Book Description

Total Quality in Purchasing and Supplier Management is an important and essential new book which develops a systematic approach to purchasing and supplier quality management (PSQM). It explains how to build a solid customer-supplier relationship and presents methods for finding suppliers who will best align with the purchaser's organization (i.e., suppliers who are committed to a long-term relationship as well as the continuous improvement process). The methods involved in the purchaser/supplier continuing improvement process is also presented.Systems for prioritizing the deployment of commodities, products, services and suppliers are covered. A feedback mechanism that tracks supplier performance and insures that plans are being followed is presented.Finally, this new book explains the need for a PSQM system and shows how that system must become an integral part of any quality program in order for the extended enterprise to be successful.This book is an essential resource for any organization committed to the sucessful implementation of PSQM. ... Read more

Book Description

In the aftermath of scandals such as those at Enron and WorldCom, there is a growing suspicion of the corporate world. For this reason it is more important than ever for firms to maintain a good reputation. In Building Reputational Capital, Kevin T. Jackson offers a practical guide to taking the high road--the only path that leads to lasting success.Based on extensive research and real-world experience, Building Reputational Capital reveals basic principles of integrity and fairness with which firms can build an enduring reputation. More than image, a firm's reputation is a form of capital often neglected in the boardroom and overlooked in conventional analyses of financial statements. Speaking directly to the work experience of real people in practical business settings, Jackson couples each principle with straightforward actions that drive management systems, and he provides tested strategies--from downsizing techniques to e-commerce tips--that cultivate the hidden power of a good reputation. He outlines the advantages of a superior reputation (simply put, people want to work for, invest in, and do business with a company or person with integrity), describes the vital role the firm's leader must play, offers ways to build and protect your reputation on the Internet (from defusing Internet rumors to creating an online community), and shows how to rescue your reputation once disaster hits. Perhaps most important, he shows how to strike the right balance of virtues like authenticity, honesty, responsibility, and stewardship of the environment, employees, and the economy.Highlighted with real-life success stories--from giants like Hewlett-Packard to small firms like Thanksgiving Coffee Company (which invests part of its revenues in the Central American villages in which its beans are grown), Building Reputational Capitaloffers a simple but effective guide for executives, managers, entrepreneurs, legal professionals, and corporate consultants. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Why Corporate Ethics Pays
This is a great accomplishment that speaks right to sophisticated business audiences interested in winning while still following their conscience. Author Kevin Jackson demonstrates how taking the moral high road is the most certain way for firms to gain lasting financial success. As he says, "companies that operate ethically, that safeguard and cultivate their reputations, gain a competitive edge over rivals that don't." In this scrupulously researched (its even got stock charts to show effects of ethical/unethical conduct on share prices), interesting, and logically organized book, Jackson offers a practical guide for executives, managers, entrepreneurs, lawyers and consultants. There couldn't be a better time for a book like this to be hitting the press!

Integrity Impacts the Bottom Line
This book develops the astute and timely premise that ethical conduct in business is at root a solid economic investment. While money spent following the law might not lead to any special payoffs other than avoiding fines and other sanctions, when a company moves beyond compliance it is making a long-term investment in its reputational capital. Author Kevin Jackson convincingly shows how the notion that you need to be brutal to make it in the business world is a huge myth. And clinging to that myth can ruin a firm's reputation and hurt its bottom line in the process. The powerful message of Jackson's book rings out loud and clear: a reputation for integrity and fair play is the most overlooked intangible asset that a company owns. I think that every businessperson would benefit from a careful study of this book. The author shows how wrongheaded it is for companies to focus on the short-term only, trying to please shareholders with the stock price games that have become all-too-familiar and even scandalous. Jackson gives a clear, sophisticated, and highly insightful guide to help firms maximize principles of moral responsibility -- including respecting human rights, being environmentally friendly, and socially conscious -- to build an enduring and authentic reputation. One of the really interesting ideas set out in the book is that building a strong ethical reputation doesn't have to be a budget-busting enterprise. Corporate leaders can make themselves accessible, treat people with dignity and respect, be compassionate without having to spend a dime. Other good strategies Jackson sets out include: conducting reputation audits, creating mission statements, treating critics (sometimes even activists) as advisors by listening to their point of view, and fostering loyalty from employees and suppliers, which eventually will find its way to customers. The book is inspirational and refreshing, taking both a broad, philosophical perspective while also showing a high degree of sophistication in detailed matters of contemporary business and finance. In making his case for the impact of corporate character on economic assets, he covers ground from Enron, WorldCom and the mutual fund debacle to human rights issues in the Third World. ... Read more

