent problem-solving system.  Intended to help readers understand Six Sigma and how they can use it to improve their performance, this no-nonsense guide Six Sigma For Dummies will become everyone’s No. 1 resource for discovering and mastering the world’s most famous and powerful improvement tool.  Stephen Covey is spot-on when he says, “ Six Sigma For Dummies is a book to be read by everyone”.

Genres: Business, Nonfiction, Reference, Management, Entrepreneurship, Buisness

344 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 2005

Reviews

[Ian Mewhinney · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.25/5: An incredibly good reference book. Great narration from from Brett Barry on the audiobook. I wanted to get a quick refresher on the topic, and it met my expectations. Relaxing and light hearted feeling listen, short length of 4 hours. I really did not learn anything new, but for a baseline overview of the history and techniques of six sigma, it's a worthwhile read. A bit dated for a 2005 edition, but everything is still very relevant. Minitab is a top statistical tool for decades and is still used. As with Excel and power pivot. I will look for more detailed DFSS books to get my Green Belt.

Table of contents:
Introduction
Part I: Getting Acquainted with Six Sigma Basics
Chapter 1: Better Business and Better Performance: Defining Six Sigma
Chapter 2: Linking Quality and Business
Chapter 3: Examining the Principles and Language of Six Sigma
Chapter 4: Organizing for Improvement
Part II: DMAIC: Defining and Measuring
Chapter 5: Identifying and Right-Sizing Projects
Chapter 6: Launching a Project
Chapter 7: Mapping to Identify Possible Factors
Chapter 8: Diagramming to Identify Possible Factors
Chapter 9: Describing Performance with Numbers
Part III: DMAIC: Analyzing
Chapter 10: Depicting and Analyzing Data through Charts and Graphs
Chapter 11: Analyzing for Value
Chapter 12: What’s Normal? Recognizing Normally-Shaped Variation
Chapter 13: Assessing Capability: Comparing the Voices of the Customer and the Process
Chapter 14: Gauging Gauges: Measurement System Analysis (MSA)
Chapter 15: Mining Data and Processes for Insight
Chapter 16: Making Confident Decisions
Part IV: DMAIC: Improving and Controlling
Chapter 17: Forecasting Future Performance
Chapter 18: Designing, Conducting, and Analyzing Experiments (DOE)
Chapter 19: Standardizing on Improvement
Chapter 20: Maintaining Gains through Statistical Process Control
Part V: Looking at the Six Sigma Technology Tool Landscape
Chapter 21: Eyeing Process Characterization and Optimization Technologies
Chapter 22: Tools for Performing Six Sigma Analysis
Chapter 23: Managing Six Sigma
Part VI: The Part of Tens
Chapter 24: Ten Top Do's and Don’ts of Six Sigma
Chapter 25: Ten Ways to Gain Synergies with Lean and Six Sigma
Chapter 26: Ten Places to Go for Help
Index

[Ken Kirkberry · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book provided the foundational knowledge of Six Sigma that I was looking for. Read for work purposes, and will help me get started in this new sector.

[Sam Motes · Rating 3 out of 5]

Decent 100 foot view of the tools used for analytics in Six Sigma processing but certainly no were near the depth needed to learn to be a Six Sigma practitioner. Just scratched the surface. Good initial read or Executive summary for leadership to know what Six Sigma can do for the company.

[L · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very thorough and includes many statistical tools. The tools are of moderate depth. A good introduction to Six Sigma and a decent reference.

[Angie Dokos · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is exactly what I needed to determine whether or not I wanted to take online classes for Six Sigma. I have been familiar with some of the Six Sigma methods but not very in depth, so this book was very helpful.

[Adi · Rating 4 out of 5]

good stuff

[Duaa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Six sigma takeaway


1- Six Sigma is deterministic. It emphasizes the cause and effect relationship between the factors that influence a process and its result.

2- Six Sigma is the single most effective problem-solving methodology for improving business and organizational performance.

3- To navigate toward a specific outcome, follow the steps in the DMAIC process:
"Define" - Determine exactly what you want to accomplish. Be specific.
"Measure" - Decide how you’ll measure your progress. Start with the current level of performance and establish goals.
"Analyze" - Using the power of cause and effect, examine data to determine the strengths and weaknesses of your process.
"Improve" - Select the variables you can upgrade and make the modifications.
"Control" - Institutionalize improvements by creating new procedures.
To improve your results, apply each DMAIC step to any business process. Repeating the DMAIC cycle for project after project for sure it will brings success.


4- The RUMBA acronym reminds you that all specifications should meet the following five criteria:
"Reasonable" - Begin with a realistic assessment of customers’ needs. Be sure your specification is relevant. Six Sigma should be driven by customers’ requirements.
"Understandable" - A specification should not be so arcane or technical that no one really knows what it means.
"Measurable" - Only use a specification that you can measure accurately.
"Believable" - Your colleagues must buy into the specification. It has to be credible.
"Attainable" - Unless the specification is realistic and achievable, you can’t expect others to strive to meet it.


