2012

QP REVIEWS

Lean Six Sigma That Works

Bill Carreira and Bill Trudell, Amacom, 2006, 263 pp., $21.95 (book).

Lean Six Sigma That Works: A Powerful Action Plan for Dramatically Improving Quality, Increasing Speed and Reducing Waste is a general outline of the lean Six Sigma method. The book’s objective is to present a combination of the basic tools of lean thinking and Six Sigma, giving readers a clear view and a sufficient comfort level to implement the method.

The first part of the book presents the theoretical concepts needed to understand lean Six Sigma. The second part illustrates the use of many lean tools such as value stream mapping, setup reduction, 5S and total performance management. A few basic tools of Six Sigma, such as brainstorming, fishbone diagrams and affinity diagrams, are also presented. The book dedicates four chapters to showing how the method is applied to real projects.

Unfortunately, this book is too focused on lean thinking and does not give a clear explanation of what Six Sigma is, or what separates lean Six Sigma from Six Sigma.

The book does not mention more sophisticated tools like quality function deployment, failure mode effects analysis or design of experiments. Moreover, few suggestions are made for applying lean Six Sigma in service environments. Most of the figures, graphs and photos in the book are untidy and sloppy.

This book serves as an introduction to the lean Six Sigma method. I recommend it to Green and Black Belts and to anyone who has previous knowledge of Six Sigma.

Martìn Tanco
University of Navarra
San Sebastian, Spain

Managing Contract Quality Requirements

C. Robert Pennella, ASQ Quality Press, 2006, 256 pp., $36 members, $60 list (book).

Managing Contract Quality Requirements is an excellent, no nonsense, no frills, highly meticulous book providing an exhaustive blueprint for developing a comprehensive, efficient contract that benefits both the customer and the supplier.

Pennella covers all aspects of managing a contract’s quality requirements, from preparing the document, communicating its contents to those involved and implementing the agreement to verifying compliance and providing a final audit of performance in a manner that protects both parties throughout the transaction.

Anyone who has to prepare a contract, especially one involving extensive quality control of specifics, numerous checkpoints and detailed contractual requirements, will benefit from this book. If you are looking for a high level summary, this is not the book for you.

This book thoroughly looks at all the issues, trip points and concerns involved in contract generation. Its strengths lie in the author’s completeness of coverage and attention to detail. Pennella has provided plenty of figures, a comprehensive bibliography, a thorough index and two case studies illustrating the process with differing scenarios.

The book can be used as a training tool for either classroom or self study. There is even an innovative self assessment tool to aid with understanding and assimilation of the material.

The only drawback to this book is that the topic is a bit dry. The author does his best to engage the reader, but there is only so much that can be done in covering such a detailed and litigious subject. Even with this limitation, I found the book to be one that will make its way to my reference shelf. I expect it will be well-thumbed in a short period of time.

Marc A. Feldman
Solvay Chemicals
Houston

Boot Camp for Leaders In K-12 Education

Lee Jenkins, Lloyd O. Roettger and Caroline Roettger, ASQ Quality Press, 2007, 208 pp., $23 member, $38 list (book).

Boot Camp for Leaders in K-12 Education: Continuous Improvement is a guide for structuring leadership, achieving school improvements and putting in place systems that deliver continuous improvement. This book is intended for leaders in the classroom, leaders administering school programs and leaders in communities working to support school programs.

Each of the 29 chapters is short and well-formatted. Topic headings, summary boxes and graphics make this book an easy read. Resource lists are provided for extending exploration.

This book was created around the theme of excellence. Excellence is offered as an achievable, important and guiding philosophy delivering quality-as-process and quality-as-result in teaching school programs. The authors believe the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award criteria are at the core of building excellence and have built it into the book.

The book addresses policy and practice in leading school programs. It also supplies tools for use, as opposed to focusing on theory. However, it is important to note this book is not a pedagogical manual for designing and delivering instruction. Leaders are challenged to set realistic and attainable goals for excellence over time. The change necessary for delivering excellence as outlined in the book is manageable, nonthreatening and achievable.

This is a recommended book for practicing educators, and it is a valuable handbook for leadership in K-12 school programs. Though focused on K-12 education programs, ideas from this book can be used in higher education and other educational organizations. As a textbook for an academic course or a reference for continuing education programs, this book has many uses.

Jerry Brong
Ellensburg, WA

Simulation-based Lean Six Sigma and Design For Six Sigma

Basem El-Haik and Raid Al-Aomar, Wiley-Interscience, 2006, 404 pp., $99.95 (book).

Six Sigma processes using define, measure, analyze, improve and control, or Design for Six Sigma (DFSS) processes using identify, characterize, optimize and validate, are required layers of iterated transformation of parameters.

These transformations are necessary to characterize and obtain the optimum setting for either the improvement of the process or the design of a new process. To obtain information required to facilitate these parameter transformations is both time consuming and costly. Simulation-based Lean Six Sigma and Design for Six Sigma critically explores this topic.

Six Sigma experts may skip the first part of the book, as it is simply a review of lean Six Sigma and DFSS. The second part describes simulation. It discusses how to build a simulation model, how to conduct a simulation and how to interpret the results.

For advanced students of statistics or computer science, this part serves as a very good review. The last portion of the book shows how simulation is applied to lean Six Sigma and DFSS.

This book successfully bridges two disciplines, improving the effectiveness of Six Sigma implementations. However, the application of simulation to Six Sigma projects is not different from other simulation projects.

The key is to know how to model Six Sigma projects so that the events described in the computer model are as close to the real-life processes as they can be. Otherwise, simulation is—at best—a futile exercise. At worst, it can produce false conclusions that lead to poor decisions and results.

I strongly recommend this book to Six Sigma practitioners, quality professionals, software implementers and managers.

Shin Ta Liu
Lynx Systems
San Diego

Software Measurement And Estimation

Linda Laird and M. Carol Brennan, IEEE and Wiley-Interscience, 2006, 280 pp., $79.95 (book).

Software Measurement and Esti-mation: A Practical Approach is an outgrowth of course notes from a graduate program on quantitative software engineering teaching measurement, metrics and estimation in a computer science department. Together, the authors have practiced software development for more than 50 years and bring a unique perspective to the subject, combining experience with academic exposure. Topics covered include:

  • What to measure
  • Measurement models and theory
  • Measuring size and complexity
  • Estimating effort
  • Defects and defect metrics
  • Software reliability measurement and prediction
  • Time and progress measurements
  • Outsourcing and financial measures
  • Benchmarking
  • Metric dashboards

With these topics, the authors cover the full cycle of what is required to make software measurement and estimation a practical discipline, contributing concretely to decision making with a real impact on software processes and products.

The book is full of examples and requires no mathematical prerequisites of software engineering, making it accessible to students and practitioners of this important topic. I highly recommend the book to managers, engineers, students and researchers interested in quantitative aspects of software engineering.

Ron S. Kenett
KPA Ltd.
Raanana, Israel

RECENT RELEASES

  • It All Begins With Deming and Crosby, R.J. Kovel, Knowledge Transfer Press, 2006, 345 pp., $23.95 (book).
  • Six Sigma for Technical Processes, Clyde M. Creveling, Prentice Hall, 2007, 384 pp., $34.99 (book).
  • Transactional Six Sigma for Green Belts, Samuel E. Windsor, ASQ Quality Press, 2006, 168 pp., $21 member, $35 list (book).
Sign Up for Newsletters