Book Description
Presenting the best practices of the best manufacturing companies in the world, this book presents proven models for achieving world-class performance. Using a case study of a fictional company called Beta International, Moore illustrates how to increase uptime, lower costs, increase market share, maximize asset utilization, apply benchmarks and best practices, and improve many other aspects that ultimately raise your company's performance to the level of world-class. 'Making Common Sense Common Practice' takes a good, hard look at plant design, procurement, parts management, installation and maintenance, training, and implementing a computerized maintenance management system. In discussing the successes and failures of the world's premier manufacturers, Moore outlines a stable path of growth for almost any manufacturing company. In today's tough competitive markets, 'Making Common Sense Common Practice' greatly enhances your company's chance to succeed - and profit.
* Third edition features updating plus new sections on innovation, change management, and leadership
* Presents proven models for achieving world-class performance based on real-life case histories
* Highly readable, concrete style brings the key points to life through a case study of a fictitious organization, Beta International, which runs throughout the book, based on real case histories
Customer Reviews:
Great career development material.......2007-01-11
Ron Moore's knowledge and passion for business comes out in his book "Making Common Sense, Common Practice". I give this book to supervisors as required reading material when they are preparing for the Society of Maintenance & Reliability Society's - Certified Maintenance & Reliability Professional Exam.
Book Description
Manufacturing Data Structures "Comprehensive yet easy-to-read…Manufacturing Data Structures is filled with anecdotes, yet stresses the importance of maintaining data accuracy. It is valuable reading for all manufacturing managers." Jim Carnall Manufacturing Manager, Eastman Kodak "An entertaining and informative look at an important aspect of day to day business in the MRP II environment. It clearly shows how data structuring methodology can be directly applied to process industries such as the Personal Products/Health and Beauty business." Jeff L. Stevens Manager, Packaging Sciences, Chesebrough-Ponds Canada "Manufacturing Data Structures shows, in a very practical way, how manufacturing data can be used as a competitive weapon. It's a comprehensive guide, filled with solutions to everyday problems." Jim Hendrickson Plant Manager, Reckitt & Colman "An excellent book…Very useful on the subject of data foundations for manufacturing. It has suggested further opportunities for improvement in my own organisation." R.A. Watson Rolls-Royce Motor Cars "Manufacturing Data Structures will be of immense value to the practitioner…" Chris Cage ICI Pharmaceuticals
Customer Reviews:
Highly focused and essential for any ERP analyst/developer.......2002-06-19
This book is an essential reference for ERP analysts, developers and DBAs. It is unique in that it addresses data requirements for materials management within the context of manufacturing processes, with an emphasis on bills of materials.
The chapter on engineering change control stands out because this aspect of both data structures and process change management are not covered (or only lightly touched upon) in other ERP references. This chapter and its companion on implementing change add significant value to the book and reflect mature and best practices. I also liked the chapter on new product introduction and custom manufacturing because these aspects of the manufacturing process come with a different set of challenges and requirements from steady production processes.
Regardless of whether you're using SAP, Baan or another ERP package (or are developing custom applications to automate manufacturing materials management) this book will expose the relevant details of the data structures, which are the foundation of any application.
Product Description
This comprehensive training tool and implementation guide delineates how Six Sigma can be applied to processes within numerous functional areas of an organization in diverse industries to achieve strategic and operational business excellence, sustainable growth in profits and market share. Step-by-step techniques and flow diagrams are presented for integrating Six Sigma as best practices into business development and management. Their seamless integration helps businesses execute their strategic plans and track both short- and long-term progress within various areas of the organization.
Six Sigma Best Practices is ideal for executive training in leading Six Sigma programs, for Yellow, Green, and Black Belt certification programs, for college courses and as a desk reference for practitioners.
Key Features
Illustrates how Six Sigma can be applied and implemented within numerous areas of an organization to achieve business process excellence and growth in profits
Delineates the measure phase of the DMAIC process extensively and develops the relationship between pperational and financial metrics to show the biggest leverage points in an organization
Explains thoroughly and demonstrates Six Sigma concepts and statistical methods and their implementation, supported by exercises and examples using Minitab 14
Covers project selection, planning, team development and management and shows how to develop and understand a project summary for effective implementation
Offers free downloadable exercises with solutions, a Six Sigma DMAIC process overview, a sample project proposal, plus an explanation of event tree and fault tree analysis tools available from the Web Added Value Download Resource Center
Customer Reviews:
Excellent Six Sigma Reference.......2007-01-17
Six Sigma Best Practices is an excellent up-to-date overview of the Six Sigma process - the methodology, the philosophy and the practice. It details an implementation strategy that a company can follow with a variety of examples and exercises that can be used across the organization.
