Customer Reviews

Leaning Into Six Sigma : A Parable of the Journey to Six Sigma and a Lean Enterprise

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This book demonstrates principles of Six Sigma and Lean in a quick, readable style. I first read the book within my first year of doing Six Sigma and found it nice. I recently reread the book and saw how powerful it was since my understanding of Lean AND Six Sigma worked powerfully together.

I would encourage anyone to read this before any of the larger books since the flavoring is most important.

Authors Barbara Wheat, Chuck Mills and Mike Carnell use the format of a novel to explain two major quality control mechanisms: Lean Enterprise and Six Sigma, the efficiency approach that has had a broad impact on corporate America. In a sort of parable that shows both of these processes in action, they tell the story of a consultant named Samantha. She helps a business owner named Sid who has made all the wrong choices in setting up his manufacturing operation. Sam uses Six Sigma to help Sid out of his quagmire. The volume goes into greater, more useful detail about identifying and eliminating areas of waste than many other Six Sigma books. The text links the Five S's of Lean Enterprise with the systems problem-solving methodology MAIC (measure, analyze, improve and control). In all, here are the basics of Six Sigma and Lean Enterprise in an easy-to-use volume you can read on a commuter flight. We strongly recommends this book to those who want to begin to improve their firms' efficiency and productivity.

Authors Barbara Wheat, Chuck Mills and Mike Carnell use the format of a novel to explain two major quality control mechanisms: Lean Enterprise and Six Sigma, the efficiency approach that has had a broad impact on corporate America. In a sort of parable that shows both of these processes in action, they tell the story of a consultant named Samantha. She helps a business owner named Sid who has made all the wrong choices in setting up his manufacturing operation. Sam uses Six Sigma to help Sid out of his quagmire. The volume goes into greater, more useful detail about identifying and eliminating areas of waste than many other Six Sigma books. The text links the Five S's of Lean Enterprise with the systems problem-solving methodology MAIC (measure, analyze, improve and control). In all, here are the basics of Six Sigma and Lean Enterprise in an easy-to-use volume you can read on a commuter flight. We strongly recommend this book to those who want to begin to improve their firms' efficiency and productivity.

"Three expert consultants, in LEAN and Six Sigma, combine to present a pretty good overview of how LEAN/Six Sigma initiatives can create lasting change in any organization (if conducted appropriately)...What makes this effective for communicating the benefits of any "efficiency effort" is that the jargon is kept to a minimum and that the material is presented as a parable, yes!, like some of those Ken Blanchard books everyone loves...I would readily use this as a group read leading into any optimization, LEAN or Six Sigma projects you want to begin."

This book was very lame and overly idealized. The one benefit is that it is short and does give some information on Six Sigma/Lean methodologies.

Either you write a novel or you write analytical articles with diagrams, illustrations, and data tables for more perspicuous exposition. A novel has no need for technical data and a technical article has no need for human interest side notes. Extremely uneffective presentation of Six Sigma methodology.