The Best Practice: How the New Quality Movement is Transforming Medicine
by Charles Kenney
from PublicAffairs
Americans have always thought their healthcare system was the best in the world. But starting in the late 1990s, shocking reports emerged that showed this was far from the truth. Treatment-related deaths or “complications” were found to be the fifth leading cause of death for Americans, and hundreds of thousands of patients were being harmed by botched medical procedures.
Spurred by the quality crisis, a group of visionary physicians led by Donald Berwick and Paul Batalden embarked on a study of industrial “quality improvement” techniques, daring to apply them to the practice of medicine despite resistance from the medical community. The Best Practice tells the story of this burgeoning movement, and of how the medical landscape is being radically transformed—for the better.
Raving Fans: A Revolutionary Approach To Customer Service
by Ken Blanchard
from William Morrow
"Your customers are only satisfied because their expectations are so low and because no one else is doing better. Just having satisfied customers isn't good enough anymore. If you really want a booming business, you have to create Raving Fans."
This, in a nutshell, is the advice given to a new Area Manager on his first day--in an extraordinary business book that will help everyone, in every kind of organization or business, deliver stunning customer service and achieve miraculous bottom-line results.
Written in the parable style of The One Minute Manager, Raving Fans uses a brilliantly simple and charming story to teach how to define a vision, learn what a customer really wants, institute effective systems, and make Raving Fan Service a constant feature--not just another program of the month.
America is in the midst of a service crisis that has left a wake of disillusioned customers from coast to coast. Raving Fans includes startling new tips and innovative techniques that can help anyone create a revolution in any workplace--and turn their customers into raving, spending fans.
Eat That Frog!: 21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time
by Brian Tracy
from Berrett-Koehler Publishers
The legendary Eat That Frog! (more than 450,000 copies sold and translated into 23 languages) provides the 21 most effective methods for conquering procrastination and accomplishing more. This new edition is revised and updated throughout, and includes brand new information on how to keep technology from dominating our time.
The Lean Six Sigma Pocket Toolbook: A Quick Reference Guide to 100 Tools for Improving Quality and Speed
by Michael L. George
from McGraw-Hill
Bestselling Lean Six Sigma author Michael George provides the first pocket guide for deployers of Lean Six Sigma
The Lean Six Sigma Pocket Toolbook blends Lean and Six Sigma tools and concepts, providing expert advice on how to determine which tool within a "family" is best for different purposes. Packed with detailed examples and step-bystep instructions, it's the ideal handy reference guide to help Green and Black Belts make the transition from the classroom to the field.
- Features brief summaries and examples of the 70 most important tools in Lean Six Sigma, such as "Pull," "Heijunka," and "Control Charts"
- Groups tools by purpose and usage
- Offers a quick, easy reference on using the DMAIC improvement cycle
- Provides comprehensive coverage in a compact, portable format
Six Sigma for Dummies
by Craig Gygi
from For Dummies
The world’s largest and most profitable companies – including the likes of GE, Bank of America, Honeywell, DuPont, Samsung, Starwood Hotels, Bechtel, and Motorola – have used Six Sigma to achieve breathtaking improvements in business performance, in everything from products to processes to complex systems and even in work environments. Over the past decade, over $100 billion in bottom-line performance has been achieved through corporate Six Sigma programs. Yet, despite its astounding effectiveness, few outside of the community of Six Sigma practitioners know what Six Sigma is all about.
With this book, Six Sigma is revealed to everyone. You might be in a company that’s already implemented Six Sigma, or your organization may be considering it. You may be a student who wants to learn how it works, or you might be a seasoned business professional who needs to get up to speed. In any case, Six Sigma For Dummies is the most straightforward, non-intimidating guide on the market. This simple, friendly book makes Six Sigma make sense.
With a compelling foreword by Dr. Stephen R. Covey, the internationally recognized leadership authority and bestselling author of The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People and The 8th Habit, and an afterword by Roxanne O’Brasky, President of the International Society of Six Sigma, Six Sigma For Dummies is the most complete and objective book in the market today.
Unlike most other works that are either graduate-level statistics treatises or thinly-veiled autobiographical success stories, Six Sigma For Dummies teaches the reader all the foundation principles, methods, and tools of this magnificent problem-solving system.Â
Intended to help readers understand Six Sigma and how they can use it to improve their performance, this no-nonsense guide explains:
- What Six Sigma is all about and how it works
- The benefits of Six Sigma in organizations and businesses
- The powerful “DMAIC” problem-solving roadmap
- Yellow, Green and Black -- how the Six Sigma "belt" system works
- How to select and utilize the right tools and technologies
- Speaking the language of Six Sigma
- Knowing the roles and responsibilities
- Mastering the statistics skills and analytical methods
Six Sigma For Dummies will become everyone’s No. 1 resource for discovering and mastering the world’s most famous and powerful improvement tool. Stephen Covey is spot-on when he says, “Six Sigma For Dummies is a book to be read by everyone”.
