The Six Sigma Way Team Fieldbook: An Implementation Guide for Process Improvement Teams

by Peter S. Pande, Robert P. Neuman, Roland R. Cavanagh

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

Genres: Business, Management, Nonfiction, Reference

403 pages, Paperback

First published September 27, 2001

About the author

Pete is a seasoned consultant in process improvement, organization change and Lean, Six Sigma initiatives – and is one of the recognized "experts" in the field. He has provided senior executive training and deployment consulting services in business improvement and Lean, Six Sigma efforts for such companies as GE Capital, Cisco Systems, Starwood Hotels, Honeywell, Carlson Wagonlit Travel, Adobe, Givaudan, and many others.

Pete spent his early career in broadcasting and marketing before entering the management consulting and training field in the mid-1980s. He gained experience quickly, helping improve decision making and problem solving processes at large organizations in various industries including financial services, petrochemical, high tech, consumer products and health care. Pete formed Pivotal Resources in 1993 with the mission of helping clients build lasting success through practical and creative skills and streamlined processes.

He is author of the Change Leadership book, The Six Sigma Leader and has co-authored several other popular books including What is Six Sigma? and The Six Sigma Way — which was named one of the most influential business books of the past 20 years by Forbes magazine, translated into 16 languages, and recently updated to a Second Edition. He has also written articles for such publications as CEO Magazine, Pharmaceutical Manufacturing, and leadership issues at Forbes.com.

He holds an MBA from National University in San Diego and degrees in English and History from the University of California.

Reviews

[Awal Maulana · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is great and practical. I used this book when I was doing a project as a guide and it was really helpful.

[Pankachu102 · Rating 2 out of 5]

Read as part of a Business Process Innovation MBA class. The book walks you through the DMAIC (Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, and Control) process. Include 3 chapters per stage (Step Process, Power Tools, and Team Management).

The Blackbelt hierarchical structure is outdated, but if you want to spearhead implementing six sigma, this book might help.

Considering in the preface the authors admit that they missed a bunch of deadlines, I found mistakes in the book (below), and the copyright is from 2002, don’t bother reading.

1. Page 262 - Flowchart is missing an arrow from “Draft flyer for Mailing” and “OK’s by corp. center”
2. Page 325 - In “Be prepared to defined..” there shouldn’t be a “d” on define[d] and they use who instead of how in the last sentence
3. Somewhere is the first half of the book, the use 0 instead of o in a word. Made me chuckle, but I don’t care enough to go back and find a page.

That being said, this book doesn’t meet six sigma standards with mistakes on 3/403 pages (at least ones I noticed).

Chapters were read in the following order:
Preface (n), 1-7, 9-10, 12-13, 15-16, 8 (n), 11 (n), 14(n), 17-21 (n),

(n) - not assigned reading

[Pamela Aikman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Manual for development of teams in the six sigma way. Little dry but still helpful on diagnosing some issues and making a plan to solve the issues.