The Six Sigma Way How To Maximize The Impact Of Your Change And Improvement Efforts Second Edition

The Definitive Work on Six Sigma—Revised and Fully Updated Upon its publication in 2000, The Six Sigma Way was among the very first books to clearly explain the impressive benefits of Six Sigma’s improvement-driven and customer-centric approach to business leaders and managers. It revealed how GE, Motorola, and other companies used Six Sigma to fine-tune products and processes, improve performance, reduce costs, build customer loyalty, and increase profits. Corporate leaders around the world heeded the call and began implementing the tools of this world-changing performance improvement. In short, this book changed the world of business and organization improvement forever. Now, this author dream team has revisited the subject to bring you fully up to date about how Six Sigma has been used—for better and for worse—during the past 14 years. This new edition of The Six Sigma Way retains everything from the original classic—what Six Sigma is, how it works, and how to adapt it to your particular needs—while providing valuable new sections on lessons learned and setting the record straight regarding myths and misunderstandings perpetuated over the years. This all-in-one guide provides: Practical Six Sigma implementation guidelines anyone can understand New insights from managers who successfully applied the advice from the first edition Detailed case studies from such companies as Adobe, Macy’s, and Starwood Hands-on “maps” that guide you through key decisions you must make The definitive guide to successfully implementing Lean Six Sigma approaches into any organization is essential for any manager who wants to stop thinking about building a continuous improvement culture—and actually make it happen. Business has changed dramatically in recent years. Being second best used to be an option; today, being the best is the only way to survive. Take charge of your company’s future and make positive changes The Six Sigma Way.

Master modern Six Sigma implementation with the most complete, up-to-date guide for Green Belts, Black Belts, Champions and students! Now fully updated with the latest lean and process control applications, A Guide to Lean Six Sigma and Process Improvement for Practitioners and Students, Second Edition gives you a complete executive framework for understanding quality and implementing Lean Six Sigma. Whether you're a green belt, black belt, champion, or student, Howard Gitlow and Richard Melnyck cover all you need to know. Step by step, they systematically walk you through the five-step DMAIC implementation process, with detailed examples and many real-world case studies. You'll find practical coverage of Six Sigma statistics and management techniques, from dashboards and control charts to hypothesis testing and experiment design. Drawing on their extensive experience consulting on Six Sigma and leading major Lean and quality initiatives, Gitlow and Melnyck offer up-to-date coverage of: What Six Sigma can do, and how to manage it effectively Six Sigma roles, responsibilities, and terminology Running Six Sigma programs with Dashboards and Control Charts Mastering each DMAIC phase: Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, Control Understanding foundational Six Sigma statistics: probability, probability distributions, sampling distributions, and interval estimation Pursuing Six Sigma Champion or Green Belt Certification, and more This guide will be an invaluable resource for everyone who is currently involved in Six Sigma implementation, or plans to be. It's ideal for students in quality programs; "Green Belts" who project manage Six Sigma implementations, "Black Belts" who lead Six Sigma teams; "Champions" who promote and coordinate Six Sigma at the executive level; and anyone seeking Six Sigma certification.

Many leaders and managers have led improvement initiatives in a variety of different industry sectors. Most believe that when they begin these efforts, they already have the tools they need in their improvement "backpack." Using these tools, they make substantial improvements to processes in a wide array of industry segments. As time passes, however, most realize that there is a missing link in their arsenal of tools for improvement. The author of this book faced this same predicament and he discovered what the missing link was in his improvement tool kit: Theory of Constraints (TOC). Once he learned the details of TOC, his ability to make major improvements jettisoned upward to levels he had not seen before. TOC is the common denominator in all the case studies presented in this book. This book opens with a chapter on what Theory of Constraints is and why it works so well in improvement efforts. The second and third chapters cover the important points related to Lean Manufacturing and Six Sigma as well as key points related to variability. Chapter 4 demonstrates how to effectively combine these three components to achieve maximum improvement and the corresponding enhancement to your company’s profitability. The remainder of this book is composed of true case studies from different industry segments, using this integrated improvement methodology. Essentially, this book lays the foundation for what most practitioners are just beginning to understand—this integrated improvement methodology is superior to the three components used in isolation from each other. This book presents a step-by-step method of how to combine the Theory of Constraints, Lean, and Six Sigma, and then demonstrates its effectiveness in a very diverse array of industries.

Companies all over the world try their best to improve their business by implementing efforts such as Six Sigma, Lean Manufacturing, or a combination of the two methodologies. Logic would tell you that these two methods would be the right approach because you would have an improvement method that, through Lean, reduces waste and make value flow, while Six Sigma reduces and controls variation. If this were true, then why is it that many of these initiatives simply aren’t delivering quantifiable bottom-line results? After having studied many of these on-going improvement efforts, the author believes that these efforts are missing an important focusing mechanism. That is, most of these improvement efforts attempt to improve "everything" rather than finding that key part of the system that should be assessed and improved, the constraining factor, and then focusing the improvement efforts there and only there. The hallmark of this book is how to first locate this constraining factor and then determine the best way to exploit it to generate extreme profits, radically improve on-time delivery of products or services and increase market share by outperforming your competition at rates you never expected possible. How do we do this? By combining Lean and Six Sigma with the Theory of Constraints. This book demonstrates both the basics of improvement (i.e. results) with the "how to" (i.e. the methodology) in a very simple format that everyone within your organization will understand.