Throughout the text are very good statistical examples using Minitab 14 that not only assist you in understanding the tool but also the appropriate application. There is a good balance of theory and practical applications for each step of the DMAIC methodology. This would be an extremely useful reference guide for any level of Six Sigma practitioner - Yellow Belt, Green Belt or Black Belt!
Cliff L. Seastrunk, Six Sigma Lead Instructor
Excellent resource material.......2006-12-20
It is clear the author has a rich industry background which he shares with the reader throughout the text quite well via examples and case studies. I picked the book up as a resource and found myself reading many sections word for word, finding in many chapters a `reservoir of knowledge' and an appreciation of knowledge to different industry situations. Also noteworthy is the focus on Business Strategic Planning. The Appendix incorporated industrial marketing aspects with key components of strategic planning. I found this to be extremely valuable for business planning not found in other Six Sigma resources.
* I found the book to be a useful resource, and easy to follow with a good coverage of the basics to include Project charting, team selection, project selections, etc.
* Follows the traditional methodology of the Six Sigma masters - Dr. Godfrey at North Carolina State University, GE & Motorola
* Logical presentation by DMAIC phases. Engages the team & demands that you ask the logical questions
* Index very helpful. Definitions for terms clear & concise. Although many terms not in the glossary, they are found in the text.
* The summary points & the statement format points within the chapters provided excellent process feedback to keep projects on track.
* The tips for project progress are very prescriptive; I found them quite useful, even for a novice or an infrequent user. Good web resource provided.
* The incorporation of case studies helped drive the application of key points in all the phases.
* Clear Minitab commands provided in the examples.
Book Review.......2006-09-26
This book promisses to meet the needs of varying constituencies. The text integrates the six-sigma materials with a solid presentation of the DMAIC (Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, and Control) process (problem-solving technique). It has numerous reader friendly features including:
* Book audience -
- Anyone wishing to obtain a better understanding of Six Sigma. This includes both the academicians as well as practitioners of six-sigma.
- Excellent examples, exercises, forms and tools which are great for the new users and those preparing for training programs.
- Great textbook for Six Sigma certification program starting with first level up to the advanced level (Yellow Belt, Green Belt, and Black Belt)
* Presentation
- Is very well laid out and easy to read. It provides an excellent balance between introductory and advanced topics.
- Provides an excellent introduction and implementation information including project selection and infrastructure.
- Provides an excellent lead into the implementation and deployment process.
- Provides an excellent mix of narrative and flow charts to get the point across with ease.
- Does an excellent job with the discussion of CTQ.
- Covers all the basic statistics and quality improvement tools of the Six Sigma management system.
- Provides an excellent case studies and discussion of DOE (Design of Experiments) and SPC (Statistical Process Control).
In summary, this textbook provides the tools needed to transform any business/company into one that routinely uses proven scientific methods to realize significant gains in productivity, quality, revenue and profitability in a methodical and sensible fashion. The text also makes a great reference book for anyone who deals with lean / six-sigma concepts and practices.
Book Description
Characteristics are used in SAP as attributes, e.g. to specify the configuration of products or the properties of batches. In many industries – engineering, automotive, mill, pharmaceutical and foods to name the most typical – supply chain planning has to consider these characteristics. APO offers many different functionalities for planning with characteristics, where each of the functionalities has some prerequisites and incompatibilities. This book offers help and advice for the basic design of the implementation by explaining the processes and scenarios (process chains) for planning with characteristics, the functionalities for planning with characteristics in APO including their prerequisites and incompatibilities and the entities, dependencies and system configuration determinants for planning with characteristics in R/3 and APO. This book is based on the releases R/3 4.7 and mySAP SCM 4.1.
Customer Reviews:
Excellent Book.......2006-09-05
This book is very helful for me
-understanding CBP
-pratical help to my APO implementation under CBP environment.
Average customer rating:
|
Excellence in Practice Volume III: Innovation & Excellence in Workflow Process and Knowledge Management
Layna Fischer
Manufacturer: Future Strategies
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
 Economics
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ASIN: 0964023385 |
Book Description
Excellence in Practice Volume III, Innovation and Excellence in Workflow/Process Management and Document/Knowledge Management, by Layna Fischer, Chair of the Workflow And Reengineering International Association (WARIA), features the winners and finalists of the 1998 Giga Excellence Awards.
Guest Chapters - To add depth and meaning to the case studies, leading industry analysts and experts were invited to contribute chapters from their respective perspectives.
Streamline Your Business Processes With Workflow and Extranet Solutions
The introduction is by Connie Moore, leading industry analyst and Vice President with Giga Information Group, and Excellence Awards judge, jointly with Gig Graham, Chief Research Officer, Giga Information Group. Here, they watch a new trend in the way an enterprise delegates and manages business processes in its extranet, and a new role for workflow technology within organizations.
