Six Sigma Fieldbook

The extraordinary breakthrough management program--heralded by GE, Motorola, and AlliedSignal--that is sweeping corporate America with its unprecedented ability to achieve superior financial results. Six Sigma is the most powerful breakthrough management tool ever devised, promising increased market share, cost reductions, and dramatic improvements in bottom-line profitability for companies of any size. The darling of Wall Street, it has become the mantra of Fortune 500 boardrooms around the world because it works. What is Six Sigma? It is first and foremost a business process that enables companies to increase profits dramatically by streamlining operations, improving quality, and eliminating defects or mistakes in everything a company does, from filling out purchase orders to manufacturing airplane engines. While traditional quality programs have focused on detecting and correcting defects, Six Sigma encompasses something broader: It provides specific methods to re-create the process itself so that defects are never produced in the first place. Most companies operate at a three- to four-sigma level, where the cost of defects is roughly 20 to 30 percent of revenues. By approaching Six Sigma--fewer than one defect per 3.4 million opportunities--the cost of quality drops to less than 1 percent of sales. This is because the highest quality also results in the lowest costs. When GE reduced its costs from 20 percent to less than 10 percent, it saved a billion dollars in just two years--money that goes directly to the bottom line. This is the reason Wall Street and corporations as diverse as Sony, Ford, Nokia, Texas Instruments, Canon, Hitachi, Lockheed Martin, American Express, Toshiba, DuPont, and Polaroid have embarked on corporate-wide Six Sigma programs. Six Sigma should be of paramount importance to every forward-thinking executive and manager determined to make their company world-class in their industry.

The authoritative hands-on guide to putting the Six Sigma strategy into practice, written by Mikel Harry, co-founder of the Six Sigma Academy, and Don Linsenmann, the Six Sigma champion who helped to implement Six Sigma across DuPont’s eighteen business divisions. The ideal companion to Mikel Harry and Richard Schroeder’s national bestseller Six Sigma, THE SIX SIGMA FIELDBOOK takes readers inside the nuts and bolts of implementing the Six Sigma breakthrough strategy, showing readers how companies can streamline their operations, improve the quality of their products and services, and dramatically increase their profits. Based on DuPont’s multi-year unrolling of Six Sigma throughout the company’s global business divisions, THE SIX SIGMA FIELDBOOK discusses the opportunities, obstacles, and challenges DuPont faced in making the decision to embrace Six Sigma and attempting to adapt it to DuPont’s unique culture. DuPont Six Sigma champion Don Linsenmann reveals the tools DuPont’s managers needed to introduce and sustain Six Sigma quality at every level of the company, from the corner office of the executive boardroom to the factory level. DuPont used Six Sigma to help reshape their entire business model; as a result, they saved billions of dollars. Using as a framework DuPont’s successful multiyear implementation of Six Sigma across its business divisions, THE SIX SIGMA FIELDBOOK reveals the day-to-day obstacles and challenges managers face in coordinating its efforts to implement and sustain Six Sigma and offers a comprehensive road-map on how companies of all kinds can successfully apply Six Sigma methodology to increase profits and improve quality.

The Definitive Work on Six Sigma—Revised and Fully Updated Upon its publication in 2000, The Six Sigma Way was among the very first books to clearly explain the impressive benefits of Six Sigma’s improvement-driven and customer-centric approach to business leaders and managers. It revealed how GE, Motorola, and other companies used Six Sigma to fine-tune products and processes, improve performance, reduce costs, build customer loyalty, and increase profits. Corporate leaders around the world heeded the call and began implementing the tools of this world-changing performance improvement. In short, this book changed the world of business and organization improvement forever. Now, this author dream team has revisited the subject to bring you fully up to date about how Six Sigma has been used—for better and for worse—during the past 14 years. This new edition of The Six Sigma Way retains everything from the original classic—what Six Sigma is, how it works, and how to adapt it to your particular needs—while providing valuable new sections on lessons learned and setting the record straight regarding myths and misunderstandings perpetuated over the years. This all-in-one guide provides: Practical Six Sigma implementation guidelines anyone can understand New insights from managers who successfully applied the advice from the first edition Detailed case studies from such companies as Adobe, Macy’s, and Starwood Hands-on “maps” that guide you through key decisions you must make The definitive guide to successfully implementing Lean Six Sigma approaches into any organization is essential for any manager who wants to stop thinking about building a continuous improvement culture—and actually make it happen. Business has changed dramatically in recent years. Being second best used to be an option; today, being the best is the only way to survive. Take charge of your company’s future and make positive changes The Six Sigma Way.

