Pocket Idiot's Guide to Six Sigma, by Marsha Shapiro and Anthony Weeks. Indianapolis, Ind: Alpha Books, 2005. 214 pages, softcover, $12.95.
Two volumes dealing with the application of Six Sigma in health care organizations were reviewed in the winter 2006 (15:1) issue of QMHC. For those who would like to have a quick tutorial in basic Six Sigma along comes the Pocket Idiot's Guide to Six Sigma.
This engaging little book has several things going for it. First, the authors make a point of defining the numerical value of Six Sigma early in the volume, a benefit that may be very helpful to the reader who is new to the concepts and practice of statistical process control. Another valuable feature is the presence of lots of handy sidebars. These are "Process Pointers," "Sigma Sayings," and "Defect Alerts." Process Pointers are informative tips to help the reader in implementing the steps in a Six Sigma program. Sigma Sayings are basically a running glossary of key Six Sigma terms. In the Defect Alerts, the writers give examples of the kind of real-life snafu that can occur to interfere with the success of a Six Sigma project.
In their 10 concise chapters, the authors move from a basic explanation of Six Sigma and how it was started, to the operational technique, to a clear explanation of the qualifications and roles of the various "belts," "champions," and "leads," and to leadership issues. The appendices are invaluable. One contains a list of the values of sigma designed to enable the user to convert a process yield (percent "good" product) to a Sigma value. The other contains a comprehensive glossary of terms. The book is very well organized.
The authors draw upon their own extensive experience. Marsha Shapiro is a certified Six Sigma black belt. After serving as an information technology management consultant with Ernst & Young, she moved to The Home Depot, where she stayed for 11 years, and more recently to Connect 3 Systems, Inc, as director of product management and business consulting. Tony Weeks, a certified Six Sigma master black belt, received process standardization and application experience during his more than 10 years at Motorola. He has served as a consultant for Six Sigma Qualtec, and is currently director of Six Sigma with The Home Depot.
Jean Gayton Carroll, PhD, Editor
Quality Management in Health Care, Chicago, Ill