1st Edition

Focused Quality Managing for Results

By Paul Murphy Copyright 1994
    208 Pages
    by CRC Press

    Focused Quality: Managing for Results is a book about using quality improvement as a means to enhance bottom line results. Written for managers in industry, services, healthcare and government, this important new book provides a focused approach on how to target critical improvement initiatives and insure their success.
    Prepare - Plan - Deploy - Transition are the steps in the improvement process that are covered in detail. Included are examples of how organizations have successfully accomplished each step. Practical lessons on how to and how not to implement quality and process improvement initiatives are given.
    Process assessment is crucial to identifying the importance of a process and defining the scope of what is involved in order to improve it. Before deciding to refine, redesign or reengineer an assessment is needed. Focused Quality: Managing for Results not only shows you how to do an assessment but also how to apply the results to improve the bottom line.
    Application is emphasized throughout the book with the focus on the managers role in leading the change effort. The authors have provided a set of questions that management should answer to determine if their organization is ready to effectively implement the improvement process. Realizing that even the best plans can go astray there is also a diagnostic check sheet to pinpoint the causes of and solutions for process improvement failures.

    TABLE OF -
    PART I: MANAGING THE VITAL FEW
    1 Why Focused Quality Management?
    Where TQM Falls Short
    The Way It Is
    A Maze of Frustration
    The Way It Should Be
    PART II: FOCUSED QUALITY MANAGEMENT: A FRAMEWORK FOR SUCCESS
    2 Prepare: Laying the Foundation
    Organize a Quality Leadership Team
    Envision the Organization
    Assess the Organization
    The Process Assessment
    3 Plan: Focusing Process Improvements
    4 Deploy: Making Process Improvements Happen
    Charter the Improvement Teams
    Improve the Process
    Test the Improvements
    5 Deploy: Making Organizational Improvements Happen
    Training: A Mind Is a Terrible Thing to Waste
    Reward and Recognition: Credit Where Credit Is Due
    Measurement: If You Can't Measure It, You Can't Manage It 100
    Communication: The Message Is the Medium 102
    In Conclusion 104
    6 Transition: Making It Stick
    Introduction
    Applying Advanced Tools and Techniques
    Employee Empowerment
    Toward Process Empowerment
    Alignment and Reassessment
    PART III: LEADING THE CHANGE
    7 Leading the Charge
    Leadership Commitment and Vision
    Individual Resistance and Skills Development
    Incentives
    Resources
    Action Planning
    8 Is the Organization Ready?
    Does the Organization Have a Vision?
    Have the Mission and Values of the Organization Been Developed
    and Clearly Communicated?
    Has an Organizational Assessment Been Done?
    Have Strategic Business Goals Been Identified?
    Have the Key Business Processes Been Identified?
    How Do Key Business Processes Affect Critical Success Factors?
    Have the Capability Gaps Been Identified?
    Do Employees Want to Do a Good Job?
    Do They Have What They Need to Do So?
    Is Quality Rewarded?
    Is the Organization Focused?
    Is the Organization Ready?
    9 When Things Go Wrong
    The Whole Is Greater than the Sum of the Parts
    Has the Vision Been Communicated?
    Do Employees Have All the Skills They Need?
    Have People Been Given Incentives to Succeed?
    Do People Have Adequate Resources?
    Has the Organization Planned for Success?
    Are You Focused to Succeed?
    APPENDICES
    A Quick Quality Survey
    B Critical Success Factor/Key Process Matrix
    C Evolution of Quality Management
    Nineteenth-Century Industrialism
    Twentieth-Century Humanism
    The Emergence of TQM
    INDEX

    Biography

    Paul Murphy

    "This is definitely a book you should read…that is if you want to get bottom-line results."
    C. Jack Grayson, Chairman, American Productivity & Quality Center
    "This book was written because we have seen a growing-in fact, an alarming number of organizations going down the path to total quality management, only to falter, fail, or worse, start drifting and blame TQM.
    In the process we've seen some organizations that have been very successful with TQM and benchmarking. We've seen bottom-line results. And we've seen smiling CEO's and workers.
    Something is wrong, terribly wrong...
    Upper management either is or is not involved. When upper management doesn't drive the TQM effort, the results are disappointing at best.
    That's why I encouraged the authors of this book to write it. They have created a philosophy and concrete methodology for producing results from TQM. And the best way to get quality results is to read this book"
    C. Jack Grayson

    (FOLLOWING REVIEW ADDED 7/22/98)
    "...an excellent resource and a very easy read... The parts that are especially good relate to the empowerment of employees and the new role of middle-level managers in supporting (focused quality management)."
    -Canadian Public Administration