Evaluation--whether called by this name, quality assurance, audit, accreditation, or others--is an important social activity. Any organization that "lives in public" must now evaluate its activities, be evaluated by others, or evaluate others. What are the origins of this wave of evaluation? And, what worthwhile results emerge from it?
"The Evaluation Society" argues that if we want to understand many of the norms, values, and expectations that we, sometimes unknowingly, bring to evaluation, we should explore how evaluation is demanded, formatted, and shaped by two great principles of social order: organization and society. With this understanding, we can more conscientiously participate in evaluation processes; better position ourselves to understand many of the mysteries, tensions, and paradoxes in evaluation; and use evaluation in a more informed way. After exploring the sociology and organization of evaluation in this landmark work, author Peter Dahler-Larsen concludes by discussing issues that are critical for the future of evaluation--as a discipline and a societal norm.

In 2001, we gathered a group of researchers in Nice, France to focus discussion on performance measurement and management control. Following the success of that conference, we held subsequent conferences in 2003, 2005, 2007, and 2009. This volume contains some of the exemplary papers that were presented at the most recent conference. Though the conference has been generally focused on performance measurement and management control and has included presentations on many facets of the topic, each year we have also focused on a particular theme of current interest. This year's theme was directed at innovative concepts and practices. This includes creative approaches to solving management challenges of performance and management control and improving organizational performance. It also includes the innovative use of empirical, analytical, experimental, and case based research. The contents of this book represent a collection of leading research in management control and performance measurement and provide a significant contribution to the growing literature in the area.

Quality assurance programs have been imposed on human health laboratories in the United States through regulation, but veterinary laboratories as yet remain unregulated. Heightened awareness of the importance of quality assurance has prompted many veterinary laboratories to adopt quality assurance measures. The Quality "Assurance Handbook for Veterinary Laboratories," written by experts with substantial practical experience, is a thorough and useful guide for laboratories that wish to implement new programs and procedures or to improve their current programs.

Designed for practicing veterinarians and for professionals in larger commercial or institutional laboratories, this handbook explains how quality assurance can minimize errors and provide confidence in results from in-house tests and tests done by referral laboratories. Beginning with the main components of a quality assurance program, this concise text describes the development of a laboratory quality assurance manual, goal setting, internal and external monitoring procedures, operations, evaluation of new procedures, and considerations for point-of-care testing and office laboratories. Among the many practical suggestions are tips related to administrative and financial issues, staff training, sample identification, and information management. Helpful figures and tables are presented, along with sample forms and a list of resources for training and certification and for external quality assurance programs.

The "Quality Assurance Handbook for Veterinary Laboratories" is a valuable guide for all veterinary laboratories.

Struggling to apply Lean effectively in your office environment? Office Lean is a book for anyone who wants to apply Lean better in contexts where the work is both intangible and complex. it explains in simple terms, what Lean is -- and what Lean isn't -- enabling office professionals to understand how it can be successfully applied to their complex office-based work environments. Contrary to popular opinion, Lean is not only for mass manufacturing or healthcare. It applies just as much to the digital world of "knowledge work" industries such as banking and financial services, software development, and government. But the fundamental concepts, straight from the factory floor, need a fair amount of translation to be effectively applied in cube farms. Overturning the common perception that Lean is about imposing rigid rules, or simply eliminating waste in the name of "efficiency", Eakin presents Lean as a dynamic, flexible, people-centric philosophy that delivers outstanding business results by improving employee engagement and customer experience. Office Lean helps Lean practitioners (leaders/managers and coaches/consultants) working in professional office environments access the amazing, transformative results Lean can bring to their specific domains. It combines clear explanations of the core concepts of the Lean philosophy with relevant, practical examples from the fields of accounting, finance, insurance, IT and government.

Author is a certified Quality Assurance Lead Auditor who has worked with more than 100 companies seeking ISO 9000 certification.
* One of the only books on ISO 9000 compliance written exclusively for the food industry.
* Examples are based on real-world cases (although company names and other identifying details are not included to protect privacy). These examples can be invaluable to food companies who want to avoid potential pitfalls.
* Relates ISO 9000 to other quality and safety assurance management systems.

