Six Sigma For Dummies, 2nd Edition

Six Sigma For Dummies, 2nd Edition

Released September 2012
Publisher(s): For Dummies
ISBN: 9781118238042

Read it now on the O’Reilly learning platform with a 10-day free trial.

O’Reilly members get unlimited access to books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.

Start your free trial

Book description

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."

Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. Table of Contents
  3. Title Page
  4. Foreword
  5. Introduction
  6. Part I: Getting Acquainted with Six Sigma Basics
    1. Chapter 1: Better Business and Better Performance: Defining Six Sigma
      1. Discovering What’s Behind the Name
      2. Tackling Six Sigma from the Managerial Perspective
    2. Chapter 2: Linking Quality and Business
      1. Specifications: Listening to the Voice of the Customer
      2. Examining What Quality Truly Is
      3. Looking at How Quality Beliefs Determine Behavior
    3. Chapter 3: Examining the Principles and Language of Six Sigma
      1. Starting Out with One Simple Equation: Y = f(X) + ε
      2. Principle 1: Recognizing Determinism
      3. Principle 2: Reducing Variation
      4. Principle 3: Measuring for Success
      5. Principle 4: Applying Leverage
      6. Principle 5: Managing Risk
    4. Chapter 4: Organizing for Improvement
      1. DMAIC: Introducing Your Project Strategy
      2. Venturing to the Domains of Activity
      3. Filling the Roles: Who You Need to Know
      4. Following the Five Stages of a Six Sigma Initiative
  7. Part II: DMAIC: Defining and Measuring
    1. Chapter 5: Identifying and Right-Sizing Projects
      1. Launching a Six Sigma Project
      2. Writing the Business Case
      3. When You’re Ready: Defining a Six Sigma Project
    2. Chapter 6: Launching a Project
      1. Describing the Problem with a Problem Statement
      2. Deciding How Much Improvement Is Enough
      3. Setting an Improvement Target with Your Objective Statement
      4. Getting a Project Approved and Assigned
    3. Chapter 7: Mapping to Identify Possible Factors
      1. Breaking Down Process Flow
      2. Developing a SIPOC
      3. VSM: Charting the Value Stream
    4. Chapter 8: Diagramming to Identify Possible Factors
      1. Breaking Down Brainstorming Tools
      2. Focusing on Failure Mode Effects Analysis (FMEA)
    5. Chapter 9: Describing Performance with Numbers
      1. Recognizing Different Types of Data
      2. Using Statistics to Make Sense of Data
      3. The Long and Short of Variation
  8. Part III: DMAIC: Analyzing
    1. Chapter 10: Depicting and Analyzing Data through Charts and Graphs
      1. Checking Out Dot Plots and Histograms
      2. Comparing Distributions in Box and Whisker Plots
      3. Making Connections with Scatter Plots
      4. Hindsight Is 20/20: Observing Process Behavior Charts
    2. Chapter 11: Analyzing for Value
      1. Understanding and Achieving Value: It’s Customer-Driven
      2. Analyzing Process Flow for Value: Introducing Take One, Make One
      3. Considering Cause-and-Effect (C&E) Analysis
      4. Leveraging Your Old Friend FMEA for Value
    3. Chapter 12: What's Normal? Recognizing Normally-Shaped Variation
      1. Defining Normal: Bell-Shaped Variation and Probability
      2. Checking How Well Data Follow a Normal Curve: Normal Probability Plots
    4. Chapter 13: Assessing Capability: Comparing the Voices of the Customer and the Process
      1. Working with Yield and Defect Rates
      2. What’s Your Sigma, Baby? Deciphering Sigma (Z) Score
      3. Considering Capability Indices
    5. Chapter 14: Gauging Gauges: Measurement System Analysis (MSA)
      1. Avoiding Illusion: Measurement System Capability Analysis
      2. Measuring Measurements: Measurement System Analysis (MSA)
