Implementing Continuous Quality Improvement in Health Care

Implementing Continuous Quality Improvement in Health Care Review

This collection of 18 case studies covers a broad range of subjects related to health care quality improvement efforts. Ideal as complement to the new Fourth Edition of Continuous Quality Improvement in Health Care, these case studies explore themes such as CQI in Ghana Malaria Control, CQI to reduce central line infections in pediatric hospital, a mother s advocacy group against medical errors, WHO Safe Surgery Saves Lives Campaign, The Malcolm Baldrige Award Process in Health Care, Comparison of NICE and similar agencies for comparative effectiveness research, and much more.

The Toyota Way to Continuous Improvement: Linking Strategy and Operational Excellence to Achieve Superior Performance

The Toyota Way to Continuous Improvement: Linking Strategy and Operational Excellence to Achieve Superior Performance Review

Building upon the international bestselling Toyota Way series of books by Jeffrey Liker, The Toyota Way to Continuous Improvement looks critically at lean deployments and identifies the root causes of why most of them fail. The book is organized into three major sections outlining:

1. Why it is critical to go beyond implementing lean tools and, instead, build a culture of continuous improvement that connects operational excellence to business strategy
2. Case studies from seven unique industries written from the perspective of the sensei (teacher) who led the lean transformation
3. Lessons about transforming your own vision of an ideal organization into reality

Section One: Using the Plan-Do-Check-Adjust (PDCA) methodology, Liker and Franz contrast true PDCA thinking to that of the popular, superficial approach of copying "lean solutions." They describe the importance of developing people and show how the Toyota Way principles support and drive continuous improvement. Explaining how lean systems and processes start with a purpose that provides a true north direction for all activities, they wrap up this section by examining the glaring differences between building a system of people, processes, and problem- solving that is truly lean versus that of simply trying to "lean out" a process.

Section Two: This section brings together seven case studies as told by the sensei who led the transformation efforts. The companies range from traditional manufacturers, overhaul and maintenance of submarines, nuclear fuel rod production, health care providers, pathology labs, and product development. Each of these industries is different but the approaches used were remarkably similar.

Section Three: Beginning with a composite story describing a company in its early days of lean implementation, this section describes what went right and wrong during the initial implementation efforts. The authors bring to light some of the difficulties the sensei faces, such as bureaucracies, closed-minded mechanical thinking, and the challenges of developing lean coaches who can facilitate real change. They address the question: Which is better, slow and deep organic deployment or fast and broad mechanistic deployment? The answer may surprise you. The book ends with a discussion on how to make continuous improvement a way of life at your company and the role of leadership in any lean transformation.

The Toyota Way to Continuous Improvement is required reading for anyone seeking to transcend his or her tools-based approach and truly embrace a culture of continuous improvement.

Improving Business Processes (Pocket Mentor)

Improving Business Processes (Pocket Mentor) Review

In challenging times, companies must serve their customers faster and more efficiently. This makes improving your business processes more critical than ever. In this book, you'll learn key steps for carrying out a business process improvement initiative, including how to:

-Plan a business process improvement initiative
-Analyze and redesign a current process that needs improvement
-Obtain the resources needed to change a process
-Develop a systematic approach for creating and implementing change

Managing the Test People: A Guide to Practical Technical Management

Managing the Test People: A Guide to Practical Technical Management Review

Managing the Test People was written for managers, leads, and people who may soon find themselves in a technical leadership position. It focuses on some of the unique problems in the software quality assurance profession, yet the bulk of the book is applicable to any technical management job. It provides practical advice for the novice and affirmation for the expert. It contains real world stories illustrating the concepts discussed in the text.

This book is written from a practitioner's viewpoint. The author has been in software management for over 20 years, working in a variety of companies, and has always been struck by the lack of practical, real world advice found only in general management books. Yes, all those methods should theoretically work, until you add in the politics of the environment, the technical work that must be done and, of course, those pesky people who seem intent on fouling up your plans. Managing the Test People is real - it's about the real world where there are real problems and real people, and it provides viable solutions that can actually be implemented.

The Six Sigma Handbook, Third Edition

The Six Sigma Handbook, Third Edition Review

The authoritative classic--revised and updated for today's Six Sigma practitioners

Whether you want to further your Six Sigma training to achieve a Black or Green Belt or you are totally new to the quality-management strategy, you need reliable guidance. The Six Sigma Handbook, Third Edition shows you, step by step, how to integrate this profitable approach into your company's culture.

