Managing Quality 2nd: An Integrative Approach - Softcover

Foster, S. Thomas Jr.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0131018183 ISBN 13: 9780131018181

Publisher: Pearson Education Inc., 2004

Synopsis

"For undergraduate and graduate courses in quality management, found in the department of management, operations management, marketing, or engineering. This text is a comprehensive introduction to the field of quality management, integrating the emerging body of knowledge in the areas of quality theory, quality assurance, and quality control. The author's practical approach provides examples, allowing students to participate in and manage quality improvement in manufacturing, government, and service organizations." (Pearson Prentice Hall, 2004)

About this title

From the Back Cover:

This up-to-date book documents and communicates the last 20 years of research with regard to a theory of quality improvement relating to fields such as learning theory, organizational theory and behavioral theory. It is based on the contingency approach which assesses the current condition of the firm and identifies gaps in quality deployment as a basis for future improvements thereby basing improvement on contingent variables that are operative in the firm as it exists. The final chapter of the book provides a means for outstanding companies to asses themselves and determine where they need improvement. differing perspectives on quality, quality theory, global quality and international quality, strategic quality planning, the voice of the customer, the voice of the market, quality in product and process design, design of experiments, designing quality services, managing the supply chain, the tools of quality, managing teams and projects, statistically-based quality improvement, managing organizational learning, implementing and validating the quality system.quality managers, presidents or CEO's.

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Preface

In recent years, a great deal of literature has emerged (and continues to emerge) in the field of quality management. Although much that is written about quality can be described as anecdotal and much of the research in quality management is somewhat irrelevant to real quality improvement in real firms, a body of knowledge in quality management is surfacing. Professors and students now are able to go beyond the essentials, such as Deming's 14 points for management, in teaching quality management. In fact, a theory of quality improvement relating to fields such as learning theory, organizational theory, behavioral theory, and other fields holds promise for explaining the phenomena we (as researchers and teachers) have witnessed during the past 20 years of the twentieth century. This book represents an attempt to document and communicate this emergent body of knowledge so that students can participate in and manage quality improvement in services, manufacturing, and government.

Following is a very brief explanation of some of the themes and core values that permeate this text:

1. Workers and managers in organizations are somewhat limited by their particular functional preparation and specialization (going back to their educational training). This narrow functional preparation filters how workers and managers analyze and cognitively interpret information. However, quality management has emerged as a discipline that is not owned only by one of the functional areas such as operations management, human resources, marketing, and so on. An example can be found in the attempt to define quality. If a CEO states in a company meeting that, "we need to improve quality." She might be thinking that from a strategic point of view, the firm needs to become more competitive. The marketer in the audience hears this as an admonition to improve customer responsiveness. The engineer envisions tighter specifications and the production worker worries that the company is going to be downsized. Simply using the low-reliability term quality results in this problem. Therefore, students of quality must recognize this imperfection in communication about quality in order to improve organizational understanding. This is the basis for the integrative approach used in this text. Students view quality from a variety of functional perspectives and in the process gain a better understanding of the problems associated with improving quality.
2. There is no one way or magic pill that companies can implement to improve quality. Therefore, the contingency approach is proposed that instructs students how to assess the current condition of the firm and identify gaps in quality deployment as a basis for future improvement. Thus, improvement is based on the contingent variables that are operative in the firm as it exists. This contingency approach is introduced in Chapter 1 and permeates the rest of the text. It is an assumption on which everything else is based. This approach has been successfully used by the author in undergraduate and graduate courses—as well as with a number of firms and organizations. Of course, a sound understanding of quality fundamentals is important for students to be able to make effective strategic choices for the future.
3. The text is organized as follows: First, an understanding of basic and advanced quality concepts is provided. Second, the focus moves to assuring quality throw product, service, and process design. Third, the implementation of quality management and control is presented. Fourth, the final section of chapters focuses approaches for forever improving the quality system. This is the logical life cycle that firms follow on the quality journey.
4. Quality tools such as statistical quality control, the basic seven tools, the seven tools for management, and the Taguchi method are presented. Implementation problems with these tools also are discussed. The philosophy adopted in this text is that organizations should not necessarily focus on quality tool choice as the strategy, emphasis in quality planning. Instead, skilled managers will assess operational variables in the organization such as leadership, respect for employees, learning am knowledge creation, customer focus, and others. If there are gaps between the current state and the desired state for the organization concerning these variable&4 then knowledge of the tools is useful in helping to address these gaps in organizational performance.
5. Students using this text will take away discrete concepts, tools, and approaches that can be implemented in real firms today. The text is cutting edge and hands-on its execution. As a result, highlights, introductory quotes, discussion questions, cases, solved examples, and practice problems are provided that focus on re world issues. Among the important topics that are not included in other texts a real-world topics of team facilitation and training. More and more, managers must be able to facilitate teams and train and develop employees. These functions must eventually be integrated into organizations that attain world-class levels of performance.
6. Services and the global economy are realities in the business world that are a dressed in this text. Again, this is part and parcel of the integrative approach. Other emergent topics such as diversity, environmental standards, and technologies (e. workflow software in services, and ISO 14000) are presented.
7. This text is designed to include topics necessary for the American Society for Quality (ASQ) certification as a Certified Quality Manager (CQM). Also, many topics associated with the Certified Quality Engineer (CQE) are found in the detailed chapter concepts.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I wish first to thank my family for putting up with the fences left unmended, the horse not ridden, the mountains not explored, the rivers not rafted, the snow unskied, the music not played, and the many hours spent in front of a computer screen during the past two years spent writing this book. It has truly been a labor of love for me. I believe that these concepts are important for the future of the nation. I wish to thank parents who always emphasized the importance of education as a means of achieving a happy life. I thank Everett E. Adam, Jr., for mentoring me. I wish to thank my colleagues at Boise State University for providing encouragement for this project. P~ Shannon has been a wonderful friend and mentor; I have learned a great deal from him. Dave Groebner, Phil Fry, Robert Minch, and Gary Green have been especially helpful. Thanks to all of my students and those individuals who have hired me as a consultant. These people have helped me to pursue lifelong learning.

I thank the reviewers of this edition for their thoughtful comments, including Linda Angell, The Pennsylvania State University; Stefan Bloomfield, Oregon State University; Janice F Cerveny, Florida Atlantic University; Scott A. Dellana, East Carolina University; Manuel Laguna, University of Colorado; C. Surender Reddy, Saginaw Valley State University; Kristie Seawright, Brigham Young University; Dooyoung Shin, Minnesota State University-Mankato; Vinod Singhal, Georgia Institute of Technology; Rohit Verma, DePaul University; and Joel D. Wisner, University of Nevada-Las Vegas. Also, Tom Tucker deserves recognition for the great encouragement he has provided to me. Thanks to Bruce Barringer, University of Central Florida, for all of his contributions to this text. Betli Bortz and Elisa Adams gave excellent editing help. Finally, I am thankful for my faith that keeps me progressing eternally.

About this edition

• Publisher: Pearson Education Inc.
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 0131018183
• ISBN 13: 9780131018181
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 544