Lean Six Sigma Service Excellence A Guide to Green Belt Certification and Bottom Line Improvement

By Gerald M. Taylor, Six Sigma Black Belt

Published September 2008 by J. Ross Publishing

Over the past couple of decades, growth in the number of new service and not-for-profit organizations has out-paced manufacturing in the global economy. Six Sigma and Lean, two of the most successful initiatives for improving quality and productivity rooted in the manufacturing sector, are now needed by organizations in the non-manufacturing sectors of the economy. With the ever-growing demands of customers, ensuring quality and productivity in service organizations as a distinctive core competence is becoming essential to achieving a competitive advantage and maintaining customer loyalty for long-term survival.

Current books on Lean Six Sigma for service or transactional organizations either require a significant technical background, or are rather conceptual in nature and lack the detail of the tools, how to use them, and the practical skill-building exercises needed to give readers the ability to actually implement Lean Six Sigma in their organizations. This book fills the void.

Written for the typical business professional, Lean Six Sigma Service Excellence effectively translates the concepts of Lean Six Sigma from a manufacturing environment to a service delivery environment. It is a user-friendly guide to successfully implementing Lean Six Sigma practices in non-manufacturing organizations. It is also an inexpensive path to Green Belt certification.

Taylor provides an overview of the Lean Six Sigma concepts and step-by-step examples of how to apply each of the relevant tools in practical situations. Next, readers will work through several problems to exercise their new found understanding. This learning approach of application and exercise should be of particular interest to those interested in, but unable to afford the large expense of most Lean Six Sigma training courses. Dedicated to executives and managers of service and transactional organizations, Lean Six Sigma Service Excellence emphasizes how productivity can be used as a distinctive competence for achieving and maintaining competitive advantage in non-manufacturing environments.

Key Features:

• Defines the properties of a well-designed service process management system and all the factors, activities, events and requirements that make it work
• Provides the tools and a simple step-by-step methodology for implementing a Lean Six Sigma performance excellence system in a non-manufacturing environment
• Explains how to construct a performance measurement system and develop an effective dashboard of key performance indicators for a service organization
• Includes real-world examples and practical skill-building exercises to develop the readers’ competencies and outlines an inexpensive path to help you become Green Belt certified