Customer Reviews

Power of Six Sigma

5 star:		(26)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

Six Sigma is a NEW management initiative which has been successful in GE, Allied Signal etc. I always wanted to learn about the subject; and bought 2 previously published books on Six Sigma and all are DIFFICULT to understand as I am not from Quality field. I always embrace any book which explains in a simple tone.

The Power of Six Sigma is an EXCELLENT book that explains the complex subject in a non-threatning way for anyone to understand. The book reminded me 3 books: "THE GOAL", WHO MOVED MY CHEESE" or "FISH". If someone wants to understand what is the true power behind Six Sigma, please READ THIS BOOK. This is a STORY BOOK, which is for blue collars to white collars - for everyone.

All the organizations which are implementing Six Sigma MUST ADOPT THIS BOOK and MUST DISTRIBUTE THIS BOOK to EVERY EMPLOYEE. I mean every employee. I emphasize EVERYONE - because successful implementation of any major initiatives depend on everyone's acceptance. This Book WILL work as A CATALYST.

I strongly RECOMMEND THIS BOOK.

I just finished reading "The Power of Six Sigma" and enjoyed it more than I had expected. My company is starting to implement Six Sigma and I wanted to get a jump on my other fellow employees. I read it over the course of a week during my lunch break, and because it is not overly technical enjoyed doing so. I always hated textbooks back in school because it seemed they were written by experts for experts and not for real people. I'm not a mechanical engineer and I'm no statistics expert but I have used statistics software before in school and now have a working knowledge of the concepts of Six Sigma. In addition to learning the basics such as what greenbelts, blackbelts, and executive champions are, I now understand terms such as DPMO, Critical to Quality, DMAIC, Standard Deviation, and the importance of assigning numbers to measurements. The explanation of the DMAIC process was also helpful, and although we don't make pizza or burgers we can apply the main concepts and adapt them to our business and develop our own strategy for how Six Sigma will work for us. We have recently chosen our first project and because I had read the book I could explain the main concepts to my line workers. Once they knew what we were doing they opened up to us and we quickly found the cause of the problem. Our shop guys always seem to get nervous whenever someone from the office comes out to the plant to examine a defect. But if they all knew about Six Sigma and understood that we were not out their to challenge their job, but instead to improve quality, things would go a lot smoother and quality would be better. I am now a big fan of the book!

I was looking for a book that would explain Six Sigma, and how i works in a simple way. I didn't want read about statistics and all the tools in Six Sigma, just how the statistics and tools apply in a "real" Six Sigma project. This book was just what i was looking for! The way that the book is written is very good. It's a story about two old friends that have been in the same company for a long time. One of them very successful, the other one not. The successful one has been working as a Black Belt for some time. He explaines a Six Sigma project over lunch, there is always a dialogue between them, the non successful one is asking questions, just the questions I would have wanted to ask, and he is getting more convinced about The Power of Six Sigma the more he gets to know. This is a great book to start with if you want to know more about Six Sigma!

This book starts out fine enough. It describes the frustration of being laid off, feeling worthless and wondering how do you go home and deal with the reality. Then the book promises something revolutionary that will improve the company, fatten the bottom line and involve everyone from the CEO down to the guy in the mailroom.

Baloney!

This book is high on the quantitative and low on qualitative. Sure, there's a theme about improved quality, but what I mean by 'qualitative' is that we never ever see how the guy in the mailroom fits into the revolution. This is a problem that bean-counters like the author can't deal with and don't seem to want to deal with.

While the Blackbelts are supported by the Greenbelts, and the Masters are in 100% support ... what's to be said about the guy in the mailroom? While the Black belt is counting the mailroom letters, and timing the mail delivery ... what is there to say about a disgruntled mailroom clerk who doesn't feel like he's a part of the new program? Why does this matter?

It matters because a lot of mistakes and quality problems are due to sabotage and lost interest; it's not always about measurable processes. "The Power of Six Sigma" suggests that a few new machines and the dedication of the Masters will overcome whatever resentment or frustration that rises up against the implementation of Six Sigma. No! This kind of stuff you can't measure with statistics or negate with new machines.