With a quality management system (QMS) based on ISO 9001 you can ensure the quality of the products and services your company provides, thereby enhancing customer satisfaction and increasing profitability. ISO 9001:2015 - A Pocket Guide provides a useful introduction to ISO 9001 and the principles of quality management.

Learn to Implement an Effective, Coherent Management System with Quality and EH&S Tools How would you like to streamline health and safety and environmental programs into the everyday operations of your organization? Reduce rework, breakage, and worker’s compensation claims while increasing productivity, efficiency, and profitability? In Organizational Mastery with Integrated Management Systems, Michael Noble answers these questions and much more. Presenting an integrated, no-nonsense approach to process risk management, Noble guides you through all the steps necessary to establish a quality management system that incorporates environmental health and safety (EH&S) concerns. He brings together ideas from both Quality and EH&S, providing a wealth of proven techniques that can be easily tailored to your specific organizational needs. Useful checklists, guidelines, process flowcharts, and risk analysis methods are included along with appendices containing management and technical audits you can use to develop your own audit tool. You’ll learn to:

• Develop effective strategies for assessing, managing, and mitigating risks
• Make audits a simple extension of well-run operations and processes
• Integrate ISO 9000, ISO 14000, and OHSA’s 18000 systems
• Choose from the best-of-the-best of TQM, Deming, and Crosby
• Identify and correct "Multiple Root Causes" of accidents or process failure
• Enhance process improvement through employee/customer satisfaction
• And much more

'Control self assessment is sweeping the management and auditing worlds by storm. At last we have in just one place the authoritative guide to its practical application. Until now CSA had been shrouded in too much mystery and would-be practitioners had been largely at the expensive mercies of consultants or their own trial and error. It is impressive that the editors of this substantial volume have persuaded so many leading practitioners from most sectors and from several countries to pool their immense practical experience of CSA in a highly accessible way.’ Andrew Chambers, Managing Director of Management Audit, Emeritus Professor City University London and former Chief Executive of City Business School ‘This book should provide a very useful reference point for anyone who is thinking about introducing CRSA, or who is in the early stages of implementing it. The sections covering experiences of implementing CRSA.…are likely to be particularly useful. They should give you help in selecting the right approach and the most appropriate techniques for your own organisation.’ Liam Fitzpatrick, Director, Oxley Fitzpatrick & Associates Ltd Control Self Assessment is ‘a formalised, documented and committed approach to the regular, fundamental and open review by managers and staff of the strength of control systems designed and operated to achieve business objectives and guard against critical risks within their sphere of influence’ (Keith Wade). This book gives practical guidance on how such techniques may be introduced in an organisation and describes the implementation of CSA in a variety of organisations both in the private and public sectors.

This book looks at how and where human resources (HR) meets quality management, and the implications of this. Most organizations, whatever their size or sector, struggle with demonstrating the value of continuous improvement (CI) and/or HR initiatives at a time when economic conditions are challenging in the global marketplace. Both within the UK and internationally, organizations will use continuous improvement and business excellence (BE) as a means of not only improving performance internally, but also to secure external recognition of their management practices, including people management, and therefore increase their competitiveness in their market. This text explores the potential overlaps between the two fields by considering how to address the development and implementation of a strategy to integrate CI/BE and human resource management. Practical and applied, this text provides: A brief overview of the concepts of CI and BE An analysis of the strategic factors impacting on an organization's decision-making around adopting a CI/BE approach, and the impact this may have on people management and development practices A review of some major external CI/BE accreditations and awards, and their value and how they might be used An analysis of the possible problems and outcomes which could be achieved by adopting such a CI/BE strategy and integrating it with people management and development activities This book is ideal for any professional HR or performance improvement practitioner who wants to understand how a CI/BE approach could benefit their organization, as well as postgraduate students of HR or quality management.