    6. Chapter 15: Mining Data and Processes for Insight
      1. Filling the Funnel
      2. Mining Data for Insight
      3. Nearly Magical Multi-Vari Charts: Expertly Screening Factors
      4. Checking out a Multi-Vari Example
    7. Chapter 16: Making Confident Decisions
      1. Introducing Populations and Samples
      2. Parameter Distributions from Multiple Samples: Using the Central Limit Theorem
      3. Calculating Decision Risk: Confidence Intervals
  9. Part IV: DMAIC: Improving and Controlling
    1. Chapter 17: Forecasting Future Performance
      1. Seeing the Correlation
      2. Getting a Handle on Curve Fitting
    2. Chapter 18: Designing, Conducting, and Analyzing Experiments (DOE)
      1. Seeing the Improvement Power of Six Sigma Experiments
      2. Looking Before You Leap: Experimental Considerations
      3. Setting up 2k Factorial Experiments
      4. You’ve Only Just Begun: Looking at More Topics in Experimentation
    3. Chapter 19: Standardizing on Improvement
      1. Satisfying the Need for Control Planning
      2. 5S: Housekeeping for Sustained Improvement
      3. Mistake-Proofing with Poka-Yoke
      4. Leveraging FMEA as a Control Tool
      5. Setting and Following Standards
    4. Chapter 20: Maintaining Gains through Statistical Process Control
      1. Getting to Know Control Charts
      2. Setting Up Control Charts for Continuous Data
      3. Making Control Charts for Attribute Data
  10. Part V: Looking at the Six Sigma Technology Tool Landscape
    1. Chapter 21: Eyeing Process Characterization and Optimization Technologies
      1. Understanding the Platforms and Protocols
      2. Knowing When Going Manual Makes Sense (And Doesn’t)
      3. Using Basic Desktop Tools
      4. Perusing Process Intelligence Tools
      5. Diving into Desktop Process Mapping Technology
      6. Exploring Enterprise-Class Technology
    2. Chapter 22: Tools for Performing Six Sigma Analysis
      1. Tackling Technology for Analytics
      2. Using Standard Spreadsheets
      3. Taking on Bigger Projects with Specialized Statistical Analysis Tools
    3. Chapter 23: Managing Six Sigma
      1. Managing Your Projects Skillfully
      2. Through the Looking Glass: Communicating Like a Leader
      3. Helping Yourself to Project Management Tools
      4. Just the Facts, Ma’am: Intelligence Tools
      5. Collaborating in Style: Knowledge Management
  11. Part VI: The Part of Tens
    1. Chapter 24: Ten Top Do's and Don'ts of Six Sigma
      1. Do Target Tangible Results
      2. Do Think Before You Act
      3. Do Put Your Faith in Data
      4. Do Align Projects with Key Goals
      5. Do Unleash Everyone’s Potential
      6. Do Leverage Technology
      7. Don’t Deploy Six Sigma without a Leader
      8. Don’t Take Too Big a Bite
      9. Don’t Think, “But We’re Different”
      10. Don’t Overtrain
    2. Chapter 25: Ten Ways to Gain Synergies with Lean and Six Sigma
      1. Add Customer Value
      2. Map the Value Stream
      3. Strive for Flow
      4. 3-Gen: Go to Gemba
      5. Muda-Mura-Muri: Expand Your Definition of Waste
      6. 5S the Workplace
      7. Keep Simple Things Simple
      8. Remember that Everyone Plays a Part
      9. View Improvement as a Mindset
      10. Make Sure Managers Improve, Too
    3. Chapter 26: Ten Places to Go for Help
      1. Court Your Colleagues
      2. Web Searches and Social Networks
      3. Contact Six Sigma Corporations
      4. Join Associations and Societies
      5. Attend Conferences
      6. Read The Books
      7. Talk to Technology Vendors
      8. Chat with Consultants
      9. Survey the Six Sigma Trainers
  12. Cheat Sheet

Product information

  • Title: Six Sigma For Dummies, 2nd Edition
  • Author(s):
  • Release date: September 2012
  • Publisher(s): For Dummies
  • ISBN: 9781118238042