Quality Improvement: A Systems Perspective

Rating:
Summary: Idealizing the Ideal System
Review: Quality Improvement: A Systems Perspective by William F. Roth is a concise and informative book for those considering incorporating quality in business. The author begins by explaining quality improvement and how it can be achieved by modifying areas within an organizational system. Central to the ideas for success of quality improvement involve the full participation of all employees, the continuous interactive planning, and the holistic approach that is crucial to accomplishing a well integrated quality system. The author provides examples of companies where the quality process was initiated through the use of steps and guidelines involving the collective efforts of all employees, from the top to the bottom of an organization. The practical points and issues raised by the author provides the reader with the critical perspectives on achieving successful quality improvement. The text also discusses reasons for the failure and success of quality efforts.

The author includes an analysis of important learning concepts that must be taught in business schools to provide the critical building blocks for effective organizational leadership. Quantitative analysis is extremely useful but for true quality derived from improvement of systems to be achieved, business students must be instructed in the analysis of skills in workers that are nonquantifiable. This book was brilliantly written and exposed the quality process at work at International Paper mills and at the Good Shepherd Rehab Center. These two examples have been provided to illustrate the different way in which a quality improvement process empowered employees.

This text is as brilliant and practical today as when it was written years ago. The ideal corporate American system is embodied in the writing of this book. If one can sit back and idealize the perfect situation in work as in life, as the author discusses, one becomes that much closer to fulfilling his individual potential and the realization of his dreams.