Customer Reviews

General Electric's Six Sigma Revolution: How General Electric and Others Turned Process Into Profits

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Having graduated from Jack Welch's School for Wayward Boys, I found George Eckes' "The Six Sigma Revolution" to be a revelation.

I left GE some months ago quite frustrated with the company's application of Six Sigma. Even though all salaried employees were trained as Green Belts, even though all managers took great care to spout the proper nostrums at the proper times, nothing really changed much in how we operated.

I worked on a new product program which served more as salve to the egos of engineers than to improve our product for our customer. I and a few others fought valiantly to ensure that the voice of the customer was injected into the process, and that the design capability was measured and reported through Six Sigma scorecards. This was all deemed to be unimportant in the rush to get the product to market.

Eckes' book reveals why this was so.

Early on, he had counseled Jack Welch that Six Sigma rests on two pillars: customer satisfaction and process capability. It's quite simple: ask the customer what he wants and fine tune your process to efficiently deliver it. Thus you both increase revenue (through customer loyalty and product quality) and decrease costs (by eliminating the hidden factory and focusing only on customer CTQs). Welch being Welch, he completely ignored the former and focused on the latter, to great effect.

In 1999, Welch realized that this was a mistake, as customer after customer inquired why they didn't notice a change in GE's products and services after the Six Sigma introduction. While shareholders realized double-digit growth year after year, customers saw the same old mixed bag of products and services. Welch immediately launched a major initiative to reduce customer span and inject the voice of the customer into GE processes.

Eckes, to his credit, indulges in a bit of well-deserved "I told you so." After all, it's not often one proves the most admired CEO in the world to be wrong.

This is an excellent book covering the whys and wherefores of a Six Sigma introduction. For those of us in the trenches trying to effect lasting change in our companies, this is an indispensable resource. If you're looking for an in-depth guide to the tools employed in Six Sigma project execution, grab "Implementing Six Sigma" by Forrest Breyfogle instead.

I read the Six Sigma Revolution because of my facination with exploring ways to improve the quality of life, both as it relates to business as well as to relationships and life generally. Every now and then an author comes along who not only has technical expertise but also has both feet on the ground. George Eckes has painted a picture that illustrates not only mastery of Six Sigma content, he also exemplifies giftedness by communicating profoundly detailed concepts and principles with clarity and simplicity. And he paints his picture with splashes of fun and humor.

I believe that anyone who is committed to improving effectiveness and efficiency in their world, whether in their business or in their personal lives, can benefit significantly by reading the Six Sigma Revolution. I'm looking forward to getting a copy of his next book, Making Six Sigma Last.

As a newbie to the world of Six Sigma, the first thing I did was to order every book I could off a Amazon to get a broad view of what is out there, and to (hopefully) garner enough understanding to help navigate our company through our Six Sigma initiative.

I've looked through 8 books, and Six Sigma Revolution has finally found it's way into my #1 spot. I'm ordering a copy for all of our Black Belt candidates, as I found it much more useful than the Mikel Harry book (the one that our Executive Team had us all read) and for sure, better for the typical uninitiated person than one of the $100 Six Sigma resource "Bibles" (though once I have completed the Black Belt training, I'm guessing a book like Bryfogles' will come in handy).

So if you are looking for a book that clearly explains how to set up a Six Sigma initiative (something most of the books do), while also introducing many of the Six Sigma tools (which most of the books do not) this is your book.

The other book that has impressed me is "The Six Sigma Way."

Regardless of which book you read, your still going to need to find a consultant to run the trainings and work with the executive team...but this book will help give you the big picture overview, with enough of the details to be able to deal with the consultants with more confidence (at least that has been my role in the Six Sigma initiative).

Enjoy.

Most of the Six Sigma books seem to fall into two camps. The first camp creates a mystical, magical program that promises results on the order of GE and Motorola if you only believe. The second camp repeats the promise in the intro and maybe the first chapter then serves up a repackaged statistics 101 course (and 201 if the book weighs more than 5 pounds). This book doesn't make promises - it explains, it illuminates, and even entertains in places.

This book was not only helpful in understanding what Six Sigma is, but how to practically implement the initiative. George Eckes takes what could be a cumbersome and difficult concept of quality improvement and makes it understandable and down right exciting. The "Six Sigma Revolution" is certainly a must read for anyone who desires to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of their organization.

The Six Sigma Revolution by Mr. George Eckes is an excellent road map to corporate tactical excellence.

The book leads us to a clear understanding of exactly how to implement the mission of Six Sigma: a scientific method of strategic business management by fact and data to promulgate Excellence in corporate performance and corporate culture through continuous planned quality improvements in business process management.

The Six Sigma Revolution is the best book that offers a complete process to achieve the key tactical component of Six Sigma: process management excellence!

Making Six Sigma Last, another book by the author, successfully teaches us the way to achieve the cultural component of Six Sigma: corporate cultural excellence.

The Six Sigma Revolution is an outstanding work that is enjoyable and very enlightening. It is an important contribution to Six Sigma practice that's very easy to read, comprehend, and implement.

The Six Sigma Revolution is perfect for corporate executives, managers, employees, consultants, quality practitioners, teachers and students of best business practice.

Thank you George, for the outstanding inspiration of The Six Sigma Revolution.

