Recommended Books and Web Sites

Our site also features a listing of suggested readings of more general business and non-process improvement topics.

Web Sites

• www.iSixSigma.com provides articles on a wealth of Six Sigma subjects as well as a virtual discussion area devoted to Six Sigma topics.
• American Society for Quality (ASQ) offers a wide range of resources, including information on certification and standards
• The Process Excellence Network portal (commentary, articles, Webcasts)
• Industry Week benchmarking database
• www.LEAN.ORG is a site operated by noted "Lean Thinking" author James Womack, and offers downloads of Lean presentations.
• National Institute of Standards and Technology
• The American Production and Inventory Control Society offers information on supply chain management, including an on-line magazine
• The National Association of Purchasing Managers offers information on supply chain management - www.NAPM.ORG
• Skymark provides short tutorials on several process improvement tools
• Simulations of the Central Limit Theorem can be found at the following:
  www.rand.org/methodology/stat/applets/clt.html and www.ruf.rice.edu/%7Elane/stat_sim/sampling_dist/index.html
• Andrew Gelman’s Statistical Modeling blog delivers daily and weekly observations on Statistical Modeling, Causal Inference, and Social Science

Lean Six Sigma Event Providers

• Six Sigma and Process Excellence (a division of IQPC) offers international Lean Six Sigma events throughout the year, including a large annual event in January: www.sixsigmaiq.com/events.cfm
• The American Society for Quality (ASQ) offers a full roster of local , regional, and national events for quality and Six Sigma. They traditionally hold a large Six Sigma Summit in the first quarter of the year. Their event calendar is updated on a regular basis
• See the MoreSteam Conference Calendar for a detailed list of global events

Online Statistics Handbooks

• An excellent statistics handbook is available free online from a partnership of SEMATECH and NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology - U.S. Commerce Department) at: http://www.itl.nist.gov/div898/handbook/index.htm
• Statistics case studies, tutorials, and simulations are available online from Rice University at: http://onlinestatbook.com/rvls.html
• Statsoft, the marketer of Statistica®, offers an excellent online statistics handbook at www.statsoft.com/textbook/stathome.html

Lean and Six Sigma Textbooks

Process Improvement and Six Sigma

• Rath & Strong, Rath & Strong's Six Sigma Leadership Handbook (John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 2003), ISBN: 0471251240
• Rath & Strong, Rath & Strong's Six Sigma Pocket Guide (Rath & Strong 2000), ISBN: 0970507909
• Rath & Strong, Rath & Strong's Six Sigma Team Pocket Guide (McGraw-Hill Trade 2003),ISBN: 0071417567
• Donald J. Wheeler and David S. Chambers, Understanding Statistical Process Control (Statistical Process Controls, Inc. 1986), ISBN: 0945320132
• W. Edwards Deming Out of the Crisis (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Center for Advanced Engineering Study 1982, 1986), ISBN: 0262541157
• Peter S. Pande, Robert P. Neuman, Roland R. Cavanagh, The Six Sigma Way: How GE, Motorola, and Other Top Companies are Honing Their Performance (McGraw-Hill 2000), ISBN: 0-07-135806-4
• Joseph M. Juran and A. Blanton Godfrey, Juran's Quality Handbook (McGraw-Hill, 1999), ISBN: 007034003X
• Donald J. Wheeler and David S. Chambers, Understanding Statistical Process Control (Statistical Process Controls, Inc. 1986), ISBN: 0945320132
• Nikkan Kogyo Shimbun, Ltd / Factory Magazine, Poka-Yoke: Improving Product Quality by Preventing Defects (Productivity Press, 1988), ISBN: 0-915299-31-3

Statistics / Design of Experiments

• George E. P. Box, William G. Hunter and J. Stuart Hunter, Statistics for Experimenters: An Introduction to Design, Data Analysis, and Model Building (John Wiley and Sons, Inc. 1978), ISBN: 0-471-09315-7
• Mark J. Anderson and Patrick J. Whitcomb, DOE Simplified: Practical Tools for Effective Experimentation (Quality Management) (Productivity, Inc. 2000), ISBN: 1-56327-225-3
• Douglas C. Montgomery, Design and Analysis of Experiments (John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1984, ISBN: 0-471-86812-4.
• Genichi Taguchi, Introduction to Quality Engineering: Designing Quality into Products and Processes (Asian Productivity Organization, 1986), ISBN: 92-833-1084-5

Organizational Development

• Peter M. Senge, The Fifth Discipline: The Art & Practice of the Learning Organization (Currency Doubleday, 1990), ISBN: 0-385-26095-4
• Senge, Ross, Smith, Roberts, Kleiner, The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook (Currency Doubleday, 1994), ISBN: 0-385-47256-0

Lean Manufacturing

• James P. Womack and Daniel T. Jones, Lean Thinking - Banish Waste and Create Wealth in Your Corporation (Simon & Schuster, 1996), ISBN: 0-684-81035-2
• Taiichi Ohno, Lean Thinking : Banish Waste and Create Wealth in Your Corporation (Productivity Press 1988), ISBN: 0-915299-14-3
• Shigeo Shingo, The Sayings of Shigeo Shingo: Key Strategies for Plant Improvement (Japanese Management) (Productivity Press, 1987), ISBN: 0-915299-15-1
• Shigeo Shingo, Non-Stock Production: The Shingo System of Continuous Improvement (Most Detailed Examination of the Fundamentals of Jit) (Productivity Press, 1988), ISBN: 0-915299-30-5