Technologies for the Virtual Enterprise
Martin Ader, Principal of Workflow & Groupware Strategies, France, and author of the highly acclaimed Comparative Analysis of Workflow Products, looks at how the development of the Internet, coupled with the development of technologies for Knowledge Management and Work Management, will have deep influence on the way economic actors play their role in the worldwide market place.
Process Support
Derek Miers, Principal, Enix Consulting Ltd., England, offers excellent advice to business leaders who must make critical decisions regarding the development of the next generation of Web-based enterprise application systems, e-commerce products and Web-based services targeted at the business sector.
The Workflow Market in 1999 and Beyond
Priscilla Emery, Senior Vice President, Association for Information and Image Management International (AIIM), presents some of the results of AIIMs annual worldwide study and provides a status of the document technologies marketplace, from both a user and a supplier perspective. In 1999, AIIM requested that GartnerGroup conduct this study.
The Case Studies:
We, at Giga Information Group and WARIA, are most fortunate to have read all the submissions for the Excellence Awards--not just the Gold and Silver winners. Having combed through hundreds of submissions over the years across many countries and continents, we can clearly discern patterns in how companies achieve excellence. While not all companies share each and every characteristic, there is enough commonality to detect distinct paths for achieving excellence. When several of these characteristics are combined in a single installation, they often result in visionary companies moving the competitive goalposts for their industries, as you will read in the following case studies:
As a professional services corporation with 1998 revenues about $6 billion and over 60,000 employees in 363 locations in 78 countries, for Arthur Andersen LLP (Amsterdam, Netherlands) knowledge represents 99.95 percent of what AA sells to its clients and is the core process of their value chain.
Autogere Seguros e Pensoes (Lisbon, Portugal) integrated imaging, telephony, fax, and transaction processing using workflow across the supply chain. Their call management system included computer integrated simultaneous voice/data, and inbound/outbound call scripting.
Bank of America Capital Markets Operations (San Francisco, CA) This application describes the reengineering and workflow automation of the process used to acquire, setup and maintain new brokerage accounts within the Capital Markets Operations division of Bank of America.
Blue Cross & Blue Shield of South Carolina (Columbia, SC) high claims volumes of over 500,000 claims in process with more than 100,000 new claims added daily impacted their ability to meet service level and cycle time minimums for processing claims according to government contract requirements.
CFI Mail Order Pharmaceuticals (Harrisburg, PA) CFI tied together imaging, OCR/ICR, bar code, document management, core line-of-business applications, on-line databases and other technology components into a total enterprise solution.
Detroit Edison (Detroit, MI) implemented the Corporate Real Estate Services (CRES) Database/Imaging System to automate the process of file retrieval and to protect these easement agreements (some of these fragile documents were acquired before the year 1900) from catastrophic loss.
ForeningsSparbanken (Stockholm, Sweden) was first European bank to integrate web-based workflow, implementing an Intranet for electronic mail, discussion groups, workflow and DM, BPR for pilot systems, purchasing and customer feedback and Workflow integrated with EDI.
George Mason University (Fairfax, VA) saw Web-based work management solutions deployed on an Intranet as one of the best ways to regulate and reengineer its business processes because of the relative ease of deployment and training.
Government of New Brunswick (New Brunswick, Canada) transformed what was previously a slow, paper-based, resource-intensive process into a streamlined, automated flow that has dramatically reduced costs and processing time, and increased productivity and accuracy.
IBM Global Services (Sleepy Hollow, NY) created CM AssetWeb to provide the infrastructure for IBM's Knowledge Management Solutions. ICM AssetWeb is a strategic knowledge and asset management collaboration system used by IBM Global Services and Global Industries to team, execute and win customer engagements by creating, sharing and reusing intellectual capital.
IBM ICMS New Zealand Ltd. (Hutt City, New Zealand) Their customer care and billing system was an online repository of intellectual capital enabling information capture, re-use, design, update and distribution. They transformed the internal culture from one that saw information only as "documentation" to one that recognized the asset value of knowledge.
Immigration & Naturalization Services (Washington D.C.) The ultimate mission of the INS' FOIA/PA unit is to respond to a constituent's "right to know" by providing timely information to the public and other Government agencies when they request it, within the provisions of pertinent laws and regulations.
Kaiser Permanente (Oakland, CA) By combining data mining techniques with the document technologies, Kaiser Permanente generates personalized communications from doctors to patients who may be at risk, requesting an appointment.
Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (Taejon, South Korea) Their business problem was that inaccurate forms created re-work in their bureaucratic, paper-driven environment. Their solution was to initiate an ambitious project called Intelligent Campus to build a virtual university.
Kraft Foods (Northfield, IL), put in place a Shared Services Center (SSC) which operates as one of the most efficient Accounts Payable Service Providers. The system connects three different systems through a common interface.