5- Applying its tools will help you change the way you think about problems so you can accomplish your company’s objectives as well as your own

[Imran Pasha · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good for beginners who wants to understand what six Sigma concept is.. why it is there in the first place.. and after you understand what it is and how to use it your organization and in your personal life.. I don't know but it seems like just common sense.. do what is right according to the process minimize the errors in the outcome by improving the process .. doing due diligence and doing root cause analysis... Dadadada.....
I think six Sigma is more general knowledge.. not like you should know A to Z about it.. but atleast you should know there is something called six Sigma and why it is there.. this book will help you to find out that!!

Happy reading!!

[James Cole · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Great Asset in Any Arsenal!

Although I am not in the manager part of manufacture my, I have always wondered what Six Sigma was about. This read hits all the significant points without becoming overwhelming. Its an excellent overview of the history and implementation of the Six Sigma method, and gives good insights into how the program can benefit about any business venture. Nicely laid out for all regardless of interest or ability.

[Mohit Aneja · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book for complete beginners. Enough to give you "Oh I read that before in that book" moments now and then when you go ahead with your learning.

Some solved examples lacked details making them harder to grasp but at the same time adding more fun.

Highly recommended for absolute beginners.

[David Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book sets the stage to learn the basic principles behind the six sigma process. I found it very helpful in setting up this system for my own business and I've adapted it to songwriting.

[Eric Upton · Rating 3 out of 5]

Six Sigma 101. Very simple overview of Six Sigma concepts. Nothing amazing to take away from this book.

[Eric · Rating 3 out of 5]

Yes, count carefully and well.

[Digna · Rating 2 out of 5]

Long time had a feeling that all those “dummies” books ain’t for me. Absolutely correct feeling, it turns out.
Listened to this out of OCEB2 recommended reading list. Meh.

[Mikey Staker · Rating 3 out of 5]

A self help book

[Muhammad]

This is more of a personal reflection, or a summary, rather than a review.
Ch1: Introducing Six Sigma and arguing that it's an important methodology for doing business and not "just another initiative-du-jour", also stressing the previous point by emphasising the scientific, technical "data-driven" nature of Six Sigma (it's not just another philosophical perspective) and explaining the statistical meanings of the words "six" and "sigma".
Ch2: Describes the five principles, or pillars, of Six Sigma: the "outputs = processing-of-inputs + error" function ( Y = f(X) + e ), the focus on "causes", the inevitability of "variation", the importance of "measuring", and the concept of "leverage", i.e that there is always a set of few input variables which have the greatest effect on the outputs.
Ch3: Introducing the [R]DMAIC problem-solving approach and describing the "domains of activity", hierarchy of people involved, and the life-cycle of adopting Six Sigma in an organisation. The "domains of activity" explains that Six Sigma relates to the way people "think", the way manufacturing or business "processes" work, the way products and services are "designed" at the beginning, and finally the way top-level managers "manage" a business. The hierarchy explains the various roles of different individuals including but not limited to the management team, support team [IT, finance, HR, ect] and the actual technical problem-solving "practitioners". Finally, the life-cycle section explains the stages an organisation would go through when adopting Six Sigma, from the initial decision and "initialisation" of a system, "deploying" the system by training staff, "implementing" it in a small part of the organisation, gradually "expanding" to different parts of the organisation, and finally the "sustaining" stage where it becomes a second-nature behaviour in the organisation which would, ideally, lead to problems being solved automatically [at low-levels] without having to implement a full DMAIC project.

[Jozef · Rating 1 out of 5]

Ik hoopte een pragmatisch boek te lezen die heel praktisch uitlegt hoe 6sigma werkt zodat ik het verschil kan zien met TPM en WCM, maar het is een heel wollig boek waar vooral nogal arrogant gedaan wordt over 6sigma.
Zo wordt er beweerd dat 6sigma veel betere doorbraken kan realiseren dan bvb TPM (en Kaizen), maar het wordt nergens geargumenteerd waarom dat zo is. Er staat ook dat "het empirisch bewezen is" dat 6sigma beter is dan alle andere praktijken, maar er wordt nergens naar dat empirisch onderzoek verwezen.
In het begin wordt er zelfs verwezen naar "good to great" van Jim Collins. Als je naar een pseudowetenschappelijk boek refereert, dan ben je toch niet goed bezig om mij te overtuigen.
Ken iemand een beter boek over 6sigma?

[Gina]

I liked it. Simple, easy to understand. It is very thorough covering lots of topics, concepts & principles of LEAN SIX SIGMA. There's lots of material on statistical tools. Yes, a good introduction to Six Sigma & will be good for later review & refresher! I will refer back to it from time to time. Don't let the title mislead you. It's a handy book.

[Daniel · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was useful as a companion to start my first 6 sigma project. It gave me the lingo and the context for my project. I also know I need to focus on using control charts with the help of minitab to proceed further.

[Anna · Rating 1 out of 5]

This sits on my desk at work - it's a cr@ppy book but I like to have it sitting there.

[Frances · Rating 3 out of 5]

As they usually are, a nice intro to the subject. It gave me some ideas of how it would apply I my own work with data.

[Black Tea Lady ☕️📚 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Review to come...

[Adam Musthafa · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very great introduction on the topic. Easy to understand with adequate example

[Kenneth McWatt · Rating 2 out of 5]

Kill me now....another book for work...arrrrrrrrrrrrrgh!