Achieving the Competitive Edge: A Practical Guide to World-Class Competition

The old business process paradigms wrought by the Industrial Revolution are no longer tenable. TQM, continuous improvement, and other "revolutionary" new models that have arisen to take their place over the past several decades have proven to be stopgap measures at best. Yet, one undeniable truth has emerged from all these noble experiments: to survive in today's global marketplace, a company must perform like a world class competitor. Survival in the new world business order requires a clear understanding of changing customer needs coupled with the ability to translate those needs quickly and efficiently into products or services.

Achieving the Competitive Edge--a comprehensive guide for businesses large and small--offers a coherent, well-structured approach to becoming a world class competitor. Developed by the authors during their many years as consultants to industry and government, the approach draws upon the best ideas and methodologies from a variety of business process/management models and fuses them into a set of easy-to-implement practical procedures.

Short on theory and long on hands-on guidance, Achieving the Competitive Edge introduces managers and engineers to the best management tools currently used in industry. The authors carefully analyze each tool in light of today's volatile global business environment and show you how to apply it successfully to solve day-to-day problems. Since the emphasis throughout the book is on strengthening the company from the inside, Harry K. Jackson, Jr., and Normand L. Frigon devote considerable attention to a wide range of tools for analyzing and improving quality and competitiveness.

The authors impart a working understanding of tools and concepts through the device of an extended real-world example. Drawn from the authors' own files, this case study provides a unique opportunity to see concepts, techniques, and tools in action, and to assess the advantages and disadvantages of each. More than 90 easy-to-read charts and tables help you absorb the theory and develop a feel for the techniques.

In today's global marketplace, every company must think and perform like a world class competitor. Achieving the Competitive Edge helps you make world class performance a reality in your organization.

Advance Praise for Achieving the Competitive Edge.

"Achieving the Competitive Edge is an outstanding reference source for ensuring continuous measurable improvement and the ability to compete in today's business environment."-- William O. Grimes, Senior Member, Technical Staff, Texas Instruments, Inc.

"As someone with the responsibility to operate a business on a daily basis, I appreciate the direct, commonsense approach and business language of this book. One of the distinct strengths is that I can actually use it directly in the operation of my business. The authors understand my management and quality needs and provide a guide on how to do it.The first book of its type that recommends a specific approach to planning, then guides me through the implementation of the planning process business." --Thomas G. Dacus, Vice President, Scitronix.

"Achieving the Competitive Edge: A Practical Guide to World Class Competition is easy to understand and free of jargon. It provides a much needed, step-by-step guide to essential elements required in any business strategy for the '90s and beyond. If your business competes in the world marketplace, Jackson and Frigon's book is required reading."-- Paul A. Baltes, Director, Engineering Professional Development, University of Arizona.

"In Achieving the Competitive Edge the authors have compiled a valuable source of work of the tools managers and workers must be able to employ to make their companies competitive in the new global economy. It presents a good, clear explanation of how quality process and management tools are used."-- Philip L. McIndoo, Senior Vice President, The Mitre Corporation.

HARRY K. JACKSON, Jr., is Operational Excellence Leader at AlliedSignal Corporation's Aerospace Equipment Systems site in Torrance, California. Before joining AlliedSignal, he was total quality manager with Hughes Electronics' Product Support Division, where he developed and conducted total quality training and implementation throughout the division. He also developed Hughes's first self-directed work team. A graduate of the Six Sigma Academy, Mr. Jackson is a nationally and internationally recognized expert in the practice, principles, and tools of business improvement. He is a frequent speaker at conferences and seminars and the author of several previous publications.

NORMAND L. FRIGON is a principal in the consulting firm of Quality Associates, based in Fallbrook, California. He is also Associate Director for Quality Programs and Technology Development at the Center for Applied Quality Reliability, Naval Ordnance Center, Pacific, where he led the development and execution of the total quality management strategy. Mr. Frigon received his MBA in quantitative sciences from National University in San Diego. He consults to a wide variety of public and private firms as well as many government agencies, conducts frequent seminars at major universities, and is a popular speaker and lecturer. He is the author or coauthor of several books, including The Practical Guide to Experimental Design (Wiley).