Managing Six Sigma

Advance Praise for Managing Six Sigma "This book is a unique blend of practical knowledge and cultural change, revolution and evolution strategies. I recommend that serious managers buy the book, spend some serious time reading, and then go out and use its lessons to make a name for themselves."-William Baker, Benchmarking/Knowledge Transfer Office, Raytheon Corporation "I believe Managing Six Sigma will be the new reference standard for the quality movement in coming years."-Robert T. Hunter, Executive Vice President, Rehnborg Center for Nutrition and Wellness "[The authors'] step-by-step process for integrating the tools of Six Sigma takes the mystery out of this methodology and, by itself, makes this book worth having."-Dennis Adsit, PhD, Vice President, Quality, Intuit "Breyfogle's Six Sigma deployment methodology is explained in detail for four different business processes: manufacturing, service, transactional, and development. . . . His 21-step plan for each business process is explained in a way that allows any type of company to perform a successful implementation."-Mark Feller, Director of Quality, Baker Electronics "Breyfogle teaches not only the wider application but also the deeper implications and in-depth implementation of Six Sigma deployment in organizations large and small."-Ram Josyula, President, gelrad.com Managing Six Sigma is the only book that provides both detailed coverage of Six Sigma techniques and effective methods for managing those who implement Six Sigma. With real-world case studies recounting the triumphs and pitfalls encountered during successful implementations at Motorola and General Electric-plus plans, checklists, and metrics to speed up the implementation process-this rich resource helps managers solve problems effectively and ensure a fast, smooth, and successful Six Sigma implementation.

The extraordinary breakthrough management program--heralded by GE, Motorola, and AlliedSignal--that is sweeping corporate America with its unprecedented ability to achieve superior financial results. Six Sigma is the most powerful breakthrough management tool ever devised, promising increased market share, cost reductions, and dramatic improvements in bottom-line profitability for companies of any size. The darling of Wall Street, it has become the mantra of Fortune 500 boardrooms around the world because it works. What is Six Sigma? It is first and foremost a business process that enables companies to increase profits dramatically by streamlining operations, improving quality, and eliminating defects or mistakes in everything a company does, from filling out purchase orders to manufacturing airplane engines. While traditional quality programs have focused on detecting and correcting defects, Six Sigma encompasses something broader: It provides specific methods to re-create the process itself so that defects are never produced in the first place. Most companies operate at a three- to four-sigma level, where the cost of defects is roughly 20 to 30 percent of revenues. By approaching Six Sigma--fewer than one defect per 3.4 million opportunities--the cost of quality drops to less than 1 percent of sales. This is because the highest quality also results in the lowest costs. When GE reduced its costs from 20 percent to less than 10 percent, it saved a billion dollars in just two years--money that goes directly to the bottom line. This is the reason Wall Street and corporations as diverse as Sony, Ford, Nokia, Texas Instruments, Canon, Hitachi, Lockheed Martin, American Express, Toshiba, DuPont, and Polaroid have embarked on corporate-wide Six Sigma programs. Six Sigma should be of paramount importance to every forward-thinking executive and manager determined to make their company world-class in their industry.

Six Sigma provides a quantitive methodology of continuous (process) improvement and cost reduction, by reducing the amount of variation in process outcomes. The production of a product, be it a tangible product like a car or a more abstract product like a service, consists of a series of processes. All processes consist of a series of steps, events, or activities. Six Sigma measures every step of the process by breaking apart the elements within each process, identifying the critical characteristics, defining and mapping the related processes, understanding the capability of each process, discovering the weak links, and then upgrading the capability of the process. It is only by taking these steps that a business can raise the ‘high-water mark’ of its performance. IT is now a fundamental part of business and business processes; this book demonstrates how IT can be made to work as an enabler to better business processes, and how the Six Sigma approach can be used to provide a consistent framework for measuring process outcomes. ITIL defines the ‘what’ of Service Management; Six Sigma defines the ‘how’ of process improvement; together they are a perfect fit of improving the quality of IT service delivery and support. The Six Sigma approach also provides measures of process outcomes, and prescribes a consistent approach in how to use these metrics. This Pocket guide, provides a coherent view and guidance for using the Six Sigma approach successfully in IT service organisations. It particularly aims to merge ITIL and Six Sigma into a single approach for continuous improvement of IT service organizations.

In the new millennium the increasing expectation of customers and products complexity has forced companies to find new solutions and better alternatives to improve the quality of their products. Lean and Six Sigma methodology provides the best solutions to many problems and can be used as an accelerator in industry, business and even health care sectors. Due to its flexible nature, the Lean and Six Sigma methodology was rapidly adopted by many top and even small companies. This book provides the necessary guidance for selecting, performing and evaluating various procedures of Lean and Six Sigma. In the book you will find personal experiences in the field of Lean and Six Sigma projects in business, industry and health sectors.

