Six Sigma: Basic Tools and Techniques

Citation

Narasimhan, K. (2009), "Six Sigma: Basic Tools and Techniques", Managing Service Quality: An International Journal, Vol. 19 No. 5, pp. 631-632. https://doi.org/10.1108/09604520910984427

Since Six Sigma (SS) was created, or invented, in Motorola, it has become a popular method of achieving business excellence by focusing on critical customer issues and improving quality of goods and services. This book by Summers concentrates on explaining how to use and apply the various tools and techniques, with concrete examples from a wide range of industries.

Donna C. S. Summers is a Professor at the University of Dayton and has wide experience in industry and academia and has worked as a consultant to a number of companies and, since 1995, for the University of Dayton's Continuous Quality Improvement Programme. She has written a number of articles and has written three books.

The book comprises 17 chapters, six appendices, answers to selected problems, and a bibliography. The appendices contain various statistical tables such as normal curve areas, values of Binomial, Poisson and Student‐t distributions, factors for computing central lines and control limits, and some useful web sites for SS and Quality.

The chapters could be grouped into four parts. The first five chapters, forming Part 1, provide a foundation for the basics of SS. They deal respectively with the topics of its origins and benefits, some of the quality guru's philosophy forming the foundation of SS, the importance of good leadership and strategic planning and deployment, creating a customer focus using Quality Function Deployment (QFD), and a brief consideration of teamwork. The chapter on QFD is quite informative and useful as a detailed example of the 12‐step process is given with exhibits.

Chapters 6‐8 focus respectively on “Project Management”, “Measures and Metrics”, and the five‐step “Problem‐Solving” process. In Chapter 6, it is emphasized that projects should be aligned with the goals and objectives of the organization and managed properly to ensure the effective and efficient use of time, money and other resources. In Chapter 7, the concepts of Balanced Score Card and quality costs are used to explain the importance of setting suitable performance measures to select projects that help to optimize the overall business results and customer requirements. The basics of the DMAIC (Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve and Control) process are explained in Chapter 8 with examples.

Chapters 9‐13 deal with these five steps in greater detail and further examples are provided. In Chapter 9, the fundamental statistical measures and ways of depicting them are covered in some depth. This is followed by the construction and interpretation of control charts, and their applications are covered in the next chapter. In Chapter 11, the focus is on process capability for judging how consistently a process is performing. The next two chapters deal respectively with the concept of probability and the application of attribute control charts. Chapter 12 also includes a control chart selection flowchart to assist selecting the appropriate chart for a given situation.

The final four chapters concentrate on introducing more advanced tools and techniques, viz. product or system reliability, “Failure Modes and Effects Analysis” for identifying weaknesses in the system, “Design of Experiments”, and “Lean Methods” for eliminating waste and reducing process flow times.

Each chapter's objectives are listed at the outset and the chapters conclude with a summary, ‘Take Away Tips” and questions that can be used to assess one's understanding. The text provides an introduction to the various areas of Six Sigma methodology and is well supported by 22 tables, 164 diagrams, and 104 vignettes that demonstrate Six Sigma tools at work. It is a very reasonably priced book.