What is Lean Six Sigma

by Michael L. George, David Rowlands, Bill Kastle

A quick introduction on how to use Lean Six Sigma to improve your workplace, meet your goals, and better serve your customers. Lean Six Sigma combines the two most important improvement trends of our time: making work better (using Six Sigma) and making work faster (using Lean principles). In this plain-English guide, you’ll discover how this remarkable quality improvement method can give you the tools to identify and eliminate waste and quality problems in your own work area. Packed with diagrams, cartoons, and real-life examples, What is Lean Six Sigma? reveals the “four keys” of Lean Six Sigma and how they apply to your own job:

Genres: Business, Nonfiction, Leadership, Management, Buisness, Science, Reference

96 pages, Paperback

First published October 27, 2003

About the author

Michael L. George is founder and President of The George Group, the largest Lean Six Sigma consulting practice in the United States. He wrote the successful and influential Lean Six Sigma, also published by McGraw-Hill.

Source: Bookish

Reviews

[Angie Dokos]

A good quick overview of Lean Six Sigma. It doesn’t go into as many details as Six Sigma for Dummies did. This just tells you what it is, why it’s helpful, and how to start putting it into action. Very helpful little book.

[Giedra]

Reading for work. Gave me some familiarity with the jargon, which will be helpful. Was also nice to read the parts about "this will be frustrating and painful and not much fun but take heart, it will help in the end, we promise." I will be holding them to it.....

Mostly, though, I found myself comparing MY project to the example projects, and thinking, "this project really doesn't fit the mold of what Six Sigma is for...." so...that makes me look forward to the project even less! AT least I like the people I will be working with....

[Nikki]

While monotonous, this gives a decent understanding of the lingo I am now expected to use at work. The book gives basic definitions and a broad overview of what the Lean Six Sigma approach is all about and ways a company might implement it. I think the biggest thing I took away from it is that with this approach, the problem is in the process, not necessarily the person in the active role where the issue may be taking place.

[Jana]

This is a good introduction to the Lean Six Sigma method.

[Kris]

Reading for work.

[Logan Vlandis]

Good introduction to Lean Six Sigma. It's very broad and has little depth, but reading it allows you to ask intelligible questions about the concepts.

The format was a little disjointed; as it presented new information, there was no "home base" that it connected the ideas back to (you would only realize the coherence if you were already somewhat knowledgeable in the theory).

I'd definitely suggest this as a book for anyone who is curious about what Lean Six Sigma is, regardless if they're going into business or are determined to earn their Master Black Belt.

[Lovely Winters]

Good starting point if you are a beginner. I will be running a LSS project at work and quickly figured out this was not an easy process. First I am a white belt which means I understand enough to help other people. The great part about this book was it gave me a starting point. How to pick projects and who I needed involved. This is not an in-depth process of Lean Six Sigma but it will get everybody headed in the right direction. I appreciated the stories that reinforced the techniques.

[Ronald Williams]

Great overview of Lean Six Sigma. We hear lots of talk these days using this business-oriented jargon. This book is short and to the point with a superb introduction to Lean Six Sigma that it should easily be understood by the newest employee walking in the door. It paves the way to much more advanced training to reach organizational perfection.

[Julian Turner]

As a reader who knew nothing about Lean Six Sigma, this was a quality Introductory book that is less than 100 pages. It dissects the four keys and five laws of Lean Six Sigma. I recommend reading if you become interested I. The topic.

[Mike Ncube]

This has been a good introduction to Lean Six Sigma. Excited to try out some of the models but it’s going to take some serious graft.

[Bijal]

Great overview. Easy to follow!

[Bruce Deford]

Good quick overview of Lean Six Sigma.

[D R]

Good, basic primer on LSS.

[Jean Fontenot]

good beginning book

Provides good information about six sigma and good examples. Recommended for beginners and people that want to educate themselves on six sigma.

[Matthew Lloyd]

gives an overview of lean six sigma but mainly serves as advertising to attend courses rather than to aid development

[Mike Knox]

This book is a simple introduction to Lean Six Sigma, an improvement method or engine for eliminating waste in business processes and improving quality (iv).

Lean Six Sigma starts with focusing on the customer and delighting them via speed and quality. The way to achieve this is by improving processes, the environment for doing it in is one of teamwork, and the foundation for it all is data and fact based (as opposed to experience and opinion).

[Kent]

I was looking for a concise, precise, and easy to read introduction into Six Sigma concepts and practices. This is the only work I have read specifically about Six Sigma, so my comparison is minimal, however, I think this work is excellent.

I have never been interested in karate, but a Six Sigma Black belt sounds helpful.

[SweetPea]

Quick introduction to Lean Six Sigma and done well. It struck a good balance between describing the concepts and providing examples and didn't do what other business books have done (poorly), which is providing a whole bunch of examples as evidence of their theory but without providing adequate explanation and logic for the concept they are trying to convey.

[R.]

Oh God! What is it? Just tell me! No--I'm afraid to know--and yet! I am driven! I am driven by an infernal need to know! Yet, if I knew, how would I view the world? My friends? Would they all become inferior models of efficiency? How does neoliberalism fit into all this? Oh God! (etc.)

[Bart Decaigny]

It's avery short book (less than 100p), thus don't expect to be an expert... But it is a very useful/interesting book for starters, for getting around in the topic e.g. before following a proper training.

[Marcos Moret]

Good intro to the hybrid quality improvement methodology, covering the 'four keys' - delight your customers with speed and quality; improve your processes; work together for maximum gain; base decisions on data and facts.

[Beth]

I think this is a great book for learning the concepts of Lean Six Sigma, and it gives some terrific ideas on how to incorporate into your work environment.

[Sera]

I read this one a couple of years ago, but I am re-reading it again for a Improvement Event for a project plan on which I am working for my Contracts Excellence Program.

[Maria]

I liked that the book gave an overview of Lean Six Sigma, though I found parts of it to be incredibly boring.

[Bqueenbandit]

A pretty good 101 overview of Lean Six Sigma and some of its most used terms. If you're already familiar with it, this probably isn't the book for you.

[Don]

A quick 90 page intro to the popular process improvement method.

[Wolfgang]

good and brief overview on lean six sigma. lots of interesting case studies give it a lot of color.

[Matthew Berkshire]

Good prep for a white belt.

[Ann]

Good introduction of Lean Six Sigma.

[Rattawoot Pratoomraj]

I read it in Thai :D Anyway It's good book for beginner to better understand Lean Six sigma concept.