QP REVIEWS

Supply Chain Excellence

Peter Bolstorff and Robert Rosenbaum, AMACOM, 2007, 277 pp., $39.95 (book).

With the difficulties and chaos facing many companies that deal with multiple suppliers—some stateside and others overseas—more effective management and improvement of the supply chain is a paramount concern. After the groundwork has been laid (assuming lean and Six Sigma efforts have been effective) for selling and redirecting an initiative toward solving one of management’s most complicated strategic issues, Supply Chain Excellence will help with the steps that follow.

The book outlines a process for adopting the Supply-Chain Operations Reference (SCOR) model developed by the Supply-Chain Council (SCC) for achieving operational excellence. In doing so, it provides a strategic approach to educating an organization, obtaining internal support, establishing practical metrics for measuring success, aligning the supply chain management initiative with organizational strategy and assuring needed resources are addressed. And it does it all in a project framework.

The authors’ four-phased approach, divided into a 17-week period, guides the reader through the steps to implementation. A progressive case study is used to illustrate the activities and responsibilities over the 17-week application period. Many of the tools employed are familiar, including process mapping, Pareto analysis and histograms. A few tools that might be new to you are tossed in as well, such as process thread diagrams and leading practice assessment.

Supply Chain Excellence is a superb offering for organizations encountering their first supply chain difficulties, or for use as a detailed, practical how-to manual for properly managing a supply chain. It provides valuable guidance for forming a project team, gaining top management commitment, conducting environmental analyses and managing a critical-to-quality, strategically driven project with the potential for huge payoffs.

Reviewed by Russ Westcott
R.T. Westcott & Associates
Old Saybrook, CT

The Change Cycle

Ann Salerno and Lillie Brock, Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2008, 184 pp., $19.95 (book).

If there is a constant in the workplace, it is change. The Change Cycle is a practical guide designed to help employees and managers survive organizational change. The book is part of a series of products designed and developed by the authors over the past 16 years, with the goal of helping people identify and overcome negative thoughts, feelings and behaviors often associated with workplace change.

The book is written in a nontechnical and slightly humorous tone—sort of a “For Dummies” guide to emotional and behavioral responses to organizational change. Although a bit light technically, it is probably the best format for approaching the serious issues that accompany changing or losing your job. Each stage in the change cycle and the associated thoughts, feelings, emotions, behaviors and tools are clearly articulated with the help of real-life examples. As each stage of change is identified, the authors present easy-to-use tools that will help the reader successfully cope and move forward.

Response to change can be very personal, and not everyone perceives or reacts to change the same way. This book can help anyone better understand, prepare and respond to their (or someone else’s) fight-or-flight response to organizational change. If you are going through an organizational change in any way, this book is a must-read.

Reviewed by James Kotterman
Addison, IL

Introduction to Design of Experiments, with JMP Examples

Jacques Goupy and Lee Creighton, SAS Press Series, 2007, 448 pp., $69.95 (book).

This book is a complete introduction to the subject of designing and analyzing experiments. It is written in a down-to-earth style and includes plenty of examples to explain all the basic ideas necessary to conduct experiments. This is one of the best books I have read about design of experiments (DoE) that is directed toward novice practitioners.

The main strength of the book is its well-organized approach. The many examples make it easy to understand the statistical core concepts necessary for designing and analyzing experiments. The book is easy to read and includes many pictures to illustrate the concepts and a real-life case study to cap every chapter. It also includes a chapter that explains how to design experiments using JMP software.

The book has only two weaknesses: It needs to focus more on the non-statistical aspects of planning; and because it is commonplace to encounter factors that are difficult or expensive to change, the book (and every book that deals with D0E) should include split-plot design and analysis.

This book serves as a good introduction to DoE. It is highly recommended for researchers, scientists and engineers who want to carry out experiments and analyze them, while maximizing the information gained from the data collected. Moreover, it should be required reading for all JMP software users.

Reviewed by Martín Tanco
Tecnun (University of Navarra)
San Sebastián, Spain

Project Portfolio Selection for Six Sigma

William D. Mawby, ASQ Quality Press, 2007, 166 pp., $31.50 list, $18.90 member (book).

Project selection is an often-overlooked topic in Six Sigma literature and is not written about beyond the application of prioritization matrices. This book covers how operations research and financial engineering methods can be used to select Six Sigma projects by treating project selection like an investment portfolio selection problem.

The methods used in the book include multiple-criteria decision making, analytic hierarchy process, linear programming, integer and nonlinear programming, and options pricing methods. The book also discusses how the performance of a project portfolio can be measured by using sensitivity analysis.

While the book discusses the algorithms necessary to use all of the methods in constructing project portfolios, the level of mathematical sophistication necessary to understand them is high enough to deter a lot of non-engineers or Master Black Belts (MBB) without a heavy statistics or math background from using any of the methods.

In addition, the use of statistical analysis system (SAS) code to demonstrate the methods is problematic because a lot of MBBs do not have access to SAS or understand SAS code. In fact, most MBBs, unless they are statisticians, won’t want to go navigate the learning curve necessary to learn how to program in SAS. The methods in this book would gain greater acceptance if Excel was used as the primary computing tool and if more examples were given and explained in greater detail.

Reviewed by Brian Cocolicchio
Quest Diagnostics
Teterboro, NJ

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