Winner of the Walter E. Masing Book Prize 2019 at the International Academy for Quality. Perceptions as to the nature of the Quality Sciences and disciplines vary across the world depending on local industrial history. This can cause problems for global organisations who often want to retain the quality policies of the parent company whilst attempting to embrace the approaches familiar to local people. For example, whilst Western organisations have embraced Six Sigma, Lean and other Japanese management techniques, we have tended to adopt them in a hotchpotch fashion, bolting them on without ever understanding the context behind total quality control. In Japan, these concepts are not considered to be standalone but are all part of a seamless companywide matrix of interactive concepts, which can be summed up as company-wide quality work, of, by and for all. In essence, this means that 'quality' is everybody's responsibility from the chief executive downwards. David Hutchins has over several decades worked in all of the cultural blocks and has consistently managed to integrate all of these differences into a single companywide approach. When the concepts covered are integrated into a total company-wide programme, the intention is to make that organisation the best in its business; in Japanese terms this implies 'Dantotsu', which means 'number one thinking'. Accessible and practical in approach, Quality Beyond Borders is split into short sections, each representing a self-contained idea for the reader to digest and reflect on. It is a valuable resource for business practitioners, students and academics alike that will enable you to reach beyond your own borders to implement new ideas with significant results.

Systems Thinking for a Turbulent World will help practitioners in any field of change engage more effectively in transformative innovation. Such innovation addresses the paradigm shift needed to meet the diverse unfolding global challenges facing us today, often summed up as the Anthropocene. Fragmentation of local and global societies is escalating, and this is aggravating vicious cycles. To heal the rifts, we need to reintroduce the human element into our understandings - whether the context is civic or scientific - and strengthen truth-seeking in decision-making. Aided by appropriate concepts and methods, this healing will enable a switch from reaction to anticipation, even in the face of discontinuous change and high uncertainty. The outcome is to privilege the positive human skills for collaborative navigation through uncertainty over the disjointed rationality of mechanism and artificial intelligence, which increasingly alienates us. The reader in search of new ways of thinking will be introduced to concepts new to systems thinking that integrate systems thinking and futures thinking. The concept of anticipatory present moment (APM) serves as a basis for learning the cognitive skills that better enable navigation through turbulent times. A key personal and team practice is participative repatterning, which is the basis for transformative innovation. This practice is aided by new methods of visual facilitation. The reader is guided through the unfolding of the ideas and practices with a narrative based on the metaphor of search portrayed in the tradition of ox herding, found in traditional Far Eastern consciousness practice.

This book fully details, as the title suggests, the real secret to maximizing an organization's profitability. While many companies have implemented improvement initiatives such as Six Sigma and Lean Manufacturing, there is a missing link which, when discovered and implemented, will take these same companies to profit levels not seen before. This missing link is the Theory of Constraints, and when it's combined with Lean and Six Sigma, true transformational improvements are sure to follow. In this book, the author walks you through the step-by-step method on how to combine these three methodologies with the result being significant improvements to flow, major improvements in variation, substantial reductions in waste, superior on-time delivery, and ultimately, maximized profitability. He has been using this integrated methodology for many years and each time, the results realized were well beyond what the leadership teams had experienced previously. The genesis behind this combined improvement cycle is based upon many years of analysis of both failures and successes using Lean, Six Sigma, and the Theory of Constraints as stand-alone improvement initiatives. By integrating Lean, Six Sigma and the Theory of Constraints into a single improvement cycle, the author has developed a recipe that will maximize your return on investment, cash flow, and net profit. The Secret to Maximizing Profitability is both stimulating and thought provoking, but more importantly it will provide your organization with a roadmap for maximizing the use of your resources to achieve more bottom-line improvement than you ever imagined possible.