Book Description

Improving service quality has finally become a top priority of management today, yet according to service quality expert Leonard Berry only a handful of companies have managed to determine exactly what to improve and how to improve it. For the past two years, Berry studied dozens of companies of all sizes renowned for their capacity to deliver what they promise and more. From his on-site observation of the strategies and practices of such companies as Mary Kay Cosmetics, Tattered Cover Book Store, Longo Toyota & Lexus, Lakeland Regional Medical Center, and Hard Rock Cafe, Berry has constructed a dynamic new framework for improving service.

This framework provides a roadmap for implementation found nowhere else in the service quality literature. In every chapter Berry draws on his twelve years of research in service quality to explain each part of the framework in detail. He provides rich insights and inspiring examples of great service -- including numerous examples unique to this book as well as the classic success stories of USAA, Taco Bell, and many more. Berry shows that a company must (1) develop service leadership skills and values -- a concept substantially different from developing general leadership; (2) build a service quality information system; and (3) create a comprehensive service strategy based on the four principles of great service: reliability, surprise, recovery, and fairness. He demonstrates how these four principles, when adopted by the leadership and infused into the systems of a service company, are the building blocks of the framework and form the anchor for implementation.

Berry shows how the "artistry" of great service can be systematically created from this foundation through a company's organizational structure, technology, and often under utilized human resources assets. He challenges service managers to set their service quality aspirations higher, and his innovative, practical ideas will help them achieve those higher standards. Linking service excellence to value creation, Berry provides solid financial reasons for the necessity of great service. Here, at last, is the book for which managers in every service industry have waited: Leonard Berry's "operating manual" for turning plans for great service into action. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

An Always Actual Framework To Action!
Even though this book was first published on 1996, the framework presented by Mr. Berry to achieve Extraordinary Customer Service is still valuable and actual. It has 13 chapters and each one gives a pure meaning of every treated subject. It's not another Customer Service book...It's an strategy customer service book.

Mr. Berry's insights can be applied from Face to Face to Call Center environments and it's a must-read to Top-Executives that have started a company focus change and are wondering why it's the innitiative failing or getting down the hills. The answers could probably be: Your company it's not competing for talented people, has not embrace the technology, has not empowered your front line teams or the most elementary one...maybe have not created yet a Customer Service strategy since the beginning (Of course, where everyone in the company was included, not only you). All this answers are ON GREAT SERVICE.

Extraordinary book.

BERRY SE LUCE
LEONARD BERY SE CONSAGRA COMO UNO DE LOS PRINCIPALES AUTORES SOBRE EL SERVICIO Y LA MERCADOTECNIA DE SERVICIOS. MEJORAR LA CALIDAD DEL SERVICIO AL CLIENTE ES HOY UNA PRIORIDAD Y BERRY ES UN VISIONARIO DE ESTO. NO LO DEJEN DE LEER. ... Read more

Book Description

This book is designed to help project managers take charge of any project and its individual responsibilities, like defining the scope of aproject, scheduling and budgeting, identifying and assigning tasks.

Fully revised with new information about project management in the electronic age, the book also includes specifics about conforming with newly updatedProject Management Body of Knowledge standards. Following those standards as outlined in this book allows project leaders to achieve:

* On-time delivery of results * Superior organizational ability * A reputation for dependability * Consistent profit generation

The book features basic information on how to create the foundation and structure of projects, as well as a guide for accomplishing every phase along theway to completion. ... Read more

Reviews (5)

Misleading Advice
This book offers a lot of advice to would be project managers; unfortunately, little of it appears to be born of experience. In fact, following this book to the letter would lead to one novice pitfall after another. The author recommends against adding float (he calls it 'fudge') to cost or time budgets. Experience yields contact with variance, and variance is a fact of life that cannot be denied in the planning phase. Toward the end of the book, advising how to build a career, the author suggests that projects should always be brought in on time and on budget. Without float, how in the world can things come in on time and on budget without a miracle? Although some of the information provided is useful, the mistakes in here are toxic enough to warrant avoiding the book. I would think a book entitled 'little black book' would provide some coverage of organizational politics. Perhaps this is a book that could be sent anonymously to one's enemies? My advice is to avoid the book, and to avoid getting your boss the book, despite the fact that other reviews describe it as an executive primer.

