What Is Six Sigma? (Paperback)

~ Pete Pande (Author), Larry Holpp (Author) "Over the past few years, more and more employees of companies that have adopted Six Sigma have asked themselves these kinds of questions..." (more)
Key Phrases: sigma measure, Six Sigma, Black Belt, Green Belt (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

A brief introduction to Six Sigma­­ for employees

Six Sigma is today's most talked-about system for improving the quality of organizational processes. Written by bestselling author Peter Pande,What Is Six Sigma? is a concise summary of the core themes and processes of Six Sigma. Unlike almost all other books on Six Sigma, it is written for the employees of organizations rolling out Six Sigma­­not just managers. This helpful overview describes what Six Sigma is, why companies are implementing it, and how employees can make it a success in their own organizations.

Based on the bestselling The Six Sigma Way, this accessable introduction to Six Sigma answers typical employee questions, concerns, and even skepticism about this revolutionary program. Includes:

• The six themes of Six Sigma
• A five-step roadmap to Six Sigma implementation
• The 10 basic tools of Six Sigma, with an entire page devoted to each

From the Back Cover

The First Six Sigma Primer Written Especially for Employees

Six Sigma has gained an avid following among executives and managers for its ability to reduce cycle time, eliminate product defects, and dramatically increase customer involvement and satisfaction. But Six Sigma can't work without widespread employee involvement and commitment. What Is Six Sigma? explains, for employees, the core ideas behind Six Sigma, the crucial roles and responsibilities employees have in a Six Sigma initiative, and how Six Sigma can benefit them.

This concise introduction to Six Sigma explains what questions to ask when Six Sigma is first introduced in an organization, then answers those questions in straightforward and easy-to-read style. Look to it for real-world descriptions of:

• The fundamentals and foundations of Six Sigma
• The essential roles employees play in Six Sigma
• The changes and challenges they are likely to see
• Case studies of employees using Six Sigma to identify­­and correct­­major problems

More than a "quality" program, Six Sigma is a business initiative that helps every area of an organization meet the changing needs of its customers, profitably. What Is Six Sigma? will help spread the message of Six Sigma around any organization simply and clearly.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 98 pages
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill; 1 edition (October 26, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0071381856
• ISBN-13: 978-0071381857
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #85,915 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

  #41 in	Books > Business & Investing > Management & Leadership > Total Quality Management
  #65 in	Books > Business & Investing > Management & Leadership > Quality Control

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

61 of 63 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars All The 6 Sigma Basics and Just the Basics, January 7, 2004

By	Peter V. Tamas (New Brunswick area, NJ United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Of the Six Sigma books I've read, this is the one I'd recommend most highly. It will give you the basic "tools" of Six Sigma in a compact, useable form. I feel that this would be an excellent text for corporate training on Six Sigma, certainly for an introductory course.

A quick read of the reviews on Amazon will give you a feel for why people are skeptical of 6 Sigma: the feel-good tone of most writing on 6 Sigma and the insistence that it "is not a flavor-of-the-month management trend" make many of us suspect that 6 Sigma is not much more than hollow jargon and acronyms.

Lets accept that these criticisms are valid and further that many "practitioners" are just self-aggrandizing or worse. But that still leaves us with the essential difficulties of positive change in any organization: you need to overcome assumptions that your organization's subculture may not even realize it has. What a corporation does by accepting Six Sigma is that it empowers people to gather data to challenge what "everybody knows". Most importantly, it sets a very high quality standard, which reinforces the sanctioning of data-driven change.

The authors of "What is Six Sigma" put it very well early on: "proactive management means making habits out of what are, too often, neglected business practices: defining ambitious goals and reviewing them frequently, setting clear priorities, focusing on problem prevention rather than firefighting, and questioning why we do things instead of blindly defending them."

I feel that the greatest flaw in Six Sigma is that many practitioners and even the books permit the basics to be lost in the shuffle. If one listens to people talk about Six Sigma, its easy to forget that a critical part of Six Sigma is that the data comes first, not the solution. I often hear co-workers say "we need to finish this project to improve our six sigmas" or "if we could get rid of this server we'll all get our green belts".

The term Six Sigma is derived from statistics and many books gloss over the statistics and move right on to basic project management techniques or how to overcome objections to Six Sigma. This book gives a clear and brief explanation of how to calculate standard deviations and includes a handy table to help with determine "sigma levels". Every Six Sigma book should respond to the challenge raised by this book and also include this information in the first 10 pages.

Finally, I recommend this book because it is concise and to-the-point. I feel that the fluff and/or Machiavellian advice in many of the other books just feed into people's healthy skepticism and distract people from the beauty of Six Sigma: the challenge to strive for near-perfect quality and the sanction to use statistics to cut through the inertia in our work lives.

I would also recommend Michael Lewis' "Moneyball" (ISBN 0393057658) as a companion book. Lewis (author of "Liar's Poker") uses Wall Street trading as an analogy to explain why the Oakland As baseball team is one of the successful teams with much less money than most. But I also see an analogy relevant to the topic of Six Sigma. "Moneyball" shows how one can achieve superior results by testing what everyone thinks they know with fact gathering and rigorous analyses. Moneyball and "What is Six Sigma" may prove to be an inspiring combination.

22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Six Sigma Overview, March 3, 2004

By A Customer

If you are looking for a book to take you from no knowledge of Six Sigma to a very elementary level of knowledge, this could be useful. I found myself feeling like I was reading a company brochure for Six Sigma that was too long. The book falls into a middle ground of not having enough information to be useful in implementing Six Sigma yet might have too much for the average person.
I originally thought this would be a great book to give to people that congratulate me on being a Six Sigma Black Belt, that they once took Karate but never got that far, to understand Six Sigma. After thinking about the level of knowledge of many people regarding basic statistics I think as simple as this book is it may be over the general person's comfort level. I'm afraid it might cause people to shut down from feeling overwhelmed. If they have basic statistical skills, they should have no problem understanding this though.
Maybe the book is perfect for people being asked to participate in Six Sigma initiatives or working with a company that is implementing Six Sigma. I would be uncomfortable giving this to somebody with no Six Sigma knowledge and not being available to discuss it with them, hold their hand through it. If you have a real interest in Six Sigma, pick up one of the "heavier" books, including The Six Sigma Way by the same author. You can skim through it and get this same information. If you want more information it will be there, no need to buy another book.

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good introduction if you know nothing about Six Sigma, January 10, 2006

By	B. Rossen "Equitus" (Netherlands) - See all my reviews

I had heard often of Six Sigma, but knew next to nothing about it (and suspected an overdose of trendy nonsense because of the silly sounding terms borrowed from karate). This slim volume seemed the right starting place, since I did not wish to invest in a tome of material if Six Sigma turned out to uninteresting for my company.

This is, indeed, an excellent overview. It tells in global terms what to expect. The statistical methods are described in non-mathematicians' intuitive terms (a pity, I would have liked a little more detail) but for my needs it served it purpose admirably.

As a result of reading this book I am moving on to a more technical account of Six Sigma. I need to know what the operational definitions are and how the statistics are used. I am not yet certain if Six Sigma is suitable - in software development we have established methods for tracking bugs and improving interface usability. Nevertheless, my interest has been whetted.