The fast and easy way to understand and implement Six Sigma The world's largest and most profitable companies—including the likes of GE, Bank of America, Honeywell, DuPont, Samsung, Starwood Hotels, Bechtel, and Motorola—have used Six Sigma to achieve breathtaking improvements in business performance, in everything from products to processes to complex systems and even in work environments. Over the past decade, over $100 billion in bottom-line performance has been achieved through corporate Six Sigma programs. Yet, despite its astounding effectiveness, few outside of the community of Six Sigma practitioners know what Six Sigma is all about. With this book, Six Sigma is revealed to everyone. You might be in a company that's already implemented Six Sigma, or your organization may be considering it. You may be a student who wants to learn how it works, or you might be a seasoned business professional who needs to get up to speed. In any case, this updated edition of Six Sigma For Dummies is the most straightforward, non-intimidating guide on the market. New and updated material, including real-world examples What Six Sigma is all about and how it works The benefits of Six Sigma in organizations and businesses The powerful "DMAIC" problem-solving roadmap Yellow, Green and Black—how the Six Sigma "belt" system works How to select and utilize the right tools and technologies Speaking the language of Six Sigma; knowing the roles and responsibilities; and mastering the statistics skills and analytical methods Six Sigma For Dummies will become everyone's No. 1 resource for discovering and mastering the world's most famous and powerful improvement tool. Stephen Covey is spot-on when he says, "Six Sigma For Dummies is a book to be read by everyone."

Maximise the quality and efficiency of your organisation with Lean Six Sigma Are you looking to make your organisation more effective and productive? If you answered "yes," you need to change the way it thinks. Combining the leading improvement methods of Six Sigma and Lean, this winning technique drives performance to the next level—and this friendly and accessible guide shows you how. The third edition of Lean Six Sigma For Dummies outlines the key concepts of this strategy and explains how you can use it to get the very best out of your team and your business. The jargon-crowded language and theory of Lean Six Sigma can be intimidating for both beginners and experienced users. Written in plain English and packed with lots of helpful examples, this easy-to-follow guide arms you with tools and techniques for implementing Lean Six Sigma and offers guidance on everything from policy deployment to managing change in your organisation—and everything in between. Gives you plain-English explanations of complicated jargon Serves as a useful tool for businesspeople looking to make their organisation more effective Helps you achieve goals with ease and confidence Provides useful hands-on checklists Whether you want to manage a project more tightly or fine-tune existing systems and processes, the third edition of Lean Six Sigma For Dummies makes it easier to achieve your business goals.

Recognizing the need to implement quality and eliminate waste, companies embrace Lean, Six Sigma, or a combination of the two, typically taking a broad approach that seeks to remediate every process, critical or not. When this happens, efforts become distracted, improvements indefinitely delayed, and results mediocre at best. The Ultimate Improvement Cycle (UIC) integrates Lean, Six Sigma, and the Theory of Constraints into a combined strategy that will help you immediately focus your efforts on those areas that will make the greatest difference. The book presents basic laws of factory physics that show why the UIC delivers significant bottom-line improvement while other initiatives so often fail. It explains to you why focusing your efforts on apparent problems rather than systemic concerns is wasted effort. Focus on key areas and take improvement to the next level The Ultimate Improvement Cycle: Maximizing Profits through the Integration of Lean, Six Sigma, and the Theory of Constraints show you how to draw the best from Lean and Six Sigma by employing principles drawn from the Theory of Constraints. This approach will ensure that your effort is focused in the right place, at the right time, using the right tools, and the right amount of resources. This multi-pronged approach addresses cost accounting, variation, waste, and performance measurements. But most importantly, it focuses your organization on the right areas to optimize. Applying years of hands-on work in many environments, Bob Sproull has developed a unique proven method that capitalizes on a time-release formula for evoking the key tools that improvement requires. He shows you how to take advantage of the cyclical nature of improvement to implement change that is perpetually effective, and his approach does not require more resources than you have on hand. Although originally developed in manufacturing, the UIC works equally well in any environment whether it be manufacturing or service-oriented, including Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) and Critical Chain Project Management (CCPM).

An implementation blueprint for SIX SIGMA! "The Six Sigma Way demystifies Six Sigma with a real-world 'how-to 'guide. A good investment for any business planning to launch Six Sigma." John Biedry, VP Quality & Compliance, Sears Home Services. Cost reduction...productivity improvement...customer retention...these are the promises of the Six Sigma quality management system. The Six Sigma Way reveals how GE, Motorola, and numerous other companies are successfully using Six Sigma to fine-tune products and processes, improve performance, and increase profits. Now you can read the roadmap for implementing Six Sigma in your manufacturing or service organization. The authorswho have worked with some of the most visible Six Sigma companies including GEprovide step-by-step guidance and practical implementation guidelines. Whether your goal is to fix a process problem or implement Six Sigma company-wide, The Six Sigma Way will help you develop an approach customized for your company's needs and the challenges of the twenty-first century business environment. The Six Sigma Way: Addresses the challenges and politics of launching, leading, and training people for Six Sigma. Focuses on implementing the major steps and quality improvement tools in the Six Sigma system. Features insights, comments, and examples from business leaders and managers using Six Sigma in their organizations.