In summary, the purpose of Six Sigma management is to “promote joy in work” for all employees so that they have the energy to participate in the improvement and innovation projects identified from the organizational dashboard! —Howard S Gitlow Authored by Dr, Howard Gitlow, one of the most respected Six Sigma Master Black Belts, this well-organized volume demonstrates the implementation of quality improvements into the all areas of the workplace from the shop floor through a company’s executive offices. Illustrating his points with a number of case studies, the book provides a compelling argument as to why Six Sigma should be the preferred approach. It also explains how to build an organization that both encourages and values the input of quality teams, and details the steps they must take to implement and maintain lean initiatives. Dr. Howard S. Gitlow is Executive Director of the Institute for the Study of Quality, Director of the Master of Science degree in Management Science, and a Professor of Management Science, School of Business Administration, University of Miami, Coral Gables, Florida. He was a Visiting Professor at the Stern School of Business at New York University in 2007, and a Visiting Professor at the Science University of Tokyo in 1990 where he studied with Dr. Noriaki Kano. He received his Ph.D. in Statistics (1974), M.B.A. (1972), and B.S. in Statistics (1969) from New York University. His areas of specialization are Six Sigma Management, Dr. Deming’s theory of management, Japanese Total Quality Control, and statistical quality control. Dr. Gitlow has consulted and co-taught courses with Dr. W. Edwards Deming and Dr. Noriaki Kano (Science University of Tokyo). Dr. Gitlow is a Six Sigma Master Black Belt, a Fellow of the American Society for Quality, and a member of the American Statistical Association. He has served on the editorial boards of four journals. His list of consulting clients includes universities, consulting firms, city governments, healthcare organizations, insurance companies, utilities, manufacturing organizations, and service organizations. Dr. Gitlow has testified in 24 legal cases involving the following issues: critiquing and developing sampling plans, discrimination (age, race, gender, country of origin, and ethnicity), anti-trust, game fixing, jury selection, and cost/benefit analysis.

The next step in the evolution of the organizational quality field, Lean Six Sigma (LSS) has come of age. However, many challenges to using LSS in lieu of, in conjunction with, or integrated with other quality initiatives remain. An update on the current focus of quality management, Quality Management for Organizations Using Lean Six Sigma Techniques covers the concepts and principles of Lean Six Sigma and its origins in quality, total quality management (TQM), and statistical process control (SPC), and then explores how it can be integrated into manufacturing, logistics, and healthcare operations. The book presents the background on quality and Lean Six Sigma (LSS) techniques and tools, previous history of LSS in manufacturing, and current applications of LSS in operations such as logistics and healthcare. It provides a decision model for choosing whether to use LSS or other quality initiatives, which projects should be selected and prioritized, and what to do with non-LSS projects. The author also details an integration model for integrating and developing integrated LSS and other quality initiatives, and common mathematical techniques that you can use for performing LSS statistical calculations. He describes methods to attain the different Six Sigma certifications, and closes with discussion of future directions of Lean Six Sigma and quality. Case studies illustrate the integration of LSS principles into other quality initiatives, highlighting best practices as well as successful and failed integrations. This guide gives you a balanced description of the good, bad, and ugly in integrating LSS into modern operations, giving you the understanding necessary to immediately apply the concepts to your quality processes.

"Randy has crafted an invaluable book, no matter where you are in the journey of organizational change management. A must-have guide you will refer to again and again." – Marshall Goldsmith, author of the #1 New York Times bestseller, Triggers. "Randy Kesterson recognizes that much of the energy that organizations put into Lean and Six Sigma improvements is wasted when the results are not applied effectively due to the organization’s resistance to change." – Ellen Domb, Ph.D. PQR, one of the world’s top 50 quality experts at QualityGurus.com "Finally, a book that recognizes that most organizations are on the left side of the FAT–LEAN continuum. Far too many organizations think they are Lean/Six Sigma mature only to realize that they aren’t even close." – Gerhard Plenert, Ph.D., serves as Director of Executive Education, Shingo Institute, Home of the Shingo Prize The Intersection of Change Management and Lean Six Sigma: The Basics for Black Belts and Change Agents is for Lean and Six Sigma professionals working inside organizations with low Lean maturity and significant resistance to change. Written by a business executive and certified Lean Six Sigma black belt, this book: Provides sound, innovative practices for those interested in successfully navigating organizational change. Focuses on culture change and mindsets, not just tools and applications. Stresses effective communication ensuring that various stakeholders understand the reasons for the change, the benefits, and the details. Illustrates how the benefits of Lean and Six Sigma initiatives can benefit the change management process. This book pinpoints and examines the intersection of change management and Lean Six Sigma. It features interviews with change management practitioners (executives, project managers, and black belts) and provides pertinent case studies detailing successful and failed changes.

In order to survive in a modern and competitive environment, organizations need to carefully organize their activities regarding quality management. TQM and six sigma are the approaches that have been successful in solving intricate quality problems in products and services. This volume can help those who are interested in the quality management field to understand core ideas along with contemporary efforts done in the field and authored as case studies in this volume. This volume may be useful to students, academics and practitioners across diversified disciplines.