Customer Reviews

Six Sigma For Dummies

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2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Title Should Be: Just Another Six Sigma Book

I guess I'm the dumb one, because I was expecting a book that simplified and clarified the Six Sigma process. After all, isn't that the purpose of the "for Dummies" series? Well, this book does neither.

On page 2 of the book, near the top of the page, it says, "Six Sigma For Dummies is ... a comprehensive, actionable description of the methods and tools of Six Sigma." A few lines later, however, it says that "...the field of Six Sigma is much too large to fit in only 400 pages." This indecision on the authors' goals permeates the whole book. The book has three authors, and as you read this book you suspect that they didn't collaborate at all on their approach to this topic.

For example, the statistics portion of the book is 165 pages long, with line after line after line after line of statistical info. Then you get to the "tool" section of the book, where you will supposedly learn how to actually apply the statistics. Even though at the beginning of this section it says, "You can't do Six Sigma without tools," the whole section of practitioner tools is less than 40 pages long. Only a brief overview is given of each tool, without enough detail for anyone to actually do Six Sigma work!

Sure, statistics are important for Six Sigma, but for a person just being introduced to Six Sigma, the coverage is excessive and not done all that well. If someone wants to learn statistics at this level, they would be far better off getting Basic Statistics, by Kiemele, Schmidt, and Berdine. If someone wants a general reference book for Quality, including Six Sigma, get the massive (over 800 pages) The Six Sigma Handbook, by Thomas Pyzdek. If someone wants a book that gives a practical and workable approach to Six Sigma in general, consider Statistics for Six Sigma Made Easy, by Brussee.

It isn't that anything presented in Six Sigma For Dummies is actually wrong. It's just, as an earlier reviewer observed, that the book does not have a target audience. And the book certainly doesn't fulfill the implied promise of a "dummies" book to simplify and clarify the subject.

Dedicated Black Belt

I work as a manager and Master Black Belt at a Fortune 100 company. This book has been very useful in my training of others. I just finished teaching a Six Sigma Black Belt course in which I referred students to this book to reinforce their learning and deepen their understanding. It has transformed the way I teach Six Sigma as well as the way my students learn it.

Not only am I suggesting that BB's and BB's-in-training get this book, but I'm also recommending that leaders who have GB's and BB's on their staffs read this book. It gives enough information for leaders to understand what their Six Sigma staff are going through in the trenches. And it also provides leaders with enough education to ask meaningful questions. (Nothing is worse than an uninformed leader trying to lead Six Sigma resources!)

If you're just curious about what six-sigma is this is a good, easy to understand, book. But it teaches you little that can be applied.

I'm in a company that is begining a six sigma effort and I am assisting the black and green belts in their work. I had wanted a book that would help me do the things I would probably be asked to assist with such as building a SIPOC diagram. Instead, the book is devoted almost entirely to telling you what the black belts do on a project (half of the 300 pages are about statistics and much of the remainder is about things like project charter). The obvious problem is that a book like this can't actually teach you to be a black-belt. So after 300 pages I know some statistical principles, but not enough to actually do anything with, and I know nearly nothing about how to assist a black belt on a project.

Before you say "but six sigma is all about statistics" let me say that I know that. Stats are the core, and doing them takes training. You will not learn to do six-sigma stats from this book. You will probably not learn much else from this book either.

This book is a long time in coming. Six Sigma has been shrouded in mystery far too long, and monopolized by big companies. It is about time that the average joe can read and understand the powerful concepts behind Six Sigma. Six Sigma is no longer just for the engineers, but is applicable to everything in our daily lives. We can now do everything better - from our jobs to planning a trip. For the most part this book is an easy read. There were sections that got too technical and dragged a bit. But overall, a must read for everyone!

I am working my way through this book after becoming aware of the six sigma process and how it can apply to many non-technical areas.
I want to use these ideas and principles to better organize and produce my work. Although a couple of the chapters are quite heady, I can follow the examples to get the main idea. I think just reading this is making me think in ways I never have before!

As a practicing physician, I have found this book to be helpful in increasing the efficiency of my staff and the overall performance of my office. The book's ease of use allowed for rapid implementation of some of the Six Sigma principles for problem solving. The user-friendly text made a complicated technical system realistic and accessible to this neophyte. I highly recommend this book for any professional who wants to improve the quality of the work environment.

Reaching six sigma simply says that in your production line you will produce fewer than 3.4 bad parts out of each million parts you make. Or to express it another way, if the automobiles you make are 99% good, you'll have 3 warranty defects per automobile. If your cars are six sigma, you can expect one warranty claim for every 980 new cars.

This book is mostly about the analysis you need to make of your production line to eleminate errors. It's about the statistical analysis you need to do to be sure that you're operating at six sigma.

This book is a great place to start learning about six sigma. It's enough to give you the background you'll need to really begin analyzing your process.

I have to say that it probably isn't enough for you to get to a six sigma production line. You'll need more, more classes, more time, more software, more management support than you ever expected. As best I understand, Motorola pioneered the six sigma concept. And I don't believe they ever got most of their production lines to operate at that level. In fact I've heard that they were only able to get their diode line running that error free.

Good Luck. Get Started.

I purchased this book to get my toes wet after hearing about six sigma design for a long time. It's typical of the 4Dum stuff in format, self deprecating humor, and all that. I liked their intros to 'T' and 'F' statistics, and basic design of experiments, which I'd never had formal training in. After reading it, I had some idea of what they were good for and why you'd want to know that stuff. I was disappointed, if not surprised, that these sections had little depth past giving you a taste. Hey, it's a 4D book that you paid a little over 10 bucks for. What did you expect?

There are some issues with typos and formatting, especially in that some formulas are clearly missing, mis-formatted, or wrong (square root signs crossing over comma separators and such.

That said, I spent a few hours reading the book and felt like I knew a lot more about 6-sigma terms and ideas, enough to start looking for deeper books on the subject. For what it is, I thought it was good quick bang for the buck in learning about the area.

Authors Craig Gygi, Neil DeCarlo and Bruce Williams will attract both plaudits and brickbats for this book (no wonder they needed a foreword from Stephen Covey). Six Sigma, originally devised as a method for reducing production defects, has been elevated to a business cult whose jargon and methods are zealously guarded by a priesthood of consultants. This cadre is bound to regard skeptically any step toward making Six Sigma plain to the general business public. We recommends this manual because it successfully walks the tightrope between detailed technical analysis of Six Sigma methods and common sense terminology that is comprehensible to ordinary oxygen-breathers in the business world. Though it gets too heavy on statistics, it also avoids short cuts and fluffy Six Sigma-lite. The book does not delve into the recent trend toward using Six Sigma for carrying out change initiatives. However, given that its objective is to make professionals Six Sigma literate, this oversight is well within the acceptable range of variation.

This book is an excellent guide for people who want to know, what is Six Sigma? The authors inform you that Six Sigma is more than a bunch of statistics in a production environment, but also a culture that can be applied to any organization. There is a section; however, that covers the statistical tools used by Six Sigma professionals. They provide important information on how to use the DMAIC model and what it can do for your organization. It covers the key points of implementing Six Sigma and how to measure processes by looking for the "vital few" variables".

I highly recommend this book for anyone considering implementing Six Sigma or those who want to know more about this powerful culture. It is well written in terms that can be easily understood by all.