Authors: RONALD D. SNEE and ROGER W. HOERL

Publishers: Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc:  

 ISBN: 0-13-143988-X.

Six Sigma Beyond the Factory Floor is a hardbound book, comprised of 8 chapters and 326 pages in length.

            No management or quality control technique need be restricted to manufacturing and this is the theme of this book, as the title would suggest.  Financial services and health are very large sectors of the economy, so it makes sense that the authors would target them with a book, focused on these sectors of the service economy, for extensions and applications of Six Sigma.  And this position may be a valid one.  For example, activity-based costing (ABC) is a very costly to implement technique that (if successful) continues to generate “big hits” (big cost savings) for both of these sectors of the economy.  Similarly, Six Sigma is a technique that is costly to implement, but may also be cost-effective and result in “big hits.”

            As is the case with total quality management (TQM), statistical process control (SPC), ABC and, in the present case, Six Sigma, the authors of these books are experts.  We can assume that these experts are passionate about their area of expertise and this passion may, sometimes, overshadow the cost-benefit component of the application.  In this case, the authors address this issue in their second chapter, but not quantitatively.  This is not to suggest that this represents a weakness with this book and this book alone.  This represents a common issue with all of these types of books.

To put it another way and to further elaborate, this installment, focusing on the expansion of industry-specific applications for Six Sigma (1) is well-written, designed and structured, (2) provides for the coverage that the title would suggest, (3) is probably not a best choice for the first book on Six Sigma that the neophyte selects to read and use to “tool up” on this topic, (4) is not likely to be the only book on this topic to truly implement Six Sigma, (5) does not explain to the reader how to decide, cost-effectively or profitably, whether or not Six Sigma is for them and their firm (nor do other books on this topic or any new technique, to be fair), but (6) at a retail cost of less than $36, represents a favorable value for those in, at a minimum, these targeted sectors to keep the executive alert to this contemporary technique for continuous improvement at their firm.

I would recommend this book to all in the financial services and health care industry professionals, especially those associated with larger, more bureaucratic firms.  Generally, these techniques are designed to identify and eliminate (or outsource) non-value added processes, and these processes are more likely to be identified in larger firms.  To the extent that the reader is already familiar with TQM, SPC, ABC and business process outsourcing (BPO), the benefits are also likely to be greater, as the reader has already encountered techniques causing him or her to think in a non-linear fashion and “outside of the box.”

The above review was contributed by: A.J. Cataldo, Ph.D., CPA, CMA Northeastern University Boston, MA.

 Dr. Cataldo holds a PhD from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University , MAc ( University of Arizona)  unofficial minor in Marketing , BSBA  (University of Arizona). He is a Certified Management Accountant and a Certified Public Accountant:  Click Here  to view more of Anthony's Reviews