Acquiring, Processing and Deploying Voice of the Customer

M. Larry Shillito, CRC Press LLC, 2000 N.W. Corporate Blvd., Boca Raton, FL, 2001, 279 pp., $49.95. (book)

To become successful, companies are putting tremendous effort into attempting to truly understand the needs of their customers. This book aims to show the reader how to effectively find out these needs in an efficient way. As the author points out, voice of the customer (VOC) is not quality function deployment (QFD). VOC is done prior to QFD. The results of VOC flow into the first house of quality when QFD is used.

This book can be used as a step by step guide to VOC. However, to fully understand and utilize the information presented in this book, the reader should be somewhat familiar with basic marketing research techniques, QFD and various tools such as brainstorming, affinity diagrams and interrelationship diagraphs.

The book contains the methods used to translate the raw information collected from customers into useful information that aids the organization in developing products or services. It explains how to collect, organize and translate the data into useful information.

As organizations work toward understanding their customers' needs, VOC will be a valuable tool. This book is a good guide for gathering customer information, analyzing the information and understanding VOC.

Gene Placzkowski
S.C. Johnson Wax
Racine, WI

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, 600 N. Plankinton Ave., Milwaukee, WI 53203, 2000, 240 pp., member $33.50, list $40.75. (book)

This guide to performance excellence in health care is insightful. The authors not only review and explain each of the seven categories in satisfying detail, they also provide in the beginning a useful business case for using these criteria. I especially appreciated the section called "Practical Insights, Connection and Linkages," the subtitle theme of which is W. Edwards Deming's well-known but often unheeded admonition--"There is no instant pudding."

The authors provide a guide to self-assessment and describe what to expect during a site visit by Baldrige examiners. The book is topped off with a useful glossary and explanation of key terms, contacts for the state quality award programs, a comparison of the Baldrige model for excellence with the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Health Care model for compliance, and an appendix that defines responsibilities and management systems drawn from the criteria. I liked the large format, room for penciled margin notes, clear graphics and numerous flowcharts.

This book is not an easy read, but there is good value for the persistent and thoughtful reader. This is not to criticize style or organization, but rather to acknowledge the abundance of useful information.

Steven Byers
Western Institutional Review Board
Olympia, WA

Keys to Employee Success In the Coming Decades

Ronald R. Sims and John G. Veres III, editors, Quorum Books, 88 Post Road W., Westport, CT 06881, 1999, 252 pp., $59.95. (book)

In this collection of articles that treat how employees can cope with the realities of the third millennium, the editors have assembled articles that address a wide variety of issues including necessary career management, self career management, expatriate business practices, women in the workplace, psychological reorientation to developing job relationships and the role of information technology in the changed environment.

Several of the articles address the importance of employees managing their careers in new ways that remove many uncertainties introduced as the workplace changes. Effective communication between employees and managers remains the keystone of success in all of this. Teamwork, team facilitation, continuous learning and readiness for change are advanced as facets of employee preparation.

The book achieves its purpose, and the information presented can prepare employees and managers for dealing with change.

William F. Foster
Dogbyte Company
Vienna, VA

Measuring Team Performance

Steven D. Jones and Don J. Schilling, Jossey-Bass, A Wiley Company, 350 Dansome St., 5th Floor, San Francisco, CA 94104-1342, 2000, 245 pp., $39.95. (book)

Measuring Team Performance fills the gap on how to measure, evaluate and provide performance feedback to self-directed teams. The authors explain all of the dynamics of team performance and take the reader through a methodical process of evaluation. They then describe how to use that performance feedback to align the team's goals with those of the organization and accomplish the required task.

The book consists of nine chapters beginning with an introduction to team performance measurements and basic principles, and ending with a discussion of incentives for team performance. The authors do an excellent job of leading you through all the steps you need to make team performance measurement practical and beneficial. There are many case studies, examples and graphics that further illustrate the concepts.

Measuring Team Performance also contains a CD with a Microsoft Excel template with ready to go examples that can be used as an aid to evaluate team performance. The Excel template includes graphics and formulas that make it simple to set up team metrics and provide feedback that shows actual performance measurements.

In all, I found this book to have a lot of practical information that can be used right away.

Eric Furness
Astronautics Corporation of America
Milwaukee

The Handbook of Applied Acceptance Sampling: Plans, Procedures and Principles

Kenneth S. Stephens, ASQ Quality Press, 600 N. Plankinton Ave., Milwaukee, WI 53203, 2001, 550 pp., member $80, list $100. (book)

The Handbook of Applied Acceptance Sampling provides an explanation of the mathematical and statistical basis for acceptance sampling to help the reader understand the different techniques. The author describes the principles and techniques and offers guidance for developing sampling plans. He also presents an examination and demonstration of inspection effectiveness.

This handbook is an extensive resource for acceptance sampling and inspection procedures. It may be used as a reference text for undergraduate students or graduate students or for refresher training for the various ASQ certified quality exams. Exercises and problems are provided for each chapter on the accompanying CD-ROM to ensure the principles are understood. The CD also includes problem solutions, a number of tables and nomographs for rough analysis and numerous sampling tables. It is a useful standalone tool that readers will value as a portable reference for sampling tables after they study the text itself.

The Handbook of Applied Acceptance Sampling is an excellent resource recommended for anyone involved in sampling or inspection processes.

Terry Regel
Quality Management Resources
Mt. Juliet, TN

Validation of Organizational Engineering Instrumentation And Methodology

Robert Soltysik, HRD Press, 22 Amherst Road, Amherst, PA 01002, 2000, 79 pp., $14.95. (book)

This publication reports on the I-Opt personality-typing system, using statistical analysis that proves the validity of the system.

Statistical tests such as Kruskal-Wallis and Shapiro-Wilk are used on responses to a survey of 50 experts who are evenly split between senior managers and professionals/consultants. These experts are largely drawn from well-known companies that are users of the I-Opt system.

Unsurprisingly, the conclusion is that the I-Opt system is statistically valid. This conclusion is unsurprising because the report would hardly be published if the conclusion were adverse.

The validation may also be criticized as it uses secondhand opinions rather than direct psychological assessment with actual people who have taken the test. It thus proves that the managers who use the system with other people have found it to be of value, rather than that the test correctly identifies personality types.

Overall, although this is written and bound as a normal book, it will have an extremely limited audience, confined only to people who are considering using this system and who require statistical validation of the opinion of other users. In short, it is a marketing device.

David Straker
Agilent Technologies
England

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