Lewisham Borough Council (London, England) Through the deployment of workflow technology, efficiencies in this area will allow for collections to reach a 95 percent success rate in financial year 98/99.
Office of the Secretary of Defense (Washington D.C.) The OSD Legislative Affairs is the primary liaison between Secretary of Defense and Congress. Using procedural and ad hoc process management, which provides the necessary flexibility the OSD Legislative Affairs requires, they are now responding to inquiries 15 times faster and processing more responses with 10 percent fewer personnel.
Phillips Fox (Sydney, NSW, Australia) They were the first law firm to implement knowledge management, and the first with a high volume claims litigation product. This implementation, which changed the way lawyers share and access information, redesigned existing Intranet processes, aligned IT and knowledge management, integrated document management, databases, workflow, documents, email, with the result that one query searches all repositories.
Screen Actors Guild Producer's Pension and Health Plans (Burbank, CA) is a trust that was established to provide a portable set of health and pension benefits to its 37,000 health and 5,500 pension members.
Texas Women's University, (Denton, TX) Resources to track all the information that is required to approve a loan, grant or scholarship have been shifted from personnel to the workflow system.
University of South Florida, (Tampa, FL) Integrating the legacy and manual processes with new and innovative technologies via the intranet system provided a set of flexible processes that use a single source of information in a meaningful and useful way.
The Workers' Compensation Board of British Columbia (Richmond, BC, Canada) implemented an Electronic Claims File system (or E-File), the technology backbone of its organizational change efforts.
Zurcher Kantonalbank, (Zurich, Switzerland) The ZKB initiated a FIT policy for industrializing business management and production, and automating banking processes.
Readers of these detailed case studies can find out more about:
Their system application, what the system is used for, who are the users and what the job entails
What were their key motivations
Their system configuration (number, and type of software, servers, scanners, printers, storage devices, etc., including the identities of the vendors and integrators involved)
The number of users currently on the system and number of users planned.
How the company has been impacted by their new system; cost savings, ROI and increased productivity improvements, competitive advantage gained, and how they managed to move the goal posts for their industry.
Their implementation process and methodology, the project team, and the change management and business process reengineering issues they addressed.
How these companies managed both their overall technological and business innovations.
Book Description
Many books on process mapping are oriented around a traditional manufacturing process control environment. The methodology and tools in this book are applicable to any company in any industry that is interested in developing a much more integrated, systems approach to management to dramatically improve their business. The author's previous book, From Quality to Business Excellence: A Systems Approach to Management, explains the philosophy behind this approach. This book provides the "how to" for achieving that level of visualization with a unique combination of theory and tools showing you how to implement enterprise process mapping in a way that will yield significant business value for your organization.
This book includes a free evaluation copy of Microsoft Visio and a free evaluation copy of the ProcessMaps tool for enterprise process mapping, as well as computer-based training on how to use these tools.
Benefits:
Comply with quality standards, such as ISO 9001:2000, and regulatory requirements, such as Sarbanes-Oxley.
Develop a unifying view of how an overall business works as a system.
Implement a very high impact, well-integrated and cross-functional systems approach to managing all aspects of the business.
Understand how all processes and tasks within the organization contribute to achieving the company's overall business goals.
Provide a foundation for a systematic and proactive approach to business process improvement that will result in real and tangible improvements in cost and effectiveness.
Customer Reviews:
A High Level Intro Book on Process Mapping.......2006-02-19
This book dose a good job on describing what is enterprise process mapping and how companies can benefit from mapping their processes. However, I think the discussion on how to conduct process mapping still remains at a pretty high level. The conversions used are not industry standard (I'd like to see a book using UML Activity Diagram 2.0) and the case studies presented are too sketchy (espaceally, the case about SOX compliance). It would be nice if the author can dedicate a chapter to a detailed case to show how to apply the introduced process mapping concepts and techniques. Overall, it is a neat book worth reading.
You have to buy the program.......2005-10-12
This is a book that does not explain how to map your process, if you want to do that you must have to buy the software and must have a Microsoft Visio License.
Just read Enterprise Process Mapping by Charles Cobb.......2005-03-01
This is an excellent book for those readers wishing to use process mapping to understand and improve business processes. The book is well organized and extremely informative. While it concentrates on the "how to" of process mapping it does so in the context of real business applications and is a natural successor to Charles's previous book From Quality to Business Excellence
Book Description
Business process innovation is on the minds of executives these days, and for good reason. In the 1990s, companies also had a focus on business processes. They used enterprise-wide networks to tear down walls between functional departments and reengineered their companies to remain competitive. Today, the universal connectivity of the Internet makes it possible to tear down walls between companies to reinvent entire value chains. The result? We are now witnessing a grand globalization of white collar work, outsourcing, offshoring and other new forms of extreme competition. Industry and national boundaries have become a blur. All is changed, and no industry is exempt. Pioneering companies have already disrupted incumbents and come from nowhere to dominate their industries. Their secret sauce? Business process management (BPM). This book brings together some of the best minds to explore the role and value of BPM, and what it portends. In its pages you will find the essential discussions and insights, straight from the thought leaders. In Search of BPM Excellence is for those who want to sustain the success of their businesses in the midst of the current sea of change. Is your company ready for extreme competition? ___________________________________________________________
* Where do you go to gain insight into this thing called BPM?
