Managing Six Sigma: A Practical Guide to Understanding, Assessing, and Implementing the Strategy That Yields Bottom-Line Success

Breakthrough Thinking and Practical Applications, July 16, 2001

By 

Robert Morris (Dallas, Texas) –

  

  

  

Breyfogle and his co-authors explain that this book was written in response to numerous requests for a book which would “help management decide if they should implement Six Sigma” and then “guide them through the process.” In Breyfogle’s previously published Implementing Six Sigma, he introduced Smarter Six Sigma Solutions (or S4). Were I to provide a copy of that book to the CEOs with whom I work, few (if any) would read it. Perhaps a few would pass it along for someone else to read. After that, who knows? (Many of the CEOs I know confuse dumping with delegating.) It is not damning with faint praise to suggest that this is an excellent book but one which has a much narrower focus and provides much less content than does its predecessor.

“The purpose of this book is to build awareness of the wise application of Six Sigma tools and how they can be important to the `big picture.'” The authors achieve that purpose. The material is carefully organized within four Parts: Why Six Sigma (How Six Sigma Compares to Other Quality Initiatives, Six Sigma Background and Fundamentals, and Six Sigma Needs Assessment); Six Sigma Metrics (Numbers and Information, Crafting insightful Metrics, and Performance Measurement); Six Sigma Business Strategy (deployment Alternatives, Creating a Successful Six Sigma Infrastructure, Training and Implementation, and finally, Project Selection, Sizing, and Other Techniques; and Applying Six Sigma (manufacturing Applications, Service/Transactional Applications, Development Applications, and finally, Need for Creativity, Invention, and Innovation). The Glossary and References sections follow and are first-rate.

Because I am a non-technician, I found the concepts and applications discussed in this book easier to grasp than those explained in its predecessor, Implementing Six Sigma. My guess (only a guess) is that the same would be true of senior-level executives who are also non-technicians. The authors quite carefully help their reader to understand how Six Sigma differs from other quality initiatives while correctly noting that Six Sigma should not replace other initiatives. Rather, it is and should be perceived as “a tactical methodology to determine the best approach to a given situation/process.” In Chapter 1, they go on to observe that the success of Six Sigma “is linked to qa set of cross-functional metrics that lead to significant improvements in customer satisfaction and bottom-line benefits. Organizations do not necessarily need to use all of the measurements listed (often within typical Six Sigma programs). It is most important to choose the best set of services for a situation metrics that yield insight into a situation or process.” I provide these brief excerpts to indicate the precision and clarity of the authors’ writing style as well as to attract attention to several key points they emphasize.

One of the book’s greatest value-added benefits is provided from a series of Tables. They range from “The Ten Myths of Six Sigma” (Table 1.1) and “Deming’s Fourteen Points” (Table 1.2) through “The 21-Set Integration of the Tools” (Table 1.5) and “Six Sigma Needs Checklist” (Table 3.2) to “Personality Traits of Creative Individuals” identified by Sternberg and Lubart (Table 14.3). The authors end their book as follows: “As global competition increases and the rate of technological change accelerates, there will be tremendous social turmoil; as the uneducated and unprepared secede from the expanding economy. Those with the capability and desire to keep pace with radical change will find virtually limitless opportunity, growth, and prosperity.” Frankly, I was surprised when reading these concluding remarks because, at so many points throughout the book’s narrative, the authors seem almost wholly preoccupied with explaining strategies which leverage various technologies to maximize ROI. Then I reviewed what I had read and what I had learned, realizing that even a system as cohesive, comprehensive, and cost-effective as S4 is certain to fail without sufficient “human capital.” That is, those to whom the authors refer. People who are advocates, indeed evangelists.

Heaven knows, the authors of this book are highly analytical but they are also passionate about the difference they can help to make in organizations which need “a practical guide to understanding, assessing, and implementing the strategy that yields bottom-line success.” I commend them on what they achieve in this book…also, and of greater importance, on what their book can help others to achieve.

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