Regards,
Marc St.James
November 24, 2001

As an Organizational Development consultant I had heard of Six Sigma. I knew that it had to do with quality-but that was about the extent of my knowledge. Then, I came across this book by George Eckes, The Six Sigma Revolution. I must confess I am on my third reading of this book. No, it's not that I'm slow-quit the contrary. It is simple that George supplies the reader with so much information-it's not something that a beginner will be able to absorb all at once. Let's remember Mr. Eckes is a Six Sigma expert. My first read was for general understanding and pleasure. Pleasure? Yes, this book was a pleasure to read. I must admit I was expecting and ready to delve into a highly techno-speak, two cups of coffee to stay alert book. George you surprised me! You give the reader real business and personal examples of Six Sigma concepts so that even the beginner can grasp what Six Sigma strategies and tactical components are all about. For example, what better way to learn about DOE then through Eckes mother-in-laws'lasagna recipe. George shows the readers what is needed to be in place before an organization even considers implementing Six Sigma, through holding the gains that Six Sigma achieved. I have read two other books on Six Sigma since picking up George Eckes, The Six Sigma Revolution. One, was a cute fable about implementing Six Sigma, this added nothing to my knowledge. And the other, let's just say that I don't have enough coffee in the pot to make it through the book. George your books takes center stage in my learning and understanding the power of Six Sigma. When done right you show us all it will be nothing less than a revolution.

This is an excellent book for people who wanted to implement the technical aspect and the culture of Six-Sigma. I've read the book for a month and really made me "Easily Understand" how to put the concept into practice. I am a member of our Company's Operations Improvement Team and with this, applying the concept of Six-Sigma will definitely further enhance my "Creative Thinking" in problem solving, solution formulation, implementation & control which will contribute in achieving Quality Finished Goods, Cost Effectiveness & On-time Delivery.

Not all revolutions succeed and the same is true of efforts to design, launch, and then implement a Six Sigma program. There are several excellent books on the subject, including this one. Also Breyfogle's Implementing Six Sigma and its sequel, Managing Six Sigma, co-authored with Cupello and Meadows. For those who know nothing about Six Sigma, I suggest they first read what I describe as a "primer", Chowdhury's The Power of Six Sigma.

Of course, these and other books are essentially worthless unless and until dedcision-makers in an organization have both sufficient resources and a shared commitment to learn from the relevant experiences of others. I realize that there are at least some executives now involved with organizations whose senior-management is unwilling and/or unable to commit sufficient resources. Nonetheless, many may wish to understand what Six Sigma is (and isn't), and, how certain companies have used Six Sigma principles to thrive (e.g. Motorola, GE, and Allied-Signal). Eckes invites his reader to accompany him on "the pragmatic journey through a new management approach that is helping drive productivity and profits....[one whose focus is on] the involvement of management at all levels of an organization." He addresses the elements management must institute to create an infrastructure for Six Sigma to work. "The second major component of Six Sigma addresses the tactics that drive improved effectiveness and efficiency in an organization. This method uses a simple but detailed approach to improve the performance of existing processes."

Eckes presents the material within ten chapters whose titles correctly indicate their primary focus:

Introduction to Six Sigma

The Strategy of Six Sigma: Eight Step[s to Strategic Improvement

Profits = Customer + Process + Employee

Project Start-up: Tactical Six Sigma

Measuring Project Sigma: How Close Are You to Perfection?

Data and Process Analysis: the Keys to the project

Root Cause Analysis: Never Stop Asking "Why"

Selecting Solutions That Drive Sigma Performance

Holding the Gains: Making Sure Your Solutions Stick

How Six Sigma Initiatives and How to Avoid Mistakes

In the final chapter, Eckes identifies a number of "concerns" (e.g. "The Key to Six Sigma Is Statistics, Statistics, Statistics") and then cross-references specific strategies and tactics which address those concerns. He also includes a boxed summary of "Key Learnings" which I found especially valuable within the context of the "critical mistakes" which so many companies have made and, presumably, others will make. I agree with Eckes and countless others that the most valuable lessons are learned from a rigorous analysis of failure. The career of Thomas Edison clearly indicates the differences between "efficient" and :"effective." His failure-to-success ratio was probably 100-1. Perfection is a destination, not a journey. A majority of the companies which have designed and then implemented a Six Sigma program eventually abandon that journey. When examining the ten "Concerns", Eckes helps his reader to understand why.

Ultimately, in my opinion, Six Sigma is an educational experience which requires rigor, passion, precision, dexterity, determination (indeed tenacity) and above all, patience. There is obviously a great deal to be learned from companies such as GE, Motorola, and Allied-Signal, of course, but one of the most important points Eckes makes in this book is that the knowledge of greatest value is what can be learned from and within one's own organization. The principles of Six Sigma are uniquely appropriate to that process of inquiry. If you are interested in Six Sigma, this is a "must read."

George Eckes' experience in quality control includes an instance where he had the temerity, just out of college, to ask W. Edwards Deming, then an octogenarian, to elaborate on his views about quality. "Those are the most stupid questions I have ever heard! Go read some of my books," the cantankerous quality czar responded. No one reading this volume can doubt that Eckes has done his homework ever since. His blend of experience, theoretical expertise and common sense make this a very effective Six Sigma manual, although it is a little light on case studies. One of the book's most valuable elements is Eckes' keen analysis of the pitfalls that can flush all your best Six Sigma intentions down the tubes, even as a row of consultants tell you it is a panacea for all your woes. We recommend this book to anyone who is about to call a consultant and venture into the Rasputin world of Six Sigma.