Proven methods for achieving continuous process improvement Resolve "quality chaos" by creating a link between quality problems and their optimal solutions. With a focus on building an integrated quality environment, Strategic Continuous Process Improvement: Which Quality Tools to Use and When to Use Them begins by discussing the different types of continuous process improvement (CPI) systems available. This practical guide explains how to implement a strategic performance model and select and integrate appropriate metrics to achieve desired results. Tested techniques for executing an improvement process are included along with real-world examples. The book concludes with a plan to help you sustain an ongoing culture of continuous quality improvement in your organization. Find out how to: Identify CPI opportunities Evaluate various CPI options using comparative benchmarks Understand the characteristics of each quality option Map CPI characteristics against quality problems Select the appropriate tool to fit a specific quality problem Recognize the role of governance and performance reviews Cascade and communicate CPI throughout your organization Move the needle toward successful process optimization
This book enables enterprise business leaders - from CEOs to supervisors - to understand what "Continuous Improvement" is, why it is probably the best answer to improved business performance in years, and how to put it to work in the unique environment of a specific organization. The book examines what is at the core of "Continuous Improvement" and delves deeper into the elements and constituents necessary to take an organization to the next level to ensure its continued, long-term existence. It provides guidance to enterprise management and to professionals engaged in the implementation of a "Continuous Improvement" initiative and enables them to structure and manage its implementation successfully. It also provides tools to quickly assess where an enterprise business stands in terms of strategic management and "Continuous Improvement".
According to Transforming Health Care Scheduling and Access, long waits for treatment are a function of the disjointed manner in which most health systems have evolved to accommodate the needs and the desires of doctors and administrators, rather than those of patients. The result is a health care system that deploys its most valuable resource-highly trained personnel-inefficiently, leading to an unnecessary imbalance between the demand for appointments and the supply of open appointments. This study makes the case that by using the techniques of systems engineering, new approaches to management, and increased patient and family involvement, the current health care system can move forward to one with greater focus on the preferences of patients to provide convenient, efficient, and excellent health care without the need for costly investment. Transforming Health Care Scheduling and Access identifies best practices for making significant improvements in access and system-level change. This report makes recommendations for principles and practices to improve access by promoting efficient scheduling. This study will be a valuable resource for practitioners to progress toward a more patient-focused "How can we help you today?" culture.
The results of the quality revolution have been mixed. Global competition has elevated the most successful companies, in terms of providing goods and services, but even then initiatives such as total quality, business process re-engineering and Six Sigma have been heralded as the solution, only to have been replaced with the next 'big thing' when it came along. Hoshin Kanri is not the next big thing in quality, it is a strategic approach to continuous improvement that provides a context for all of the individual elements such as Six Sigma or Lean Manufacturing. David Hutchins' Hoshin Kanri shows you how to develop a dynamic vision for continuous improvement; to implement effective policies to support it; to link key performance indicators to Six Sigma, Lean Manufacturing and Kaizen and to sustain a strategy-led programme for improving business performance.
Our world changes faster today than at any time in the history of mankind. Organizations, like living breathing organisms, must learn to adapt to changes in the environment in which each operates. It is generally held today, by those who study organizations, that those who fail to adapt to seemingly unending change are certainly doomed but those able to adapt to constant change tend to thrive. The purpose of this book is to describe the leadership required to successfully implement continuous process improvement in organizations. The author begins the journey with a discussion of organizational culture as he sets out to describe how leaders develop a culture where continuous improvement can thrive. The challenges of organizational change faced by all leaders who strive to take advantage of the benefits of continuous process improvement is discussed, as well as what leaders must do to make change stick. The goal is to provide a description of the leadership necessary to make continuous process improvement a reality in any organization.
Today, technology has become too much a part of overall corporate success for its effectiveness to be left to chance. The stakes are too high. Fortunately, the idea of 'quality management' is being reinvigorated. In the last decade process programs have become more and more prevalent. And, out of all the available options, three have moved to the top of the chain. These three are: The 9001:2000 Quality Management Standard from the International Standards Organization; The Capability Maturity Model Integration from the Software Engineering Institute; and Six Sigma, a methodology for improvement shaped by companies such as Motorola, Honeywell, and General Electric. These recognized and proven quality programs are rising in popularity as more technology managers are looking for ways to help remove degrees of risk and uncertainty from their business equations, and to introduce methods of predictability that better ensure success. Process Improvement Essentials combines the foundation needed to understand process improvement theory with the best practices to help individuals implement process improvement initiatives in their organization. The three leading programs: ISO 9001:2000, CMMI, and Six Sigma--amidst the buzz and hype--tend to get lumped together under a common label. This book delivers a combined guide to all three programs, compares their applicability, and then sets the foundation for further exploration. It's a one-stop-shop designed to give you a working orientation to what the field is all about.