The Project Management Primer with the most ROI.
If there is only one book you want to read and you don't want to spend more than a few hours to get up to speed on project management, this is that book.

We were introduced to this book in graduate school at Georgia Tech while taking some Industrial Engineering classes that had a lot of team oriented projects. The Industrial Engineering graduate program at Georgia Tech has consistently ranked No. 1 in the nation for at least the last decade. So, when they recommended that we buy, read and keep this book for a long time to come, I didn't question their judgment.

I wasn't too thrilled with what the book had to say when I first read it a few years back. My first impressions were - why are they making such a big deal about these simple concepts? The theory in the book seemed too simplistic at the time. But over the last few years as I started gaining experience as a project manager, I discovered the reasons why this book is so popular.

The reason why this book is so valuable - most people when first introduced to project management are not interested in reading a lot of material on the subject and want to get a Cliff's notes version of the subject. That's when you can get the most benefit from this book. It is better to read this book than not read anything at all on the subject. And it is a very easy book to read.

Over the years, I have been able to convince several people to read this book and gain project management skills because it is not that much of a commitment to ask from people. I have even led weekly project management learning sessions using this book as the main tool. It worked and people learned quite a bit more about project management than they knew before reading the book.

After years of project management experience and passing the PMP, I now realize what a gem this book is even for an experienced project manager. It can act as a refresher if you read it once a year. Sometimes, we all tend to forget the simplest and most obvious things and this book helps us remember the basic project management principles.

Don't be fooled by this 170 page lightweight, it packs quite a powerful punch! A lot of professionals who are not project managers have thanked me for recommending this book. It helped them understand what I do as a project manager without having to spend too much time. It may be an excellent idea to distribute copies of this very inexpensive book to members of your team so that it can enhance team communications.

If project management is your career, you should definitely move on to other books after finishing this book. You can keep the copy as an annual refresher though.

This is Crap
First of all, the book is over 10 years old at this point. Second of all, it's based on industrial project management concepts from the 70's. Third, it accomplishes very little besides completely boring the reader for 170 pages. It dispenses useless advice such as "make a budget," "make a schedule," written in a stilted format apparently designed to numb the reader's brain. You will not refer back to this book as a reference at any point after reading, I promise you.

If this book has sold well, I imagine it's because of the clever title and black cover. It's certainly not because of the contents. Try "Project Management for Dummies" instead--it's got a silly title, but has much more useful information inside. Or at least buy something sold more recently than this paperweight.

Good Resource to Start Project Management Quickly
I was looking for a book that would get me going fairly quickly. I had a project with a tight budget that was going to take the better part of a year. I needed to start managing it, and I needed to start then. Those 600+ page college-text style tomes were not going to help. Then I found this little gem, and I was off and running.

Thomsett starts at the beginning--organizing-- then in 11 chapters and 182 pages describes planning, team-building, budgeting, scheduling, communication, documentation, review, and even tips for eliminating common problems. The most important (and common) tools such as PERT and Gantt charts, flow diagrams, etc. are all here. There are even exercises after each chapter (with answers in the appendix) so you can test yourself and make sure you've got it.

This book helped me get it, and gave me the tools I needed to be able to manage my project successfully. If you're an accomplished project manager, this book will seem basic (although it may be a good review). If you're starting down this path or want to share the basics with your team members, you'll find it to be quite helpful.

Helpful Reading
This book was easy to read and full of helpful information! ... Read more

Book Description

Read it in just 2 hours! Establish customer-defined quality to escalate performance and profitsIn order for your organization to achieve optimum success, you must understand how customers define a quality version of your product or service. Customer-Inspired Quality will help you do just that, plus establish quantifiable ways to improve processes so that you meet?and exceed?customer expectations at all times.

