"Ronald D. Snee and Roger W. Hoerl cover every level of Six Sigma implementation in nonmanufacturing environments: deployment planning and strategy, project execution, methods, statistical tools, and more. Throughout, they illuminate key concepts with case studies from a wide range of businesses and functions. Drawing on their unsurpassed consulting experience, they systematically identify hurdles to success - and best practices for overcoming them."--Jacket.

From the award-winning developers of Factory Physics—a powerful leadership guide for breakthrough performance A comprehensive guide that cuts through the hodgepodge of copycat initiatives, overblown buzzwords, confusing mathematics, and misguided software, Factory Physics for Managers is a breath of fresh air for operations managers and executives. Written by the leaders and experts behind the bestselling Factory Physics, it’s a brilliant crash course in the practical science of operations designed to help you: Achieve best possible profit, cash flow, and customer service Attain highest return with existing Lean, Six Sigma, and ERP initiatives Manage your capacity, inventory, response time, and variability with high predictability Simplify management of complexity using existing IT systems Use the fundamentals of science to ensure your operation’s success See your company and procedures more clearly Improve intuition, decision making, and strategy execution A strategy of imitation is not much of a strategy. Most every company uses the common continuous improvement initiatives. This highly accessible guide addresses but goes beyond other business approaches such as Lean, Six Sigma, and Theory of Constraints by offering a customizable plan that you can apply to any manufacturing-based industry or supply chain. You’ll discover invaluable tools for developing operations strategy and driving execution by using practical science to assess your procedures, target problems, and find solutions. You’ll learn essential life lessons from the best—and worst—practices of corporate leaders like Toyota and Boeing. You’ll find ingenious new ways to improve your leadership by predictively managing the tradeoffs that every operation faces—whether it’s more or less inventory or capacity, higher or lower customer service, or more or fewer products. Using this approach, you can tackle these natural conflicts in business through a practical, comprehensive science of operations. Factory Physics for Managers makes it easier to choose and execute the best strategy for better productivity—and even bigger profits. Praise for Factory Physics for Managers “Factory Physics for Managers is a proven path to flawless execution and results. Leading vs. following in our industry is predicated on the relentless pursuit of putting order to chaos. Factory Physics science and CSUITE software have given our organization the ability to plan, predict, model, and execute based on explosive growth and rapid-fire, dynamic changes to our business model. In our case, history is not a good predictor of the future, so we need to deploy our resources wisely, and the Factory Physics approach has helped us do just that.” —Larry Doerr, COO, Stratasys “Shows how the science behind Lean initiatives can greatly improve results in terms of productivity and resources.” —Bill Fierle, Vice President and General Manager, TopWorx, Emerson “Brings powerful, accessible science to operations management. The Factory Physics playbook enables me to lead the harnessing of our data more effectively for modeling, planning, control, and feedback. Armed with the concepts, common language, and tools in this book, I can partner with operations’ leadership to impact the bottom line.” —Jeffrey Korman, CIO, Hu-Friedy Mfg LLC, Chicago

Essentials for the Improvement of Healthcare Using Lean & Six Sigma is all about real and immediate quality improvement. Written by D.H. Stamatis, a renowned expert in organizational development and quality, the book addresses concerns that can be ameliorated with minimal government intervention.Detailing immediate paths for improvement fundame

Exploring Lean manufacturing in a holistic manner, this book helps organizations to implement Lean principles successfully by offering theoretical, empirical and practical knowledge. It empirically demonstrates how a successful Lean initiative can improve organizational efficiency, and incorporates valuable primary research to substantiate findings. It argues that Lean principles need to be applied throughout the value chain in order to be successful , and suggests that these tools need to be aligned with culture and change management. Chapters examine issues including Lean cultures, impediments to Lean, Lean and performance measurement, and the impact of Lean. Viewing Lean as a never-ending journey, this book provides a valuable resource to practising Lean managers, and specialist researchers and students, and also offers an important reference for organizations embarking on their Lean voyage.

Søren Bisgaard was an extremely productive and insightful scholar of modern industrial statistics and quality engineering. He was amazing for both his breadth of interests and the depth of his scholarship. Søren was one of the very few people making substantial contributions in so many basic areas in statistics and quality engineering. This compilation collects 31 of his works and is divided into four broad areas: Design and Analysis of ExperimentsTime Series AnalysisThe Quality ProfessionHealthcare Engineering This book provides a comprehensive coverage of essential statistical methods for the 2k-p factorial system and shows the basic principles of time series analysis through examples. Furthermore, this book presents the connection between the application of the scientific method and quality improvement, and it points out the importance of quality improvement to tangible financial results. Finally, this book explains the seemingly paradoxical idea that we can enhance quality while reducing cost of healthcare.

