Informed Success: A Bibliography for Student Entrepreneurs

Even with the best Six Sigma implementation, most companies only attain a Four or Five Sigma level. To attain the level of Six Sigma, 3.4 defects per million, companies need to go back to the drawing board and create a product or process using Design for Six Sigma (DFSS). DFSS incorporates the voice of the customer (the need for quality products) and the voice of the company (the need for increased profits). As with any big initiative, the key to success is company wide understanding and acceptance. This volume aims to convey the logic behind this management process using an easy-to-understand format.

Vital tools for implementing Lean Six Sigma--what they are, how they work, and which to use The Lean Six Sigma Pocket Toolbook is today's most complete and results-based reference to the tools and concepts needed to understand, implement, and leverage Lean Six Sigma. The only guide that groups tools by purpose and use, this hands-on reference provides: Analyses of nearly 100 tools and methodologies--from DMAIC and Pull Systems to Control Charts and Pareto Charts Detailed explanations of each tool to help you know how, when, and why to use it for maximum efficacy Sections for each tool explaining how to create it, how to interpret what you find, and expert tips Lean Six Sigma is today's leading technique to maximize production efficiency and maintain control over each step in the managerial process. With The Lean Six Sigma Pocket Toolbook, you'll discover how to propel your organization to new levels of competitive success--one tool at a time.

As Subir Chowdhury makes clear, while improving a company's processes is vital, if you don't focus first on your people -- your employees -- the best processes in the world won't get you where you want to go. In the bestselling tradition of The Fred Factor and What the CEO Wants You to Know, bestselling author and quality guru Subir Chowdhury (The Power of Six Sigma), tackles a question that has haunted him in his consulting work with companies for years. Why is it that some companies improve 50x, while others improve only incrementally? The ideas and training, after all, is the same. What is the difference? That is the question he tackles in this compelling and empowering new book. In The Difference, Subir Chowdhury looks at what distinguishes a company that adopts his quality training processes, and improves 5x, versus a company that adopts the same training and consulting, but increases their profits and quality 50x. The difference, he claims, is this short, engaging, and insightful book, is the people in your workplace, on your staff, in your executive offices. The best processes and training programs in the world will not lead to world-class operations, unless a company first looks to the people who make up their workforce. Only by creating a "caring mindset" -- a culture built upon straightforwardness, honest and openness; a management structure that thinks about the concerns of their people; a workplace that inspires accountability and engagement; and managers and employees who tackle the challenges they face with perseverance and resolve, can companies flourish and excel.

Unlike other books that promote a specific process and performance improvement discipline, this book shows organizations how to achieve success by fixing basic operational issues and problems using a broad and wide-sweeping process-based toolkit. In addition, it helps individuals who have worked in stale- or siloed-thinking enterprises make the transition to a process or improvement-oriented culture and teaches those who are unfamiliar with process tools to look at their work with a new lens and adopt a continuous improvement and analytical-thinking mindset.The authors have successfully used the various methods, tools, and concepts found in this book to overcome practical, daily problems at various organizations. This book will surely help operators, managers, practitioners, and executives, who are charged with improving processes and workplace culture, produce better products and services.

The definitive guide to process improvement and operational excellence--now fully updated This thoroughly revised guide offers a roadmap for businesses to improve everything from IT to customer service processes while managing organizational changes. You will discover how to design effective process improvement structures, organizations, and cultures and provide faster response times, better service, and increased agility. 

The Process Improvement Handbook: A Blueprint for Managing Change and Increasing Organizational Performance, Second Edition equips you with the necessary skills to deliver consistent, successful outcomes. The book provides best practices for implementation and serves as a comprehensive body of knowledge. Chapters new to this edition explore the functionality of new platforms and tools available to the business world.

* Previous edition won a 2015 Axiom Book Award for best business theory book
* Features templates, case studies, and real-world examples
* Written by a pair of project management and process improvement experts

Business Process Management (BPM) is a powerful management discipline for driving efficiency and innovation, as well as achieving strategic imperatives. When you develop a business strategy that is supported by a pragmatic application of BPM, your processes become important assets--and business success soon follows. It's called value-driven BPM, and this game-changing guide takes you step by step through the entire process. A team of BPM experts from the global management consulting company Accenture provides some of the key ingredients you need to achieve the highest levels of differentiation and performance. Franz and Kirchmer explain how to launch value-driven BPM in synchronicity with existing BPM efforts, and they reveal common roadblocks along with clear steps for overcoming them.

