Knowledge Based Management: Unleashing the Power of Quality Improvement

Outstanding is the best word to use if you need a book that can give you a basic understanding of the leading KBM practices. Six Sigma to defect analysis and most concepts in between are covered in an easy-to-read and follow manner. I was so impressed, I bought six copies for my management team and asked them to read it on their next flight (the book can be read in one sitting).

I enjoyed the book and gave it to my supervisor. The Folks from Air Academy Associates us a common sense approach implementing six sigma.

This book is an excellent KBM and Six Sigma primer. Designed by it's authors to be read in it's entirety by business executives or managers in the duration of a short plane journey (2-3 hours), this books adopts it's philosophy of KISS (Keep it Simple...) in order to communicate it's ideas. The book's format is light (0.6kg) and compact (23.5cm x 15.5cm x 2.4cm). Its style is light and easy to read, with frequent diagrams. At the same time it manages to be informative and pass on profound quality improvement knowledge. While it is American in flavour, I have personally found that the powerful underlying messages of quality improvement translate well internationally across Europe.

I thought the book was an excellent introduction to the topic of process improvement, where the author argues that we should manage processes from the vantage point of knowledge of them. By this they mean more than knowing how the work gets done, but what is the cost of failure, what are the key defect types, what are the sources of the defects, and knowing the tools to address these issues. If you are an expert in the topics of quality, process management, 6 sigma, this may not be the book for you to expand your knowledge. This may be a good book for you to use as a tool to help a manager, colleague, or someone less familar get a grounding. There is a good discussion of problem solving, the requisite tools, process mapping, and a good primer on why it is important to business. I would read Demings "Out of the Crisis", and then pick up this book. There are may others that I would include on the list, but this is a good start. If you are looking for an excellent discussion on DOE, Taguachi Techniques, and other sophisticated methods, go elsewhere. If you are looking for a well thoughout introduction to the idea that we need to solve problems by fixing processes and not people, this is an excellent book.