Customer Reviews

SPC: Practical Understanding of Capability by Implementing Statistical Process Control, third edition (Walkabout)

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I think that it is sad that a book of such extremely poor technical quality, which the author believes is "practical understanding", fools so many people who do not understand statistics themselves. If you have not been exposed to statistics for sometime, or have always wanted to learn statistical methods, then this should not be your first book. Anyone who has been exposed to a good book on statistics, or attended a class or seminar on statistics, will quickly see that this book contains numerous incorrect definitions and interpretations of statistical terms and methods. A book review of this book by noted statistician, Lloyd Nelson (who is an ASQ Fellow and Shewhart medalist) appeared in the April 2001 issue of the Journal of Quality Technology.

As an example, the author defines the binomial distribution as one which has two modes, which he has confused with the biMODal distribution. The range is defined as the (data point - average), which would produce both positive and negative values. Of course, the range is known (by everyone else except the author) as the difference between the largest and smallest values of a set of data, so it can never assume a negative value. His discussion of control charts also demonstrates a lack of understanding as to their use and the underlying distributions on which they are based. For instance, his statement that the binomial and Poisson distributions are a special case of the normal distribution is blatantly incorrect. The list of examples goes on and on, and many more can be found in Nelson's book review.

The best advice this reviewer can give someone shopping for an easy to read and credible book on statistics is to pass this one up, save your money, and keep looking. If you subscribe to one of the journals of ASQ (American Society for Quality), namely the Journal of Quality Technology and Technometrics, then read their book reviews. The reviewers are very knowledgable and are composed of Senior Members and Fellows who have considerable practical and theoretical knowledge. They can offer valuable information on which books give the best value for the money.

This is a different SPC book. You catch something of it in the subtitle: Practical Understanding of Capability by Implementing Statistical Process Control. The material seems to come from aomeone who has spent time solving process problems instead of attending seminars.The writer seems more concerned about the reader getting the job done than saying all the right words and pushing the latest hot buttons. Abbot has written several books and the ones I have read all have this same flavor. The ideas are different. The appproach is different. If you are interested in becoming a practical solver of process problems and pass up this author, you have left something on the table.

This text is one of the worst in terms of technical merit and correctness. The author obviously does not have much of an idea about statistics and how to implement SPC....

I found the book and excellent practical guide to assist me in running the business. We have taken the SPC control charts to heart and set up the businees per his instructions.

The book and its concepts are easily understandable, the examples and stories make the reading enjoyable.

If you need to design a help desk or a customer care center pay close attention to the principles discussed and set up a process to provide SPC charts daily on each of the functions -- it will help you improve productivity and reduce cost.

This book is the real thing! It is definitely for engineers/managers due to the math it covers. I really hadn't done much with statistics since college, but this was a great reintroduction. All of the examples were applied, which made it easier to follow. The idea that operators use control charts, and managers use capability studies was a new one to me, but made good sense. The other helpful tool was the "metric blueprint" that shows at a glance how products and processes are interdependent.

This book was well structured, well organized, making everything easy to locate. We followed the books directions and explanations of SPC, which improved our departments productivity by 30%, and our quality went up 25%. We have been working hard to follow the books methods throughout all of our plants, employing over 1300 employees. The down to earth explanations made implementing to our hourly workers easier. I would recommend this book to any manager looking for improvement.

This book, along with the Self Study
Guide, are excellent self paced learning materials. I highly recommend these materials to anyone whose job demands a thorough knowledge of Statistical Process Control.

The SPC " Practical Understanding of Capability by Implementing Statistical Process Control" along with the Self Study
Guide are excellent self paced learning materials. I highly recommend these materials to anyone whose job demands a thorough knowledge of Statistical Process Control.

" The word practical in the book's subtitle says it all. The book has a decision making focus (still has the math). This really clarified everything for me. Not just a math book but a how to make SPC work for you. The idea of different tools for strategic and tactical decisions was new and refreshing."

" The word practical in the book's subtitle says it all. The book has a decision making focus (still has the math). This really clarified everything for me. Not just a math book but a how to make SPC work for you. The idea of different tools for strategic and tactical decisions was new and refreshing."