* Why is business process management so important / how important is it?
* What should you be considering when making BPM Next Practice?
* How will you get there and make sure you get where you want to go?
* Who needs BPM, do I? These are questions of greatest importance to business people and the Business Process Management Group has tracked down the leading thought leaders, analysts, methodologists and consultants in the field of business process management to get the answers. BPM sits at the heart of the Business Evolution we have now begun to experience -- and that will continue to be a primary economic driver over the next several decades. This book, In Search of BPM Excellence, is for those who want to sustain consistent, ongoing success, profit, and growth of their businesses in the midst of the current sea of change. This is the book for those in search of excellence.
Customer Reviews:
BPM Twists and Turns - I enjoyed the ride - recommended!.......2005-10-22
I read this book as part of my BPM training and recommend it without exception. It provides a good grounding from the
well known names in Business Process Change. The technology in BPM can be confusing. Martyn Ould does a nice chapter to explain that.
Andrew Spanyi helps us work out how we motivate the senior executives. Terry Schurters insight into methods is the easiest I have read (see my other reviews).
Taken together the contributors (14 I think) make an easy to read book I completely endorse for anyone wishing to get a complete picture of Process Management.
Excellent choice to get a broad perspective on BPM.......2005-09-07
This book covers a broad range of areas in BPM - some that I don't think most people have really considered. But I think that is the point, to present the broad ramifications of BPM as food for thought. Assuming that was the intent, it did a very good job.
I think the review in infoconomy by Graeme Burton sums it up best "a surprisingly readable guide to the latest best practice in business process management."
That's exactly what I found it to be.
Better off reading Hammer or Smith.......2005-09-02
I hate dissing stuff, but this one really disappointed me. Average at best. The book says "By professional, for professionals." Some of the frameworks are useful no doubt, but the insight of a Hammer, or Smith, is not there.
[...]
Blah from BPMG.......2005-09-01
Don't buy this book. It's more of the same decades old reengineering ideas from people who should know better. Put together by the BPMG.org, a small group of advocates for such ideas who run a for-fee site, for-fee events, etc, the 5-star review above is most likely a plant. Look at the phrase FOR THE FIRST TIME IN ONE BOOK - knocked up by "marketing"? If you want to know what's really happening in BPM, you'd be better off using Google and/or arranging reference visits to customer sites where technology is delivering really substantive change on the ground.
A Must Read for Process Professionals.......2005-06-25
In Search of BPM Excellence brings together the leaders in BPM from around the globe FOR THE FIRST TIME IN ONE BOOK. In Search of BPM Excellence presents the critical thinking for such key subject areas as: BPM Best Practice, Next Practice, The Real Time Enterprise, Strategy, Framework, BPM Software, BPM in Practice, New extensions to the BPM definition, and more.
Book Description
Business Process Management has recently become a real "hype" topic. Too often, however, the technical aspects are being focused upon. IDS Scheer AG, leading IT and Consulting company in this business field for more than 20 years, supports a holistic approach. Business Process Management is understood to be a commercially motivated cycle which includes strategy, design, implementation and controlling. This book is dedicated to this cycle in theory and in practice, from the technical as well as the business point of view. Both, the ARIS Platform as well as the methodical approach of ARIS Value Engineering (AVE), are referred to in detail. More than half of the articles are on case studies. The book offers valuable ideas to companies on how to optimize their own business processes and thus become more competitive.
Product Description
Presenting the accumulated wisdom of one of the worlds foremost quality professionals, Process Management Excellence offers clear and thorough explanations of the critical tools for creating organizational excellence. In this first book of the comprehensive Five Pillars of Organizational Excellence series, respected authority H. James Harrington explains how to manage processes within a work team as well as those that flow across departments. Inside youll find specifics on:
The team approach to continuous improvement
The micro-level approach to process management
The macro-level approach to process management
Systematic process breakthrough methodologies
Total Six Sigma
Process maturity grid
And much more!
The Five Pillars of Organizational Excellence series includes Process Management Excellence, Project Management Excellence, Change Management Excellence, Knowledge Management Excellence, and Resource Management Excellence. The processes discussed in each book are designed to permanently change an organization by fostering a learning culture while maintaining the procedures and structure that ensure optimum performance. Managing all five pillars simultaneously is the key to success.
