| | |  | Overview of Lean | Home » » » The Lean Six Sigma Guide to Doing More With Less: Cut Costs, Reduce Waste, and Lower Your Overhead | | | | | | | Description: | | Praise for The Lean Six Sigma guide to Doing More with Less"At Frito Lay, we have applied many of the concepts and tools in this book, and we are realizing a five to seven times return on our annual Lean Six Sigma investment."
—Tony Mattei, Lean Six Sigma Director, Frito Lay "Ecolab has experienced a sustainable, competitive advantage through Lean Six Sigma. The principles in this book are helping us drive greater value for our share-holders, better service for our customers, and talent development opportunities for our associates."
—Jeffrey E. Burt, Vice President and Global Deployment Leader, Lean Six Sigma, Ecolab "This book gives excellent insights into Lean Six Sigma and its strong impact within different industries. We used Lean Six Sigma in numerous process improvement projects, which, in turn, helped to create momentum and set up a process improvement culture. Amid a challenging economic environment, we are accelerating this initiative globally."
—Satheesh Mahadevan, Directeur des Processus, Société Générale "Our Lean Six Sigma deployment of the concepts and tools described in this book is transforming our business—with tangible benefits for our employees, customers, suppliers, and shareholders."
—Jeffrey Herzfeld, Sr. Vice President and General Manager, Teva Pharmaceuticals USA "We have deployed the holistic Lean Six Sigma strategy described by Mark George across our enterprise. It is providing remarkable returns for Unum."
—Bob Best, Chief Operating Officer, Unum "The Lean Six Sigma Guide to Doing More with Less presents a comprehensive view of operations transformation, the approaches required for success, leadership's role, and the competitive advantage that results. Transformational changes are enabling us to do more with less, by investing and working smarter."
—Ted Doheny, President and COO, Joy Mining Machinery | | | Product Details: | | | Author:
| Mark O. George | | Hardcover:
| 327 pages | | Publisher:
| Wiley | | Publication Date:
| February 08, 2010 | | Language:
| English | | ISBN:
| 0470539577 | | Product Length:
| 9.22 inches | | Product Width:
| 6.42 inches | | Product Height:
| 1.16 inches | | Product Weight:
| 1.2 pounds | | Package Length:
| 9.1 inches | | Package Width:
| 6.2 inches | | Package Height:
| 1.2 inches | | Package Weight:
| 1.25 pounds | | Average Customer Rating:
|  based on 3 reviews |
| | | | Customer Reviews: | |
Average Customer Review:
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
13 of 13 found the following review helpful:
 I was pleasantly surprised... In spite of the crazy color!May 13, 2010
By M. Stephens
I'll skip to the punchline for those of you, like me, who will not read the entire review:
This book shows how to actually save money with Lean Six Sigma (most companies can't say this).
Read this book first if you are trying to cut costs even if you don't have a Lean Six Sigma program, but add Balanced Scorecard and a few others for a cultural perspective as well (like the Toyota Way and Lean Thinking).
If you want to know the good, the great, and the so-so, read on below.
Overall Rating:
I've given several copies away to key people in my company.
One manager has made it required reading for his directs.
You will DEFINITELY save money with this book, and for that reason more than any other I give it a 5 Star (this is more than I can say for most of the Lean or Six Sigma books out there - and there are many!). The book delivers exactly what the title says.
Background:
I come for a Lean Six Sigma background (I'm now a MBB) and I almost passed this book off before trying it. I've read the other George Group books and learned some things here and there, but this book pleasantly surprised me (in spite of the green color!) with new and applicable insights, and a fresh take on LSS.
I'm thankful I didn't skip this one.
I would recommend the book for 2 groups of people:
1. You are in a Lean Six Sigma company but aren't seeing any real results with your current undertaking (or only marginal results).
2. You are considering a Lean Six Sigma program but aren't sure how to get a solid bang for the buck.
The Good:
1. This book stands out because it doesn't repeat the same old lessons (you know: get the CEO involved, train your people, follow up on projects, blah blah). There are many new insights that clearly come from experience.