Step by step, discover how to:

• Analyze work processes from the perspective of primary, secondary, and internal customers
• Establish measurements that reflect the customers' definitions
• Qualify a process for a six-level process improvement model
• Conduct regular process improvement reviews
• Use process qualification to achieve early measurable results
• Identify which quality and operational performance measures should be tracked according to customer needs

Customer-Inspired Quality will help you improve quality and customer satisfaction cost-effectively and in ways that will help your organization compete. Put your customers in the driver's seat and watch your profits take off!

... Read more

Reviews (1)

A great first look at what it means to be "Cutomer Focused"
"Process improvement is the only known way to make real, long lasting changes in an organization that will increase its chances of survival and prosperity," writes Jim Shaw, consultant and examiner for the Malcolm Baldridge Quality Award.This book discusses the importance of looking at your business through the eyes of your customer, and sets out a series of steps for doing so.

With simple explanations, and well structured chapters, this book is a quick read (1-2 hours), but is elementary for anyone already involved in six sigma (or any other customer focused improvement effort.)If being "customer inspired" is something that you aspire to, but aren't entirely sure how to do it, this book gives an invaluable perspective. ... Read more

Book Description

For decades, Juran's Quality Handbook has been the one essential reference in quality management and engineering--the ultimate authoritative source of answers on quality applications, procedures, techniques, and strategies. Now this Fifth Edition--a major revision and the first new edition of Juran's Quality Handbook in more than 10 years--forges a new standard in tools for quality. Bringing managers and engineers the most up-to-date methods, research, and theory, under the guidance of a team of the world's top experts, Juran's shows you how to plan for quality, achieve quality control, and ensure quality results. Packed with new methods, research, and thought on quality, and emphasizing the need for quality software and quality software development methods, this completely updated classic also gives you new information, new techniques, and new applications. Broad in scope and inclusive in methodology, Juran's Quality Handbook is the reference of choice for anyone concerned with quality in business, manufacturing, or engineering. Whether you're just beginning your journey or a longtime traveler on the quality path, this book is the best possible companion for your voyage. ... Read more

Reviews (10)

the bible for quality engineers
For decades Joseph Juran has been a famous name in the quality movement. He formed his own institute for quality and has for many years edited an extensive volume on methods for improving quality in manufacturing processes. This Quality Handbook, now in its fifth edition has long been the basic reference for quality engineers and statistician alike. To honor Juran, the fifth edition is titled Juran's Quality Handbook. The volume is now over 900 pages and consists of 48 chapters and 5 appendices. There are 53 authors including Juran himself and his colleague and co-editor Blanton Godfrey. Many other well-known persons have contributed. It includes a chapter on government services by Vice President Al Gore. Prominent statisticians who have contributed include Don Marquardt, Stu Hunter, Bill Meeker, Luis Escobar, Gerry Hahn, Ed Schilling, Ed Dudewicz and Necip Doganaksoy.

As a statistician, I particularly like having a wealth of practical statistical information and tables in one source. Dudewicz provides the introductory statistical material necessary to understand the four other statistical chapters that follow it (SPC by Wadsworth, Acceptance Sampling by Schilling, Design and Analysis of Experiments by Hunter and Reliability Concepts and Data Analysis by Meeker, Escobar, Doganaksoy and Hahn). These are all distinguished authors who are excellent writers and several have written whole text books on these subjects. This edition is up-to-date with the latest advances in quality techniques. Statistical advances in robust design (Taguchi methods), bootstrap methods, process control and capability are all included. Juran and Deming had major practical impact on the quality movement because they both emphasized the need for proper process management. This can be seen in many of the non-statistical chapters that deal with successful management techniques such as six sigma.

This edition is even better than the previous editions and is indeed worthy of the title of bible. Despite the high cost this book is prominent on my bookshelf. I recommend it to anyone heavily involved in product reliability, even if they own copies of previous editions!

A tiring but invaluable resource
"Juran's Quality Handbook" is a massive tome of great value to quality professionals. It is not smooth reading, nor is it the type of book that can be read quickly. Indeed, to maximize the usefulness of this "Bible," I suggest reading one or two sections per month and try to apply the concepts as much as possible. It will improve one's effectiveness as a quality professional. The book covers every facet of quality I could imagine, so there certainly is no lack of material. I give it 4 stars due to an abundance of long, run-on sentences. This complicates the book unnecessarily, making the reader review sentences twice in many cases!

