Rath & Strong's Six Sigma Leadership Handbook [Hardcover]

Rath & Strong (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 21, 2003 | ISBN-10: 0471251240 | ISBN-13: 978-0471251248 | Edition: 1

Achieve unparalleled customer satisfaction and greater profitability with this essential handbook! Six Sigma is a proven and highly effective business initiative for improving customer satisfaction and increasing the efficiency of processes. Rath & Strong's Six Sigma Leadership Handbook highlights the critical factors that make or break implementation, offers key best practices for getting it right the first time, and offers real-life examples and case studies that light the path to success. With Rath & Strong, you'll get an overview of the tools, methods, approaches, benefits, and risks that are associated with each element of the methodology.

Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

Six Sigma is a proven and highly effective business initiative for improving customer satisfaction and increasing the efficiency of processes. But diving into Six Sigma without the proper preparation and planning is inviting failure. That’s why there’s Rath & Strong’s Six Sigma Leadership Handbook. This practical guide from the global leader in Six Sigma solutions helps business leaders understand the methodology and major issues of Six Sigma and achieve successful implementation.

This comprehensive resource focuses on the issues senior managers must face when considering Six Sigma as a key business strategy. It highlights the critical factors that make or break implementation, offers key best practices for getting it right the first time, and offers real-life examples and case studies that light the path to success.

Six Sigma takes planning, care, and caution if you want to do it right. Rath & Strong speeds up the process by providing a framework that helps you weigh the issues and make informed decisions about how you will use Six Sigma in your business. The handbook spotlights the major issues you need to consider, helps you align Six Sigma with the critical elements of your organization, and shows you how Six Sigma will impact your organizational culture. With Rath & Strong, you’ll have an overview of the tools, methods, approaches, benefits, and risks that are associated with each element of the methodology.

But this book is much more than a basic overview of Six Sigma. It offers the perspective you need to make the wise choice when considering any aspect of the methodology and breaks down all the issues of importance to today’s business leaders. It shares the Six Sigma experiences of executives from a wide range of industries to let you learn from the successes and failures of others before you begin. It demonstrates the flexibility and possibilities of Six Sigma–whether you want to use it as a simple cost-cutting measure or even as a method for developing your next generation of leadership talent.

Rath & Strong’s Six Sigma Leadership Handbook examines the critical link between process, leadership, culture, and customer, and leads you through every cycle of deployment. Most importantly, it lets you follow companies such as Motorola, Johnson & Johnson, Honeywell, and GE into a new era–one defined by unparalleled customer satisfaction and greater profitability.

From the Back Cover

Praise for Rath & Strong's Six Sigma Leadership Handbook

"Six Sigma tools, particularly DFSS, are critical drivers of organic growth. DFSS can be used to significantly improve a new product, service, or process anywhere. Rath & Strong’s detailed approach to how your company can use these tools is terrific."
–Dave Cote, Chairman and CEO, Honeywell

"This handbook is a valuable resource for leaders considering implementing a Six Sigma program. I wish I had something like it when Quest Diagnostics first embarked on our commitment to Six Sigma quality a few years ago."
–Kenneth W. Freeman, Chairman and CEO
Quest Diagnostics Incorporated

"Rath & Strong’s new handbook focuses on the critical factors that can make or break the implementation of Six Sigma in an organization."
–John C. Plant, President and CEO, TRW Automotive

"This handbook is an essential tool for any organization that is considering implementing a quality or process improvement program utilizing the Six Sigma methodology. Understanding the philosophy behind this proven management framework before putting it into practice gives companies looking to use it an even greater edge. The handbook provides an easy-to-follow footprint for the successful deployment of Six Sigma."
–Randy H. Zwirn, President and CEO
Siemens Westinghouse Power Corporation

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 592 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; 1 edition (February 21, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0471251240
• ISBN-13: 978-0471251248
• Product Dimensions: 6.5 x 1.4 x 9.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #808,991 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars No other single source offers more or better information, January 24, 2004