Co-written by an award-winning contributor to the practice of quality management and a successful Six Sigma trainer, this hands-on guide features:

• Cutting-edge, Lean Six Sigma concepts integrated throughout
• Completely revised material focused on project objectives
• Updated and expanded problem-solving examples using Excel and Minitab
• A streamlined format that puts proven practices at your fingertips

The Six Sigma Handbook, Third Edition is the only comprehensive reference you need to make Six Sigma work for your company. The book explains how to organize for Six Sigma, how to use customer requirements to drive strategy and operations, how to carry out successful project management, and more. Learn all the management responsibilities and actions necessary for a successful deployment, as well as how to:

• Dramatically improve products and processes using DMAIC and DMADV
• Use Design for Six Sigma to create innovative products and processes
• Incorporate lean, problem-solving, and statistical techniques within the Six Sigma methodology
• Avoid common pitfalls during implementation

Six Sigma has evolved with the changing global economy, and The Six Sigma Handbook, Third Edition is your key to ensuring that your company realizes significant gains in quality, productivity, and sales in today's business climate.

 

High Performance Through Process Excellence: From Strategy to Execution with Business Process Management

High Performance Through Process Excellence: From Strategy to Execution with Business Process Management Review

Continuously changing customer and market requirements as well as new developments in information technology have become a dominating factor in today's business environment. To be successful enterprises have to adapt quickly to new opportunities and threats. They have to take smart decision and execute fast. Innovation and agility become important success factors. The Management of Process Excellence (MPE) is the main enabler. It helps achieving immediate benefits while building lasting process management capabilities. MPE links strategy with people and technology based execution. Service Oriented Architectures (SOA), Web 2.0 or "cloud computing" support this approach. The right process governance, including centers of excellence, and knowledge assets in form of reference models increase the delivered value again. The resulting next generation enterprise is ready for long term success. The book discusses how business process management delivers real value in private and public sector organizations around the world. It addresses executives and managers as well as educators and students.

Continuous Process Improvement: A Practical Guide (Quality Improvement Series)

Continuous Process Improvement: A Practical Guide (Quality Improvement Series) Review

An easy-to-apply illustration of a basic process-improvement methodology covering the continuous cycle of process improvement, analyzing work processes, determining customer needs and more.

Detail Process Charting: Speaking the Language of Process

Detail Process Charting: Speaking the Language of Process Review

Praise for Detail Process Charting
"A must-read for any competitive organization, Detail Process Charting: Speaking the Language of Process provides a comprehensive, yet clear, explanation of how to utilize one of the most powerful tools available to improve work processes. [Graham] has successfully integrated the history, success stories, and wisdom of those in the field who have applied this time-tested tool."
-Jim Denyes, Training Manager
Naval Occupational Safety and Health, and Environmental Training Center
Author, Work Smarter, Not Harder
"This book will be a valuable resource for all those interested in work simplification and its implementation. Excellent answers to the 'who,' 'what,' 'when,' 'how,' and 'why' of work simplification are provided in an understandable and very useful level of detail. Graham has obviously 'been there, done that.' "
-John A. Roberts III, Adjunct Professor
School of Business Administration, University of Dayton
"The keys to this approach . . . are the involvement of the workers and the simplicity of the charting approach. Even those participants who have never seen a process chart can almost instantly see how the process works, their role in it, and how it can be improved. This level of involvement means continuous buy-in, which significantly improves the chances of success. The emphasis on the document as the key process element and the ability to diagram the document to flow easily, rapidly, and clearly set this approach apart from all the others."
-Fredric D. Heilbronner, Director of Systems Consulting, eForms
Digital Consulting & Software Services, Inc.
"Much has been written about charting and business systems analysis, but I have not seen anything as comprehensive and clear as Ben Graham's book. Writing in simple, easy-to-follow language with plentiful illustrations and practical examples, this book takes the reader through the full spectrum of the charting process from initial analysis to managing charting libraries. This book is a must-have for all process improvement analysts and managers wanting to improve their organizational efficiency."
-Robert Barnett, Managing Director
Robert Barnett and Associates Pty. Ltd.

Product-Focused Software Process Improvement: 10th International Conference, PROFES 2009, Oulu, Finland, June 15-17, 2009, Proceedings (Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing)

Product-Focused Software Process Improvement: 10th International Conference, PROFES 2009, Oulu, Finland, June 15-17, 2009, Proceedings (Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing) Review

This book constitutes the proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Product-Focused Software Process Improvement, PROFES 2009, held in Oulu, Finland, on June 15-17, 2009. This year, special emphasis was placed on software business to bridge research and practice in the economics of software engineering. This focus ensured a comprehensive coverage of software development and enabled participants to tackle one of the most important current challenges identified by the software industry and the software research community, namely the shift of focus from "product" to "services". The 34 papers presented together with 2 keynote speeches were carefully reviewed and selected. The topics covered are evidence-based software engineering and quality assurance, agile software development, process models and SPI, processes, software as a business. The book also includes contributions to industrial case studies, workshops, and tutorials.

