Six sigma is a system for improving the quality of organizational processes and products to a level of three defects per million. This guide provides a brief overview of the management and organization of six sigma, the underlying philosophy and the problem-solving techniques most often used.

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There are three books on Six Sigma that I recommend for the Green Belt or Black Belt (Implementing Six Sigma --Breyfogle, The Six Sigma Revolution--Eckes, The Six Sigma Way--Pande). The Breyfogle book is a good technical handbook, while both the Eckes and Pande books are fantastic for Managers,Champions, MBB's, BB's, GB's, and all other employees engaged in a Six Sigma program. Of course no book is going to tell you everything you need to know.....Experience will, of course, teach you the most, but the books I mentioned will get you going.

Good Luck!

37 of 40 found the following review helpful:

Basic GuideMay 17, 2002

The subtitle to Pyzdek's book is "A Complete Guide Greenbelts, Blackbelts ..." I think that is a bit of an overstatement. The book is a collection of snipets on managerial and technical issues. On the technical side, he covers a few pages here and few pages there on everything from control charts to design of experiments.

My view is that Pyzdek's book is a nice basic overview to six-sigma. Something for greenbelts but hardly the coverage necessary for blackbelts. Blackbelts, by definition, need in depth coverage with excellent software support. By the way, with the exception of a few figures of Excel output, software issues are pretty void in this book. And the use of Excel is questionable considering its accuracy problems (well documented).

For blackbelts, my advice is to pick up a management dedicated six-sigma book. Then for technical side, one is best served to arm themselves with authorative references. For ANOVA and DOE, consider Montgomery's "Design of Experiments" book and also consider Neter and Wasserman's "Applied Linear Models". For statistical process control, there is a gem of a book by Alwan titled "Statistical Process Analysis". Alwan's book covers basic SPC but takes process analysis to the next level by covering issues of nonnormality and time-series/SPC using a lot of Minitab (Pyzdek actually references his work). Armed with this collection of these basic references you will be no doubt have the technical skills of a master black belt or actually beyond.

25 of 28 found the following review helpful:

The Six Sigma Handbook - a 1 sigma value!!!!!Apr 12, 2001

What a big, big, big disappointment! I purchased this book and it is just a collection of old materials by Mr. Pyzdek in a new packaging that has a six sigma theme. This book adds very little to the understanding of the six sigma methodolgy of business and quality improvement. If you have Tom's old exam refresher books then you have everything that this handbook offers - except for the cover. I wish I could get my $100.00 back?????

5 of 5 found the following review helpful:

It's great if you don't know any betterFeb 14, 2001
By W. Dean
As a Master Black Belt, I am typically critical of books that are published on Six Sigma. This is no exception. The book is schizophrenic in that it doesn't quite know if it wants to be a technical reference or a management handbook. I think it fails at both. There is really nothing new in the management sections, and this book really lacks the depth required to be an effective handbook.

There are three books on Six Sigma that I recommend for the Green Belt or Black Belt (Implementing Six Sigma --Breyfogle, The Six Sigma Revolution--Eckes, The Six Sigma Way--Pande). The Breyfogle book is a good technical handbook, while both the Eckes and Pande books are fantastic for Managers,Champions, MBB's, BB's, GB's, and all other employees engaged in a Six Sigma program. Of course no book is going to tell you everything you need to know.....Experience will, of course, teach you the most, but the books I mentioned will get you going.

Good Luck!

4 of 4 found the following review helpful:

Great for the Six Sigma ExamMar 24, 2002

If you are taking the ASQ exam, this would be a good choice. I would also recommend a first level statistics text book. I used Weiss Elementary Statistics.

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