The world's largest and most profitable companies; including the likes of GE, Bank of America, Honeywell, DuPont, Samsung, Starwood Hotels, Bechtel, and Motorola have used Six Sigma to achieve breathtaking improvements in business performance, in everything from products to processes to complex systems and even in work environments. Over the past decade, over $100 billion in bottom-line performance has been achieved through corporate Six Sigma programs. Yet, despite its astounding effectiveness, few outside of the community of Six Sigma practitioners know what Six Sigma is all about. With this book, Six Sigma is revealed to everyone. You might be in a company that's already implemented Six Sigma, or your organization may be considering it. You may be a student who wants to learn how it works, or you might be a seasoned business professional who needs to get up to speed. In any case, Six Sigma For Dummies is the most straightforward, non-intimidating guide on the market. This simple, friendly book makes Six Sigma make sense.
Managing for Quality and Performance Excellence (with CD-ROM)
by James R. Evans
from South-Western College Pub
Prepare for success in quality management today with this leading text's focus on the fundamental principles and emphasis on high performance management practices, such as those reflected in the Baldrige Criteria. These authors are experienced leaders in the fields of performance management and quality. Look no further for the definitive resource for coverage of ISO 9000 certification, Six Sigma, and the U.S. Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award standards. A wealth of current examples from leading organizations reflect quality throughout the world as they emphasize the practical aspects of the book's managerial focus and pertinent technical topics. You can efficiently prepare to become an ASQ Certified Quality Manager, as this edition covers most of the Body of Knowledge required for ASQ certification. It's everything you need, now and throughout your career, to ensure quality management success.
The Memory Jogger II
by Michael Brassard
from Goal/QPC
The Memory Jogger II is an easy-to-use pocket guide that describes tools to help you make continuous improvements in an organization. The tools help people at all levels participate in identifying and solving problems; eliminating rework; streamlining processes; improving cross-functional communication; decreasing costs; and measuring results. The guide supports organization-wide consistency and participation in creating organizational breakthroughs and improvements. It measures 3.5" x 5.5".
Project Management: A Managerial Approach
by Jack R. Meredith
from Wiley
Know how to respond when things don't fall into place.
Skydiving has its inherent risks. Even though a professional team, like the one depicted on the cover, can make skydiving seem perfectly choreographed; there are always uncertainties. Whether it's getting a skydiving team into the air or a new product off the ground, no project has ever been completed exactly as planned.
With Meredith and Mantel's Sixth Edition, you'll not only learn how to select, initiate, operate, and control all types of projects; you'll also learn how to manage risks and uncertainties. Written from a managerial perspective, the text equips you with the quantitative skills, knowledge of organizational issues, and insights into human behavior that you need to do project management effectively.
Updated and revised, this edition features current coverage of topics such as:
* Risk management
* Lifecycle costing
* Real options
* Organizational process assets
* Non-technical project terminations
* The phase/quality-gate process
* Requirements formulation analysis
Free trial version of Microsoft Project(r) and Crystal Ball(r)
This text includes a CD-ROM containing a 120-day trial version of Microsoft Project(r) and a student version of Crystal Ball(r). Microsoft Project and Crystal Ball screenshots appear where relevant throughout the text. Additionally, a number of end-of-chapter exercises encourage you to apply these computer software packages to project management problems.
The Complete Idiot's Guide to Lean Six Sigma (Complete Idiot's Guide to)
by Breakthrough Management Group
from Alpha
The perfect prescription for any organization  Â
Increasingly popular with large and mid-sized companies around the world, Lean Six Sigma is the new hybridization of Six Sigma and Lean methodologies, and there is no better approach for achieving operational excellence in an organization.
But how do you implement Lean Six Sigma, and what does it entail?
The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Lean Six Sigma answers this question with unprecedented clarity and turnkey elegance. Part one gives you all the background you need to understand Lean Six Sigma – what it is, where it came from, what it has done for so many organizations and what it can do for you and your company.