Examples:
How to Lean Six Sigma to cost cutting at the project level and at the program level...
How to determine which wastes in your business are costing you the most from chapter 2...
How to find opportunities wherever your process may be...
2. This book speaks to the practitioner (me) and the deployment champions and executives (them).
It is excruciatingly practical as a Guide should be (although I appreciate books that are cultural as well to think beyond cost savings).
3. This book, more than any other, gave me the language to speak about strategy, cost cutting, and LSS success. This is a key for me, as I'm often "selling" Lean Six Sigma even inside a company that has quite a few areas of Lean or Six Sigma success.
The Great:
1. The stories and specific words of advice are golden nuggets. Even if all you do is skim through the text and read what's called out, you should be better off.
2. Read the first 2 chapters for sure! You will understand the value of combining Lean and Six Sigma, and you will laugh at just how much waste is in your process and cry at how much it is costing you. A previous review pointed this out, and is one of the main reasons I bought the book.
3. If you struggle to explain Lean Six Sigma, these first chapters will help you out.
Then, you can pick and choose from the other chapters for what is most relevant to you (I found Part 1 to be most helpful in my role as a practitioner).
The So So:
1. I understand what the publishers are doing with the title - Lean Six Sigma and how to tailor it for cost cutting. Especially in this economy. This is fine because almost every other book I've read is either about a specific tool or how to lead a LSS deployment or what Lean looks and feels like. This book aims the deployment unabashedly at costs. However, we all know that costs are not the only factor we utilize LSS for (Quality, Capacity, Customer Service, etc.). Sometimes these things do cost more money.
2. The book does show when all of these can be improved while simultaneously improving costs, but I think this book is best in combination with The Balanced Scorecard to get a good complement of strengths. As I think about it, we've used the scorecard in my company and it has helped us manage, but if you're in cost savings mode, start with this green book.
3. I have to say it - the color is crazy! Almost dizzying! On a positive note though, people always notice it in my office and ask about it - which helps me get conversations started on the topic :)
I hope this review helps.
3 of 3 found the following review helpful:
Best hands-on guide I've read yet.Apr 24, 2010
By Structural1
"SE"
I have been studying lean and six sigma practices the last couple years now, slowly improving the processes and product quality of our structural design team in the major global engineering firm for which I work. "LSS Doing More..." is the clearest application-oriented book that I have come across to date. A major problem with most books is they usually cover lean or six sigma, but this book brings both together so you can actually see the harmony of LSS. Also, other books tend to be very theoretical, while this book was more hands-on. In fact, I enjoyed it more than "LSS for Service." There are plenty of tools paired with real-world experiences and advice for practical application. Elimination of wastes, for example, is critical to our teams productivity, so Chapter 2 with Mike Tamilio made the book worth its weight in gold alone. The examples of where you find waste really hit home; I especially enjoyed the "kite string" technique - very clever! I found several excellent ways to streamline our internal work-flow, eliminate wastes that have been tying us to outdated and unnecessary paperwork and procedures, and overall improve our value stream.
Chapter 5 with Stephen Clarke was also very good as I am a numbers guy (side note - Kindle version seemed to create a few typos because of missing punctuation). I can personally attest to the benefits of reducing work-in-process - our most recent project for a government agency client has included five complete redesigns over the last 11 months!
I have already implemented several solid changes to our workflow, including where each person on the team sits and our information sharing frequency, and we will continue to do much more. I will certainly be returning to this book often as a reference and resource. My recommendation: buy this book and do what it says. Run the numbers and truly look at how your work flows. If you can't save time and money in your practice in doing so, you're doing something wrong.
Best of luck,
Structural1
2 of 6 found the following review helpful:
 Good Review toolApr 14, 2010
By D. Bosted
This is a good book with some good ideas, mostly as a reminder tool. It includes some good and useful formulas. It is useful for small business owners and manufacturers to help in focusing with cost reduction.
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