Rating: 
Summary: Nice but little meat
Review: The authors present some good information, particularly the success stories at GE and other selected companies. They outline the general six sigma steps and the roles of the green belt, black belts and other players in the six sigma methodology. However, upon close reading, the book is poorly written and has apparent self contraditions. There is not much meat in the book. For what they covered, the book could have condensed to 30-50 pages. They leave many questions unaswered -- you may have to hire them to help you implement six sigma. In summary, it is worth a quick glance but do not read closely. It is a book on six sigma written at the minus 1.7 sigma level, in my opinion anyway. P.S. I am not panning six sigma; it is a fairly good system and i like how it is tied to the customer and financials of a company -- something other approaches have assumed, but did not stress. You can reach the reviewer at doestat@yahoo.com
Rating: 
Summary: An Exquisite Explanation of the Value of Measurements
Review: This is by far the best book that I have read on cost reduction management in business processes. The authors have been involved with Six Sigma methods since the initiative originally began at Motorola. In their role as trainers for those who apply Six Sigma methods, they have a bird's eye view of the implementation issues of the last few years. The book has a nice balance among explaining the concept, how to apply the concept, case examples of application, and comparisons to other ways of thinking about providing products and services. I found that perspective was unusually broad, but pretty specific for a business book. Three kinds of people will be disappointed in this book: (1) Those who already apply another quality improvement method and are pleased with the results they are getting. (2) People who have only a casual interest in cost reduction (3) People who would like to know the details of how to apply the analytical methods involved. If you fall into one of those camps, you should probably skim the book or skip it. On the other hand, if you are interested in improving your operations, profitability, performance and effectiveness, you should definitely read this book. It will give you a realistic sense of what the potential is for your enterprise to benefit from the Six Sigma process. If that potential interests you, it will also give you a variety of ways to investigate the opportunity. You can't ask for much more from one book. Separately, I should mention that some of the case studies cited here are ones that our firm has separately investigated for other purposes. In each case, the reports are identical to what we learned. The authors seem to have been scrupulously careful to get the details right -- something that seems very appropriate for people explaining Six Sigma (3.4 errors per million opportunities). Although I like this book very much, the Six Sigma concept does have some limitations. It may help you to be aware of some of them before reading this book. First, Six Sigma is usually focused on your own operations and those of your suppliers rather than the ecosystem that supports you. This limited focus causes some opportunities to be missed. Second, there may be trade-offs between time to market and Six Sigma in short-lived products that require separate consideration. Third, many people will make mistakes in how they measure performance for the customer and end user using this concept. The author warn against this, but the concept unfortunately lends itself to being weak in this area. Fourth, the concept tends to leave an organization too complacent after achieving Six Sigma. At such moments, there are probably still important areas where approach perfection will be incredibly valuable. But your organization may stop looking for them. The theory suggests limited benefits from pressing further at this point. The theory will turn out to be wrong in some critical applications, especially where life and death are involved. A good book to read at the same time is Lean Thinking which will give you another interesting perspective on ways to reduce defects and create more value at the same time.
Rating:
Summary: Six Sigma - Uninspired Reading
Review: This book had some interesting concepts, but wasn't written well. For such commonly used concepts and well-known themes, I am somewhat surprised. Didn't like the book much.
Rating: 
Summary: To be expected
Review: Not surprised, but disappointed. This book is what is to be expected from a group of people who have a good understanding of concepts but no understanding of application. No detail and no meat toward the important aspects of actual implementation. May be ok for a first exposure to the concepts of Six Sigma, but don't expect to learn anything about how it really works or about how to fit it into your organizations culture.
