Best Practices in Lean Six Sigma Process Improvement [Hardcover]

Richard J. Schonberger (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 4, 2007

Best Practices in Lean Six Sigma Process Improvement reveals how to refocus lean/six sigma processes on what author Richard Schonberger—world-renowned process improvement pioneer—calls "the Golden Goals": better quality, quicker response, greater flexibility, and higher value. This manual shows you how it can be done, employing success stories of over 100 companies including Apple, Illinois Tool Works, Dell, Inc., and Wal-Mart, all of which have established themselves as the new, global "Kings of Lean," surpassing even Toyota in long-term improvement.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Pitfalls and opportunities are explained in straightforward terms that help managers to steer process improvement efforts towards sustained advantage. Schonberger reveals how to refocus lean and Six Sigma processes on what he calls the 'golden goals': better quality, quicker response, greater flexibility and higher value." (Worksmanagement.co.uk, August 2008)

"This book makes the case that "lean won't work without quality", and to that end the author focuses on the companies that have achieved "the world's longest, steepest rates of improvement in leanness" companies like Dell, Wall-Mart. The book poses a curious semantical analysis of the term supply chain management suggesting that the emphasis on the word supply implies that it is the customers' job to manage and improve relations with their suppliers." (IndustryWeek.com, July 2008)

From the Inside Flap

Best Practices in Lean Six Sigma Process ImprovementA Deeper Look

Among the most effective and robust improvement methodologies in the business world today, lean and six sigma offer sharp managers invaluable strategies and methods for achieving corporate goals. But the concepts behind lean six sigma, by now well-known, have proven highly susceptible to cherry-picking and avoiding difficult but higher-payoff elements.

Best Practices in Lean Six Sigma Process Improvement takes A Deeper Look at this high-potential science of success. Pitfalls and hidden opportunities are explained in simple terms that can help managers steer their companies' process improvement efforts toward sustained advantage in this era of global hypercompetition. Written by world-renowned best-practices pioneer Richard Schonberger, this eye-opening guide reveals invaluable benchmark data and guidance, prominently including long-term "leanness" data for over 1400 companies in thirty-six countries across thirty-three industrial sectors.

This broadly and deeply researched book provides the big picture and the details on what your corporation needs to succeed, including:

• Proven pathways to lean in addition to those of the well-known "lean core"

• How to re-energize the continuous, everyone-involved side of process improvement—as a potent complement to six sigma-based projects

• Designs for plants, production flow, and jobs that maximize human involvement in best practice methodologies

• What manufacturers should be learning from retailers and distributors about managing the supply pipelines

• Making process data primal and numeric goal setting secondary as driving forces for improvement

• Large numbers of graphs contrasting strong and weak performance of many well-known companies

• Unique business models that some of the world's most innovative companies are using effectively to achieve customer-centric results even as they reach out globally

• Addressing the question of why most lean/six sigma and other performance management initiatives undertaken by companies fall short of expectations, this indispensable book shows that sustained improvements in performance must focus on the customer, reducible to intentional dedication to continuously improving quality, response time, flexibility, and value.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Wiley (December 4, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0470168862
• ISBN-13: 978-0470168868
• Product Dimensions: 6.3 x 1.1 x 9.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.1 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #218,896 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Best Practices, July 13, 2010

By 

Thomas Billesbach - See all my reviews

This review is from: Best Practices in Lean Six Sigma Process Improvement (Hardcover)

This book provides an in depth look at what lean really means in today's competitive market. While we have seen these terms before (Lean, six sigma, process improvement, metrics, etc.), the author provides insight backed by data and years of study to ascertain what really works and more importantly why. It is clear the author has spent a considerable amount of time reviewing numerous companies to determine what makes them successful. In this fast paced economic climate it is easy to get sidetracked and the content provided by Dr. Schonberger helps business leaders to regain focus.

4.0 out of 5 stars Schonberger's Latest Work a Valuable Addition, June 23, 2010

By 

John C. Klasing - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Best Practices in Lean Six Sigma Process Improvement (Kindle Edition)

Dr. Schonberger is one of the original Lean Manufacturing authors, with World Class Manufacturing in 1986. This is his latest work, and is based on his database of 1,400 public companies. He rates their Lean progress based on changes year to year in their inventory turnover data and includes many comments from his observations over the years at the companies.

This is a valuable reference work for those seeking to analyze their companies' Lean performance. It's also a potential source of benchmark partners. Schonberger classifies the companies in several ways and evaluates several common practices in terms of their effects on Lean.

5.0 out of 5 stars Best Practices in Six Sigma Process Improvement, June 7, 2010

By 

Gwendolyn D. Galsworth - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Best Practices in Lean Six Sigma Process Improvement (Hardcover)

Richard Schonberger has been contributing exceptional research and analysis of business and industry for decades. His Six Sigma Best Practices book is another in a long line of blockbuster truthtelling. If you thought you understood the goings and comings of Wal-Mart, Dell, Toyota, Honda (to name just a tiny handful of what is covered in this book), you are in for some delicious "insider information," brought to you through Schonberger's laser investigation techniques. Again and again, he praises the good, debunks the myths, and breaths new life into our thinking with his discoveries. This is the first-rate detective work of a scholar and a pragmatist. Schonberger's incisive commentary on Toyota, for example (The Long and Short of Toyota/page 161ff) is remarkably prophetic. He saw it. We didn't. Book after book, Schonberger drives into the data to find the truth; when it resists, he squeezes it out. Six Signa needs a fresh look. Schonberger delivers.