An Introduction to Six Sigma and Process Improvement

Six Sigma has taken the corporate world by storm and represents the thrust of numerous efforts in manufacturing and service organizations to improve products, services, and processes. Although Six Sigma brings a new direction to quality and productivity improvement, its underlying tools and philosophy are grounded in the fundamental principles of total quality and continuous improvement that have been used for many decades. Nevertheless, Six Sigma has brought a renewed interest in quality and improvement that few can argue with, and has kept alive the principles of total quality developed in the latter part of the 20th Century.

James R. Evans is professor in the Department of Operations, Business Analytics, and Information Systems in the Lindner College of Business at the University of Cincinnati. His service includes president of the Decision Sciences Institute 1997-1998 and 11 years on the Board of Examiners and Panel of Judges for the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award. He has been Editor of the Quality Management Journal, published by the American Society for Quality, and served on editorial boards of numerous other journals. Dr. Evans has published more than 90 refereed papers and more than 30 editions of books. During the annual Quality Congress in May 2004, The American Society for Quality presented Dr. Evans and co-author Bill Lindsay with the Philip B. Crosby Medal for writing THE MANAGEMENT AND CONTROL OF QUALITY, 6E. The Crosby medal was presented "for authoring a distinguished book contributing significantly to the extension of the philosophy and application of the principles, methods, and techniques of quality management."

William M. Lindsay is Professor Emeritus of Management at Northern Kentucky University. He received a BSIE from the Georgia Institute of Technology, MS in Engineering from the University of Cincinnati, and an MBA and Ph.D. from Georgia State University. In addition to coauthoring eight editions of MANAGING FOR QUALITY AND PERFORMANCE EXCELLENCE (including predecessors), he is the coauthor of Total Quality and Organization Development. He served as an examiner for the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award for four years, as a judge for the Kentucky Quality Award for five years, and as a judge for the Seasongood Innovation Awards for the City of Cincinnati for three years. He is a senior member and past President of the Cincinnati Chapter of the Institute of Industrial Engineers, past President of the Cincinnati Chapter of the Association for Quality and Participation, and is a member of the American Society for Quality (ASQ), in addition to other professional organizations. He continues to teach MBA courses in quality management and project management. He is currently a Board Member of CLASP, a local nonprofit after-school program for elementary-aged children, and is an active volunteer at his church.