Customer Reviews

Best Practices in Lean Six Sigma Process Improvement

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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.

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.

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.