Quality or Else: The Revolution in World Business

Rating:
Summary: Needs an update
Review: This is a smart book. Dealing with the quality gurus, their impact on post-war Japan and the subsequent quality movement(s) in the U.S., it's a must read for every worker, manager, and executive. Quality is a must in any business. The only drawback is that the authors need to update it.

Rating:
Summary: Needs an update
Review: This is a smart book. Dealing with the quality gurus, their impact on post-war Japan and the subsequent quality movement(s) in the U.S., it's a must read for every worker, manager, and executive. Quality is a must in any business. The only drawback is that the authors need to update it.

Rating:
Summary: Quality or Else
Review: Two graduate courses at RIT (Rochester, NY) in quality controls, taught by the same professor, required this book as a text in one of the courses. He was a stickler for statistics and the like. For him, because of my constant reference to the book and the main characters' directions of quality, especially W. Edwards Deming, he mentioned that he'd probably look for another text.

Deming's attitude towards tests and grades in the academic world parallel mine, for I am taking cross-disciplinary graduate courses at age 60 and have some background experiences in writing and publishing. This professor created a set of highly structured tests even demanding that students write at least three questions for each quiz and exam he gave. Those questions selected by him would give bonus points to the student. He would become angry and nearly explode when I harped on Deming's feelings, for the prof. used his name as a near idol of his with great respect for the man's abilities and guidance.

I would say for academics that the most damning statement in the book towards American education commences at the bottom of page 91: "There is an inherent difficulty in teaching a subject as amorphous as quality. Academics talk of "a discipline." What they mean is an area of specializaiton, and a graduate student who tries to dabble in more than one area of specialization will run into trouble from academics whose view of life is a good deal more narrow than life is. ... There have been successful interdisciplinary study programs recently in some US universityes, but they aren't the norm."

This book works well for getting American educated people out of the "box," if they are willing.

An additional superb book for academics and ALL MEN is the latest Fifth Edition, 1999, of Ashley Montagu's "The Natural Superiority of Women." This is a killer and is fodder for fire for a great many "men" with Eurocentric backgrounds!

Rating:
Summary: Quality or Else
Review: Two graduate courses at RIT (Rochester, NY) in quality controls, taught by the same professor, required this book as a text in one of the courses. He was a stickler for statistics and the like. For him, because of my constant reference to the book and the main characters' directions of quality, especially W. Edwards Deming, he mentioned that he'd probably look for another text.

Deming's attitude towards tests and grades in the academic world parallel mine, for I am taking cross-disciplinary graduate courses at age 60 and have some background experiences in writing and publishing. This professor created a set of highly structured tests even demanding that students write at least three questions for each quiz and exam he gave. Those questions selected by him would give bonus points to the student. He would become angry and nearly explode when I harped on Deming's feelings, for the prof. used his name as a near idol of his with great respect for the man's abilities and guidance.

I would say for academics that the most damning statement in the book towards American education commences at the bottom of page 91: "There is an inherent difficulty in teaching a subject as amorphous as quality. Academics talk of "a discipline." What they mean is an area of specializaiton, and a graduate student who tries to dabble in more than one area of specialization will run into trouble from academics whose view of life is a good deal more narrow than life is. ... There have been successful interdisciplinary study programs recently in some US universityes, but they aren't the norm."

This book works well for getting American educated people out of the "box," if they are willing.

An additional superb book for academics and ALL MEN is the latest Fifth Edition, 1999, of Ashley Montagu's "The Natural Superiority of Women." This is a killer and is fodder for fire for a great many "men" with Eurocentric backgrounds!

Rating:
Summary: A good organizational communication tool for Quality.
Review: Unlike many PBS companion volumes, Quality Or Else is not simply a chapter-by-chapter echoing of the television series. Each of the three one-hour televised episodes presents a completely different aspect of the need for quality in America. The series can best be described as topical, and the intent is clearly to inspire. The companion volume can better be described as historical and is intended to inform. Dobyns and Crawford-Mason have "decided to take a historical approach because, to the best of (their) knowledge, no one has ever written the history of the quality movement."

To those well versed in quality, and the need for it in their organization, Quality Or Else offers nothing new in its content. However, in its form, Quality Or Else offers a tool for communicating within the organization. For those of us who work in organizations where management has demonstrated their commitment to using the quality movement to change everything about how the organi! zation runs, this tool will not be needed. But for those of us working for management teams that are not yet striving for such grand levels of change, Quality Or Else can be used as an education vehicle.

For Quality Or Else has a single theme that permeates every aspect of the discussion: quality "isn't a matter of an adjustment here, a bit of fine tuning there; quality is a change in the structure and purpose of an organization, ... The only reason to do it is because it works." The continual emphasis is on the role of senior management in making quality happen; walking the talk. "With a quality program, the chief executive is still the chief executive, but he has a lot more help."

The emphasis on, and challenge to, managers is most obvious in the video presentations. The companion book offers a similar message but tends to hide some of it behind the extra details provided in the book that are less covered in the videos. This makes the videos a useful ! tool for planting the seeds with managers who are not ready! for many of the details and background.

For those who are ready for background, the book offers it. Much of the book echos statements and stories shown in the video, however two particular topics are extremely well covered in the book that were only briefly mentioned in the video.

In Teachers and Sensei (Chapter 3) Dobyns and Crawford- Mason offer an excellent cross-referencing discussion of the works and theories of Deming, Crosby, Juran, Feigenbaum, Ishikawa, and Taguchi. Their intent is to document the differences among these quality leaders while also illustrating that the qualities they share are far more significant than the areas where they disagree.

In describing attitudes towards defects, Deming and Juran advocate reduction while Crosby calls for elimination. To Crosby the cost-of-nonconformance is central to understanding an organization's needs, while to Deming the cost-of-nonconformance is unknowable. Juran's approach is described as "flexible" as ! opposed to the "dogmatic" approach of Deming. Crosby says that quality is "relatively easy,", Juran says it's "not revolutionary," yet Deming warns that it's "hard." These differences can seem significant to the beginner, yet synergism can be achieved at the intersections by those willing to adapt the best-of-the-best to their own organizations.

The second area in which the book version of Quality Or Else excels is in its description of The Baldrige Award (Chapter 8). Much has been written on the National Quality Award, and Dobyns and Crawford-Mason build on the same basic facts before going on to a discussion that has real impact in describing the need for personal motivation and commitment from management. They do an excellent job of describing the award as a process rather than a product; a means rather than an end.

The authors state in their conclusion that "of all the senior managers involved in quality (they) have intervie! wed since 1980, and there have been a lot of them, not one ! has ever said he wished he had not gotten involved with a quality system. To a man [regrettably, there were no women], each said it was the best and smartest thing he had ever done, and he only wished he'd done it sooner. Not one said it was easy."

The 186 interview subjects in Quality Or Else look like a social register of acknowledged quality experts and industry success stories. Quality Or Else, book or video, provides a clear and forceful message with a breadth and depth that could only have been possible with the level of effort that has been expended over an exhaustive two years. No manager can listen to the message, from the variety of sources that are used, without getting excited about quality. It's a tool we can use if our need is to get management moving.