Customer Reviews

What is Six Sigma Process Management?

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

 

 

This book explains the basics of Sig Sigma. The book is very easy to read and has very detailed information on how to apply Six Sigma. If you need to learn FAST what Six Sigma is and How to implement it, get this book

What is Six Sigma Process Management addresses the basics of Process Management for the novice, as well as providing direction and details for the experienced practitioners. The Authors dispel some myths and tell some stories while laying out the path forward. The title is deceptive – this book is about Process Management – the system, the metrics, the management, the process – and is set in the context of the most widely recognized business performance improvement methodology, Six Sigma to give a point of reference. Process Management stands on its own, and is a natural component of any Customer and Process based management system, ISO, Lean, whatever you call it. As a consultant “in the trenches” with clients who desire to sustain, improve or totally re-invent their businesses, I find this book invaluable as a quick explanation of the system. I wish I’d written it.

Few books capture the process engineering approach taken by Motorola's wafer fabrication engineers in the mid-1980s. Process excellence lies at the heart of both Six Sigma and the Toyota Production System for the simple reason that Motorola learnt much from its joint venture with Hitachi and later on the Cherokee project with Toshiba. Why is a process perspective so important? Because everything is process and each process step depends on a previous process step? Unlike most other books on the subject, Hayler and Nichols correctly identify the importance of external and internal customers, the use of `enabling' value-added steps, and Kai-zen - making each step right. Whether or not someone uses the DMAIC improvement process, Six Sigma tools, the 3 Ms, Work-Out, or "bread and butter pudding" the goal is the same - to improve business performance.

(Andy Urquhart, ex-Chairman Motorola Six Sigma Steering Committee Austin, Texas)

For the completely uninitiated the book holds a very basic framework and some simple guidance on the approach to performing enterprise-wide mapping+diagnostics+improvement. For anyone else, esp BB's and MBB's, the book may come off as lacking in substance (only 100 pages, half of which is introductory preamble), very amatuerish (eg "there was this dude named Henry Ford, you may have heard of him") and muddled (I counted a dozen instances where terms and acronyms are introduced but unexplained until several pages later).

What you do get is the skeleton of a complete process overhaul + management system for enterprise guidance on where to focus the improvement team. This seems both bland and without *any* real-world experience to put "flesh on bones" - eg my company has recently embarked on such an exercise and the complexity of numerous physical value streams, cross-functional processes, physical flow + transactional process + system layers, not to mention product and product mix questions, moving throughput bottlenecks etc. This book gives absolutely no insight into how to manage this level of complexity and seems stuck with multi-function swimlanes as its best offering. Signs to me that the authors are spinning a concept without much expertise to draw on. My experience has been that even after you get these first DMA phases out, you need much more work producing diagnostic/causal guidance on why problems occur, not just where/how. Also, there's no real advice on operational deployment and details on tactics, priorities, etc. Again, smells of a quick buck.

Get it if you know nothing of this area - otherwise you'll need a cross-section of books from Theory of Constraints, Balanced Scorecards, BPM, etc to take you to the next level. 2 stars for very basic value.

This is a great resource for discussing this important concept with audiences that are new to applying these ideas as well as people that have worked in this area before. Hayler and Nichols present the concepts in a clear manner adding stories and examples to make the ideas come to life for the reader. While the widely used Six Sigma is present in the title of the book, the ideas and applications are worthwhile for all companies, whether they are currently involved in a formal improvement effort or not. The book presents both tools and a system that will enable any business to better manage their processes. In my work with clients, the need for improvement projects is relatively easy to understand and implement. Most clients find it more difficult to get their arms around how to create a system to manage their processes and ensure they are using their resources against the right initiatives. This book is a great tool to use with these clients, helping them see and understand the benefits and tools to leverage their improvement efforts and improve the management of their business processes. I am using this book to help my clients now and it has helped to support their learning of these key concepts and tools.

What Is Six Sigma Process Management? is indeed a relatively quick study at just over 100 pages; however, given a methodical structure, plain language and ample diagrams the authors render the subject as simple to absorb as possible. Being a rookie in the field the book's methodology was indeed straightforward. How that translates to experienced readers, black belts and consultants in the field is best read in other reviews, but the presence of a concise description of all concepts involved was a plus in this circle. Having said that, a better compilation of definitions and a glossary are missed.

The authors' definition is that "The Six Sigma Process Management methodology is a practical approach that focuses the tools and rigor of Lean Six Sigma on your critical processes in order to help you identify the most strategic and customer-focused opportunities for Lean Six Sigma projects in your organizations." The book next relates this topic to what every company has and needs to improve upon, namely products (or services), delivery and value for employees, suppliers and customers. This is where the concept of SIPOC (Suppliers, Input, Process, Output and Customers) is connected to the basic methodology of DMAIC (define, Measure, Analyze, Improve and Control). In the case of the `Customers' the process must be value-add i.e. customers must be willing to pay for something the company does that can be done correctly for them the first time around that has gone through a transformation before being delivered.
This book defines what it means when it speaks of a process management in Six Sigma ("end-to-end core processes" are those high-level processes that are the primary drivers of value, satisfaction and profit), goes into detail in the implementation and management phase, discusses the tools needed and ends with a snapshot of what a future organization practicing the science would ostensibly look like. One such process is the obvious one, order-to-cash. However, an inordinate amount of emphasis is given to the management of the process. The authors emphasize the needs for constant and consistent executive sponsorship and the imperative that "process governance" be maintained. The authors' practical experience in the field likely renders the judgment that strong leadership needs to be sustained for any Six Sigma process to succeed. The presence and approval of executive leadership will prevent an emotional and practical disconnect on behalf of the participants and the failure of the project. And here is a simple formulae for measuring the effort: R(esult) = Q(uality of the solution) x A(cceptance of the solution).

As the book admits, Six Sigma Process Management (SSPM) is not for the faint-hearted. The inter-linked process requires detailed self-examination, metrics, analysis and supervision. However, it can be done and needs to be done and the tools are outlined here. Clearly, the message is that variations and detours are possible, and have been successes at companies like GE or Amex, but the hierarchy and the basics are not in doubt for these practitioners. SSPM will help identify the current processes, deducing what needs to be done and mapping a near-future strategy with the vital Voice Of Customer in mind.

Writing about Six Sigma pins authors on the horns of a dilemma: Should they get specific about this complex system's methods, steps, charts and graphs, and thus risk turning off their readers? Or should they gloss over the details, perhaps using general narratives or case studies instead, whetting readers' appetites but leaving them undernourished for information? Rowland Hayler and Michael Nichols opted for the former to present Six Sigma in compact form in this short book. The authors are interested not only in the fundamental issues of Six Sigma, but also in how to use this tactic to manage a company's ongoing processes. While hardly an introductory primer, this book manages a neat balancing act. getAbstract gives it a strong recommendation, particularly to those readers with some prior knowledge of Six Sigma.