The purpose of this book is to provide the practitioner with the necessary tools and techniques with which to implement a systematic approach to process improvement initiatives using the Six Sigma methodology.

Thousands of companies have discovered the value of Six Sigma in streamlining operations, cutting costs, improving quality, and increasing profitability. A Guide to Lean Six Sigma and Process Improvement for Practitioners and Students, Second Edition gives green belts, black belts, champions, and students a complete executive framework for understanding quality and implementing Lean Six Sigma. Building on the widely praised first edition, top Six Sigma experts Howard Gitlow and Richard Melnyck add today's most recent and important lean and process control system applications. Step by step, they systematically walk you through the five-step DMAIC implementation process, with detailed examples and many real-world case studies. You'll find practical coverage of Six Sigma statistics and management techniques, and realistic solutions for many common implementation obstacles. Coverage includes: A realistic overview of Six Sigma Management Six Sigma roles, responsibilities, and terminology Managing Six Sigma with Dashboards and Control Charts Mastering each DMAIC phase: Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, Control Understanding foundational Six Sigma statistics: probability, probability distributions, sampling distributions, and interval estimation Testing hypotheses and designing experiments Pursuing Six Sigma Champion or Green Belt Certification, and more

Best Practices in Lean Six Sigma Process Improvement reveals how to refocus lean/six sigma processes on what author Richard Schonberger—world-renowned process improvement pioneer—calls "the Golden Goals": better quality, quicker response, greater flexibility, and higher value. This manual shows you how it can be done, employing success stories of over 100 companies including Apple, Illinois Tool Works, Dell, Inc., and Wal-Mart, all of which have established themselves as the new, global "Kings of Lean," surpassing even Toyota in long-term improvement.

Six Sigma has arisen in the last two decades as a breakthrough Quality Management Methodology. With Six Sigma, we are solving problems and improving processes using as a basis one of the most powerful tools of human development: the scientific method. For the analysis of data, Six Sigma requires the use of statistical software, being R an Open Source option that fulfills this requirement. R is a software system that includes a programming language widely used in academic and research departments. Nowadays, it is becoming a real alternative within corporate environments. The aim of this book is to show how R can be used as the software tool in the development of Six Sigma projects. The book includes a gentle introduction to Six Sigma and a variety of examples showing how to use R within real situations. It has been conceived as a self contained piece. Therefore, it is addressed not only to Six Sigma practitioners, but also to professionals trying to initiate themselves in this management methodology. The book may be used as a text book as well.

In the new millennium the increasing expectation of customers and products complexity has forced companies to find new solutions and better alternatives to improve the quality of their products. Lean and Six Sigma methodology provides the best solutions to many problems and can be used as an accelerator in industry, business and even health care sectors. Due to its flexible nature, the Lean and Six Sigma methodology was rapidly adopted by many top and even small companies. This book provides the necessary guidance for selecting, performing and evaluating various procedures of Lean and Six Sigma. In the book you will find personal experiences in the field of Lean and Six Sigma projects in business, industry and health sectors.

The extraordinary breakthrough management program--heralded by GE, Motorola, and AlliedSignal--that is sweeping corporate America with its unprecedented ability to achieve superior financial results. Six Sigma is the most powerful breakthrough management tool ever devised, promising increased market share, cost reductions, and dramatic improvements in bottom-line profitability for companies of any size. The darling of Wall Street, it has become the mantra of Fortune 500 boardrooms around the world because it works. What is Six Sigma? It is first and foremost a business process that enables companies to increase profits dramatically by streamlining operations, improving quality, and eliminating defects or mistakes in everything a company does, from filling out purchase orders to manufacturing airplane engines. While traditional quality programs have focused on detecting and correcting defects, Six Sigma encompasses something broader: It provides specific methods to re-create the process itself so that defects are never produced in the first place. Most companies operate at a three- to four-sigma level, where the cost of defects is roughly 20 to 30 percent of revenues. By approaching Six Sigma--fewer than one defect per 3.4 million opportunities--the cost of quality drops to less than 1 percent of sales. This is because the highest quality also results in the lowest costs. When GE reduced its costs from 20 percent to less than 10 percent, it saved a billion dollars in just two years--money that goes directly to the bottom line. This is the reason Wall Street and corporations as diverse as Sony, Ford, Nokia, Texas Instruments, Canon, Hitachi, Lockheed Martin, American Express, Toshiba, DuPont, and Polaroid have embarked on corporate-wide Six Sigma programs. Six Sigma should be of paramount importance to every forward-thinking executive and manager determined to make their company world-class in their industry.

Lean Six Sigma is the global standard for organizing the design, data-based improvement and control of business processes. Well-designed and controlled processes are key in achieving and sustaining operational excellence. They ensure the quality of service and care, the reliability and safety of work that is done, and a timely processing with short waiting times. High quality processes will at the same time improve the operation’s flexibility. Thereby allowing one to adjust to changes in demand and other circumstances. An organizational capability to harness data-based process improvement, finally, facilitates organizational learning and is foundational for the fruitful implementation of ever increasing digitization and automation opportunities. Lean Six Sigma offers a complete model for shaping modern continuous improvement programs in organizations. The methodology is built on principles and methods for fact-based process improvement that have proven themselves over the last decades, and will continue to do so in the decades to come. Having emerged in manufacturing, the approach continuously evolved and gained tremendous momentum in the services and healthcare industries. This book offers a thorough and pragmatic account of Lean Six Sigma project- and programme implementation with a special focus on applications in services and healthcare organizations.