In the book, the proponent of the Six Sigma program explains how he solved a problem by hiring someone to "just answer the phone." This adds one more mundane, rotten job that stands to only counteract the Six Sigma success once burnout sets in, and the phone person gets abrasive and less attentive with customers. Face it! We've all dealt with this when we call places and need help from someone who was hired "just to answer the phone." Six Sigma doesn't deal with this in any form shape or fashion. Maybe because you can't quantify or measure burnout.

"The Power of Six Sigma" is a lazy, feel-good book for managers and it says nothing new. It's full of corny analogies, and is a thinly-veiled advertisement for Six Sigma training. And it's printed in a huge font like the books we read in 1st grade. It's a sad thing that this book is so hot ... I'd hoped that managers were smarter and more motivated than this book.

I am an officer in a small corporationand read this book for possibly distributing across the company. So it was important to find a book that stays at the '30,000 foot level' and remains generic enough to apply to any company. The discussions abot REWARD and CAREER PROGRESSION and use of CONSULTANTS were too specific to the point of quoting dollar figures on rewards, and this did not reflect the aproach we have chosen given our culture and finances. The Black belts are said to be rewarded by 2-3% of a projects savings which is estimated to be 10k per project. In our opinion such decisions should be left to each company. It is stated " matter of factly " that the best green belts will become black belts and best black belts will become master black belts and the best master black belts will be executives. What about companies with a flat structure?. In addition it is stated that master black belts are hired consultants that come in and lead the black belts. All that is presented as standard procedures and that is not the way we see it best for our business. Also we will have many more green belts than black belts or Master black belts. Oddly there is a jeering directed at GB's which is not directed at BB's or MBB's not that there should be any at all. The Gb's are referred to as worker bees and that they can work themselves up to BB's. It is important to promote team work in the company. I do not want to create a Caste system instead. This definitely WILL NOT work for distributing across our company. I am glad I read it carefully before we created a huge problem.

I searched for Sigma books in the county library database, and this was one I put a hold on and read when it came in. This is useful as a quick, easy exposition of "What is Six Sigma and why is it so great?" if you don't know anything about it other than that your employer is keen on it. I can understand an employer passing this out to the masses to help counter skepticism and resistance to a nascent Sigma program. This book might persuade the reader to take his foot off the brake -- but there's nothing in here to help him start driving.

This book is a valuable reference to those trying to understand the subject of six sigma. It is definitely not meant to be an all-encompassing reference on the subject, yet it is an important primer (yes, PRIMER) for those who wanto to understand six sigma. Many people immediately skip to the intricate details of six sigma without understanding what is ultimately the PURPOSE of six sigma, and hence fail to fully understand the subject.
The book is written in the first person story form about a man trying to understand from his colleague what six sigma is, how it is implemented, and who are the major players. At the beginning the terminology might be slightly confusing, but it becomes clearer towards the end as the author provides some helpful examples. As I said, will not make you an expert on the complexities of six sigma, but it will provide a useful introduction and will clear many misconceptions that you might have about the subject. The book is brief (shouldnt take anyone more than 3 days to read), well written in simple and logical order.

How to describe this book? Chowdhury creates a fictional situation in which one executive, fired one morning, unexpectedly has lunch the same day with another executive employed by a different division of the same company. The former (Joe Meter) is understandably self-preoccupied as the latter (Larry Hogan) explains his involvement in Six Sigma initiatives. In effect, the reader is an eavesdropper on their conversation. Meter is the narrator. What Chowdhury provides is a primer. (For those in need of a cohesive and comprehensive explanation of this subject, I highly recommend The Six Sigma Way co-authored by Pande, Neuman, and Cavanagh.) Some reviewers have noted that Chowdbury's book is entertaining and that is true. Other reviewers seem to criticize it for what it isn't and that's not fair. It is what it is: a remarkably lucid, reader-friendly explanation of Six Sigma principles, illustrated (by Hogan's own experiences) in a fictitious but credible corporate context. I think this book would serve as an excellent introduction to The Six Sigma Way but has substantial value on its own merits.