Systems, Software and Services Process Improvement: 18th European Conference, EuroSPI 2011, Roskilde, Denmark, June 27-29, 2011, Proceedings (Communications in Computer and Information Science)

Systems, Software and Services Process Improvement: 18th European Conference, EuroSPI 2011, Roskilde, Denmark, June 27-29, 2011, Proceedings (Communications in Computer and Information Science) Review

This volume constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 18th EuroSPI conference, held in Roskilde, Denmark, in June 2011. The 18 revised full papers presented together with 9 key notes were carefully reviewed and selected. They are organized in topical sections on SPI and assessments; SPI and implementation; SPI and improvement methods; SPI organization; SPI people/ teams; SPI and reuse; selected key notes for SPI implementation.

Test Process Improvement: A step-by-step guide to structured testing

Test Process Improvement: A step-by-step guide to structured testing Review

"If competitiveness is an issue in your market, IT will be vital, and this book will help you to deal with the problems it will bring along." Henk W Broeders, Executive Board, CAP Gemini "I was introduced to TPI and suddenly the penny dropped...This was quite a revelation...I recommend that you try the ideas suggested in this book...use the TPI method to improve your test process." Stephen K Allott, Senior Consultant, ImagoQA Ltd "The application of TPI enables us to raise our global testing organization to the next professional level. I am absolutely convinced that everybody using TPI in a similar way will experience the same added value." Dr Hans Voorthuyzen, Global Manager Product Testing Group, Baan Software testing is an essential part of software development but many organizations regard it as an uncontrollable part of the process and find it difficult to take steps to improve it. In Test Process Improvement, Tim Koomen and Martin Pol give practical suggestions for improving the testing process in a gradual and controlled manner, with realistic goals in terms of quality, lead time and costs. The book describes and explains the Test Process Improvement (TPI) model, tried and tested by numerous professional testers, which provides a structured framework to be used either for improving an existing test process or for developing a new process from scratch. The authors use their in-depth knowledge and extensive experience to provide practical guidance and a framework that enables the reader to adapt the model for use in his/her organization. If you are involved in testing software systems and are aiming to implement a successful and structured process, you will find this book an invaluable resource.

Simple Lean Six Sigma, A Process For Process Improvement

Simple Lean Six Sigma, A Process For Process Improvement Review

Organizations today are looking to do more with less, become more efficient, increase capacity, and find cost savings. They hire business process managers to facilitate process improvement efforts, align processes to organization goals, gain performance advantages, improve personnel capacity, and sustain gains. Simple Lean Six Sigma is a handbook that teaches the reader a simple step by step approach to help their organization design process, improve processes, optimize organizational design, increase capacity, and eliminate waste. This book is being used as a text book at select universities nationwide for Green Belt Certification. The students learn how to strike wastefulness; which includes inefficiencies caused by defects, non value-added flow of information or materials, stacks of inventory, data storage, overproduction and extra processing. Students will learn how to identify and reduce special cause variation, analyze value streams, and implement positive change.

Process Mapping, Process Improvement and Process Management

Process Mapping, Process Improvement and Process Management Review

Map Your Way to Process Excellence

At last, a simple, well-written survey of process redesign that will help you transform your organization into a world-class competitor. Author Dan Madison explains the evolution of work management styles, from traditional to process-focused, and introduces the tools of process mapping, the roles and responsibilities of everyone in the organization, and a logical ten-step redesign methodology. Thirty-eight design principles allow readers to custom-fit the methodology to the particular challenges within their own organizations. Additional chapters by guest writers Jerry Talley, Ph.D., and Vic Walling, Ph.D., discuss cross-department process management and using computer simulation in redesign, respectively. Inside youÂ’ll find detailed, illustrated discussions about:
* The importance of process
* Process mapping
* Key stakeholdersÂ’ roles and responsibilities
* The ten-step process redesign methodology
* Process improvement and creating the process team
* The four lenses of analysis
* Customer report cards, benchmarking, and best practices
* Process redesign case studies
* Design principles for process redesign
* Barriers to process redesign
* Becoming a process-focused organization
* Building cross-department process management
* Using information technology in process management

