Six Sigma Leadership Handbook

Author: (USA) Burtels / Zhang Yanling / Hu Nan / Mao Guoliang
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-10-01
Features: Not long ago, we read the declaration "Quality is Dead." Although certain knowledge was effective at one time, things are always evolving. It's like hearing that the "old" economy has collapsed and the "new" economy has replaced all old principles. People began to think that we always need to relearn all the knowledge. But discarding the "old" and introducing the "new" can lead to the wasteful conversion of huge resources. We only need to look at the excessive investment in technology in the late 1990s of the 20th century, which left long-term aftereffects, still keeping us in the adjustment of the stock market. From this, we can understand the impact of the overheated technology investment this time. It seems contradictory because we are reluctant to abandon the "old" but need to accept the "new." When I attended the May 2000 meeting of the American Society for Quality in Indianapolis, many traditional quality professionals mocked Six Sigma as "not a new thing" or "just a slogan." The common sentiment among most attendees was: "We invented it 50 years ago." They completely ignored the fact that Six Sigma projects had already achieved excellent results in some places, such as General Electric Financial Services and Johnson & Johnson. After the conference, I began to think: If quality is in the hands of these people, it is dead; if it hasn't died, it will be suffocated. Whether we accept it or not, Six Sigma has indeed revitalized the concept of quality. In fact, it has taken quality to new heights, turning it into a supporting business strategy that can bring substantial financial returns to companies. Many concepts have been established for decades, some of which are summarized in this book by Rath. The book outlines the important management issues that businesses need to consider when considering Six Sigma as a primary business strategy. It focuses particularly on the key factors that can either facilitate or hinder the implementation of Six Sigma, using typical cases to highlight these principles.