This book prepares readers to master an IT and managerial discipline quickly gaining momentum in organizations of all sizes - Business Process Management (BPM). It describes how BPM treats processes as a portfolio of strategic assets that create and deliver customer and shareholder value and adapt, when necessary, enabling competitive advantage thr
Are there continuous process improvement Models? Have you identified your continuous process improvement key performance indicators? Who are the continuous process improvement improvement team members, including Management Leads and Coaches? What tools and technologies are needed for a custom continuous process improvement project? Whats the best design framework for continuous process improvement organization now that, in a post industrial-age if the top-down, command and control model is no longer relevant? Defining, designing, creating, and implementing a process to solve a business challenge or meet a business objective is the most valuable role... In EVERY company, organization and department. Unless you are talking a one-time, single-use project within a business, there should be a process. Whether that process is managed and implemented by humans, AI, or a combination of the two, it needs to be designed by someone with a complex enough perspective to ask the right questions. Someone capable of asking the right questions and step back and say, 'What are we really trying to accomplish here? And is there a different way to look at it?' This Self-Assessment empowers people to do just that - whether their title is entrepreneur, manager, consultant, (Vice-)President, CxO etc... - they are the people who rule the future. They are the person who asks the right questions to make continuous process improvement investments work better. This continuous process improvement All-Inclusive Self-Assessment enables You to be that person. All the tools you need to an in-depth continuous process improvement Self-Assessment. Featuring 725 new and updated case-based questions, organized into seven core areas of process design, this Self-Assessment will help you identify areas in which continuous process improvement improvements can be made. In using the questions you will be better able to: - diagnose continuous process improvement projects, initiatives, organizations, businesses and processes using accepted diagnostic standards and practices - implement evidence-based best practice strategies aligned with overall goals - integrate recent advances in continuous process improvement and process design strategies into practice according to best practice guidelines Using a Self-Assessment tool known as the continuous process improvement Scorecard, you will develop a clear picture of which continuous process improvement areas need attention. Your purchase includes access details to the continuous process improvement self-assessment dashboard download which gives you your dynamically prioritized projects-ready tool and shows your organization exactly what to do next. Your exclusive instant access details can be found in your book.
Strategic Quality Management is written for people who choose to be strategists-people who choose to ensure the success of their improvement efforts by integrating them into the strategic man-age-ment of their organizations. This book comprehensively addresses the elements required to ensure long-term momentum for improvement. In addition, it discusses continuous improvement from several per-spectives (Historical, Strategic, Behavioral, Process and Results, and Futuristic) and describes why those perspectives are all essential for an improvement initiative to be successful. Also included are specific improvement models, flowcharts, and checklists which are useful in the application of the im-prove-ment philosophies and tools described in the text. The foundation for Strategic Quality Man-age-ment (SQM) is the Five P's Model which emphasizes the need for alignment of organizational Pur-pose, Principles, Processes, and people in order to achieve Performance excellence. Each of the Five P's is discussed separately as an essential element of SQM, then in terms of its impact on the other four P's.
Building upon the international bestselling Toyota Way series of books by Jeffrey Liker, The Toyota Way to Continuous Improvement looks critically at lean deployments and identifies the root causes of why most of them fail. The book is organized into three major sections outlining: Why it is critical to go beyond implementing lean tools and, instead, build a culture of continuous improvement that connects operational excellence to business strategy Case studies from seven unique industries written from the perspective of the sensei (teacher) who led the lean transformation Lessons about transforming your own vision of an ideal organization into reality Section One: Using the Plan-Do-Check-Adjust (PDCA) methodology, Liker and Franz contrast true PDCA thinking to that of the popular, superficial approach of copying "lean solutions." They describe the importance of developing people and show how the Toyota Way principles support and drive continuous improvement. Explaining how lean systems and processes start with a purpose that provides a true north direction for all activities, they wrap up this section by examining the glaring differences between building a system of people, processes, and problem- solving that is truly lean versus that of simply trying to "lean out" a process. Section Two: This section brings together seven case studies as told by the sensei who led the transformation efforts. The companies range from traditional manufacturers, overhaul and maintenance of submarines, nuclear fuel rod production, health care providers, pathology labs, and product development. Each of these industries is different but the approaches used were remarkably similar. Section Three: Beginning with a composite story describing a company in its early days of lean implementation, this section describes what went right and wrong during the initial implementation efforts. The authors bring to light some of the difficulties the sensei faces, such as bureaucracies, closed-minded mechanical thinking, and the challenges of developing lean coaches who can facilitate real change. They address the question: Which is better, slow and deep organic deployment or fast and broad mechanistic deployment? The answer may surprise you. The book ends with a discussion on how to make continuous improvement a way of life at your company and the role of leadership in any lean transformation. The Toyota Way to Continuous Improvement is required reading for anyone seeking to transcend his or her tools-based approach and truly embrace a culture of continuous improvement.
