Insight to Performance Excellence 2000: An Inside Look at the 2000 Baldrige Award Criteria

Mark L. Blazey, ASQ Quality Press, 611 E. Wisconsin Ave., Milwaukee, WI 53202, 2000, 390 pp., member $33.50, list $40.75. (book)

Insights to Performance Excellence 2000 offers a thorough and logical explanation of the 2000 Baldrige Award criteria. It explains the changes between the 1999 and 2000 criteria, discusses the revision of the core values and concepts, and, above all, contains an in-depth explanation of the criteria. It includes a section comparing the Baldrige criteria to those of the European Quality Awards, and it also compares them to ISO 9000:2000.

The book is directed to companies that want to apply for the award. It contains well-written information for those writing an application, but the chapter about self-assessment is quite short.

The book is written mainly for larger organizations. I do not believe that a book with nearly 400 pages explaining the criteria can be useful to stimulate smaller organizations with less than 100 employees to work with the criteria. After reading this book, I was left with the following question: How is it possible for those small organizations to get acquainted with the Baldrige criteria and self-assessment as a methodology for quality improvements?

Bengt Klefsjö
Luleå University
Luleå, Sweden

QSTracker: Corrective Action System and Document Control

Trackware Inc., 101 First St., Suite 353, Los Altos, CA 94022, 2000, $250.00. (CD-ROM)

Many companies are at a disadvantage when buying software to support quality system documentation. There are a number of products to choose from, but most are expensive. Trackware Inc. offers software to support the corrective action system and document control. Both are available on one CD-ROM that offers a surprisingly good selection of features.

The corrective action system software is a menu driven program with submenus for corrective action requests, supplier discrepant material reports (DMR), internal DMR and failure analysis. Each of these provides options for preparing reports, setting the priority, tracking and printing. Once the owner has closed the report, the report is locked and can no longer be changed by anyone, even the system administrator. This feature prevents unwarranted corrections afterward and ensures document protection. If the issue must be reopened, the original tracking number may be referenced and the appropriate information entered in the new form.

The document control software is actually a document tracker. Trackware provides support to assist the user in linking the software containing quality system documentation at no charge. This link may be network or single PC based, providing the user with the flexibility to install the software in a manner appropriate to his or her application. The program itself controls all other functions related to the document control system, including change authority, implementation tracking, change requests, tracking reports, master lists, document listing and document reports.

These two packages are password protected and may be used on any platform: PC, network or Web.

Terry Regel
Quality Management Resources
Mt. Juliet, TN

Quality Management For the Technology Sector

Joseph Berk and Susan Berk, Butterworth-Heinemann, 225 Wildwood Ave., Woburn, MA 01801-2041, 2000, 208 pp., $29.95. (book)

This practical, no-nonsense book speaks to many of the needs of quality practitioners in technology based industries. The work provides a succinct yet comprehensive perspective of a number of the available quality tools and techniques. Tables, diagrams, charts and three case studies illuminate the management principles and technical practices discussed.

The authors skillfully blend a potpourri of topics spanning the spectrum from continuous improvement concepts, thorough measurements, problem solving, statistical process control and other statistical techniques to quality function deployment and suppliers. On the way, they take the reader on meaningful side trips into areas such as finding customers, analyzing systems failure, teams, inventory management and improving delivery performance.

Useful additions to the book could have included an overall bibliography and a glossary. Each chapter, however, does have a list of references.

Slanted somewhat more toward the technical than the managerial, the book does not cover a number of topics that are pertinent to managing quality in the high-tech organization. Some of the absent topics include quality planning, internal auditing, policies, procedures and documentation, theory of constraints, process capability, and project planning and management.

For the topical areas covered, the coverage is more than adequate to whet the appetite of the quality professional.

Russ Westcott
R.T. Westcott & Associates
Old Saybrook, CT

Scoring a Whole in One: People In Enterprise Playing in Concert

Edward Martin Baker, Crisp Publications, 1200 Hamilton Ct., Menlo Park, CA 94025, 1999, 89 pp. $12.95. (book)

Edward Baker's slender book is a thoughtful and worthy contribution to the literature of systems thinking. The underlying theme of the book is W. Edwards Deming's (The New Economics) view of an orchestra as a system. If the parts of an orchestra do not cooperate to achieve the aim but instead seek to optimize their individual performances, the suboptimal overall result is obvious to everyone within hearing distance.

After laying the philosophical groundwork, Baker discusses leadership and a framework for leading an enterprise in concert. Scoring a Whole in One concludes with three illuminating case studies but ends abruptly with the third study. In some sections of the book, I think the editing was too severe -- some points just need more words of explanation. I would like to have had a bit more, perhaps a couple of paragraphs, speculating where systems thinking will take us.