Rating: 
Summary: A Well-Written Appetizer but No Entree Included
Review: A well-written book that gives insight into what 'Six Sigma' is all about - a change strategy for relentlessly driving defects out of your products, processes and services to increase profitability. It's about leadership and a structured, data-based approach to problem solving. Having been a Wave 1 Black Belt at AlliedSignal during the launch of Six Sigma, I can verify that the Breakthrough methodology (DMAIC)really does work. For those of you who have been through numerous 'TQ initiatives' and countless SPC campaign with no real impact on business performance, the case studies presented in this book are enlightening. On the negative side, for those who want a complete A to Z textbook on how to implement Six Sigma in their own organization, prepare to be disappointed. No information is provided on the statistical tools that go hand-in-hand with the DMAIC roadmap (I guess the Six Sigma Academy can't give away all their secrets). In summary, thumbs up if you want an overview and real-life examples of what Six Sigma is all about. Thumbs down in you want a detailed textbook or reference book on the subject.
Rating:
Summary: Six Sigma Skewed
Review: If I were to write a book consisting of a few (but not all) themes from Moby-Dick, several (but not all) characters from The Great Gatsby, and a few (but not all) subplots from Tom Clancy's latest potboiler, would you be likely to shell out your hard-earned money for the privilege of reading such a thing? Probably not. (But if you would, please call me ASAP! I'm not selling a book, but I do have this really cool bridge in Northern Michigan ....) But that's exactly what Mikel Harry and Richard Schroeder expect you to do. Reading their Six Sigma: The Breakthrough Strategy Revolutionizing the World's Top Corporations, I could not escape the feeling of déjà vu. Hardly a page went by without my thinking, "Been there. Seen that." While Six Sigma purports to be the seminal tome on the newest, best management strategy ever, it is in fact a pastiche of concepts, tools, techniques, and methodologies that have been around for a long time. Included in the Six Sigma "strategy" are bits and pieces of a generic Strategic Planning 101 course; a few of Deming's fourteen points and two of his four elements of profound knowledge; about one-and-a-half legs of Juran's Quality Trilogy; a little of Tom Peters' management by walking around, and an incomplete version of Hammer and Champy's business system diamond. Six Sigma is short on precise details about the "strategy." Instead, the book reads like a 300-page advertisement designed to generate business. And no wonder! The book's dust jacket informs us that Messrs. Mikel and Schroeder are (Surprise! Surprise!) CEO and President, respectively, of the Six Sigma Academy. We learn also that the Six Sigma Academy raked in over $100 million in consulting/training fees in 1998. If you have lots of free time to do something that is virtually non-value-adding, borrow this book from your local library and go ahead and read it. At least the industry case studies are interesting, but I found the constant touting of the Six Sigma "strategy" to be distracting. But even if you have lots of extra money, don't buy this book. (Buy my bridge instead.)
Rating: 
Summary: A good idea, not enough detail
Review: The authors present their methodology for quantifing business processes and comparing them across business industries. While the Six Sigma Breakthrough Strategy is aimed at Fortune 100 manufacturing companies, it does also translate to the service sector. Most readers will never implement this management system (few of us actually have the opportunity to save our companies millions of dollars), yet it does present us with good ideas that we can relate to our everyday work processes. The idea is to cut cost by reducing errors to be competative, especially when your competetors can produce the same item at the same end cost (with the same level of errors) if you don't.
Rating:
Summary: Good But Incomplete Reference Guide for Six Sigma
Review: While it is true that this book demonstrates the implementation of Six Sigma program, it is true that Dr. Harry doesn't touch the preparing of company for six sigma. Preparation of a company for six sigma is rather important neither than guidelines for selecting project nor roadmap for implementation. As all we know a success improvement program depends on how deep of Top Management support by action. Finally, I think it would be better if Dr Harry not only embark for six sigma; Compare the philosophy, and success factor of Six Sigma program with other improvement programs such as Zero Defect and Kaizen etc.
Rating:
Summary: Don't waste your time.
Review: Book lacks any indepth discussion. It's an article stretched into a book. Jack Welch's quote is misleading. He is not talking about this book.
Rating:
Summary: Better to call 6 sigma academy and ask for their brochure
Review: I bought this book considering the hype around this subject. What I got in return was nothing more than a superficial overview of the subject with no depth. It was like reading a product brochure difference being you are paying for it. There were no insights on methodology nor fundamentals. There are better ways to spend your money like keeping lights ON.
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