Review: The Power of Six Sigma

Name: The Power Of Six Sigma Author: Subir Chowdhury Misc: 126 pages, $12 (Amazon.com) My rating: 4.5 /5 Highlights: Short, Concept explained through a conversation between friends, nicely paced, good narration.

Two Words for this book: MUST READ!

WHY READ?

“Process” – A thing, that an average engineer in the software industry does not think very highly about. For him, its all about filling loads of excel sheets on metrics, and reams of documentation which he feels, if not all useless, is atleast, way above what would be “required”!

Had I not read this book, I too might fit the above description, but luckily, I have come to believe, that it is otherwise atleast when it came to this methodology called Six Sigma.

It all started with this book, about six years back, when I was suggested this, in my second year of engineering, by my friend Smash. I had never even heard about the concept until I read the book, except for the words “sigma” which I, being a statistics student, knew, had to do something with Standard Deviation. I decided to give it a shot, primarily because it was like a short story – spanning just 126 pages, which would take me 2 ½ hours for me at max.

I liked the book right then, and even absorbed the concept very well, thanks to the great narrative. But it sunk in better, after I took up Statistical Quality Control as one of my electives in final year of engineering. And since I have joined Honeywell, which pursues this methodology actively, the concept has begun coming into practical everyday use.

You must read this book, because, One – As I feel, it is the best way to understand a new concept – thorough a nice little story. Hats off to the author Subir Chowdhury for this. It is one of the best books for beginners on Six Sigma.

Two – It is ‘n’ times better than the normal training sessions which make it look like a monster, and make you resent it, before you know its power and innate simplicity.

Three, it is a concept which has revolutionized companies from Motorola, GE (under Jack Welch), and is the backbone of all companies in chip design and avionics and many many others – So it must be a really good idea.

Four – It is not just a methodology for the workplace, but once you absorb the details well, it can change your attitude and thought process in all the things you do, and help you do them, more efficiently.

A GLANCE INSIDE…

Joe Metter, a manager at American Burger is laid off after 20 years. Being too distraught to go home with this bad news, he calls up his old buddy Larry Hogan, who long back, used to work with him in the mailroom at American Foods, but now, is a top executive at American Pizza, which is a great success story.

Joe meets Larry over lunch, where Larry shares with him the reason behind the phenomenal success of American Pizza – the Six Sigma methodology.

For a second opinion, you might want to check some other user reviews on Amazon.com

MY BEST LINE

A memory peg Larry mentions, to remember the process flow in Six Sigma – DMAIC – Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve Control – being - Dumb Managers Always Ignore Customers. (How true, and easy to remember!!)