Excellent Reference
Excellent reference. I used this in my Six Sigma Black Belt course. I referenced it many times. I could not have passed the test without it. Some of the chapters (e.g. quality in foriegn countries) did not interest me, but seemed to be well written -- such is the case anyway with references. I heard Dr. Godfrey speak at a national conference -- he is a real champion for Six Sigma.

The quality bible
A wide coverage of quality in the Juran's perspective. I recommend it to all who are interested this Guru theories, tools and techniques.

Excelllent handbook
Very comprehensive quality handbook. Dealing with the latest tools and techniques and theoritical basis as well. I would have appreciated if some topics were more detailed (ie: six sigma ... Read more

Book Description

The subject of management for quality has undergone rapid and drastic change as a result of competition in the marketplace and the vulnerability of industrialized societies that depend heavily on the quality of goods and services. In this companion volume to his acclaimed Juran on Planning for Quality, J.M. Juran provides top-level managers with the specific, field-tested methods they need to successfully lead their companies on the quest for superior quality.

Managers have long recognized that the most sound response to a competitive challenge is to become more competitive. Today, informed managers also realize that quality improvement is the best source of competitive advantage. They know that return on investment in quality improvement projects is among the highest available. Yet, the means by which management can supply the leadership necessary to attain quality goals remains elusive. J.M. Juran has drawn on the experiences of thousands of chief executives in companies around the world to create a clear plan of action applicable to any industry, whether service or manufacturing.

The famous "Juran Trilogy," clearly presented step-by-step, shows how to apply the familiar business concepts of planning, control, and improvement to quality leadership. For each concept, Dr. Juran provides a succinct and proven series of actions. He gives criteria for selecting project-by-project improvements and mobilizing a team to carry them out. He also describes a realistic timetable of implementation and directs the formation of an ongoing quality council whose job is to launch, coordinate, and "institutionalize" annual quality improvement. The membership of this council, as Dr. Juran insists, must come from the ranks of senior managers; the stakes are too high for upper managers not to personally become the leaders and members of this vital council. Using real-world case examples of highly profitable quality improvements in such companies as Bethlehem Steel and Florida Power & Light, Dr. Juran illustrates how to guide a company into a continuing steep rate of improvement. The key, as Dr. Juran emphasizes, is that quality must be implemented from the top down. This essential handbook makes executive leadership the key to a company's quality revolution -- and to producing the real cost benefits over both the short and long run that superior quality brings. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

QUALITY
Guality in the broadest sense of the term must become an obsession in every corporation throughout America. ... Read more

Book Description

This is the first book dedicated to explaining the total advanced quality planning process with clarity and detail, especially as it pertains to the "Big Three's" standardized approach.

Advanced Quality Planning: A Commonsense Guide to AQP and APQP clarifies and itemizes the requirements of Chrysler, GM, and Ford, as well as the majority of the Tier I suppliers. It provides a list of exactly what they would like to see implemented in their supplier's processes, enhancing the ability to develop and produce products and systems that will satisfy their customers. The book also provides a detailed look at the basic and higher advanced quality planning concepts in a practical and easy-to-understand format so that both the novice and experienced user will be able to apply AQP appropriately and effectively.

The author, D.H. Stamatis, takes you step-by-step through the advanced quality planning methodology providing you with an overview and discussion of the role of teams in AQP, including such key components as scheduling, creating a product definition, prototype development, manufacturing preparedness, analytical techniques, documentation, reliability, and maintainability, and their implementation.

It is a perfect guide for the program manager who is responsible for selecting the proper quality tools and management techniques necessary to fulfill the quality planning strategy. It also provides checklists to help plan the actions which will be appropriate for their respective projects.

Special Features:

Appendixes containing a sample business plan and a case study of Chrysler's Process Sign-Off (PSO) methodology showing how clean and straightforward sign-off can be when AQP has been implemented effectively. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

I can't do english well, so can I understand APQP?
I work for consulting firm.

My firm begin QS9000 consulting.