Parts two and three of the book give you a prescribed yet flexible roadmap to follow in selecting, enacting and realizing improvements from Lean Six Sigma projects. Within this step-by-step structure, the authors demonstrate when and how to use the many Lean Six Sigma statistics and “tools” – packing the pages with diagrams, real-life examples, templates, tips and advice. If you are a Green Belt or a Black Belt, or trainee, these two parts will be invaluable to you.
The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Lean Six Sigma is the first book of its kind to integrate the Lean Six Sigma tools within a clear stepwise progression, so readers know when and how to actually apply them in their jobs. As such, this book is superior as a companion to any corporate or organizational Lean Six Sigma “deployment.”
No more complex hodgepodge
Other books about Lean and/or Six Sigma tend to provide a lot of good information, tools and statistics – but mostly in a disconnected way, not in a way that is straightforward and user friendly. This makes an already complex subject seem still complex to the neophyte reader. On the other hand, the structure and progression of this book unfolds Lean Six Sigma in a way that a reader can easily become a user, and move more quickly from knowledge to application.
Therefore, using The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Lean Six Sigma, you know why the statistics are important and where to use them, because this is made clear. You know how and when to use a Pareto Chart, or do a Stakeholder Analysis, or conduct a Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA). You not only get fully primed on all the parts and parcels of Lean Six Sigma, but you truly learn enough to become dangerous – in a good way! In a way that makes you more valuable to your organization.
Also for Lean Six Sigma leaders, not just practitioners
Just as a Lean Six Sigma practitioner follows a proven formula for process improvement, a Lean Six Sigma Leader generally follows a process for achieving organizational transformation. This is why the final part of the book focuses on what a Lean Six Sigma leader or Champion needs to know and do to be successful – again according to a detailed step-by-step process that can be followed exactly or modified to fit specific needs.
This includes:
• Identifying and selecting Lean Six Sigma projects.
• Understanding the process of organizational transformation.
• Installing an infrastructure for Lean Six Sigma deployment.
• Ensuring quantifiable performance gains are made and sustained.
Just like parts two and three show you how to implement a Lean Six Sigma project, part four of the book shows you the roadmap for implementing Lean Six Sigma on an organization-wide basis – and embeds all the necessary management tools, templates, examples and aids you’ll need within that progressive format.
The Complete IdiotÂ’s Guide to Lean Six Sigma is the smartest choice if you need a comprehensive primer, and especially if you need to actually improve a process or spread Lean Six Sigma capability throughout your company. It is the best comprehensive reference available to get you on your way to becoming a lean, mean business machine!
Essentials of Supply Chain Management, 2nd Edition
by Michael Hugos
from Wiley
Fully revised and expanded, the Second Edition contains valuable tips, techniques, illustrative real-world examples, exhibits, and best practices. This handy and concise paperback will help you stay up to date on the newest thinking, strategies, developments, and technologies in supply chain management.
"Michael Hugos presents the core concepts and techniques of supply chain management in a clear, concise, and easily readable style for those desiring an introduction to the subject or for those wanting to refine their understanding and application of supply chain issues. The case studies and executive insights are very useful in illustrating how to effectively employ supply chains to enable companies to accomplish their business goals."
-Perry J. Gaid, Vice President of Purchasing, OneSource Facility Services, Inc.
"My company is involved in both manufacturing and distribution. Mr. Hugos's book provides a valuable framework of concepts and techniques that people at all levels of the company can use to organize and improve our supply chain management capabilities and tie them to our business strategy."
-Grant Watkinson, Ph.D., President, Coastwide Laboratories, Inc.
Praise for the First Edition
"An excellent introduction into supply chain management . . . a book you should own and loan out to others frequently."
-Supply Management
"In clear and concise prose, this lean book outlines the most crucial tenets and concepts of supply chain management."
-Supply Chain Management Review
The Wiley Essentials Series-because the business world is always changing...and so should you.
Essentials of Supply Chain Management, Second Edition, shows busy executives and managers what a supply chain is and how skillful and imaginative supply chain management can transform a sometimes-sluggish process into a powerful, revenue-driving engine. This practical, accessible new edition features updated tips and techniques for maximizing supply-chain innovation strategies, as well as all-new ""From the Real World"" and ""Executive Insight"" examples, a new chapter on how to gain competitive advantage from the supply chain, and new sections covering the latest trends in supply-chain management. Michael Hugos (Chicago, IL) is the Chief Information Officer with Network Services Company, a $6.8-billion co-op that is wholly owned by 85 member companies. He has more than 20 years of experience in all aspects of information technology and has worked in supply-chain management for more than 10 years.
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