Book Description
Developed by Motorola and popularized by Jack Welch and GE, Six Sigma remains today's hottest program for "zero defect" quality excellence. Now, Keki Bhote, member of the original Motorola team, presents an undiluted approach, applying his trademarked "Ultimate Six Sigma(r)" method to every business process -- from manufacturing and customer retention to supply chain management and leadership.
The book is packed with every technique and metric necessary for a fast, smooth implementation, giving readers everything they need to make their own companies world-class in their industry.
In addition, numerous case studies of benchmark companies illustrate the factors that contribute to success. Bhote includes assessment tools designed to help a company gauge its current status and measure future progress. This book is the ultimate guide to the ultimate quality assurance tool.
Customer Reviews:
Good Book.......2007-07-04
Have been a fan of Bhote for many years. Thoroughly enjoyed this book and find it very useful.
Focusing on the Customer.......2005-08-04
Keki Bhote is one of the pioneers of the Six Sigma movement, which has captured much of corporate America as the superior evolution of the quality movement. In a very narrow sense, Six Sigma refers to a statistical tool that can be used to analyze product defects and bring down their occurrences to approximately zero. His book The Power of Ultimate Six Sigma, however, is not really about Six Sigma¡Kit is partly about the application of his latest iteration called Ultimate Six Sigma, partly about loosely-related organization and management techniques, and, to no small extent, about selling his own ideas and previous works on the subject. Although not terribly well written (with many one-sentence paragraphs and undeveloped thoughts), the work is nonetheless helpful in providing practical ways to structure a business for increased stakeholder value and customer retention. His greatest contributions are the sections on developing and measuring customer, employee and supplier loyalty and cooperation. His list of about 200 ¡§disciplines¡¨ or techniques, case studies illustrating their application, and self-assessment checklists to help companies implement them are also a major plus. The techniques often need a little further explanation, but they contain many helpful suggestions for areas to improve effectiveness. The case studies help provide explanations for the disciplines, and the self-assessment checklists provide an abbreviated way to measure how much a company has already adopted an Ultimate Six Sigma system of management.
The book commences with a seemingly unrelated, and a bit pretentious, call for a business Marshall Plan to save the world from terrorism and other threats, which can only succeed with Bhote's Ultimate Six Sigma business ideas. He lambastes businesses for their general lack of ethics and social responsibility, and denigrates other practitioners of Six Sigma and other quality techniques. His single chapter explanation of the actual methodology and practice of Six Sigma is inadequate for anyone unfamiliar with the mechanics, and serves mostly to point out errors others have made in corrupting his ideas. Once one gets beyond Bhote's volcanic venting and frequent self-promotion, and wades through the loosely organized jungle overgrown with numerous acronyms and specialized lingo, the material markedly improves. Bhote attempts to provide a roadmap for the implementation of Ultimate Six Sigma as a quality management system. He begins with a section on developing stakeholder value, including separate chapters on customers, corporate leadership, organization infrastructure and culture, employees, and suppliers. The following section develops three major techniques for a company to increase its effectiveness and profitability: quality, cost, and cycle time. In an attempt to move the applicability of Six Sigma beyond manufacturing, Bhote devotes the next section to applying Ultimate Six Sigma to the major firm functional areas of design, manufacturing, and services. Finally, he includes a short concluding section discussing metrics for assessing results of the implementation of Ultimate Six Sigma.
I found the opening discussion on developing and measuring customer loyalty interesting and thought-stimulating. Bhote makes a convincing argument on the importance and efficacy of nurturing dedicated customers, as opposed to spending large resources on finding new customers. He introduces five disciplines to strive for the goal of zero customer defects:
-- Reduce and differentiate the customer base
-- Measure core customer defections
-- Assess customer "wow"
mass customization
quality function deployment
company effectiveness index
-- Customer cultivation
-- Establishing a company culture for customer loyalty
I had not previously considered that a company might want to actually shed some customers who do not contribute much to the company's profitability, but Bhote's argument that the top 60% of customers usually make up for nearly 100% of profits shows that spending resources to keep the bottom 40% is not very efficient. Bhote also argues for putting a monetary value into the accounting figures for customer defections. This is a good idea to emphasize the cost of losing customers because of inferior quality or service; unfortunately, Bhote¡¦s work here does not provide much practical assistance in how to accurately measure such defections.
Customer "wow" is that rush of delight in a customer's mind when they find an unanticipated but desirable feature in a product. Bhote provides a practical table to measure a customer¡¦s reaction to a company's product, called a "Customer Effectiveness Index." This takes several areas such as quality, reliability, price, ease of use, etc. and asks the customer to rate the importance of each area, and then the actual performance of the company in those areas. Bhote describes customer cultivation as "taking the customer's skin temperature every day." (p. 55) Finally, Bhote advocates four disciplines to build a company infrastructure that retains customer loyalty: meaningful metrics, a customer loyalty steering committee, a chief customer officer, and a customer defection SWAT team. These seem like good suggestions, but there is little concrete material expounding on how to establish these disciplines.
