Customer Reviews

Six Sigma: The Breakthrough Management Strategy Revolutionizing the World's Top Corporations

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(10)
1 star:		(12)

 

 

A well-written book that gives insight into what 'Six Sigma' is all about - a change strategy for relentlessly driving defects out of your products, processes and services to increase profitability. It's about leadership and a structured, data-based approach to problem solving. Having been a Wave 1 Black Belt at AlliedSignal during the launch of Six Sigma, I can verify that the Breakthrough methodology (DMAIC)really does work. For those of you who have been through numerous 'TQ initiatives' and countless SPC campaign with no real impact on business performance, the case studies presented in this book are enlightening.

On the negative side, for those who want a complete A to Z textbook on how to implement Six Sigma in their own organization, prepare to be disappointed. No information is provided on the statistical tools that go hand-in-hand with the DMAIC roadmap (I guess the Six Sigma Academy can't give away all their secrets).

In summary, thumbs up if you want an overview and real-life examples of what Six Sigma is all about. Thumbs down in you want a detailed textbook or reference book on the subject.

I first ordered and read this book when I was just beginning my journey down statistics and the Six Sigma Quality initiative training. Back then, I would have rated this book a 4 or a 5. But as my learning grows, so does my dissappointment in this book. If you have no knowledge of Six Sigma whatsoever, here's a heads up: "THIS BOOK IS JUST AN ADVERTISEMENT." I found "The Six Sigma Way" by Peter Pande a much better written, much more meaty book that has something for you no matter where on the scale of understanding you are. Not to slam too hard on the superficial content of this book, I have been told that Mikel Harry has written some better books in greater detail on the Six Sigma process but right now I'm afraid to shell out bigger bucks to have bigger dissappointments.

Reading this book is like watching the author doing a long TV commercial advertising his Six Sigma Academy. The conclusion I reached, however, is that Six Sigma is just another expression of taking special project(s). The very concept of being a Six Sigma company doesn't make much sense: A company may have many 6-sigma processes but may never eliminate those low sigma processes in which "the inherent capability is poor" (p.133). Moreover, one can just simply move USL up and LSL down to increase the sigma reading (p.185). No wonder some companies can schedule to claim their Six Sigma titles on a given date. So what? A cleaning has a greater effect on a messier room!

There are about 100,000 words in this book about flawless processes. At 6-sigma level, one would expect to find 0.34 error. Naturally, I was quite disappointed to pick up over a dozen of them. Example 1: according to the formula on p.211, a company with $1 billion in annual revenues would need 1,000 Black Belts and 100 Master BBs, not 100 and 10, respectively. Example 2: line 6 from bottom of p.142, 1.5/4.5 should equal 0.33, not ".375". So, even the master of Six Sigma failed to reach 6-sigma! Summary: All quality programs have their unique merits, so is Six Sigma. However, the impact of the Six Sigma is way over-blown by the author. It is a story that Wall Street loves to play with (p.182).

I agree with the complaints of many of the other reviewers of this book. I believe that Six Sigma truly is a powerful industrial/business tool. Unfortunately this book reads like it was designed as a brochure for managers considering implementation of quality control programs for their companies. There are some basic Six Sigma tenets outlined, but in disappointingly little depth. It was especially frustrating to wade through all of the RAH-RAH name-dropping of corporations and CEOs to get to any real information. I did not expect to be a 'black belt' when I finished this book, but all I really came away with was a cursory introduction to the Six Sigma approach and the sense that I had just been delivered a thinly veiled sales pitch.

If I were to write a book consisting of a few (but not all) themes from Moby-Dick, several (but not all) characters from The Great Gatsby, and a few (but not all) subplots from Tom Clancy's latest potboiler, would you be likely to shell out your hard-earned money for the privilege of reading such a thing?

Probably not. (But if you would, please call me ASAP! I'm not selling a book, but I do have this really cool bridge in Northern Michigan ....)

But that's exactly what Mikel Harry and Richard Schroeder expect you to do. Reading their Six Sigma: The Breakthrough Strategy Revolutionizing the World's Top Corporations, I could not escape the feeling of déjà vu. Hardly a page went by without my thinking, "Been there. Seen that." While Six Sigma purports to be the seminal tome on the newest, best management strategy ever, it is in fact a pastiche of concepts, tools, techniques, and methodologies that have been around for a long time. Included in the Six Sigma "strategy" are bits and pieces of a generic Strategic Planning 101 course; a few of Deming's fourteen points and two of his four elements of profound knowledge; about one-and-a-half legs of Juran's Quality Trilogy; a little of Tom Peters' management by walking around, and an incomplete version of Hammer and Champy's business system diamond.

