Curious Cat Management Improvement Library - Process Improvement

The Checklist by Atul Gawande, Dec 2007
"Pronovost and his colleagues monitored what happened for a year afterward. The results were so dramatic that they werent sure whether to believe them: the ten-day line-infection rate went from eleven per cent to zero. So they followed patients for fifteen more months. Only two line infections occurred during the entire period. They calculated that, in this one hospital, the checklist had prevented forty-three infections and eight deaths, and saved two million dollars in costs."
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Improvement Triad: Processes, Products, and Management Practices by Dave Nave, Sep 2007
"While process improvement will produce results quickly, those results are transient and often only include the short-term future. Product improvement can produce great benefits. However, those results take longer to realize. Improving management practices produces the greatest results, however those results may take years to realize, are the most difficult to accomplish, and many of the results may be indirect. After all, behavior is a hard thing to change, in ones' self and as a group."
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Creating Flow Using 5S and TRIZ by Ives de Saeger, Mar 2007
"This article investigates the combination of 5S and TRIZ, and this change in view from objects to functions through a case study. A functional modeling is a process of several system states. Redefining the "system" to include objects from the super-system increases the flow more than 5S can sustain."
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VMEC working to make health care lean Jan 2007
"Through a new program called the Vermont Lean Healthcare Transformation Project, Gifford has agreed to work with VMEC PSG, a not-for-profit business strategies and process improvement organization hosted at Vermont Technical College... The results of VMECs work at Gifford are meant to be a model for hospitals around the state. According to VMEC, the successes of this initial project with Gifford will be used to showcase, illustrate, guide and hopefully motivate Vermonts 13 other hospitals to undertake their own lean transformation initiatives."
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Shigeo Shingo: Influence on TPS by Art Smalley, Apr 2006
An Interview with Mr. Isao Kato. "his main contribution to Toyota was actually as an instructor of fundamental process improvement methods and developer of several thousand manufacturing engineers in the company. This influence should be properly recognized as we all learned a great deal from him on how to see problems in production."
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Inside the Toyota MR-50 by Paul V. Arnold, Mar 2006
"First, it is Maintenance Reduction 50 Percent, not Cost Reduction 50 Percent or Employee Reduction 50 Percent. 'The goal is to reduce maintenance activities and the maintenance that you perform on a machine by 50 percent. That goal covers every machine and every activity,' says TMMK facilities control manager David Absher."
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Process Leadership by Daniel T Jones, Nov 2005
"What is missing is process leadership at the top. Top management focuses on strategic thinking and financial thinking but not on processes thinking."
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Stretching Agile to fit CMMI Level 3 by David J. Anderson, Jul 2005
"At Microsoft, we?ve adopted the teachings of W. Edwards Deming and stretched our MSF for Agile Software Development method to fit the requirements for CMMI Level 3. The resultant MSF for CMMI Process Improvement is a highly iterative, adaptive planning method, light on documentation, and heavily automated through tooling."
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A3 Reports: Tool for Process Improvement by Durward K. Sobek, II and Cindy Jimmerson, May 2004
"Toyota uses it to systematically guide problem-solvers through a rigorous process, document the key outcomes of that process, and propose improvements. The tool is used so pervasively that it forms a keystone in Toyota.s world-famous continuous improvement program. Toyota calls this tool the A3 report."
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Designing Useful Metrics by Esther Derby, Jun 2002
"It?s fairly common in organizations for the metric to become the goal, rather than a useful piece of information. The key to keeping measurements useful is to pay attention to the meaning, not just the number?if a number starts going up (or down), it?s time to gather data and tune the system, not just announce that the number needs to move in a particular direction."
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Kaizen at Hill-Rom by Gary LeBlanc, Nov 1999

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Statistical Techniques for Quality by T.N. Goh and M. Xie , Nov 1999
"Statistical process control techniques and their role in process improvement are first discussed and some issues related to the interpretation and use of experimental design techniques are also summarised. The focus will be on continuous quality improvement using statistical techniques."
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Using the Results Act and Quality Management to Improve Federal Performance by United States General Accounting Office, Jul 1999
Statement of J. Christopher Mihm, Associate Director Federal Management and Workforce Issues General Government Division. Testimony before the Subcommittee on Oversight of Government Management, Restructuring, and the District of Columbia Committee on Governmental Affairs, U.S. Senate.