So I'd like to know APQP. But I can't English well. ... Read more

Book Description

Reviews (1)

good book
this book provides good and understable case studies.
reviews the information in textbook.
disscuss a lot of real cases using the tools in textbook. ... Read more

Book Description

The revised quality management systems ISO 9001:2000 was put in place in December 2000. There is huge international interest in the subject, particularly from companies already certified to ISO 9001, ISO 9002 and ISO 9004, needing to update their existing systems to ISO 9001:2000.

ISO 9001:2000 Audit Procedures fills a need for a guide which will assist auditors in completing internal, external and third party audits of existing ISO 9001:1994, ISO 9002:1994 and ISO 9003:1994 compliant Quality Management Systems, newly implemented ISO 9001:2000 Quality Management Systems and transitional QMSs.

Organizations must also be prepared to undergo an audit of their own quality procedures from potential customers and prove to them that their Quality Management System fully meets the recommendatins, requirements and specifications of ISO 9001:2000.ISO 9001:2000 Audit Procedures describes methods for completing management reviews and quality audits.

Includes essential information on what is provided in ISO 9001:2000.Provides stage audit check sheets.Provides a crosscheck between the requirements of ISO 9001:2000 and that of any QMS previously certified to ISO 9001:1994. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Bargain of the year
This book must be the bargain of the year for any small business to use as a template for succesful auditing to the international standard.
In addition the sample documents are meticulously presented and are easy to follow. Consequently it enables both the layman and the experet to develop a comprehensive audit plan, checklists and audit reports.
The contents enable current ISO 9001:1994 sytem users to easily transfer to the new standard.
As a professional trainer I have fould the book to be an invaluable aid to support training programmes.
Any company purchasing the book will save thousands in consultancy fees... ... Read more

Book Description

The Pocket Guide to the Baldrige Award Criteria - 9th Edition
Mark Graham Brown

This handy pocket book is a quick reference guide to interpreting the criteria in the seven Baldrige categories. Whether a company is applying for the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award or not, this can help employees at all levels as they work toward improving quality. Includes answers to frequently asked questions and quick tips indicating what excellent companies do in each category. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

A book for the real world of problem solving !
This book is for the people that want to solve quality problems. For those of you that want to know the theory and never do anything with it but teach, would not want to read this book (no big words or long formulas). For the rest of us that are in the real world and need some structure to resolve quality problems (in the real world) GET THIS BOOK! It is a cookbook of how to USE these tools and when to use them. Best front line quality tool source I have ever seen (and I have 4 book shelves full of them). ... Read more

Book Description

Rooted in a statistics, this straightforward book presents real-world applications of quality control. Incorporating modern ideas, methods, and philosophies into total quality management, it focuses on the statistical process control and related subjects, such as achieving product and process quality through experimental design.With examples to demonstrate applications, this book presents foundations of modern quality control and improvements applicable to manufacturing and service industries. It also presents principles of acceptance sampling and reliability to provide a complete reference. The second edition of Fundamentals of Quality Control and Improvement has been revised to include a new chapter on quality management practices, tools, and standards, new material on the average run length and standardized control charts for variables, and an expanded discussion on process capability that includes the Taguchi capability index capability ratio. Profiles of Baldridge Award winners demonstrate best-business practices and performance achievements. It also integrates software applications throughout, including EXCEL, SAS, and MINITAB.A valuable reference book for any professional responsible for quality control management in a manufacturing or service business. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

A sound introductory text
This book could serve as the text for an introductory course in Quality Management and Control at the junior or senior level. If an engineering or business undergraduate can afford only one course in Quality, then this would be a suitable text for that course. The level of mathematics can be well managed by students not particularly good at analytical skills. ... Read more

Book Description

All too often, strategic planning neglects an essential firststep and final step-diagnosis of the organization's current state.What's required is a systematic review of the critical factors inorganizational learning and growth, factors that require monitoring,measurement, and management to ensure that your company competessuccessfully. This executive workbook provides a step-by-step methodfor diagnosing an organization's strategic health and measuring itsoverall competitiveness against world class standards. With checklists,charts, and detailed explanations, Corporate Diagnosis is a practicalinstruction manual. Detailed diagnostic questions in each area areprovided as guidelines for developing your own self-assessment survey. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