Bhote's section on leadership does not contribute much new insight on the subject¡K he emphasizes that a leader must provide a vision, must unleash the creative potential of the workers, and must act ethically and responsibly. He does provide a somewhat useful table (if one edits the specialized jargon which confuses the list of attributes) which employees can use to measure leadership effectiveness, called the "Leadership Effectiveness Index." As in the previously mentioned Customer Effectiveness Index, this asks employees to rate the importance of and then performance of company leaders in the areas of "personal philosophies and views," and "enabling people to reach their full potential." The table is a good summary of 20 leadership attributes that would contribute to a quality corporation.
Bhote advocates new ways of rating performance, along with making other suggestions for reorganization, in the section on organizational structure and culture. He lists the following "ten-step process for creating a culture of entrepreneurship." (p. 85)
-- Eliminate bureaucracy
-- Rebuild the organizing infrastructure (making it flatter)
-- Change requirements for hiring employees (letting line people make hiring decisions)
-- Train all employees (constantly and in applicable areas)
-- Revamp performance appraisals
-- Change the rules of compensation (giving large incentive payments based on performance)
-- Design meaningful and egalitarian gain sharing
-- Redesign promotion criteria (based on potential for leadership)
-- Team synergy
-- Total Involvement
The actual fleshing out of these details must be done by the reader, as Bhote provides little detail, but attention to personnel practices (hiring, evaluating, training and promoting) is worth consideration. For example, a 360 degree performance rating system could incorporate ratings from subordinates, colleagues, customers, and suppliers, not just the traditional method of relying on the single evaluation of one¡¦s immediate superior. I¡¦m sure company lore is full of personality conflicts or misunderstood employees who were not fairly evaluated by the traditional system. With a fair evaluation system, one can then implement Bhote¡¦s suggestions to provide large pay incentives based on performance that promote entrepreneurship and creativity, and that share the gains of the company equitably.
This brings Bhote to a discussion of the very important company stakeholder, the employee. His most useful ideas in this section are Job Design, Open Book Management, Self-Directed Work Teams, and The Minicompany. Bhote argues that ¡§the job is the core of motivation,¡¨ (p. 102), and that jobs must be re-designed to provide meaningfulness, responsibility, and knowledge of results. He proposes that this re-design be accomplished by combining tasks, forming natural work units, establishing client relationships, creating vertical job enrichment and opening feedback channels. (p. 103) One of the more pertinent practical suggestions is open
book management, in which all employees are regularly given full financial information of the company. Bhote strongly advocates Self-Directed Work Teams as an alternative to corporate bureaucracy, although he completely ignores any drawbacks to the use of teams. There are certain situations in which individual work will be more desirable and efficient than team work. Finally, the Minicompany concept provides a way for companies to push decision-making and responsibility down closer to worker level, making the organization flatter and, hopefully, providing more incentive for employees to increase their productivity. Bhote proposes this push toward worker empowerment and ¡§industrial democracy¡¨ as the ultimate solution to making a profitable company, and this may very well work for most American corporations in an indivualistic society. I believe one should be cautious, however, in completely discarding more vertically-structured organizations, as many situations and perhaps different cultures will prefer more structured direction in work.
Advocating supplier partnerships and more careful management of the supply chain is one of the stronger sections of Bhote¡¦s work. Bhote believes that supplier partnerships, with active company involvement in a supplier¡¦s design and manufacturing process, will produce improvements in quality, cost and cycle time. Since the majority of costs for most companies come from materials provided by suppliers, it certainly makes sense to take what is often a confrontational relationship into a collaborative, mutually-beneficial relationship. Bhote promotes limiting the number of suppliers to a quality few, taking the time to build a relationship which provides reliable, quality inputs. Partly to facilitate this close relationship, and because he believes there are numerous hidden costs in overseas outsourcing, Bhote also recommends keeping suppliers close to the production process. An important feature of the supplier relationship is to develop Early Supplier Input into design of parts or material supplied. He proposes an organizational structure that builds teams that are cross-functional and cross-company, that enhance the communication between supplier and buyer.