Here is the ultimate handbook for engineers, architects, contractors, specifications workers, and hardware managers who need to deliver products and services at a consistently high level of quality. It introduces ISO 9000, a proven method of building a quality track record that will stand up under the closest scrutiny even in the most competitive environments.
ISO 9000 in Construction enables construction professionals--from architects and engineers to contractors and suppliers--to develop quality standards and procedures precisely suited to their particular needs and responsibilities. It offers step-by-step instructions on the implementation and management of an ISO 9000 quality assurance system and demonstrates how the system puts the quality-management process into effect before work begins and detects and corrects problems before they reach disastrous proportions.
The book introduces the 20 basic elements of ISO 9000 and describes how each can be implemented in a wide array of construction-related companies. It coaches readers in the development of quality manuals, general quality procedures, work instructions, and the forms that are used in a quality assurance system. Numerous case studies demonstrate the ability of ISO 9000 to improve a company's quality performance, avoid costly errors that erode profits, and produce satisfied customers eager to use the company's services again.
Companies with ISO 9000 certification are already given contract preference in Europe and Australia. It is likely that within a few years the same will be true in North America. This book helps construction-related firms get a head start on ISO 9000 compliance while raising their performance levels, improving efficiency and productivity, and assuring a fair profit from their goods and services.
The only ISO 9000 book tailor-made for the construction industry . . .
ISO 9000 compliance is rapidly becoming a prerequisite for companies seeking international construction contracts, and the same may soon be true for firms operating solely within North America. Until now, however, no book has approached ISO 9000 from the unique point of view of the construction industry and related fields.
This indispensable handbook offers a comprehensive, step-by-step interpretation of ISO 9000 quality standards and their implementation in the construction industry. This remarkably useful guide
* Introduces ISO 9000 concepts and explains how they apply to all players in the construction industry, from architects, to contractors, to suppliers
* Explains how each of the standard's 20 elements is implemented in the various construction-related manufacturing and service companies
* Describes the development of quality manuals, general quality procedures, work instructions, and forms needed to implement a quality-assurance system
* Provides case studies that demonstrate the effectiveness of ISO 9000 standards
* Supplies numerous forms, checklists, tables, and illustrations to help readers understand and apply the requirements

For architects, engineers, contractors, specifications workers, hardware managers, and other professionals in construction-related industries, ISO 9000 in Construction is the key to achieving more consistent performance levels, improved efficiency and productivity, a solid reputation for quality, and a sharper competitive edge.

"Randy has crafted an invaluable book, no matter where you are in the journey of organizational change management. A must-have guide you will refer to again and again." - Marshall Goldsmith, author of the #1 New York Times bestseller, Triggers. "Randy Kesterson recognizes that much of the energy that organizations put into Lean and Six Sigma improvements is wasted when the results are not applied effectively due to the organization's resistance to change." - Ellen Domb, Ph.D. PQR, one of the world's top 50 quality experts at QualityGurus.com "Finally, a book that recognizes that most organizations are on the left side of the FAT-LEAN continuum. Far too many organizations think they are Lean/Six Sigma mature only to realize that they aren't even close." - Gerhard Plenert, Ph.D., serves as Director of Executive Education, Shingo Institute, Home of the Shingo Prize The Intersection of Change Management and Lean Six Sigma: The Basics for Black Belts and Change Agents is for Lean and Six Sigma professionals working inside organizations with low Lean maturity and significant resistance to change. Written by a business executive and certified Lean Six Sigma black belt, this book: Provides sound, innovative practices for those interested in successfully navigating organizational change. Focuses on culture change and mindsets, not just tools and applications. Stresses effective communication ensuring that various stakeholders understand the reasons for the change, the benefits, and the details. Illustrates how the benefits of Lean and Six Sigma initiatives can benefit the change management process. This book pinpoints and examines the intersection of change management and Lean Six Sigma. It features interviews with change management practitioners (executives, project managers, and black belts) and provides pertinent case studies detailing successful and failed changes.

Negotiation is an essential skill for all those operating commercially on behalf of their organisations. The ability to negotiate quotations, tenders, proposals, internal and external stakeholders, licensing agreements and so on, could form a critical part of any employee's role, be it on the buy or supply side. The Negotiation Handbook is a useful guide for all those wanting to understand how to apply tools and techniques to the negotiation process. This handbook has been subdivided into seven key sections, each representing a key phase in the negotiation process. The models and concepts are presented so that both a pictorial and explanatory commentary is available to the reader. This practical handbook supports all those working in a commercial capacity, so that they may apply commonly used tools and techniques and gain maximum benefit on behalf of their employers.