A must for all executives
By far the best book on management ever written. I bought the original in about 1975 and after 20 years of use it fell apart so I purchased this new version. If only others would read and comprehend this masterpiece - it would save them millions. All work managers do is either in maintaining performance or improving it and Juran provides provides two universal models that can be used by all. The basic principles of control and improvement without all the jargon. They are as true today as they were in 1966. Read it and you will want to keep it by you always. ... Read more

Book Description

A revision of a popular guide to the key points of total quality control explained clearly and concisely for busy engineers and managers. It not only describes the significant elements of TQC, but also presents step-by-step instructions for starting, managing, and maintaining a TQC program. For those already using TQC, the book tells how to analyze a company's current capabilities--and improve them. The focus of this edition will be on the utilization of tools, techniques, and ideas for total quality creation--making the future happen, creating dependable processes and products, and maximizing efficiency. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

The leading book for the PRACTITIONER
Soin is my teacher, so I admit to be biased. But this book is THE resource for the line management practitioner in TQM. Factual, useful, a resource. The best I know. ... Read more

Book Description

Combining the control theory of William Glasser with the wisdom of W. Edwards Deming, this indispensable management resource explains both what quality is and what lead-managers need to do to achieve it. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Wonderful little handbook -
Glasser takes the basic elements of his Control Theory and fits these in with Deming. Some very very common sense approaches to management. Management involves people most of all, and Glasser's approach is focused on people. This little book is one that a manager should keep on his desk for a careful read and a re-read. Common sense approaches to working with people to get things done, instead of "working" people to try to get things done..

The Control Theory Manager Review
I like the companion volume to Choice Theory which is entitled The Language of Choice Theory. ... Read more

Book Description

Everything you ever wanted to know about quality costs is presented in this edition, now updated with a focus on both the service and manufacturing industries. The third edition of Principles of Quality Costs includes information on the quality costs systems in small businesses, and activity-base costing. Additional information on team-based problem-solving, customer satisfaction, and the costs involved with the defense industry are also offered. Specific examples, including a new case on software quality costs, amplify the how-to-nature of this book. The Taguchi Quality Loss Function (QLF), supplier quality costs, and educating and presenting cost ideas to management make this an outstanding guide to the principles of quality costs. New examples focusing on both the profit and nonprofit sector and over 50 illustrations make this book ideal for anyone working on a quality cost system, regardless of the industry involved. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Quality Cost for Quality Efficient
This book is a great resume for a Quality cost improvement and an excellent guide for that. ... Read more

Reviews (10)

The Power of Empowerment
Bill Creech's The Five Pillars of TQM, first published in 1994 and since reprinted a dozen times and in eight languages, lays out an uncommonly clear-headed approach toward results-oriented management. Creech, a former Air Force four-star general and now valued industry consultant, has served on ten corporate boards of directors and worked with five national speaking bureaus. His management philosophy, while mindful that most organizations are not democracies, is essentially a variation on the golden rule embodying basic decency toward others as a core unifying theme. Best summarized as empowerment with accountability, it is rooted in a recognition that loyalty is a two-way street and that an organization can only be as successful as those at the bottom are willing to make it. Among the many insights to be gleaned from this informed and empathetic book are the virtues of managing by walking around rather than by hunkering down in a mahogany-row fortress, unburdening those who want to get things done by lifting the overlay of rules and kibitzers from their backs, and recognizing that what ultimately determines organizational success is what goes on at the front, not on mahogany row. These principles, which Creech first pioneered during his tenure as commander of the Air Force's Tactical Air Command from 1978 to 1984, are now being reapplied by the current Air Force chief, who recently included Five Pillars on his recommended reading list for all Air Force officers. Yet Creech's principles of TQM (for "total quality management"--a term and construct he invented) transcend service applicability and have been amply proven in the corporate world as well. His idea of how a top-flight organization should be run resonates implicitly with how any responsible and motivated worker would like to be treated by his superiors. Such notions as the indispensability of mutual trust and respect; the power of inclusion rather than exclusion; the vast difference in effectiveness between decreeing and persuading; and the central role of pride as a motivator are part and parcel of Creech's enlightened approach to effective leadership. Five Pillars spells out these principles and more in rich detail, offering must-read insights for those at all levels who deal with people as resources.

