Managing Quality An Integrative Approach

Much has happened since publication of the first edition ofManaging Quality: An Integrative Approachin 2000. The book has been adopted by faculty at many top universities and has also been utilized within many firms. It has been translated into Chinese and rose to number four on the list of quality-related bestsellers at Amazon.com-Japan. It appears that there is a market for a text with an unbiased contingency perspective on quality. An explanation of some of the themes and core values that permeate this text follows. MAJOR THEMES Integrative Approach.Workers and managers in organizations are somewhat limited by their particular functional preparation and specialization (going back to their educational training). This narrow preparation filters how they analyze and cognitively interpret information. However, quality management has emerged as a discipline that is not owned by any of the functional areas such as operations management, human resources, marketing, and so on. An example can be seen when attempting to define quality. If a CEO states in a company meeting that "we need to improve quality," she might be thinking that, from a strategic point of view, the firm needs to become more competitive. The marketer in the audience hears this as an admonition to improve customer responsiveness. The engineer envisions tighter specifications, and the production worker worries that the company is going to be downsized. Just using the unreliable term "quality" results in this problem. Therefore, students of quality must recognize this imperfection in communication about quality in order to improve organizational understanding. This is the basis for theintegrative approachused in this text. Students will view quality from a variety of functional perspectives and, in the process, gain a better understanding of the problems associated with improving quality. Contingency Approach.There is no "one way" or "magic pill" that companies can implement to improve quality. Therefore, thecontingency approachis used to instruct students how to assess the current condition of a firm and identify gaps in quality deployment as a basis for future improvement. Thus, improvement is based on the contingent variables that are operative in a firm as it exists. This contingency approach is introduced in Chapter 1 and permeates the rest of the text. It is a premise upon which everything else is based. The contingency approach has been successfully taught by the author in undergraduate and graduate courses, as well as at a number of firms and organizations. Of course, a sound understanding of quality fundamentals is important if students are to be able to make effective strategic choices for the future. FEATURES OFTHIS TEXT Organization.The text is organized as follows: First, an understanding of basic and advanced quality concepts is provided. Next, the focus moves to assuring quality through product, service, and process design. Third, the implementation of quality management and control is presented. The final section of chapters focuses on approaches for continuously improving the quality system. The book's organization reflects the logical life cycle that firms follow in the quality journey. Coverage of Quality Tools.Quality tools and approaches--such as statistical quality control, the basic seven tools, Six Sigma, the seven tools for management, and the Taguchi method--are presented. Implementation problems with these tools are also discussed. The philosophy adopted in this text is that organizations should not necessarily focus onquality tool choiceas the strategic emphasis in quality planning. Instead, skilled managers will assess operational variables in the organization, such as leadership, respect for employees, learning and knowledge creation, customer focus, and others. If there are gaps between the current state aFoster, S. Thomas, Jr. is the author of 'Managing Quality An Integrative Approach', published 2003 under ISBN 9780131302662 and ISBN 0131302663.