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Summary: The complete reference for six sigma
Review: I just purchased this brand new edition and its worth the price. The author has expanded the content and broadened the coverage - this is truly a "handbook" of six sigma. Included are what the author refers to as "road maps" and they really helped direct me to the critical content I need wthin this tome. I found it easier to use and more comprehensive than Breyfogle's first edition.
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Summary: Wide Knowledge Base and pragmatic PoV
Review: Their contents are wide enough to stand the questions and find the answers of customers, consultants an BB who are implementing Six Sigma solutions.It has very good description skills in order to match your doubts and clarifying examples are written to ensure a good understanding of. "Implementing Six Sixma. Smarter Solutions Using Statistical Methods" yields you the chance to find out, fix and grow your Quality Knowledge.
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Summary: Poor Six Sigma Reference Book
Review: At it's best, this is a reference book. Unfortunately the author doesn't do a very good of explaining each quality concept and idea completely. If you don't already know how to use the quality tools in the book, you won't find this book very useful. The author uses one-sided arguments to convince the reader to use specific quality tools that he believes in. Regrettably, the author comes across as biased and narrow minded.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent content, but flawed
Review: The author has provided a fairly comprehensive treatment of Six Sigma techniques. Additionally, he has provided a measure of motivation for using the techniques in his first two chapters. The book is excellent if used as a reference.
Unfortunately, the book is marred in a few ways. Its treatment of some subjects is less than lucid. For an example, the reader should compare Breyfogel's section on 2**k factorial designs with that of Box, Hunter, and Hunter. Another annoying aspect of the book is the constant advertising that the reader must put up with. Perhaps the book's biggest flaw is that it hasn't been edited well. In fact, John Wiley and Sons has done an awful job of it. The reader will find grammatical errors on many pages.
I would recommend the work as a reference for someone who already knows the bulk of the Six Sigma material. However, the reader must be prepared to wade through the incomplete sentences, grammatical mistakes, and the occasional opaque explanation.
Rating:
Summary: Informative, but ...
Review: This book is incredibly informative and useful, but probably a bit too detailed for the average consumer simply interested in the basic concepts of 6 sigma. I will likely use and implement about one fifth of the content of the book - if that.
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Summary: The only Six Sigma book you NEED to practice Six Sigma
Review: The heft of this book can be intimdating, but I have found it absolutely essential to the practice of Six Sigma. It's best feature is an enormous supply of lists, processes and methods for approaching and attacking problems and that's just one component of the book. It has formulas, definitions - the works... While not a book for fluffy "management" or silly slogans, it's the practitioner's bible.
Rating:
Summary: Too High Level
Review: Found this text to be too high level and not enough implementable strategies. Not a text I find myself referring to with any regularity.
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Summary: Best Book Available on Six Sigma
Review: Being heavily involved with implementation and teaching of Six Sigma, I have read almost all the books on the market. Implementing Six Sigma is by far the most comprehensive and clear treatment on the subject. The others are either too lightweight to really learn anything useful about Six Sigma techniques or too long and just a rehash of prior works. When I was studying for my ASQ certification in Six Sigma Black Belt, Breyfogle's book was the key to my success in passing the difficult exam. I'm positive that I could have never passed without this reference.
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Summary: Daunting
Review: I first read this book when it was published (1999) and recently re-read it in combination with Managing Six Sigma which Breyfogle co-authored with Cupello and Meadows. At the outset, I should explain that my experience with the design, launch, and implementation of a Six Sigma program is limited. Usually I am retained to assist in non-technical areas such as internal and external communications. However, having read almost all of what Deming wrote as well as several other books about his work, and then having direct association with countless technicians involved in various stages of a Six Sigma program, I feel semi-qualified to discuss both of Breyfogle's books. In fact, he may well have written them for non-technicians such as I. They are VERY well-organized. Also, at no time throughout the reading of either book did my eyes glaze over because of charts, maps, statistics, jargon, etc. So I commend Breyfogle (as well as the co-authors of Managing Six Sigma) for creating about as much access as is reasonably possible to this immensely complicated and (yes) daunting, albeit intriguing subject. In the foreword, Frank Shines, Jr. suggests that Breyfogle's Smarter Six Sigma Solutions (let's call it S4) approach can effectively be applied in areas such as these: organizational strategy and vision, communications and education strategy, corporate culture and history, business economics and project prioritization, organizational and individual skills and competencies, and finally, the pace and degree at which the organization can assimilate change. Paul Tobias (in the Foreword) then suggests that "the key to business success is doing the right thing faster and better and more efficiently that your competition." For S4, the focus is always on the practical: "What are the right Goals and how do you go about achieving them?" Two excellent questions which suggest two others: "Are these still the right goals? How do we know?" Tobias provides an incomplete but nonetheless impressive list of what this book also provides: explanations of basic techniques such as Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA) and Quality Function Deployment (QFD), and process flowcharting as well as an abundance of powerful statistical techniques and concepts such as exploratory data analysis (graphical techniques), analysis of variance, and measurement capability analysis (gauge studies). Then in another Foreword, Bill Wiggenhorn briefly reviews the evolution of Six Sigma "story" from its origin at Motorola, suggesting that Breyfogle's S4 consolidates not only the traditional Six Sigma process measurements and improvement tools, but also many other useful methodologies into one easy to understand text. [As a hand puppet who appeared on "The Ed Sullivan Show" on television years ago once said, "Easy for you...difficult for me."] The sections entitled "Smarter Six Sigma Solutions Assessments", at the end of many chapters, offer additional insight into the selection of the best approach for a given situation." Then, in a long-awaited Preface by the author, Breyfogle identifies needs which S4 can fulfill and then explains how his book is organized. He claims that this "guide" has a "keep-it-simple" (KIS) objective to which a hand puppet may refute. To his credit, Breyfogle goes to great length to explain not only his purposes and objectives but also how and serves and achieves them. Finally the text itself. Here are the five Parts: S4 Deployment Strategy Phase S4 Measurement Phase S4 Analysis Phase S4 Improvement Phase S4 Control Phase Then Breyfogle provides four appendices: Equations for Distribution, Descriptive Information, DOE Supplement, and Reference Tables followed by a List of Symbols, Glossary, and References. I think this book will probably be most helpful to executive-level managers in larger organizations (including non-profits) but I presume to suggest that many (if not most) CEOs of those organizations will have neither the time nor the inclination to absorb and digest all of its contents. (I could be wrong about that.) They and many of their executive-level managers may find Managing Six Sigma more accessible. In addition, I think most owners/CEOs of small-to-midsize companies can also derive substantial benefit from this book if they share Paul Tobias's opinion (quoted earlier) that the key to success in business is "doing the right thing faster and better and more efficiently that your competition." With this book, Breyfogle has created (in effect) for all organizations (regardless of size or nature) an encyclopedia of Six Sigma principles and practices, explained and coordinated within his Smarter Six Sigma Solutions Program®.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Resource for Six Sigma Trainers!
Review: This books is not only easy to read and understand but it will help you create training for others in your company by providing practical examples, and solid, logical information. It will help you understand WHAT Six Sigma is, as well as HOW to implement it in your company - be it a manufacturing area or service area. This is what I personally found most helpful. In a services business like ours, practical examples of the applied methodology are few. Mr. Breyfogle's book, as far as I am concerned, is the "college textbook" version for the corporate workplace. An excellent resource, and one that should be used again and again.
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