The following section discusses three major techniques, or ¡§high octane engines of thrust,¡¨ for increasing company effectiveness and profitability: Quality, Cost, and Cycle Time. This section is full of tools, many of them complicated statistical tools, that require much more detailed explanation from some outside source¡Xof course, Bhote would be happy to sell you his books on those very subjects! This section also suffers from being narrowly applicable to manufacturing, and is much less useful for the service industry. Bhote¡¦s three favorite tools, which he of course designed or radically improved, are Design of Experiments (DOE), Multiple Environment Over Stress (MEOST), and Total Value Engineering (TVE). The Total Value Engineering concept is a general technique aimed at maximizing customer loyalty at minimum cost. This is another way of looking at developing customer loyalty, but analyzes the cost of developing that loyalty. Bhote¡¦s case studies in this section are useful for giving ideas on how to assess what customers want and what can be done to fill their needs at lowest cost. The key of Total Value Engineering is to be aware of the customer¡¦s needs, and spend just as much as necessary to fill the need and develop customer loyalty¡Kanything else is unneeded and inefficient.
After discussing ways to involve and develop stakeholders, and then giving a cursory knowledge about tools to improve effectiveness and profitability, Bhoke attempts to show how Ultimate Six Sigma can be applied to three functional areas of design, manufacturing and service. The first two areas involve technical discussions specific to a company producing a product that can be analyzed for physical defects. The more interesting section is the attempt to apply the concepts to services. Bhote claims that Ultimate Six Sigma is the cure for service industry inefficiencies, but in fact the discussion focuses almost exclusively on management techniques to improve service sections within a company. The operative concept here is the Next Operation as Customer (NOAC). This was a concept initiated in Japan in the quality movement with the goal to improve quality, cost, cycle time and effectiveness. Bhote explains how he adapted it and then Motorola ¡§packaged it to extend Six Sigma process from a manufacturing and product focus to all white-collar operations.¡¨ (p. 287) This is simply encouraging a company to work as a large team, or perhaps as a collection of minicompanies, and to try to satisfy internal customers just as one would satisfy the end customer in order to succeed in the business. The method includes setting specifications for services, perhaps in timeliness or quality, and then providing internal rewards or penalties according to the ability to meet the standards.
Though much of Bhote¡¦s book remains applicable only to manufacturing, providing only a superficial and sometimes unorganized explanation of many tools and techniques, it makes significant strides in encompassing the design and service areas, and there is still much to be recommended in its reading. The how-to lists of business disciplines may take some expansion and individual research, but they are a good consolidated list of actions on which to focus to make one¡¦s business more effective. In the same way, the self-assessment, or health audits, at the end of each chapter offer a practical way to measure how far a company is in implementing Ultimate Six Sigma as a management system. The focus on customer rings loud and clear throughout Bhote¡¦s book, whether it¡¦s the external customer buying or using the final product or service, or an internal customer producing a key component or adding value to the final product. Business managers may see profitability as the bottom line, but one can¡¦t have profit without customers, and having loyal customers is the best way to ensure long-term solvency. This call to focus on the customer is not new, but remains an enduring principle, and Bhote provides some useful ways to maintain that focus, and move toward ¡§Total Business Excellence.¡¨
Not your typical book on Six Sigma.......2003-04-11
Several things need to be understood about this book. To begin with, the author is one of the most experienced Six Sigma professionals in the world. However, he has a very convoluted writing style that makes it difficult to understand some of the points he is trying to get across. Furthermore, this is not a book on Six Sigma per se, this is a book that describes how Ultimate Six Sigma can be applied to improve a variety of areas within a company from customer relations to supply chain management. Whenever I have heard someone criticize this book it usually revolves around the fact that the author believes his method of Six Sigma, Ultimate Six Sigma, is by far much better than most of the other Six Sigma programs on the market and this is perceived as being "preachy". I feel this type of criticism is unwarranted for the following reasons:
1. The author does not state that all of the current providers of Six Sigma are shysters, he is merely stating that some Six Sigma consultants are less experienced than others and this has resulted in some companies not achieving the desired results from implementing Six Sigma.
2. The author brings up some very interesting points in regards to how companies can improve their efficiency through new management techniques as well as through Ultimate Six Sigma. What is really nice about this book is that the author provides accompanying graphs, charts, and checklists in each chapter.
3. Since there is no one perfect book on the topic of Six Sigma, and since it is always a good idea to keep learning, this book is well worth the money. For those who buy this book and understand that it isn't a "how to" book on Six Sigma will be satisfied.
Do I recommend this book? Yes. However, if this is the first book you're thinking of buying on Six Sigma I suggest that you buy one of the following books first or in conjunction with this book:
A. Sailing through Six Sigma
B. What is Six Sigma?
C. Lean Six Sigma
D. The Six Sigma Way: How GE, Motorola, and other Top Companies are Honing Their Performance
E. The Six Sigma Handbook, Revised and Expanded: The Complete Guide for Greenbelts, Blackbelts, and Managers at All Levels
F. Implementing Six Sigma: Smarter Solutions Using Statistical Methods, 2nd Edition
Worst Book on Six Sigma.......2003-01-13
This book is a time waster. One of the terrible book on Six Sigma.
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