Six Sigma is short on precise details about the "strategy." Instead, the book reads like a 300-page advertisement designed to generate business. And no wonder! The book's dust jacket informs us that Messrs. Mikel and Schroeder are (Surprise! Surprise!) CEO and President, respectively, of the Six Sigma Academy. We learn also that the Six Sigma Academy raked in over $100 million in consulting/training fees in 1998.

If you have lots of free time to do something that is virtually non-value-adding, borrow this book from your local library and go ahead and read it. At least the industry case studies are interesting, but I found the constant touting of the Six Sigma "strategy" to be distracting.

But even if you have lots of extra money, don't buy this book. (Buy my bridge instead.)

Yes, we all know about the high profile cases, ala GE, but the key issues where the book falls short, as most panacea books do, are examples of how 6 Sig works or doesn't work in knowledge based functions where low volume and high judgment prevail, and a step-by-step,amply annotated plan for applying 6 Sig to these types of processes. In the end, how TRULY different/better is it than standard process analysis and cost reduction methods? I suggest interested parties start with a review of the basic principles laid out in The Process Edge by Peter Keen. Follow that with Rummer and Bache on Improving Performance and you will be ahead of the game.

Managers willing to engage in vast efforts to improve their companies economics and long-term viability will do well to read this comprehensive management book on the Six Sigma strategy and process. This book presents Six Sigma in a way that is enlightening to the unindoctrinated and helpful to those in the midst of implementing this strategy. Clearly outlined and illustrated with numerous case studies from General Electric, Bombardier, AlliedSignal, and Polaroid, this book brings clarity to a much bantered about process. The authors give comprehensive definitions for terms such as DPMO (defects per million opportunities), "throughput yield," and "long-term vs. short-term capabilities." Not only do Harry and Schroeder take a thoughtful look at implementation options and outline a detailed road map called the "Breakthrough Strategy" that allows companies to achieve Six Sigma, they show that the strategy and process is more about profitability than quality. These authors have written a book that shows executives not only how they can custom design a Six Sigma strategy, but how to implement and employ the tactics that supports the accomplishment of their strategic objectives. Clearly, Six Sigma has applications not only for Fortune 500 companies, but small business, nonprofits, government and even the military.

As an Industrial Engineer I already knew many if not all of the ideas behind the "Six Sigma Strategy". These gentleman have found a way to package the IE focus into a neat little package. UNfortunatly it lacks depth. The book was a good read as an intro to the Black Belt training I had, but it does not offer any substance for those of you looking to apply any of the concepts. This book only talks on a high level about them. It acts as more of a sales pitch at best for the ideas behind six sigma. It is probably worth it but the if you are looking at trying to improve your business processes and look for solutions you would be better off hiring an Industrial Engineering Consultant. If you were to ask my opinion of a better book to read I would STRINGLY recommmend "The Goal" or "Critical Chain" both by Eliyahu M. Goldratt. His books offer a more realistic approach at solving these issues. As info Six Sigma has been a failure in our company many of which is blamed by the fact that the program requires a total commitment by upper(many companies don't have the Jack Welch type leadership)

Most books that are dedicated to a new management program open with what a breakthrough in thinking they are and that they will do so much more for the business than any of the „flavor-of-the-month" programs. This book is no exception. Six Sigma is so much better than TQM, Reengineering, Kaizen or whatever. And that is actually already half the book. It tells you a lot about how great Six Sigma is and how much you can improve your business; but, it lacks to go more into depth with the Six Sigma Breakthrough Strategy tools. Actually, it is very obvious how much the authors avoid giving you helpful advise on how to work Six Sigma and explaining the tools. It seems as if the intention of this book is mainly to get your attention for Six Sigma and to get you to send your employees to the author's Six Sigma Academy. Hopefully, someone will follow with a book that gives you real helpful advice on how to use Six Sigma, not only how great it is.

If you are familiar with most of the statistical Quality tools and are already applying them successfully, then you have already laid the basics for implementing Six Sigma. It will mainly alter the focus (to Critical-to-Quality Characteristics) and the organization (the Black Belts) of your activities as well as how you measure them (e.g. the Sigma Value). Basically, Six Sigma is not that much of a revolutionary way of thinking. Many parallels to TQM will be very obvious if you really know how live TQM. The success of any management tool or philosophy always depends on its implementation. Six Sigma will fail as much as did Reengineering or Lean Management or others in many companies if management does not know how to implement and live it. It is mentioned several times in the book that the success of Six Sigma started fading away as soon as senior management's support was withdrawn.

I bought this book considering the hype around this subject. What I got in return was nothing more than a superficial overview of the subject with no depth. It was like reading a product brochure difference being you are paying for it. There were no insights on methodology nor fundamentals. There are better ways to spend your money like keeping lights ON.