Customer Reviews

The Lean Six Sigma Pocket Toolbook: A Quick Reference Guide to 100 Tools for Improving Quality and Speed

5 star:		(27)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This pocket toolbook hits the "sweet spot" as a quick reference guide for lean six sigma practitioners. Don't expect this to be an in-depth treatment of the 70+ tools covered in this book. If you're new to the lean/six sigma disciplines, you need to start someplace else. However, if you are currently working in these disciplines and you need a reference with enough meat to remind you of how/why/when a particular tool should be used and also a little of the statistical foundations supporting the tool, then you will find this to be a very valuable book to own. I own just about all of the "pocket guides" and I often find them to be a little too cryptic and abbreviated to meet my needs. This book is a very nice middle ground between the often complex and verbose "learning textbooks" and the often times overly brief pocket guides. As with any first edition, there are some errors that slipped through the editing process, but I can still highly recommend this book as one to keep handy when your out there fighting those "quality and productivity" battles.

This book was a GREAT reference book for understanding Lean Six Sigma tools on Transactional / Service projects. I just completed my Lean Six Sigma Black Belt training through my company. I was one of three individuals (total of 35) within the class that was focused on transactional / service projects. This being the case, the training was geared more towards manufacturing floor Lean Six Sigma tools. Trying to convert these tools from manufacturing to office was VERY difficult. This is were the book came in handy. Not only was a able to make the transaction, but I was able to use these tools to successfully complete my first Black Belt project in the transaction world.
I really liked how the book explained the use of Metrics of Time Effciency (Process Cycle Effciency - PCE).

This text is simply the best of the various pocket Six Sigma tool guides currently available in the marketplace. Although this book is a quick reference guide as the subtitle suggests, there is enough substance here for it to walk on legs and provide learning material for those readers already familiar with basic quality concepts. Quite honestly, I am not sure how the authors arrived at the "Nearly 100 Tools" portion of the subtitle, because the tools presented here can be numbered in various ways. However, this aspect really does not matter. What matters is that all of the major Six Sigma tools are presented with a lot of nice diagrams, graphs, and other figures to give the reader a good sense of the fundamentals of any given tool. These well-encapsulated nuggets of information should serve as excellent memory joggers for some, and good starting points for those needing additional detail available in other texts or online resources. Especially helpful are the numerous brief "tips" sections throughout that point novices in the right direction. Note that the organization of the book might not be well suited for some, because it is not ordered according to the customary steps of the DMAIC process. To some degree, the first chapter points to various sections of the book during its cursory walkthrough of the DMAIC process, although the street signs are not very well planned. Despite some minor flaws, this book serves its purpose well.

This is a really good consolidation of the various methods available for approaching six sigma projects. It is an interesting book to browse and very useful if one is unsure about exactly which methodology or statistical test should be used in a given situation. Six sigma is mostly about applying a scientific methodology to improving processes and this book "cuts to the chase".

This book is a ready reference for the practitioner and well deserves its description as a toolbook. It includes top level tips and tools for idea generation, process mapping and data collection. Also provided are more advanced and specialized tools for statistical process control and six sigma, lean tools for reducing lead time and non-value added costs, and the less well known tools for managing operational and portfolio complexity.

Works best for those with a basic familiarity the the ideas discussed, for whom it can serve as a handy reminder in the heat of application

I use this book for all my consulting work. All my clients receive one and their comments confirm how good is this book.

If you are an engineer, this book should sit alongside your Machinery's Handbook, and your calculator. Although to use it you probably need some background courses, this book is a summary of all the currently recognized tools for improving productivity in all areas of manufacturing and engineering processes. Perhaps the hardest part of six sigma is knowing what tool to use for what situation, and these guys do a pretty good job of organzing the data to help the reader with these challenges. I only had one suggestion, and that is the book should be bound with a wire type binding so that it lays open flat when you are using it.

This book is very concise and straight to the point. One need not to ponder over thousands of lines to find the definition and application of Lean Six Sigma tools. I am a beginner in Six Sigma and using this book along with my training material.

This book is very much of use when I am looking for a quick refresher or use for some tool, which I think could be of use, but not sure.

This is a great book to refresh your memory about the tools. I've had several advanced statistical classes in college and grad school, and the truth is if you don't use it, you lose it. This book hits the high points and includes more than enough information to get you back up and running if you have been away from DOE, ANOVA, and many of the other statistical tools out there. Not a book to read if you trying to learn the tools - again this book is a memory jogger, and a pretty dang good one! As an industrial engineer and lean practitioner, this book has been a great addition to my library!

This is a Tool book, covering all of the essential tools required by Lean Manufacturing, Quality and Six Sigma practitioners. The authors pack maximum information into a trim 276 page pocket guide. The information is presented in a logical sequence, with a reasonable amount of context and application hints. The various statistical and process tools are covered. This is a well-written reference book for those who have learned the materials previously. It is not an introduction, history, study guide or textbook.

Highlights include chapter 9 on Reducing Lead Time and Non-Value Added Costs, the Kaizen quick improvement outline (p. 20), the Kano customer satisfaction grid (p. 64), the measurement selection matrix (p. 74), guidance on selecting a control chart (p. 123) and matrix plots for multiple regression (p. 171). If you're a quality/operations professional, this should be on your bookshelf.