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Implementing Total Quality Leadership by Navy Total Quality Leadership Office, Jun 1997
Contains the student handouts, instructor guide and slides. The file is 983k.
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Team Skills and Concepts by Navy Total Quality Leadership Office, Jun 1997
Contains the student guide, instructor guide and slides.
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Process Improvement Notebook by Navy Total Quality Leadership Office, Jan 1997
Manual to assist quality improvement teams to highlight important information related to process improvement. Each section of the PIN contains forms and instructions for how to complete the forms.
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Structural Process Improvement at the Naval Inventory Control Point by Gary Burchill, Mar 1996
A detailed examination of a Navy effort to apply Ackoff's Idealized Design with Total Quality Management and Systems Dynamics. Recommended.
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Operational Definitions by Navy Total Quality Leadership Office, Jan 1996
21 pages. Part of Basic Tools for Process Improvement Handbook
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Brainstorming by Navy Total Quality Leadership Office, Jan 1996
19 pages. Part of Basic Tools for Process Improvement Handbook
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Team Decision-Making Tools: Multivoting andNominal Group Technique by Navy Total Quality Leadership Office, Jan 1996
48 pages. Part of Basic Tools for Process Improvement Handbook
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Affinity Diagram by Navy Total Quality Leadership Office, Jan 1996
21 pages. Part of Basic Tools for Process Improvement Handbook
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Cause-and-Effect Diagram by Navy Total Quality Leadership Office, Jan 1996
23 pages. Part of Basic Tools for Process Improvement Handbook
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Flowchart by Navy Total Quality Leadership Office, Jan 1996
37 pages. Part of Basic Tools for Process Improvement Handbook
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Data Collection by Navy Total Quality Leadership Office, Jan 1996
46 pages. Part of Basic Tools for Process Improvement Handbook
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Pareto Chart by Navy Total Quality Leadership Office, Jan 1996
49 pages. Part of Basic Tools for Process Improvement Handbook
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Run Chart by Navy Total Quality Leadership Office, Jan 1996
38 pages. Part of Basic Tools for Process Improvement Handbook.
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Control Charts by Navy Total Quality Leadership Office, Jan 1996
70 pages. Part of Basic Tools for Process Improvement Handbook.
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Histogram by Navy Total Quality Leadership Office, Jan 1996
71 pages. Part of Basic Tools for Process Improvement Handbook.
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Process Improvement: The DSMC Approach by Defense Systems Management College, Jan 1995
This guide provides a framework for how DSMC will build quality ?into? our organization by managing and improving processes.
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Quick Reference Guide for Using Tools by Coast Guard Process Improvement Guide, Dec 1994
1 Page
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USCG Process Improvement Guide by US Coast Guard, Jan 1994
Preface to Second Edition (32K), Section One - Overview of Process Improvement (95K), Section Two - Generating Ideas (158K), Section Three - Data & Data Collection (63K), Section Four - Basic Tools (725K), References (158K), Quick Reference Guide for Using TQM Tools. From the Los Alamos National Laboratory Quality Improvement Office.
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Understanding variation - the springboard for process improvement by Henry R. Neave, Jan 0004
"Process monitoring merely aims to reach and maintain a state of statistical control. But that's only the beginning. The next issue is: is the process capable? That means that, when it is in control, it is capable of providing outputs that meet the customers' stated requirements."
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Coast Guard Process Improvement Guide
88 pages.
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Focus on the Work: Pick Improvement Projects that Really Help Your Agency's Operations by Public Sector Network News,
by Tim Fuller
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Fundamentals of Total Quality Leadership by Navy Total Quality Leadership Office, May 1997
Contains the student handouts, instructor guide and overhead slides. The file is 5,620k.
Rating: 3.0 (1 review)
Small Business Guidebook to Quality Management by Office of Secretary of Defense Quality Management Office,
The aim of this guidebook is to help small businesses make the transition to a quality culture. While the focus of the guidebook is small businesses the information is helpful to anyone transforming and continually improving their organization.
Rating: 3.3 (3 reviews)
Basic Tools for Process Improvement Handbook by Navy Total Quality Leadership Office, May 1996
40 pages.
Rating: 5.0 (1 review)