Rating: 
Summary: Old wine in a new bottle
Review: As a person with exposure to Software Engineering Institute's Capability Maturity Model, I can say with conviction that the authors of this book have tried to sell the concept of Six-sigma the way corporate chieftains want to hear. i.e increase in bottom-line. The book gives a good, superficial account of what is Six-Sigma with reference to implementations in Motorola, General Electric and Allied Signal. While CMM is specific to software development process improvements (off-late its branching into HR aspects as well) six-sigma addressess other industries as well. This book is a marketing tool kit for the authors' consulting practice. I know of people who have gone through six-sigma certification process and have heard of people in GE commenting about its ineffectiveness. Let me provide an analogy here and you will understand better.
Unless you the have the will-power to quit smoking, no amount of patch intakes will help you do that, right? Same case here...unless there's a management commitment and will-power to drive for process improvements (any model) success is hard to come by. GE (If I recollect rightly) infact, made it mandatory to go through Six-sigma training for its employees to be promoted to a certain level higher-up. Only such management commitment would help in process improvements (through any quality model) I am sure many of you would be familiar with concepts and ideas of Six-Sigma. There's no doubt about it. Its plain common-sense. In today's world, there are many industries that are head and shoulders above Six Sigma. At the worst case, Six-sigma may be suitable for software companies whose quality practices are not something to write home about. But even then software companies have CMM. Why choose six-sigma which is more complex and expensive? There are simpler and cost-effective techniques for smaller and medium sized companies in any industry. Such techniques evolve over a period of time with experience. Nevertheless, this book is a good reading material that will throw lots of corporate jargons. But please don't be misled by those jargons.
Rating: 
Summary: Good Orientation but....
Review: As an Industrial Engineer I already knew many if not all of the ideas behind the "Six Sigma Strategy". These gentleman have found a way to package the IE focus into a neat little package. UNfortunatly it lacks depth. The book was a good read as an intro to the Black Belt training I had, but it does not offer any substance for those of you looking to apply any of the concepts. This book only talks on a high level about them. It acts as more of a sales pitch at best for the ideas behind six sigma. It is probably worth it but the if you are looking at trying to improve your business processes and look for solutions you would be better off hiring an Industrial Engineering Consultant. If you were to ask my opinion of a better book to read I would STRINGLY recommmend "The Goal" or "Critical Chain" both by Eliyahu M. Goldratt. His books offer a more realistic approach at solving these issues. As info Six Sigma has been a failure in our company many of which is blamed by the fact that the program requires a total commitment by upper(many companies don't have the Jack Welch type leadership)
Rating: 
Summary: Free Advertisement
Review: From my prespective, readers who purchase a book on Six Sigma are somehow experienced on Quality processes and want to learn more on the topic. However, this book is a total dissapointemet, as it is more of advertisement than knowlege. The author could have written ten pages to describe what was said on 281 pages! All that was written were Black Belts, how vital were they to the process. No emphasis on the Six Segma process, no description of the mechanism from an engineering prespective. It is more of 'Six Segma is the best and we can deliver the impossible' approach! For me this could be a good Novel to read, not for serious Managers.
Rating:
Summary: Unfortunately too much of a commercial
Review: I purchased this book to learn more about the reemergence of six sigma as an approach to business change. Unfortunately this book is more of a commercial for the authors services than a discussion of the approach, where it can be applied and how to be successful with it. The book first part of the book is filled with hyperbole and leans heavily on the idea that if it worked for GE and Motorola then it will work for you. It is important to recognize that the average six sigma project generates less than $100,000 in value. So the value of the technique is in spreading it out wide and far in your organization and letting the people doing the work improve what they do. This is not an approach for people looking to do transformational change or to address signficiant structural issues. To the authors credit they do describe the six sigma processes and steps at a level that you can understand it and have a conversation about six sigma at a dinner party. They achieve this result. However, the book does not go much beyond this. It is very light on the applicaiton of this to services -- a real issue given that most people are employed in service related activities. It directs people to invest heavily in training black belts in the techniques whcih is the service provided by the authors. For people who have an understanding of TQM techniques much of this is a reconfiguraiton of the techniques not the breakthrough revolution that the book describes. Although this has more detail than Hammer's Rengineering the Corporation, this book is too heavy on the advertising messages to help people understand the technique and its applicability to their business.
Rating: 
Summary: Highly Recommended!
Review: Mikel Harry and Richard Schroeder present an exhaustive explanation of the most popular management theory of the 1990s, Six Sigma. Focusing on early Six Sigma advocates like GE and Allied Signal, the book provides a thorough account of the benefits and costs attached to Six Sigma and a practical guide to the many steps involved in its implementation. The authors offer little in the way of criticism, but that's hardly surprising, since the two men are top officers at Six Sigma Academy Inc. But what they lack in objectivity, they more than make up for in knowledge and experience, which show through as they describe how GE turned a $500 million Six Sigma investment into $750 million in savings. We at getAbstract recommend this book to any manager concerned with efficiency. And if you're not, you should be.
Rating:
Summary: Don't Waste Your Time
Review: Six Sigma superficially is an excellent concept and this book serves the reader well in providing a detailed description of the concept. Early chapters take the reader on a journey through various companies providing an education on the importance of benchmarking, measuring defect rates, implementation strategies, and measuring six sigma performance. When the book begins to focus on implementation and deployment in later chapters the paint strokes begin to get very broad. The ideas provided to the reader are oversimplified and basic. For example, "Companies that improve their ability to consistently meet their customer's needs will produce positive bottom-line results." Really? I believe that the 1% of managers that are unware of this concept are not reading this book. The inability of this book to lay out a detailed plan for implementation results from the fact that each business is significantly different. If after reading this book the six sigma concept is appealing one could consider employing a consultant or creating a team for implementation. In my opinion the book also applies more to businesses with easily measurable performance such as manufacturing products as opposed to service providing businesses. Although customer satisfaction can be measured it is much easier to note an increase in monthly unit production. In summary six sigma is a difficult concept to initiate without the full commitment of your management team but the individual businessman will gain some valuable managerial skills through the book's good advice.
Rating:
Summary: Non Ecological
Review: The authors used more than two hundred pages describing what can be written in ten. At least they could had saved some trees... It would be better classified as a business romance.
Rating:
Summary: Six Sigma and the Industrial Engineer
Review: The book gives a good general overview of the Six Sigma system. It offers little real ability to do projects UNLESS you are an industrial engineer (IE), in which case it gives you a concrete case to sell your solutions to management. Six Sigma appears to be a buzz word for PART of an indutrial engineers repitoire of skills. ...
Rating:
Summary: OK, but needs more on strategeis
Review: This book gave a decent overview of 6 sigma. However, I would have liked to see more on specific breakthrough strategies and a little less on the meticulous details of the black belts. I know what the point of 6 sigma is, what all the positions are in a 6 sigma company but still have no clue how I would implement it.
Rating:
Summary: Don't Waste Your Time
Review: This is a poorly written 300 page piece of marketing fluff for the Six Sigma Academy consulting group. Either save your time by skipping the book and contacting the consultants directly or find a different book if you really want to learn about six sigma
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