Evaluation of Organizational Self-assessment Tools and Methodologies to Measure Continuous Process Improvement for the Naval Aviation Enterprise

Evaluation of Organizational Self-assessment Tools and Methodologies to Measure Continuous Process Improvement for the Naval Aviation Enterprise Review

The Naval Aviation Enterprise (NAE) has created a program called AIRSpeed to deliver the efficiency gains of continuous process improvement (CPI). NAE leadership seeks a self-assessment tool to measure how well AIRSpeed has been implemented, including possible areas for improvement. This thesis studies the origins of continuous process improvement, the value of assessment, and current assessment methodologies. Key concepts are cited for the use of organizational assessment tools. The objectives are an enhanced body of knowledge for enterprise assessment, to provide a comparison of several approaches, and to recommend a tool for NAE AIRSpeed. The tools to be considered are the Department of Defense CPI Transformation Guidebook (DoD CPITG), the Navy’s Performance Excellence Guidebook (NPEG), the Lean Aerospace Initiative (LAI) Government Lean Enterprise Self-Assessment Tool (GLESAT), and the NAVAIR Alignment Assessment Tool (NAAT). Research revealed that three of the four tools (DoD CPITG, NPEG, and GLESAT) could efficiently measure AIRSpeed maturity, and recommendations were made that a performance management framework be established by the NAE prior to implementation of any formal assessment process. The maturity level of NAE AIRSpeed could be baselined using the LAI tool in those areas where lean principles have been implemented over a period of years.

Key Business Solutions: Essential problem-solving tools and techniques that every manager needs to know (Financial Times Series)

Key Business Solutions: Essential problem-solving tools and techniques that every manager needs to know (Financial Times Series) Review

Readers will discover problem solving tools from some of the top firms in the consulting industry with this concise and practical guide which introduces and explains how to resolve every challenge faced on a day-to-day basis in business – without a management consultant.

Readers will learn how to:

·         Overcome any business challenges with robust logic and structure using the ‘problem solving process’

·         Learn how to break down problems and make their workload lighter

·         Deliver the ‘killer’ recommendations

·         Discover how to successfully implement change in people and organisations

·         Find out how to keep themselves, the team, and their stakeholders happy

·         Learn how to use an effective hypothesis-driven approach to problem solving

Each chapter begins by posing a key business problem and then briefly and clearly introduces the theory behind the tools and techniques needed to address the challenge.

Every dilemma is brought to life with a case study, a ‘best practice example’ and at least one illustrative table or figure and a summary of the key points to remember when confronting the problem is at the end of each chapter.

Benchmark: Strategy Safari(9780273719588), Published November 2008, Life Sales 3,223 Copies Sold (TCM Nielsen Bookscan)

Market:Pearson is the Management market leader with 21% market share. Management is the largest market in the business sector and was worth £6.5 million in 2010.

Toxicity Assessment Alternatives: Methods, Issues, Opportunities

Toxicity Assessment Alternatives: Methods, Issues, Opportunities Review

Internationally known scientists review what has been accomplished thus far in developing acceptable alternatives to classical animal toxicity assessment methods. Authoritative chapters describe not only the many practical alternative approaches that have recently emerged, but also consider current trends and likely future approaches, as well as emerging automated assessment techniques. Hazard assessment applications and the validation of new alternative methods are also discussed. The methods presented here will help toxicologists, cosmetic chemists, and pharmacologists greatly reduce, refine, or even possibly replace, the use of laboratory animals in their work. Life science researchers will also find many new opportunities for detecting endocrine disruptions. Regulatory officers will gain a new perspective on alternative assessment, environmental assessment, and risk assessment. Significantly extending the efforts of the National Institutes of Health, the European Union, and the ICCVAM, Toxicity Assessment Alternatives offers all those evaluating toxicity today a cutting-edge collection of practical and highly effective alternatives.

Lean Six Sigma Statistics: Calculating Process Efficiencies in Transactional Project (Six SIGMA Operational Methods)

Lean Six Sigma Statistics: Calculating Process Efficiencies in Transactional Project (Six SIGMA Operational Methods) Review

The marriage between Lean Manufacturing and Six Sigma has proven to be a powerful tool for cutting waste and improving the organization’s operations. This third book in the Six Sigma Operations series picks up where other books on the subject leave off by providing the six sigma practioners with a statistical guide for solving problems they may encounter in implementing and managing a Lean Six Sigma programs. The book draws it examples from all sectors of business ranging from financial to manufacturing providing the reader with a wealth of case studies and as numerous worked out equations which are designed to facilitate the full potential of any Lean Six Sigma project.