Scoring a Whole in One is recommended for those managers still ignorant, by choice or chance, of systems thinking, but I think professionals, regardless of their position in an enterprise, could enjoy this book and use it to begin a personal transformation.

Steven Byers
Columbia Basin Section 614
Richland, WA

Practical CM: Best Configuration Management Practices

David D. Lyon, Butterworth-Heinemann, 225 Wildwood Ave., Woburn, MA 01801-2041, 2000, 163 pp., $59.95. (book and CD-ROM)

The purpose of this book, according to the author, is two-fold. The first is to give the reader information on the best configuration management (CM) practices not only for today's, but also for tomorrow's business environment. The second objective is to allow transition of today's paper configuration and data management systems to automated, electronic CM/CD systems.

Practical CM is very comprehensive and complete and written so as to be easily understood. It is well-organized and describes procedures through the entire CM process in a logical and coherent manner. The numerous illustrations and templates add to the understanding. The book's four appendices provide real world applications and assistance, and the enclosed CD provides additional templates for the CM process.

As the author indicates in the preface, "The methodologies, processes and procedures provided herein will also assure you that your business remains compliant with current and future customer requirements, while operating in a cost-effective manner for your entire product life cycle."

While it is difficult to predict future customer requirements, this text goes a long way assisting in the configuration management and data management profession.

John D. Richards
SRA International
San Antonio

Puzzling Audit Puzzles

J.P. Russell and Janice Russell, ASQ Quality Press, 611 E. Wisconsin Ave., Milwaukee, WI 53202, 2000, 197 pp., member $16.00, list $20.00. (book)

This is an unusual book. While quite useful for internalizing the concepts of auditing, it is not really a textbook by any means. It is designed to augment an auditing class, or as a recreational tool to enhance the understanding of the concepts of auditing. It contains puzzles in the form of crosswords, crisscrosses, wordfinds, multiple choice tests, anecdotes and quizzes.

There are seven chapters covering different areas of auditing. These range from the conducting (both process and professional) of the audit to the actual statistical sampling and process control tools. Each chapter has several learning tools that either reinforce the terminology or the process of audits. The last part of the book contains all the answers to the puzzles.

Puzzling Auditing Puzzles might have strong appeal for workshops and refresher courses or certification review because it provides an interesting way to recall all elements of an audit. For an undergraduate course section on statistical process control, I used the wordfind as a starting point for students to define the statistical terms and give an example. The application was successful, and it provided a novel approach to what is sometimes a very dry subject for students.

I would recommend this book be used by all instructors in auditing and statistical process control as a companion to a formal text.

I. Elaine Allen
Babson College
Babson Park, MA

RECENT RELEASES

A Practical Guide to Information Systems Process Improvement, Anita Cassidy and Keith Guggenberger, CRC Press LLC, 2000 N.W. Corporate Blvd., Boca Raton, FL 33431, 2001, 269 pp., $49.95. (book)

Acquiring, Processing and Deploying: Voice of the Customer, M. Larry Shillito, CRC Press LLC, 2000 N.W. Corporate Blvd., Boca Raton, FL 33431, 2001, 279 pp., $49.95. (book)

Synergy 2000 LE Software Version 2.0, Zontec, 1389 Kemper Meadow Dr., Cincinnati, OH 45240, 2000, $999. (software) Corporate Culture and the Quality Organization, James W. Fairfield-Sonn, Quorum Books, 88 Post Road West, PO Box 5007, Westport, CT 06881-5007, 2001, 224 pp., $65.00. (book)

Corporate Culture and the Quality Organization, James W. Fairfield-Sonn, Quorum Books, 88 Post Road West, PO Box 5007, Westport, CT 06881-5007, 2001, 224 pp., $65.00. (book)

Customer Centered Six Sigma: Linking Customers, Process Improvement and Financial Results, Earl Naumann and Steven H. Hoisington, ASQ Quality Press, 611 E. Wisconsin Ave., Milwaukee, WI 53202, 2000, 288 pp., $44 (member), $55 (list). (book)

Insights to Performance Excellence in Health Care 2000: An Inside Look at the 2000 Baldrige Award Criteria for Health Care, Mark L. Blazey, Joel H. Ettinger, Paul L. Grizzell and Linda M. Janczak, ASQ Quality Press, 611 E. Wisconsin Ave., Milwaukee, WI 53202, 2000, 288 pp., $31.50 (member), $40.75 (list). (book)