Apply Six Sigma to Your #1 Business Challenge: Pricing “Six Sigma is well known for having helped companies save billions of dollars. This book is the first to show us how to use it on the revenue side of the equation to generate profitable growth. This step-by-step guide will be an instant classic—a seminal book on a topic critical to profitability.” —Robert Cross, Chairman and CEO, Revenue Analytics Inc. and author of Revenue Management “Six Sigma Pricing provides companies with a practical toolkit to improve their price management. The authors show executives how to use Six Sigma tools in their pricing processes and instantly improve profits and their bottom-line. This is a truly ‘must-have’ resource for managers everywhere.” —Eric Mitchell, President, Professional Pricing Society Many companies have developed solid sales strategies– but without equally good pricing operations, those strategies alone will not add a dime to the bottom line. The goal of pricing operations is to consistently control price deviations in transactions and contracts over time and across customer segments. This goal of ensuring the prices are not too low or too high in different transactions relative to guidelines lends itself perfectly to Six Sigma. Using the authors’ breakthrough Six Sigma-based approach, you can systematically eliminate pricing-related revenue leaks, driving higher profits without alienating customers. You’ll learn how to define pricing “defects,” gather and analyze relevant pricing data, review pricing-agreement processes, identify and control failures, implement improvements, and then ensure continuous, ongoing improvement in price, profits and customer satisfaction. The book reflects the authors’ pioneering experience implementing Six Sigma pricing. Whether you’re a business leader, strategist, manager, consultant, or Six Sigma specialist, it will help you or your client recover profits that have been slipping through the cracks in pricing operations. •Learn why Six Sigma Pricing makes sense Why you should target pricing operations, and how to do it • Identify profit leaks from inefficient pricing operations Why “sloppy pricing” occurs, how to find it, and how to root it out • Illuminate your current pricing processes, so you can improve them Understand your market-facing and internally focused pricing processes pertaining to product launch and lifecycle price management, price increases due to escalation in costs of raw materials, promotions, and discounting • Set up your pricing operations for continuous improvement in line with your pricing and sales strategy Use Six Sigma to improve and control processes, ensuring alignment with agreed-upon strategy for pricing and sales • Create an organization that is successful at pricing Align different functions and levels of the company to achieve targeted profits

The International Conference on Industrial Engineering and Engineering Management is sponsored by the Chinese Industrial Engineering Institution, CMES, which is the only national-level academic society for Industrial Engineering. The conference is held annually as the major event in this arena. Being the largest and the most authoritative international academic conference held in China, it provides an academic platform for experts and entrepreneurs in the areas of international industrial engineering and management to exchange their research findings. Many experts in various fields from China and around the world gather together at the conference to review, exchange, summarize and promote their achievements in the fields of industrial engineering and engineering management. For example, some experts pay special attention to the current state of the application of related techniques in China as well as their future prospects, such as green product design, quality control and management, supply chain and logistics management to address the need for, amongst other things low-carbon, energy-saving and emission-reduction. They also offer opinions on the outlook for the development of related techniques. The proceedings offers impressive methods and concrete applications for experts from colleges and universities, research institutions and enterprises who are engaged in theoretical research into industrial engineering and engineering management and its applications. As all the papers are of great value from both an academic and a practical point of view, they also provide research data for international scholars who are investigating Chinese style enterprises and engineering management.

