Continuous Process Improvement

You can buy any number of books on continuous improvement or process design and become quickly mired in overwhelming detail. This book, on the other hand, goes to the heart of what a process is, the true meaning of 'continuous process improvement' (a frequently misused term in my opinion), and the steps needed to achieve it.Chapter 1 starts by explaining continuous process improvement, its business benefits, and some simple tools that will get you started. This chapter is so well written and makes so much sense that if this were a novel it would be considered to be a 'grabber'. The next two chapters get you started by showing you how to map and evaluate a process. I like the way you are quickly led to focus on what's important through problem statement and analysis. Chapter 4 introduces the real tools for continuous improvement - statistical process control charts - and manages to cover this daunting topic without losing the reader. This is no mean feat because the material isn't simple in nature. The treatment is brief and will probably raise more questions if you are not familiar with statistical process controls. If that's the case you will probably want to read "SPC Simplified: Practical Steps to Quality" by Robert T. Amsden (or if you are in the service industry, "SPC Simplified for Services" by Davida M. Amsden, which is the same boom with an emphasis on services). The final chapter wraps up by giving advice about implementing corrective action, project management considerations, and managing teams and meetings.This is the best introduction to continuous process improvement, in my opinion, and one that I recommend highly to anyone who is new to the subject. I also recommend "Solve That Problem!: Readymade Tools for Continuous Improvement" by Steve Smith (ISBN 0749424826), which expands on the basic CPI tools that this book introduces.