Book review
Six Sigma and the Quality ToolboxJohn Bicheno and Philip Catherwood
Published January 2005Price £8.90ISBN 0 9541 2442 1www.picsie.co.uk
Keywords Assembly Books
This book was primarily written for people who would like to understand what Six Sigma is, understand the DMAIC phases and have a general introduction to the tools and techniques commonly employed within Six Sigma projects, without the overwhelming statistical approach of other text's. The book is presented in a very "light read" format, beginning with an introduction to the history of Six Sigma, Quality Guru's and where Six Sigma fits within Quality. The book introduces, and leads you through the five phases of Six Sigma project management Define, Measure, Analyse, Improve and Control, with a selection of tools and techniques to complement each project phase. The reviews of the tools and techniques are again "light" and often prompt the reader into research as there are very good further reading signposts.
The book is a very good introduction to Six Sigma and is a useful reference book to "keep on the shelf" It is not an application support book and most tools would have to be researched further, but would be ideal as a pre-requisite for Greenbelt or Champion training, or simply a good companion book.
Paul CottinghamBusiness Process Improvement Manager, University of Wales