"This book dispels the myth that Six Sigma is limited to the manufacturing process by providing compelling examples of transactional successes combined with a guide to practical deployment." –Paul J. Norris, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, W. R. Grace & Co. "Ronald D. Snee and Roger W. Hoerl provide a compelling, fact-based, example-supported argument on the importance of improvement of nonmanufacturing processes within a manufacturing company. This valuable book completes the authors' "trilogy" of books on improving business performance via statistical thinking and Six Sigma, and is a welcome addition to the library of any individual or company engaged in this pursuit of excellence." –Dr. Steven P. Bailey, principal consultant and Master Black Belt, DuPont Engineering, Past President American Society for Quality "As interest in Six Sigma continues to flourish, this book will be of interest to newcomers and veterans alike. Snee and Hoerl address the case for Six Sigma, ensuring successful deployment and project success through a detailed yet easily understood style. Their use of case studies rounds out their assertion that Six Sigma can and should be used to improve performance in all types of businesses, from finance to health care." –Jean Cherry, Executive Vice-President, Commonwealth Health Corporation The first comprehensive, step-by-step Six Sigma implementation guide for nonmanufacturing organizations For finance, health care, retail, logistics/supply chains, R&D, education, nonprofits... every nonmanufacturing organization and function Expert deployment planning strategies, proven execution tactics Statistical methods, tools, and best practices–customized for nonmanufacturing organizations Something for every Six Sigma implementer–from beginners to leaders, champions, green belts, black belts, and master black belts Coauthored by Roger W. Hoerl, a leader in implementing Six Sigma at GE, including in corporate finance Nonmanufacturing organizations are rapidly discovering Six Sigma's immense potential to reduce costs, improve performance, grow revenue, strengthen focus, and empower people. To achieve these results in your organization, start right here. Drawing on new case studies, renowned practitioners Ron Snee and Roger Hoerl cover up-front planning and strategy... team building and executive sponsorship... project execution... methods, statistical tools, and metrics... overcoming obstacles... and much more. Their advice and best practices can guide you through any stage of the process, whether you're just starting out or extending an existing initiative. With their help, scores of world-class enterprises have delivered on the promise of Six Sigma. With this book, you can, too. Dr. Ronald D. Snee is principal in Tunnell Consulting's Performance Excellence Practice, which offers Six Sigma consulting, training, facilitation, and implementation, in addition to other process improvement approaches. Dr. Snee is a winner of the American Society for Quality's highest honor, the Shewhart Medal, and has served as a member of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award Criteria Team. He designed DuPont's first company-wide continuous improvement curriculum. Dr. Roger W. Hoerl is a long-time leader of GE's renowned Six Sigma initiative. As manager of GE's Applied Statistics Lab, he partners on R&D with GE businesses ranging from NBC and GE Capital to GE Aircraft Engines. He has implemented Six Sigma in a wide range of GE processes, ranging from corporate audit to delinquent credit card tracking. He recently won the American Society of Quality's 2002 Brumbaugh Award. Snee and Hoerl are coauthors ofLeading Six Sigma(Financial Times-Prentice Hall, 2003), the best-selling executive's guide to Six Sigma. They also cowroteStatistical Thinking: Improving Business Performance(Duxbury Thomson Learning, 2002), an innovative guide to the strategic use of data and statistics in solving business problems. There are dozens of books on implementing Six Sigma in manufacturing. But what if you're in finance? Or health care? Or e-commerce? Or supply chain management? Or R&D? Or the nonprofit sector? This book focuses on your needs: Six Sigma Beyond the Factory Floor, the start-to-finish Six Sigma guide for the rest of the real economy. Ronald D. Snee and Roger W. Hoerl cover every level of Six Sigma implementation in nonmanufacturing environments: deployment planning and strategy, project execution, methods, statistical tools, and more. Throughout, they illuminate key concepts with case studies from a wide range of businesses and functions. Drawing on their unsurpassed consulting experience, they systematically identify hurdles to success–and best practices for overcoming them. Whatever your Six Sigma goals, this book will help you achieve them faster–with less pain, cost, or risk. Using a proven Six Sigma deployment roadmap for nonmanufacturing organizations Planning strategies, execution tactics, customized methods and tools Leveraging the immense value of Six Sigma in your environment Realistically assessing the benefits of Six Sigma in nonmanufacturing organizations Driving ongoing success: lessons from real-world case studies Best practices for driving project-by-project improvement Aligning the entire organization behind Six Sigma From leadership commitment to team building–and beyond

Six Sigma changed the face of manufacturing quality. Now, HumanSigma is poised to do the same for sales and service organizations. Human Sigma offers an innovative, research-based approach to one of the toughest challenges businesses face today: how to effectively manage the employee-customer encounter to drive business success. Based on research spanning 10 million employees and 10 million customers around the world, the Human Sigma approach combines a proven method for assessing the health of the employee-customer encounter with a disciplined process for improving it. Human Sigma is based on five rules to bring excellence to how employees engage and interact with customers: RULE #1: E Pluribus Unum. Employee and customer experiences must be managed together — not as separate entities. RULE #2: Feelings Are Facts. Emotions drive and shape the employee-customer encounter. RULE #3: Think Globally, Measure and Act Locally. The employee-customer encounter must be measured and managed at the local level. RULE #4: There Is One Number You Need to Know. Employee and customer engagement interact to drive enhanced financial performance. And this interaction can be quantified and summarized with a single performance metric. RULE #5: If You Pray for Potatoes, You Better Grab a Hoe. Good intentions alone do not constitute a plan of action. Sustainable improvement in the employee-customer encounter requires disciplined local action coupled with a companywide commitment to changing how employees are recruited, positioned in roles, rewarded and recognized, and importantly, how they are managed. Essential reading for global business leaders, Human Sigma shows how sales and service companies can flourish in the new global economy. It reveals a profoundly different method for managing human systems for growth. Blending strategic analysis with hands-on, practical steps and advice, Human Sigma will change how you view your work, your employees and your customers forever.

How statistical thinking and methodology can help you make crucial business decisions Straightforward and insightful, Statistical Thinking: Improving Business Performance, Second Edition, prepares you for business leadership by developing your capacity to apply statistical thinking to improve business processes. Unique and compelling, this book shows you how to derive actionable conclusions from data analysis, solve real problems, and improve real processes. Here, you'll discover how to implement statistical thinking and methodology in your work to improve business performance. Explores why statistical thinking is necessary and helpful Provides case studies that illustrate how to integrate several statistical tools into the decision-making process Facilitates and encourages an experiential learning environment to enable you to apply material to actual problems With an in-depth discussion of JMP® software, the new edition of this important book focuses on skills to improve business processes, including collecting data appropriate for a specified purpose, recognizing limitations in existing data, and understanding the limitations of statistical analyses.