With Value-Driven Business Process Management, you have in your hands a full-suite guide to:
* Achieving immediate business benefits while building lasting BPM capabilities
* Putting the right team and infrastructure in place to build an organization designed for an outcome and value-based BPM capability
* Assessing and prioritizing process improvements in alignment with the overall business strategy to meet the most vital needs and deliver the most value

The authors include several end-to-end case studies from a range of industries. These deliver valuable insight into successfully linking processes to value. If your goal is to empower every employee at every level to express his or her virtuosity in a way that is aligned with strategy, this book is for you. If you seek to create innovative products and services that meet changing customer requirements, this book is for you. If you want your people and technological capabilities to execute the new paradigm with excellence, and thus realize unprecedented value.

Do you sometimes feel like your business is an adult daycare centre? Are you constantly repeating yourself, fixing errors and trying to hold things together? What if it were possible to create a business that runs itself? You've dreamed about it - now it's time to make this a reality! If you're anything like many seasoned business owners, you've tried and failed to systemise your business. The reality is, your shiny business isn't as functional as it looks from the outside; it's unorganised, inconsistent and key-person dependent. SYSTEMology solves this problem with a proven, step-by-step business systemisation framework - designed so that even the busiest business owner can deploy it. Drawing on 20+ years of business experience and real-life case studies, David Jenyns details the path to complete business reliability. Here are just a few of the myths we will bust along the way: You will need to create hundreds of systems to systemise a business. The business owner is the only one who can create the systems. Creating systems is time-consuming. You need to invest in expensive and complex software. Even if you have systems in place, your team won't follow them. Systemisation destroys creativity. You need to systemise like McDonald's. The fact is, successful business owners worldwide are applying SYSTEMology every day to create time, reduce errors and scale their profits - and now you can too!

Robust Optimization is a method to improve robustness using low-cost variations of a single, conceptual design. The benefits of Robust Optimization include faster product development cycles; faster launch cycles; fewer manufacturing problems; fewer field problems; lower-cost, higher performing products and processes; and lower warranty costs. All these benefits can be realized if engineering and product development leadership of automotive and manufacturing organizations leverage the power of using Robust Optimization as a competitive weapon.  

Written by world renowned authors, Robust Optimization: World's Best Practices for Developing Winning Vehicles, is a ground breaking book which introduces the technical management strategy of Robust Optimization. The authors discuss what the strategy entails, 8 steps for Robust Optimization and Robust Assessment, and how to lead it in a technical organization with an implementation strategy. Robust Optimization is defined and it is demonstrated how the techniques can be applied to manufacturing organizations, especially those with automotive industry applications, so that Robust Optimization creates the flexibility that minimizes product development cost, reduces product time-to-market, and increases overall productivity. 

Key features:
* Presents best practices from around the globe on Robust Optimization that can be applied in any manufacturing and automotive organization in the world Includes 19 successfully implemented best case studies from automotive original equipment manufacturers and suppliers
* Provides manufacturing industries with proven techniques to become more competitive in the global market
* Provides clarity concerning the common misinterpretations on Robust Optimization

Robust Optimization: World's Best Practices for Developing Winning Vehicles is a must-have book for engineers and managers who are working on design, product, manufacturing, mechanical, electrical, process, quality area; all levels of management especially in product development area, research and development personnel and consultants. It also serves as an excellent reference for students and teachers in engineering.

MEET YOUR GOALS--ON TIME AND ON BUDGET. How do you rein in the scope of your project when you've got a group of demanding stakeholders breathing down your neck? And map out a schedule everyone can stick to? And motivate team members who have competing demands on their time and attention? Whether you're managing your first project or just tired of improvising, this guide will give you the tools and confidence you need to define smart goals, meet them, and capture lessons learned so future projects go even more smoothly.

The HBR Guide to Project Management will help you:
* Build a strong, focused team
* Break major objectives into manageable tasks
* Create a schedule that keeps all the moving parts under control
* Monitor progress toward your goals
* Manage stakeholders' expectations
* Wrap up your project and gauge its success

The definitive account of the Scrum methodology from its co-creator and the CEO of Scrum, Inc., Jeff Sutherland.Scrum is the revolutionary approach to project management and team building that has helped to transform everything from software companies to the US military to healthcare in major American hospitals.