The Benefit of Hitting on All Five Cylinders!
What I like about Creech's approach to TQM and more effective organizational management & leadership, is his emphasis on the need to attend to all five pillars of TQM: Product, Process, Organization, Leadership, and Commitment. If you try to improve piecemeal (as so many have), the results will be minor improvement. It is only when you get all five pillars in alignment that you start to get dramatically better results. Also, his specific advice makes so much sense: Organizations need to get a clearer picture of what constitutes quality in their product or service; they need to organize the work process with small teams as much as possible; they need to provide much more training, from the CEO on down; they need to provide clear feedback on how well the organization is doing ("scoreboarding"); etc. One other reviewer is right: Now that I have read this book, I find myself looking around for evidence of TQM practices by the employees every time I interact with an organization. It is amazing what differences you can see in organizational performance, once you are sensitized and start looking for them.

Don't waste your time!
Ouch! What a complete waste of time and money. The Air Force spent a fortune on this program. It just does not work and is a complete irritant to management and employees alike.

Don't know whether to laugh or cry - what a crock
As one of America's millions of cube-dwellers, working for clueless management while being entertained by a regular parade of management fads, this title singled itself out with both it's pretentiousness and disconnection from reality. Evoking Lawrence's "Seven Pillars of Wisdom" in the service of better corporate management isn't just obnoxious and insulting, its indicative of the macho-warrior-wannabe managerial style more common in the 90s than it is these days. But it also has the dead-woodchuck-under-the-porch stench of a fad of years gone by, the (in)famous "Five Keys to Self-Renewal", which I suffered under the yoke and lash of during my earlier days in corporate employ. And to see how well THAT worked, it was soon dumped for Deming, who in turn was dumped for......wait for it......TQMS. And how well did THAT work? After flogging the groundlings from St. Louis to Long Beach (hmmmmm, what company could I be referring to?), guess what? (No, not just the hoary joke about "Time to Quit and Move to Seattle".) The company lost two major program competitions, lost it's largest single (and far-reaching) program, screwed up near-fatally on several other programs (with hideous and federally-investigated cost and schedule overruns), eventually went belly-up and was purchased for a song by our largest competitior.

General Creech beats his chest and makes loud noises, but only the naive (or the blinkered true believer) will join the chorus. This flavor-of-the-month in management fads has, as they ALL have been and WILL be, been superceded by "lean". Oh, well, the consultants have to earn a living no, right?

This book and the "Quality Pioneers."
One of the unique qualities of this "Five Pillars" book is that it covers in detail the contributions of all the early "quality pioneers"--including Juran, Deming, Feigenbaum, and Crosby. It also covers the works of others who have contributed to our knowledge on "management" matters writ large--not just the far more narrowly focused "quality control" literature. For example, the works of Drucker, Iacocca, and the like are also covered and blended with those of the quality pioneers. The "Five Pillars" praises Deming for what he contributed to the quality movement, but also places his contributions in their needed perspective for those seeking real and not superficial results. Accordingly, it is not suprising that one Balaji S. Reddi from Pune, Maharashtra, India would not like the book. It will be noted that Balaji S. Reddie is an electrical engineer who specializes in teaching the "Deming Way." In fact his e-mail address places him at "DemingIndia.org." Within the pages of the "Five Pillars of TQM" the prediction is made that the book will draw flak from those who have turned Deming into "The Man Who Discovered Quality" and the "patron saint" of quality management. It took a long time for the flak to arrive, and then all the way from India! In fact, a deciple of Walter Shewhart of the Bell Laboratories along with Joseph Juran, W. Edwards Deming made contributions of the "SPC" and "SQC" variety of "QM" but provided false and irrelevant guidance on most of the broader management issues. "TQM"--a term invented by General Bill Creech--is likened as "Total" because its reach is far broader than a set of quality control tools--and the "Five Pillars" book says that in an unambiguous fashion. ("Process" being but one of the five pillars upon which success is built.) What is taught at the DemingIndia organization is unknown to this reviwer, but according to Balaji S. Reddie's reaction it is certainly not the broad based approach to "quality management" that the Bill Creech book is all about. Read it and verify that for yourself. ... Read more