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Lean Six Sigma Demystified: A Self-Teaching Guide
This self-teaching guide is the fast and easy way to learn Lean Six Sigma-the revolutionary process and quality improvement methodology. You'll learn to analyze projects quickly, identify and eliminate waste, cut costs and grow revenue, and increase quality and efficiency. A 180-day trial version of Lean Six Sigma QI Macros for Excel will be available for download from the author's website.
- GenresBusiness
252 pages, Paperback
Published December 21, 2006
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
February 21, 2018
The only reason this book doesn't get 1 star is because it did have good advice in it.
Problems:
The author comes up with his own non-standard LSS acronyms for things that already have acronyms
There are definite incorrect "facts" designed to be anecdotes of things working. If you're going to reference a record breaking speed for building a house, fact check it or don't bother putting in the number.
Not well edited. If the author can add DeMYSTiFieD to accept on spellcheck, he shouldn't have gotten iPod wrong twice in different ways.
Outdated. The book focuses a lot on selling you QIMacros for Excel but the program won't download with current Excel, which now incorporates most of the chart types he emphasized anyway.
The quizzes are terrible. The answer is always All of the Above. The final exam has actual WRONG answers according to other pages in the book. I stopped checking after 3 contradictory errors to his own work.
I think this book was cranked out too fast in order to make a profit and nobody wanted to ensure it was a quality product that would endure 11 years into the future. Don't read if you're looking for the best introductory experience into Six Sigma.
Problems:
The author comes up with his own non-standard LSS acronyms for things that already have acronyms
There are definite incorrect "facts" designed to be anecdotes of things working. If you're going to reference a record breaking speed for building a house, fact check it or don't bother putting in the number.
Not well edited. If the author can add DeMYSTiFieD to accept on spellcheck, he shouldn't have gotten iPod wrong twice in different ways.
Outdated. The book focuses a lot on selling you QIMacros for Excel but the program won't download with current Excel, which now incorporates most of the chart types he emphasized anyway.
The quizzes are terrible. The answer is always All of the Above. The final exam has actual WRONG answers according to other pages in the book. I stopped checking after 3 contradictory errors to his own work.
I think this book was cranked out too fast in order to make a profit and nobody wanted to ensure it was a quality product that would endure 11 years into the future. Don't read if you're looking for the best introductory experience into Six Sigma.
December 22, 2018
The first third is an adequate intro to LSS.
The second third reads like an infomercial for the author's proprietary software that does all sigma calcs for you.
The last third is more about how to implement in your org than about learning LSS.
This would have put it at about 2-stars for me, but in the last chapter there's a rape analogy (yes, you read that correctly) to introduce the section of reward systems. [Insert your favorite WTF gif.]
The second third reads like an infomercial for the author's proprietary software that does all sigma calcs for you.
The last third is more about how to implement in your org than about learning LSS.
This would have put it at about 2-stars for me, but in the last chapter there's a rape analogy (yes, you read that correctly) to introduce the section of reward systems. [Insert your favorite WTF gif.]
February 17, 2016
A real curate's egg of a book. On one hand, very enthusiastically proposes Lean & Six Sigma concepts without a lot of the wall of complexity that can deter people from using either.
On the other hand, the book is horribly badly organised - concepts are used before they are every introduced (sometimes long before), and are rarely explained adequately. The features on the author's downloadable macros are introduced in chapter 3, along with many references to the different types of charts is supports, but before any of these have been introduced in the text - so a reader unfamiliar with 6 Sigma would have no idea what the author was talking about.
The "just do it" approach is fine provided that the techniques are defined so that readers know when they are appropriate - but instead the book just says "use this kind of chart in (the set of macros the book is promoting)" without saying why. For example, LCL & UCL are used in a diagram on page 93, but are not discussed at all until page 203, and then not actually explained.
The author also repeatedly uses acronyms without explaining or introducing them, and also the bizarre part capitalisation of "DeMYSTiFied", which is never explained, and isn't even applied consistently.
Large parts of the book read much more like an extended advert for the QA macros product that the author sells than an examination of Lean & Six Sigma illustrated by that product. Some of the examples are really crowbarred in - I guess you can draw process charts and fishbone diagrams in Excel, but I can't imagine why on earth you would want to.
The book might have some value as a lightweight summary of Lean & 6S tools, but I really wouldn't recommend it without some further background, understanding or experiece of the concepts from another source.
On the other hand, the book is horribly badly organised - concepts are used before they are every introduced (sometimes long before), and are rarely explained adequately. The features on the author's downloadable macros are introduced in chapter 3, along with many references to the different types of charts is supports, but before any of these have been introduced in the text - so a reader unfamiliar with 6 Sigma would have no idea what the author was talking about.
The "just do it" approach is fine provided that the techniques are defined so that readers know when they are appropriate - but instead the book just says "use this kind of chart in (the set of macros the book is promoting)" without saying why. For example, LCL & UCL are used in a diagram on page 93, but are not discussed at all until page 203, and then not actually explained.
The author also repeatedly uses acronyms without explaining or introducing them, and also the bizarre part capitalisation of "DeMYSTiFied", which is never explained, and isn't even applied consistently.
Large parts of the book read much more like an extended advert for the QA macros product that the author sells than an examination of Lean & Six Sigma illustrated by that product. Some of the examples are really crowbarred in - I guess you can draw process charts and fishbone diagrams in Excel, but I can't imagine why on earth you would want to.
The book might have some value as a lightweight summary of Lean & 6S tools, but I really wouldn't recommend it without some further background, understanding or experiece of the concepts from another source.
January 6, 2016
Comes off as a weird mix of sometimes being extremely shallow in its coverage and other times being oddly overspecific about certain points. The reason for this quickly becomes evident - the book essentially serves as an extended infomercial for the author's package of Excel macros. I don't doubt the usefulness of these macros, but they are not included in the cost of the book, costing hundreds of dollars to buy. If the book was titled QI Macros for Lean Six Sigma Demystified, it would probably be a decent book. If you want a good introduction to Lean Six Sigma, go elsewhere.
Additionally, perhaps it was corrected in a later version, but the version I read (2007) was riddled with typos, particularly ironic in a book about achieving excellent quality.
Additionally, perhaps it was corrected in a later version, but the version I read (2007) was riddled with typos, particularly ironic in a book about achieving excellent quality.
January 1, 2016
I read this to brush up, prepare for a future position, and learn some of the actual methods used in Lean Six Sigma practice, as I've worked in that kind of environment for several years but didn't have any formal training. Turns out I was doing some of that already (though informally) and much of it seems like common sense to me. Does that mean I'm a "natural" problem-solver? Only annoyance (other than a glaring grammatical error towards the end, which I found humorous in a quality-focused work) was that I like to understand the background/whole story and he basically said that's a waste of time, here's the Excel macros...
January 20, 2014
This book lived to the promise of demystifiing LSS. I was able to easily follow about 75% of the contents and I plan to apply this knowledge and hopefully get the benefits of reduced delay, defects and variation. Actually it looks very obvious once someone walks you through it. I haven't yet downloaded the free-trial QI macros, but they seem a good benefit of purchasing the book.
November 13, 2012
Does get a little in depth sometimes, and I was really looking for an overview, but overall a good book on Lean and Six Sigma practices. Especially good if you're going to be implementing what you learn immediately or in the very near future.
February 24, 2013
This book is nice... Sort of LSS for dummies, simple and easy to understand.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews