Six Sigma and MINITAB [Ring-bound]

Quentin Brook (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 2004

Cutting through Six Sigma’s strange terminology and consultancy speak, this guide aims to remove the mystique by delivering Six Sigma in a down to earth, approachable and logical format.

MINITAB®: For each tool, this guide details how to enter the data into MINITAB and interpret the results, whilst providing hints and tips to help avoid the common pitfalls.

Interactive: Data files and templates for all the examples are available online Routemaps: A logical flow is provided through each DMAIC phase, and detailed routemaps are provided for graphical tools, hypothesis tests and Statistical Process Control (SPC) charts.

Who should use this book?

Six Sigma Trainees: Both during and after training, this guide provides an invaluable reference text to those who are actually implementing Six Sigma methodologies in an organisation.

Six Sigma Project Sponsors and Managers: For those who are accountable for deploying Six Sigma throughout an organisation, but who might not have been Six Sigma trained, this guide will provide an overview and crash course in the tools and techniques that your project teams are trained in.

Six Sigma has a lot of new terminology, and this guide aims to cut through that terminology in order to enable Six Sigma managers to connect with those that have been trained.

Editorial Reviews

Review

It's refreshing to see a book aimed for those actually using the tools and techniques of Six Sigma. -- Six Sigma Today Magazine, Volume 1, Issue 3, 2004

Not only useful for SS practitioners but also for anyone involved in quality management, as well as for academic students. -- The TQM Magazine, Volume 17 Issue 1, 2005

From the Publisher

A long awaited pocket guide to Six Sigma that provides practical advice on the Six Sigma tools alongside detailed instructions for the Minitab software were applicable. The Six Sigma Tool Finder software is the perfect companion to this guide. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Ring-bound: 200 pages
• Publisher: QSB Consulting Ltd (January 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0954681304
• ISBN-13: 978-0954681302
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 7.1 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (36 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,783,578 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Quentin Brook is the Managing Director of OPEX Resources, a specialist provider of practical Lean and Six Sigma pocket guides and free support tools.

Having graduated from the University of Bath (UK) in 1994 with a 1st Class Engineering and Management degree, Quentin developed his experience of statistical quality tools in the automotive industry of Detroit and aerospace industry of the UK.

In 2004, he wrote the first edition of "Lean Six Sigma and Minitab". Now in its third edition, this publication is a best seller, with over 55,000 copies sold worldwide.

Quentin lives in Hampshire, UK.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Finally! A text that connects the dots!, February 27, 2006

By 

Dr. Littlejohn "Book lover" (Athens, GA United States) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Six Sigma and MINITAB (Ring-bound)

I purchased this book hoping it would help me quickly patch some gaps in my understanding of statistics and Minitab v14. And it will. Most importantly, they get that we don't want to take a course, we just want to know enough to get the work done. --- So the book has enough of an explanation to help the reader figure out whatever their working on. Perfect!

As background, I had quite a bit of training in statistics a few years ago. My job did not require that I use most of it. Now, I'm in a job that does, and I need to get up to speed quickly. I found this book to be a good refresher and reference.

Having been exposed to the different tools, I understand them in general but which do I use? The book has decision grids.

When it comes to using Minitab's menus to apply the theory, what goes where when I'm filling in the blanks - How is the theory applied? Added to that, I used some features of Minitab v13 - but v14 seems to be a whole lot different. The book shows screen shots from Minitab v14 with callouts explaining the fields.

And, how do I interpret the results? The book shows an example with callouts explaining the results. There is also an appendix with detailed (but brief) explanations of interpretations in an easy to read table.

The book is better than Shaums outline on statistics. More relevant than textbooks. More concise than my Six Sigma training binders. Even more applied than Cartoon Guide to Statistics. And, really helps with providing details from the formula used to calculate Sample Size to the number of groups that should be in a histogram and Hypothesis Testing.

Just one thing to note: The book is basically the Six Sigma framework with the references to Minitab & statistical tools as relevant. So, don't be surprised that in the first portion, Minitab examples are few and far in between. Rest assured - they are in there.

So, I'm ditching my thick binders, books of theory, and heavy textbooks and keeping this one close by.

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The New "Pocket Guide" for Six-Sigma Black Belts., March 10, 2006

By 

Matt Rowe (Indianapolis, Indiana USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Six Sigma and MINITAB (Ring-bound)

This is a much more powerful resource for making good use of Minitab and Six-Sigma than many people may realize. However, a highly experienced statistician or someone with extensive experience in a Six-Sigma culture may find this book to be fairly basic. This is likely the case in a technical or manufacturing environment. In contrast, a new Six Sigma practitioner or someone working in a service environment in which process analysis might not be as sophisticated will consider this book an absolute gem!

The value is not just in its clear and concise explanation of how to use Minitab "in" Six-Sigma. The real value lies in the easy to understand application of the Six-Sigma DMAIC methodology with practical and understandable examples of statistical analysis while using Minitab.

I have Black Belts who are not completely trained yet using this book. They're rapidly finding new and creative ways to apply statistical analyses to our business processes and data. The Six-Sigma and statistics connections they're making via this book are dramatic! Oh...and they're also learning how to use the software. I wish we'd had something like this a long time ago. As far as I'm concerned this is the new "pocket guide" for Six-Sigma for all my Black Belts.

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very practical guide to Six Sigma, December 7, 2005

By 

S. Cunningham - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Six Sigma and MINITAB (Ring-bound)

I am a Six Sigma Black Belt in the healthcare industry. I have reviewed many different books and reference guides on Six Sigma, but I have found this one to be the most straightforward and practical one of all. I only keep a couple reference books in my brief case, and this is one of them. Minitab users will appreciate the examples and screenshots. The example data files are also available for download. I highly recommend this guide to any Green Belt or Black Belt involved in Six Sigma.