Power of Six Sigma

Rating:
Summary: Save your money!
Review: I read this book as an introduction to the concept of Six Sigma. My motivation to do this was that my company has begun implementing the management technique. Based on the description of the book I was expecting an introduction to Six Sigma presented as: "An Inspiring Tale of How Six Sigma Is Transforming the Way We Work."

Instead I got the script for a Six Sigma introductory training video stretched to fill a book that could be sold for enormous profit.

We have all had those training sessions at work where we watch a video where "Mike" and "Sarah" discuss an ethics dilemma or other workplace problem. The dialogue is strained and unnatural because it is trying to communicate the subject matter of the class, not good acting or plot. This book reads like the script for one of those videos. ....

This book does provide a basic overview of the Six Sigma system, which is a cleverly disguised attempt to make money by exploiting the latest management buzz.

Ideally this should have been produced as a 45-minute video introduction to a Six Sigma class. But, where would the profit be in that.

My recommendation is to check it out from the library if you really want to read the book for the basic introduction to Six Sigma.

Rating:
Summary: Did I read the same book?
Review: I searched for Sigma books in the county library database, and this was one I put a hold on and read when it came in. This is useful as a quick, easy exposition of "What is Six Sigma and why is it so great?" if you don't know anything about it other than that your employer is keen on it. I can understand an employer passing this out to the masses to help counter skepticism and resistance to a nascent Sigma program. This book might persuade the reader to take his foot off the brake -- but there's nothing in here to help him start driving.

Rating:
Summary: sigma is good for you
Review: I searched for Sigma books in the county library database, and this was one I put a hold on and read when it came in. This is useful as a quick, easy exposition of "What is Six Sigma and why is it so great?" if you don't know anything about it other than that your employer is keen on it. I can understand an employer passing this out to the masses to help counter skepticism and resistance to a nascent Sigma program. This book might persuade the reader to take his foot off the brake -- but there's nothing in here to help him start driving.

Rating:
Summary: Story
Review: I thought the book was going to explain some details about this concept. However, it just tells you a story about what six-sigma means and what it does. It is not technical at all. After reading this book, you won't be able to implement this concept but you will know what it is. Just a story book.

Rating:
Summary: Deming story told in Poorly Imitated Ken Blanchard style
Review: I was fairly excited about this new methodology, especially considering my domain of software development. However it turned out to be old information bound in a new cover.
Writing Problems
The typical Ken Blanchard/Spencer Johnson book is usually narration of a fable involving everyday people and a champion or messiah of a new ideology that is promoted in the book. Those books make for a good reading as they are devoid of buzzwords and other loaded phrases that have polluted management literature. This book tries to imitate that style but lacks the simplicity and use of metaphors and analogies so adroitly used by Blanchard/Johnson. Instead this book is full of buzzwords and promises of revolutionary results based on the magic of Six Sigma, worded in a poorly immitated style.
Problems with Six Sigma
So what's new in Six Sigma? Nothing except a concretely defined metric. Anyone who is familiar with the works/ideology of Deming would identify himself with Six Sigma immediately without requiring a philosophical or fundamental change. Avoiding mistakes has been the classic mantra of quality champions for over half a century now. Six Sigma philosophy has just set a goal while implementing the same ideology-reducing defects to the level of Six standard deviations.
What's Okay?
Anyone who doesn't have a clue about Quality and possesses minimal understanding of Deming's philosophy should read this book. Those who have an understanding of Deming's work can easily skip this work.