By 

Robert Morris (Dallas, Texas) - See all my reviews
(TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Rath & Strong's Six Sigma Leadership Handbook (Hardcover)

Twenty-eight people contributed material to this book, including Thomas Bertels who also served as editor. What we have here in a single volume is a focus on "the critical factors that can make or break the implementation of Six Sigma in an organization." The contributors identify, explain, and then support these principles with real-world experiences and examples. "By placing Six Sigma in this context, this book will, in fact, be useful for any executive, manager, or employee who wants to understand how Six Sigma can help address the particular challenges of their organization." This book was written with empathy for non-technicians (such as I) as it responds to questions such as these:

* What is Six Sigma?
* Why Six Sigma?
* Why NOT Six Sigma?
* Where and how to begin?
* Whom to involve in Six Sigma initiatives?
* What is senior management's role?
* Major cultural barriers and how to overcome them?
* How and when to implement Six Sigma program?
* How to measure progress?
* How to sustain process improvement?

My own rather extensive experience suggests that all organizations can improve HOW they conduct business. Some processes may involve development of new products or services, others production and/or distribution, and still others order processing. Whatever. Not all organizations, however, need a full-blown Six Sigma program. In fact, a majority of such programs either fail or fall far short of expectations.

Among the many substantial benefits of this book is the guidance it provides to decision-makers when they struggle to determine the nature and extent of process improvement initiatives needed. You don't need a full-blown Six Sigma program inorder to, for example, reduce cycle time while improving first-pass yield. Among the most valuable chapters in this book are the last two. With appropriate modification, the principles, strategies, and tactics in both Chapter 24 ("Measuring and Auditing Results") and in Chapter 25 ("Developing Change Leadership Capacity") are relevant to any organization, regardless of size of nature. In my opinion, each of these two chapters (all by itself) is worth far more than the cost of the book but the value of both is even greater, of course, when their material is absorbed and digested at the conclusion of the sequence of chapters. I also want to commend the remarkably informative Foreword, Preface, and Introductions well as are three appendices: "Basic Six Sigma Concepts," "Case Study: Six Sigma in Small and Medium Enterprises," and "DFSS Case Study."

Previously, I have reviewed and praised the works of Forrest Breyfogle, Subir Chowdhury, George Eckes, and Peter Pande, each of whom has written brilliantly and eloquently on the subject of Six Sigma. I continue to recommend their works without hesitation or qualification, as I shall now do also with Rath & Strong's Six Sigma Leadership Handbook as well as the three Rath & Strong Pocket Guides and the Six Sigma Road Map. Given the importance of process improvement, and given how many hours and dollars can be saved by even one improvement, it makes sense to obtain resources such as these and then derive maximum ROI from each.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Practical Guidance for Leaders, March 5, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Rath & Strong's Six Sigma Leadership Handbook (Hardcover)

This is the best practical guide out there. It is not a pocket guide like most of Rath & Strong's publications but it is no less practical. The book is written by a group of authors who work day-to-day actually implementing Six Sigma in a variety of organizations and clearly reflects their practical orientation. In addition, there are a number of indepth interviews with corporate CEOs and other senior leaders who have successfully used Six Sigma. One of the strengths of this book is that it not only covers the technical issues associated with Six Sigma implementation but also offers practical guidance in areas like change management and cultural impact. This handbook is a must read both for anyone thinking about implementing Six Sigam and for those already deeply involved.

5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Perfect Overview, February 19, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Rath & Strong's Six Sigma Leadership Handbook (Hardcover)

This is the most complete Six Sigma overview I have ever read. Not only does Rath & Strong write from a team of everyday Six Sigma trainers and consultants, but this book also includes high profile interviews by industry leaders such as Dr. Juran (Juran Institute), Dr. Mikel Harry (Six Sigma Academy) and Robert Galvin (Motorola). If you do not have this book, you are not serious about Six Sigma.