Here is a chapter from The Six Sigma Way Team Fieldbook, a highly practical reference that outlines both the methods that have made Six Sigma successful and the basic steps a team must follow in an improvement effort. Written by three veteran trainers of Six Sigma "Black Belts" and teams at GE, Sun Microsystems, and Sears, this hands-on guide helps you obtain the skills you need to identify a product, service, or process that needs improvement or redesign; gather data on the process and the rate of defects; find ways to improve quality up to a Six Sigma level--just 3.4 defects per million; and much more.

This companion guide to the bestselling The Six Sigma Way focuses on the project improvement teams that do the real, in-the-trenches work of Six Sigma—measuring performance, improving quality and saving millions in the process. The Six Sigma Way Team Fieldbook is a highly practical reference for team leaders and members, outlining both the methods that have made Six Sigma successful and the basic steps a team must follow in an improvement effort. Written by three veteran trainers of Six Sigma “Black Belts” and teams at GE, Sun Microsystems, and Sears, this hands-on guide helps teams obtain the skills they need to identify a product, service, or process that needs improvement or redesign; gather data on the process and the rate of defects; find ways to improve quality up to a Six Sigma level—just 3.4 defects per million; and much more. * Includes dozens of data-gathering forms and Six Sigma tools and worksheets * Describes key improvement methods in a concise “how-to” format with checklists and tips

Here is a chapter from The Six Sigma Way Team Fieldbook, a highly practical reference that outlines both the methods that have made Six Sigma successful and the basic steps a team must follow in an improvement effort. Written by three veteran trainers of Six Sigma "Black Belts" and teams at GE, Sun Microsystems, and Sears, this hands-on guide helps you obtain the skills you need to identify a product, service, or process that needs improvement or redesign; gather data on the process and the rate of defects; find ways to improve quality up to a Six Sigma level--just 3.4 defects per million; and much more.

Here is a chapter from The Six Sigma Way Team Fieldbook, a highly practical reference that outlines both the methods that have made Six Sigma successful and the basic steps a team must follow in an improvement effort. Written by three veteran trainers of Six Sigma "Black Belts" and teams at GE, Sun Microsystems, and Sears, this hands-on guide helps you obtain the skills you need to identify a product, service, or process that needs improvement or redesign; gather data on the process and the rate of defects; find ways to improve quality up to a Six Sigma level--just 3.4 defects per million; and much more.

Here is a chapter from The Six Sigma Way Team Fieldbook, a highly practical reference that outlines both the methods that have made Six Sigma successful and the basic steps a team must follow in an improvement effort. Written by three veteran trainers of Six Sigma "Black Belts" and teams at GE, Sun Microsystems, and Sears, this hands-on guide helps you obtain the skills you need to identify a product, service, or process that needs improvement or redesign; gather data on the process and the rate of defects; find ways to improve quality up to a Six Sigma level--just 3.4 defects per million; and much more.

Here is a chapter from The Six Sigma Way Team Fieldbook, a highly practical reference that outlines both the methods that have made Six Sigma successful and the basic steps a team must follow in an improvement effort. Written by three veteran trainers of Six Sigma "Black Belts" and teams at GE, Sun Microsystems, and Sears, this hands-on guide helps you obtain the skills you need to identify a product, service, or process that needs improvement or redesign; gather data on the process and the rate of defects; find ways to improve quality up to a Six Sigma level--just 3.4 defects per million; and much more.

Here is a chapter from The Six Sigma Way Team Fieldbook, a highly practical reference that outlines both the methods that have made Six Sigma successful and the basic steps a team must follow in an improvement effort. Written by three veteran trainers of Six Sigma "Black Belts" and teams at GE, Sun Microsystems, and Sears, this hands-on guide helps you obtain the skills you need to identify a product, service, or process that needs improvement or redesign; gather data on the process and the rate of defects; find ways to improve quality up to a Six Sigma level--just 3.4 defects per million; and much more.