Book 2 - The Six Sigma Handbook, 3rd Edition, Pyzdek & Keller, 2009
General Observations and Recommendations
While, like project management, the practice of quality management obviously
involves the art of people management, it is, and in our view, generally under
represented in most projects. For example, how often is "quality grade" recognized
as a separate variable independent of "scope" in most projects, but instead buried
in some vague notion of "performance", or automatically expected at some unspecified
level or standard? Therefore, it is well worth the while for project managers
to pay some attention to the Six Sigma concepts. Indeed, it will be noted that
Chapters 2, 4, 5, and 6 of this book pay special attention to the subject
of projects associated with Six Sigma initiatives.
Interestingly, this sequence of quality improvement as represented by "Define-Measure-Analyze-Improve-Control"
(DMAIC) is not unlike the sequence of the project management process groups: "Initiating-Planning-Executing-Monitoring&Controlling-Closing.
However, the application of Six Sigma depends on the availability of sufficient
data to work on, something that is not necessarily available on short-term, fast-paced,
unique projects. That's because its application is highly dependent upon the science
of repetitive data observations and collection, the application of mathematical
and statistical techniques, as well as analysis and problem solving.
This book is well illustrated with tables, charts, illustrations and equations.
It provides extensive, in-depth coverage of the subject matter. However, many
of the pages are heavy with text containing overly long paragraphs, and acronyms
whose definitions get lost in early paragraphs. It also includes strange words
like "muda" that turns out to mean waste in the value production stream including
all types of defective work.[8] For those
without the appropriate background, it represents very heavy reading.
R. Max Wideman
Fellow, PMI
8. Ibid, p321. Wasted time, motion, and materials are all muda.
Muda also includes designing goods and services that don't meet customer's needs.
One may conjecture that there is plenty of muda around in project management -
it is just that it has not been recognized!
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