The Improvement Guide: A Practical Approach to Enhancing Organizational Performance - Tapa dura

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THE AUTHORS

GERALD J. LANGLEY is a statistician, author, and consultant, and co-founder of Associates in Process Improvement (API), consulting firm that specializes in the improvement of quality and productivity.

RONALD D. MOEN is a statistician, consultant, and teacher to industry, government, and education. He is co-founder of API.

KEVIN M. NOLAN is a statistician, author, and consultant at API, where he focuses on developing methods and assisting organizations to accelerate their rate of improvement in quality and productivity.

DR. THOMAS W. NOLAN is a statistician, author, and consultant, and co-founder of API.

CLIFFORD L. NORMAN is a consultant with API whose work has emphasized the psychology of change.

LLOYD P. PROVOST is a statistician who advises to organizations as an API associate.

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Praise forThe Improvement Guide

"Managers will profit enormously from studying this unique publication, which presents a very practical, readily implementable way to improve the performance of any organization. Utilizing this approach over the last fifteen years, under the guidance of a co-author, has been a major key to the success of our company."
--DAVID R. HARVEY, chairman and former CEO, Sigma-Aldrich Corporation

"The updated edition of The Improvement Guide builds on API's practical approach to improvement, providing even more great examples, and expands into methods for large system change and spreading improvement quickly. This is an outstanding reference book for anyone leading improvement."
--BRUCE BOLES, master black belt, Hewlett-Packard

"The Model for Improvement developed by the authors and presented in this book is remarkably simple and profound. The first edition is a classic. The second edition retains the best features of the original and incorporates twelve years of experience of many organizations around the world that have been using its contents. It is a valuable reference for anyone working with improvement. We have been using The Improvement Guide in the Continuous Education Program on Improvement at the University since 2000, with outstanding results."
--ADEMIR J. PETENATE, professor of statistics at University of Campinas (Brazil) and director of ANOVA--Methods for Improvement

"If you are involved in organizational improvement efforts, this book is an invaluable asset and guide to learning. The detailed explanations of theory, principles, and tools, along with pragmatic real-world examples of successful project execution, allow an improvement team to understand organizational complexity, then break improvement efforts into simpler components, yielding dramatic insights and results."
--JERRY W. JACKSON, MD, Nephrology Associates, PC; improvement advisor, Institute for Healthcare Improvement

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IN TODAY'S TUMULTUOUS GLOBAL MARKETPLACE, making effective changes in how organizations are run has become more important than ever. Performance improvement continues to be a key focus for leaders in business, healthcare, education, and government concerned with long-term success and sustainability. Executives, managers, and workers need practical methods and techniques that produce lasting results.

This second edition of the best-selling book, The Improvement Guide, offers an integrated approach to learning and improvement, one that is designed to deliver quick and substantial results. Using straightforward stories to illustrate core ideas, the expert authors introduce a flexible model for improving quality and productivity in diverse settings. They draw from research conducted in a variety of areas--manufacturing, healthcare, government, and schools--to present a practical tool kit of ideas, examples, and applications.

Since the book was first published more than a decade ago, the authors have expanded the use of their Model for Improvement through work on improvement efforts at multinational companies as well as in different industries such as healthcare and public agencies. This thoroughly revised and updated edition includes new information that shows how to accelerate improvement by spreading changes across multiple sites--for example, spreading improvements in cardiac care across multiple hospitals; spreading set-up efficiencies across multiple manufacturing sites; or spreading approaches to reducing homelessness across multiple cities. In addition, the book contains an explanation of how other approaches such as Six Sigma and Lean production are related to the Model for Improvement framework.

Designed to be highly approachable, the book's Resource Guide to Change Concepts is updated so that even beginners can utilize the tested techniques of some of the world's most experienced practitioners. Like the first, this second edition offers a practical tool kit filled with dynamic ideas, illustrative examples, and useful applications.