Process Improvement Essentials

Preface

THIS BOOK IS NOT INTENDED AS A COMPREHENSIVE LOOK AT THE ART AND TECHNIQUE OF PROCESS improvement, nor is it intended to give you a complete look at ISO 9001:2000, CMMI, or Six Sigma. Those types of books are already out there. The weighty thing about them is that they are comprehensive, filled with good information, depth, and a lot of material. Sometimes they contain more than what you might be looking for initially.

Because I work in the field of process improvement, it is not uncommon for people to come up to me at trade shows or after seminars or at organizational meetings and ask my opinion about one of these three well-known programs.

They want an answer that’s less than comprehensive. (In fact, they often want an answer that’s less than useful.) Two or three sentences to the query: Which program should we adopt? Or, what’s the difference between these three? Or, what would it cost to get certified? Those are questions none of us can answer in a three-minute conversation. But I’ve tried to come close to that in this slim volume.

The chief purpose of this book is to help people who are new to process improvement get a basic understanding of the purpose, aim, and structure of this growing field and to help them understand how ISO 9000, CMMI, and Six Sigma relate to the industry and to one another. It’s also designed to help set beginners on the way to making an informed decision, should they wish to move into deeper exploration along more specific lines.

In Part 1 of this ...