Rating:
Summary: Caveat to Mass Distribution within a Company
Review: I was looking for a book that could be mass distributed within the company throughout the 'rank and file'. This book did start out as a simple read and appeared to have potential until I happened upon page 23 which dwelled way too much on financial reward and clearly went overboard in naming specific dollar amounts: "Most companies sweeten the deal by giving the project leaders, and sometimes the entire team, a financial reward for pulling it off. Could be stock options or a simple bonus or a percentage of the money saved on each project...it can run anywhere from 2 to 3 percent all the way up to 20 percent..most give the leaders a percentage-say 2 to 5 percent-of the money saved....works out to a bonus of from $4,000 to $10,000...although the projects can vary quite abit." BIG PROBLEM !..I'll have employees(on the team and NOT on the team) imagining that the Black Belts are making an additional $10,000 per project. This was a very unfortunate inclusion in the book and killed any thought I might have had of purchasing it for mass distribution. In addition, I found the initial discussion about Green Belts to be disparaging even if it was meant in jest: "A friend of mine in a martial arts program got a green belt as soon as he joined. The black belt indicates mastery, I guess, but I think the green belt indicates that your check has cleared. Apparently, it's awarded for good credit." They are then further described as "worker bees". In the meantime, 'showstopper #2' is encountered in the following words,"..unlike the worker bees..the green belts can work themselves up to black belts if they do well..who decides that ?...the black belts themselves who train the green belts and direct their efforts..what happens to the Black Belts when the Green Belts get promoted? The best ones move up to Master Black Belts...And the best of those move up to Champions and eventually Executives." This 'path' is presented as THE path. Again, employees will be misled into thinking that this should be THEIR expectation. Approach WILL vary from company to company. Unfortunately, when literature such as this is mass distributed within a company, every bit of it will all be taken at face value...we can't add a disclaimer. So rather than open a Pandora's box, I have chosen to stay clear of MASS purchasing this book.

Rating:
Summary: Six Sigma, in an easy to understand format.
Review: I was looking for a book that would explain Six Sigma, and how i works in a simple way. I didn't want read about statistics and all the tools in Six Sigma, just how the statistics and tools apply in a "real" Six Sigma project. This book was just what i was looking for! The way that the book is written is very good. It's a story about two old friends that have been in the same company for a long time. One of them very successful, the other one not. The successful one has been working as a Black Belt for some time. He explaines a Six Sigma project over lunch, there is always a dialogue between them, the non successful one is asking questions, just the questions I would have wanted to ask, and he is getting more convinced about The Power of Six Sigma the more he gets to know. This is a great book to start with if you want to know more about Six Sigma!

Rating:
Summary: Useful introduction to Six Sigma
Review: I'm a graduate student in cognitive psychology, but I am interested in training. I had seen many books on Six Sigma at the bookstore and wondered what it was. However, I didn't have time to read a large book on the subject, especially if it was not going to be useful. I saw the small book Power of Six Sigma at the library and decided to give it a try. I'm very glad I did.

This book is a wonderful introduction to Six Sigma that can be read by people from different fields, especially those new to training such as myself. It does not go into the nuts and bolts of implementing Six Sigma, there are other books for that, but it gives you enough to understand Six Sigma and remember the key points. Based on this book you can decide whether you want to learn more about Six Sigma, and whether it would be useful to your business. I don't know enough about other training programs to be able to compare Six Sigma to them, but after you read this book, if you have tried other programs, you can definitely do that for yourself.

The only drawback to the book is that I found the dialogue to be a little corny at times.

"Black Belts" in the Six Sigma process will not learn anything new themselves, but might find this useful to give to their staff. Those who will benefit most from reading this book are people new to Six Sigma, people who don't understand Six Sigma from reading other books, and people who have not had Six Sigma adequately explained to them at work.

Rating:
Summary: Finally, now I understand what Six Sigma is about
Review: I've read lots of business books, but no one seems to explain Six Sigma in a comprehensible way, until this book. That's too bad, because it's a big part of the basis for the growth of one of the world's truly great businesses (GE), among many others.

The Power of Six Sigma is an easy read that clearly, concisely, and entertainingly sets out the principles of Six Sigma in a way that anyone can understand. Not only can one use the terminology of Six Sigma effectively after reading The Power of Six Sigma (black belts, green belts, etc.), but there's a pretty good chance you'll want to adapt the (now) straightforward logic of the system to your business. Doing all that in a book that takes about two hours to read -- and painless ones at that -- is a pretty impressive accomplishment. I highly recommend it.

Rating:
Summary: Good story book, get your started and that it...
Review: It is a good story/inspirational book -- gets you started with the Six Sigma. A quick read ~ 2 hours. ...Seriously lacks substance. If you just want to get a quick and fun filled overview of Six Sigma grab this book but if you want something beyond what's on the surface this book falls short.