Here is a brief excerpt from the final chapter as Meter summarizes what he has learned.

"As I understand it, the main thrust of Six Sigma is to reduce errors and waste in every kind of business endeavor to please customers and fatten the bottom line....You do that not simply by cranking up quality control, but by taking a step back, defining where the underlying problems are -- within the business, processes, or operation -- and eliminating them....The key to doing all that, of course, is measuring where you are and where you want to go, analyzing the data, improving the situation, and controlling the activity after you fix it to make sure you don't slip."

Obviously, this excerpt has been taken out of context but I want to include it to suggest the clarity and brevity of Chowdhury's writing style which is consistent throughout the narrative. Also, I share Meter's comments to suggest that the fundamental principles of Six Sigma were not invented at Motorola, Allied Signal, or GE. They have been with us since cave dwellers began to exchange large rocks for sharp sticks. But we can credit executives at the aforementioned companies for creating a nomenclature for the principles, and, for demonstrating how effective they can be if applied with appropriate passion, precision, and patience. Chowdhury's little book creates wide access to those principles. Those who require depth of analysis must seek it elsewhere.

I've read lots of business books, but no one seems to explain Six Sigma in a comprehensible way, until this book. That's too bad, because it's a big part of the basis for the growth of one of the world's truly great businesses (GE), among many others.

The Power of Six Sigma is an easy read that clearly, concisely, and entertainingly sets out the principles of Six Sigma in a way that anyone can understand. Not only can one use the terminology of Six Sigma effectively after reading The Power of Six Sigma (black belts, green belts, etc.), but there's a pretty good chance you'll want to adapt the (now) straightforward logic of the system to your business. Doing all that in a book that takes about two hours to read -- and painless ones at that -- is a pretty impressive accomplishment. I highly recommend it.

Wow!!! This book made my day. It took me only 2 hours to read on the flight. I was extremely fascinated. I am a "worker bee" as defined by the author. As the author wrote in the PREFACE, "Most of all, this book is for the REST OF US: the line workers, support staff, and others in nonmanagerial positions who fear yet another program coming down the pike and what it might mean to US and our jobs. This book will help us ALL." The author kept his PROMISE.

My organization has adopted Six Sigma and currently conducting Black Belt, Green Belt Training etc., but it failed to effectively communicate the Six Sigma methodology to everyone of the organization. As soon as I see the subtitle: An INSPIRING TALE of how Six Sigma is tranforming the way we work; 2 words got my attention : INSPIRING TALE. I am totally honest that I can relate myself as the book's character : Joe. I wish I have a friend like book's another character (Larry) so that he can explain me the Complicated SUBJECT so plainfully. This book simplified everything.

Author's analogy on Six Sigma is BRILLIANT. In summary, the author defined: The Power of Six Sigma = PEOPLE Power + PROCESS Power The author is absolutely correct. Most of the time, senior management forget about the PEOPLE POWER. Author wrote: "One of the most important elecments of Six Sigma is the role everyone plays," he said. "This is the People Power side of the equation. Any football coach will tell you the same thing: Every player must have specific role, clearly defined, with consequences for not coming through and rewards for doing their particular job well. And that goes for everyone, from the quarterback to the waterboy." Perhaps, the most powerful thing of the book is the simple real life examples author used to clarify the complex subject. Both characters Joe and Larry used a very lively conversational style sometimes I totally forgot I am reading a Business Book. Hope in the 21st century we have MORE this kind of books and authors.

When the book is defining the Process Power, I loved the "DMAIC" process - it is convincing that this process works, it is not a program of the month. READ Page 93, and look at the PULL Quote and you will discover how enjoyable reading it is.

In the end, as a reader I STONGLY RECOMMEND this book to everyone. After reading it myself I gave the book to my wife to read it as she works for a Jewellary shop. Even a Jewellary shop manager will have fun reading it and will wonder "Why her organization does not practice Six Sigma?"

Top Management of any type of organizations (who are struggling to COMMUNICATE SIX SIGMA methodology effectively to every employee) MUST ADOPT THIS BOOK and distribute to the whole workforce.