Packed with Knowledge !

Six Sigma books often couch their wisdom in acronyms or jargon, or they offer vague, unfulfilling anecdotal narratives. This book is different. As trim, focused and efficient as if a Six Sigma team had designed it, it gets the job done. Its mission is simple: explain the basic structure of Lean Six Sigma initiatives to readers who are likely to become involved in one. While select case studies are judiciously sprinkled throughout, this is a meat-and-potatoes book that tells you what you need to know in clear, straightforward prose. Although the authors - Mike George, Dave Rowlands and Bill Kastle - humbly issue the caveat that this is not intended to be a comprehensive reference, its terse yet relevant style will probably make it one of those dog-eared volumes that barely gets back to the HR bookshelf before it's checked out again. Because of its plainspoken functionality, we recommend this manual strongly to anyone whose future may involve Lean Six Sigma.

A Good Introduction

According to the back cover, this book is "a quick introduction to using Lean Six Sigma." Since you are looking at an introductory book, you are probably not familiar with Lean Six Sigma. The back cover again states, "Lean Six Sigma combines the two most important improvement trends of our time: making work better (using Six Sigma) and making work faster (using Lean Principles)." I believe this book accomplishes its stated goal. It's 92 pages of quick reading introduce the reader to the Lean Six Sigma improvement process through definitions, explanations and examples.

The book is divided into two parts: Foundations of Lean Six Sigma and Implementing Lean Six Sigma. The foundation section covers the four keys to Lean Six Sigma and the five laws of Lean Six Sigma. The implementation section covers how to get started, introduces the reader to tools in the Lean Six Sigma toolkit, gives a public sector example of where Lean Six Sigma was used to make improvements and what management needs to do to support a successful Lean Six Sigma effort.

A reference book on Lean Six Sigma this book is not. If you are already familiar with Lean Six Sigma, then look elsewhere for more information. If you would like an introduction to Lean Six Sigma that is both understandable and easy to read, I highly recommend this book. Having read the book, I now feel better prepared to read additional Lean Six Sigma books that will take my knowledge and understanding to greater depths.

Six Sigma does not exist

For a completely theoretical concept of magical "Six Sigma", that makes companies to avoid risk there's just too many pages. There's a simple one-sentence proof against "six-sigma" concept: if an organization reaches such a level of quality, it inevitably stops innovating, because innovation leads to inevitable failures (even short-term) which will destroy six-sigma status. Once organization stops innovating and taking risks, it dies. Quite a self-destructing concept. Yet, interesting how many books will be written on it, and sold.