Six Sigma Business Scorecard: Ensuring Performance for Profit

Six Sigma Business Scorecard: Ensuring Performance for Profit

by PraveenGupta (Author)

Synopsis

Six Sigma has become a widely recognized strategic tool to improve business performance and profitability. Many books cover basic Six Sigma concepts, but none detail the most critical element of its improvement methodology: performance measurements. Without a strong grasp of performance metrics, a company can have no clear, quantitative indication of its quality improvement. The Six Sigma Business Scorecard is a unique approach to measuring performance. It allows companies to track their improvements in quality and profitability - and make adjustments if such improvements are not up to expectations - while implementing Six Sigma. Without a comprehensive performance measurement strategy, your company can't hope to reap the many benefits of Six Sigma. This guidebook will show you how to implement a successful, statistically rigorous Six Sigma program. It provides numerical methods for evaluating a corporation's Six Sigma success (or lack thereof). It is written by an author with twelve years teaching experience at Motorola University. It builds on the recognized Business Scorecard approach.

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More Information

Format: Hardcover
Pages: 234
Publisher: McGraw-Hill Inc.,US
Published: 01 Oct 2003

ISBN 10: 0071417303
ISBN 13: 9780071417303

Media Reviews
Excerpts from review by Paul Harmon Praveen Gupta was at Motorola in 1987 when Bill Smith first proposed what has become Six Sigma, and has been working to improve processes ever since. Somewhere along the line Mr. Gupta became focused on the problems of relating corporate goals and profits to process changes. Mr. Gupta describes the history and practices of Six Sigma in a few succinct chapters. He goes on to compare and contrast Six Sigma measures with ISO 9000 measures and the measures used by the US's Baldrige award system. In the end he concludes that, while each contributes to improved processes, they do not tend to establish clear links to corporate goals, and ultimately, to corporate profits. Or, put slightly differently, there is no way to conclude, from lots of specific Six Sigma projects, whether the organization, as a whole is getting better. Next, Gupta considers Kaplan and Norton's Balanced Scorecard system. Balanced Scorecard seeks to shift senior management's attention for financial measures to a more balanced set of measures which include: (1) Financial Measures, (2) Customer-Related Measures, (3) Internal Business Operations Measures, and (4) Learning and Growth Measures. Gupta describes the system and some of its successes. He proceeds, however, to argue that, as a generalization, the Balanced Scorecard has been more successful with senior managers than with operations managers. In other words, Six Sigma focuses on processes, and rather narrowly defined processes at that, and doesn't reach up to link to strategies and goals. Balanced Scorecard starts with the strategies and goals of senior managers and doesn't reach downward to provide direction for managers and employees engaged with lower-level process improvement. Gupta concludes that a better performance measurement system is required, and proposes it. Gupta's solution is the Six Sigma Business Scorecard. In a nutshell, he attempts to merge the best of the scorecard approach with some Six Sigma measurement concepts. Rather than rely on four sets of measures, Gupta proposes that companies rely on seven, including: * Leadership and Profitability * Management and Improvement * Employees and Innovation * Purchasing and Supplier Management * Operational Execution * Sales and Distribution * Service and Growth ...I...recommend this book to those concerned with the measurement of corporate performance, with Balanced Scorecard programs, and with Six Sigma programs. Clearly Gupta has thought long and hard about these issues and he provides detailed discussions of many important and difficult issues that those involved in performance management must solve in the years ahead. A company may not adopt Gupta's entire approach, but this book is a valuable sourcebook that describes specific problems and suggests ways of dealing with the shortcomings of existing practices. It will probably inspire others to work on the important problems that Gupta pinpoints. Business Process Trends 20040602 Excerpts from article: New Book Captures Keys to Short- and Long-Term Business Success ...Six Sigma Business Scorecard, published by McGraw-Hill, combines today's most powerful management concepts...The book starts with a comprehensive review of Six Sigma and its ability to generate significant returns by focusing on customer satisfaction and profitability. Gupta then describes the following seven highly critical areas to manage in any organization: 1) leadership and profitability; 2) management and improvement; 3) employees and innovation; 4) purchasing and supplier management; 5) operational execution; 6) sales and distribution; and 7) service and growth. Using these criteria, Gupta develops the Business Performance Index (BPIn), a comprehensive business guide that can judge the overall performance of any organization. The book also portrays how the BPIn can be used to determine a corporate sigma level that is missing in the Six Sigma methodology used today. Additionally, The Six Sigma Business Scorecard includes an interview with Bob Galvin, former CEO of Motorola, in which he shares his views on leadership performance... IPC Review 20040101
Author Bio
Praveen Gupta has been president of Quality Technology Company since 1989. Mr. Gupta was present at the origin of Six Sigma and taught Six Sigma at Motorola University for more than a decade. His first project was completed in 1988 and saved his company more than $250,000, earning him a prestigious CEO Award. Mr. Gupta wrote a monthly column, Mastering Six Sigma,, and co-authored the popular Six Sigma Deployment He holds a BSEE from Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee, India, and an MSEE degree from the Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago. He is also a Master Six Sigma Black Belt and a Fellow of the American Society for Quality.