* Introduces a novel concept of Lean Construction 4.0, the amalgamation of two of the industries most talked about frameworks: Lean and Industry 4.0 * Truly global coverage and contributors at the forefront of research in the field * Growing numbers of courses and research centers dedicated to the concepts and technological applications in this book: IOT, cyber physical systems, Bi Data, Cloud Computing, VR, AI etc

Standards, Quality Control and Measurement Sciences in 3D Printing and Additive Manufacturing addresses the critical elements of the standards and measurement sciences in 3D printing to help readers design and create safe, reliable products of high quality. With 3D printing revolutionizing the process of manufacturing in a wide range of products, the book takes key features into account, such as design and fabrication and the current state and future potentials and opportunities in the field. In addition, the book provides an in-depth analysis on the importance of standards and measurement sciences. With self-test exercises at the end of each chapter, readers can improve their ability to take up challenges and become proficient in a number of topics related to 3D printing, including software usage, materials specification and benchmarking.

This indispensable handbook details the practical steps that can lead to success in programme management. Accelerating change has demanded that companies and organisations use programme management methods and techniques to effect it. John Bartlett provides the benefit of his deep involvement in managing large-scale change, where his advice and guidance have proved successful for both the private and public sectors of commerce and industry. The book is compatible with several existing frameworks, not least the UK government's Managing Successful Programmes approach. It is arranged without cumbersome theory but presents just the essentials needed for good practice. The Essentials of Managing Programmes is recommended reading in many universities and the Association for Project Management. Pick up and use this concise, intensely practical guide to develop a shared understanding, shared language and shared purpose in all your programmes; across project managers, sponsors, programme board members and all those involved in or affected by organizational transformation.

The Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award is the highest level of national recognition for performance excellence that a U.S. organization can receive. Now in its 18th edition, Baldrige Award Winning Quality is still the most widely used and recognized book on the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award. It provides readers with a simple, yet comprehensive resource, for understanding the most current criteria for this prestigious business performance award. The definitive resource for helping companies achieve world-class results, Baldrige Award Winning Quality - 18th Edition: How to Interpret the Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence is the only book on the Baldrige criteria to detail, in simple and straightforward language, every category, examination item, and area to address. From understanding the scoring system to preparing for a site visit, it guides you through all stages in the process. Reflecting the new criteria (2013-2014) that address education and healthcare, this edition outlines a comprehensive plan that is suitable for any company in any industry. Offering detailed explanations of each of the 17 "Examination Items" and the 36 "Areas to Address" that compose the seven major categories, the book reveals exactly what examiners look for in each area and suggests what you need to include. It also discusses: Criteria of leadership and the role of senior management in the award process Importance of a long- and short-term strategic plan Where and how to satisfy the requirements for demonstrating effective "process" and "results" Lists of state award programs based on the Baldrige criteria Core values and themes that underlie the award How to weigh the importance of the 36 "Areas to Address" The significance of the Baldrige scoring scale, and its role in achieving performance excellence The book devotes a chapter to supplying a clear and concise explanation on how to prepare for a site visit from the board of examiners. It details each facet of the site visit, including its purpose, what a Baldrige examiner looks for, and the questions typically asked during the visit. Complete with rules for preparing graphics and charts, the book includes helpful tips to help you avoid common mistakes when completing the application.

Lean Systems: Applications and Case Studies in Manufacturing, Service, and Healthcare details the various Lean techniques and numerous real-world Lean projects drawn from a wide variety of manufacturing, healthcare, and service processes, demonstrating how to apply the Lean philosophy. The book facilitates Lean instruction by supplying interactive case studies that enable readers to apply the various Lean techniques. It provides an in-depth discussion of the Lean tools (i.e., VSM, standard work, 5S, etc.) and several real-world case studies and applications of Lean that have shown significant improvement in meeting customer requirements. The case studies follow the Six Sigma framework of Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, and Control (DMAIC) structure for process improvement. The authors include detailed descriptions of each Lean tool and examples of how each Lean technique was applied to a wide variety of manufacturing, service, and healthcare processes. These in-depth descriptions and cases studies can be used by industry professionals and academics to learn how to apply Lean. They provide a detailed, step-by-step approach to Lean and demonstrate how to integrate Lean tools for process improvement and to sustain improvements. But more than this, the approach taken in this book gives readers the tools to effectively apply Lean techniques.

TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT (TQM) - A COMPETITIVE EDGE In the context of the European and Western manufacturing challenge being set by the 'Far Eastern Machine', it is of critical importance that manufacturing competitiveness is improved in Western companies. The ability to export successfully is becoming even more critical to the economic well-being of developed countries worldwide. The Japanese domination of the motor cycle and domestic consumer markets has had a significant impact on the balance of payments in Western Europe and the USA. All the signs are that Japanese companies are ready and able to enter other markets aggressively, through takeovers, acquisitions and off-shore manufacturing facilities. In Western Europe, the creation of the 'Single Market' in 1992 has provided major opportunities for companies to increase their market share. Unfortunately, many companies in the West have shown an inability to succeed even in their market when faced with tough, well-organized opposition, such as that from the Far East. There is very little time left for Western companies to catch up - the challenge is becoming more fiercely competitive daily. The time to improve competitive edge may be too late for many companies, as the European frontiers are dismantled and the Japanese companies continue to build off-shore plants in Europe. For example, it is a fact that companies are increasingly x PREFACE being forced to achieve world class manufacturing capability in order to compete and, in many cases, survive.

Evaluation--whether called by this name, quality assurance, audit, accreditation, or others--is an important social activity. Any organization that "lives in public" must now evaluate its activities, be evaluated by others, or evaluate others. What are the origins of this wave of evaluation? And, what worthwhile results emerge from it?
"The Evaluation Society" argues that if we want to understand many of the norms, values, and expectations that we, sometimes unknowingly, bring to evaluation, we should explore how evaluation is demanded, formatted, and shaped by two great principles of social order: organization and society. With this understanding, we can more conscientiously participate in evaluation processes; better position ourselves to understand many of the mysteries, tensions, and paradoxes in evaluation; and use evaluation in a more informed way. After exploring the sociology and organization of evaluation in this landmark work, author Peter Dahler-Larsen concludes by discussing issues that are critical for the future of evaluation--as a discipline and a societal norm.

The notion of 'Quality' in business performance has exploded since the publication of the first edition of this classic text in 1989. Today there is a plethora of performance improvement frameworks including lean-Six Sigma and the latest version of ISO 9001, offering an often confusing variety of ways to achieve business excellence. Quality guru John Oakland's famous TQM model, in many ways a precursor to these frameworks, has evolved to become the ultimate holistic overview of performance improvement strategy. Incorporating the frameworks that succeeded it, the revised model redefines Quality by: Accelerating change Reducing cost Protecting reputation The popular, practical, jargon-free writing style, along with ten supporting case studies, effortlessly ties the model to its real-life applications, making it easy to understand how to apply what you've learned to your practices and achieve sustainable competitive advantage. Guiding readers through the language of TQM and OpEx and all their recent developments, including data analytics, this book sets out a clear way to manage change. This exciting update of a classic is all the busy student or professional will need to begin understanding how to manage Quality and achieve Operational Excellence.

Finding ways to improve margins can be the difference between organizations that thrive and those that simply survive during times of economic uncertainty. Describing why cost reductions can be just as powerful as increases in revenue, Total Quality Management for Project Management explains how to integrate time-tested project management tools with the power of Total Quality Management (TQM) to achieve significant cost reductions. Detailing the ins and outs of applying project management methods to TQM activities, the book provides the understanding you'll need to enhance the effectiveness of your TQM work. To clear up any confusion about what a true quality improvement is, it includes sections that cover the fundamentals of total quality management and defines the terms used throughout the text. The book examines profitability as it relates to product cost-including the initial work determining investment paybacks. It compares TQM/PM versus Six Sigma and illustrates the use of scrum in the context of TQM for improving quality initiatives. Complete with real-world success stories that facilitate comprehension, it illustrates methods that can help to minimize distractions and keep your team focused. The authors consider the full range of quality improvement tools as applied within the framework of project management. For the section of the book on the application of TQM to scrum, they demonstrate how these analytical methods can be used on the data produced within a scrum project and made into actionable information. Filled with innovative methods for improving costs, the text arms you with the tools to determine the approaches best suited to your corporate culture and capabilities.