Lean Six Sigma in Sickness and in Health

This book uses a fictional-prose-narrative approach to describe the application of an enhanced methodology for implementing lean Six Sigma process improvement techniques.

Jorge Santos, an expert in lean Six Sigma methodology, comes face to face with the human cost of inefficient processes when his wife is badly injured in an accident and rushed to a hospital that is in clear need of a process overhaul.  As Jorge deals with a lack of error-proof systems, an unprepared ER, and other obstacles that might prevent his wife from receiving proper treatment, he reflects on the enhanced lean Six sigma implementation that he initiated at the hospital where he works  across town.

The contrast between the systems in place at Jorge s hospital and those at the hospital Jorge s wife is in, illustrates various aspects of statistics-based lean Six Sigma methodologies in a compelling, yet highly-informative format. 

This book explains Beyond Lean Six Sigma techniques in a thorough but entertaining and easy-to-understand way. This easy-to-digest format is perfect for executive managers scanning for the right management initiative. This format is also useful in allaying the nervousness (and the accompanying loss of productivity) that middle and lower-level managers often experience when a new management initiative is introduced.

Armed with the information found in this book, the implementation experience of lean Six Sigma can be one of confidence, optimism, and new energy for everyone involved. Finally, this book and the overall methodology are not just for those in manufacturing. The described Beyond Lean Six Sigma methods work for all businesses. For example, in this story, Beyond Lean Six Sigma methods are applied to the health care industry the farthest thing from manufacturing! Yet, hospitals can save millions of dollars by applying these techniques in their industry. 

Is lean Six Sigma long-lasting? Unfortunately, traditional lean Six Sigma organizational process deployments often do not withstand the test of time. The Beyond Lean Six Sigma techniques described in this book are encapsulated in Integrated Enterprise Excellence (IEE), which was created to address this lean Six Sigma deployment issue.

Additional details about IEE implementation are provided in a series of books.  IEE Volume I provides a description of the benefits of the IEE system in a golfing story format where four MBA friends discuss process improvement while playing golf. IEE Volume II describes the 9-step IEE business management system, which among other things uses an IEE value chain to align 30,000-foot-level predictive scorecards with the processes that created them. IEE Volume II also describes the details of determining where lean Six Sigma improvement projects should focus so that the business as a whole benefits.  IEE Volume III describes the roadmap details for executing improvement efforts so that the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that are important to the business can be improved with a demonstrated long-lasting enhanced response resulting in business-as-a-whole benefit.

Forrest Breyfogle founded Smarter Solutions in 1992 after a 24-year career at IBM. The associates of Smarter Solutions, an Austin, Texas based company, specialize in helping companies throughout the world improve their bottom line and customer satisfaction through the implementation of techniques that are beyond traditional Six Sigma techniques.

In his first book, Statistical Methods for Testing, Development, and Manufacturing, which was published by Wiley in 1992, Mr. Breyfogle included a 10-step roadmap for implementing Six Sigma.

Mr. Breyfogle's more recent book, Implementing Six Sigma, was published by Wiley in 1999. This book has had great reviews and is being used by many companies as part of their Six Sigma Black Belt training. The 1150-page second edition of this book will be available in March 2003. This second edition integrates many more topics such as Lean and Theory of Constraints (TOC), creating a unique Smarter Six Sigma Solutions (S4) methodology. This Integrated Enterprise Excellence (IEE) approach takes Six Sigma to new heights through the application of many powerful features/benefits that help companies create customers and cash. The S4/IEE approach, for example, includes a strategy where critical organizational projects are pulled (used as a lean term) for creation either through the needs identified by strategic business plans or cascading 30,000-foot-level operational metrics, which are aligned to satellite-level business metrics. Black Belts and other S4/IEE practitioners then follow a detailed Define-Measure-Analyze-Improve-Control (DMAIC) roadmap for timely project execution.

Mr. Breyfogle has also co-authored two other books. The book Managing Six Sigma is a high-level book that helps organizations create their Six Sigma support infrastructure. While, the book Wisdom on the Green: Smarter Six Sigma Business Solutions is a novel that explains how the benefits of Six Sigma can be increased when the methodology is used in conjunction with Lean Enterprise, Theory of Constraints, and ISO-9000:2000 within an S4/IEE infrastructure.

Mr. Breyfogle also co-authored the Six Sigma chapter in the newly published ASQ book, The Certified Quality Engineer Handbook. He also has been interviewed by several TV, radio, and publications about the application of Six Sigma. For example, he was interviewed by CNN fn and CNBC Power Lunch.