ASQ Quality Press

Benchmarking for hospitals; achieving best-in-class performance without having to reinvent the wheel.

Sower (operations management, Sam Houston U.) collaborated with a professor of management and a professor of information systems to create this introductory guide designed to enable readers with no experience in benchmarking to follow a structured approach to the process. Content includes instructions for the proper timing and use of tools and practices, as well as a procedural framework for implementation. Extensive illustrations, including graphs, tables and flow charts, are complemented by engaging case studies and other content that illustrate the details and the greater scope of benchmarking. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

The certified six sigma green belt handbook. (CD-ROM included)

A structured process intended to deliver perfect products and services consistently, the Six Sigma system includes Green Belt exams by which participants can be certified by the American Society for Quality as experts. This professional reference doubles as a study guide for prospective Six Sigma Green Belts and those who train them. Topics include the organizational goals of Six Sigma, lean principles in the organization, quality function deployment, and methods of the Six Sigma process: definition (process management for line and project operations, management and planning tools, business result assessment and team dynamics); measurement (process analysis and documentation, probability and statistics, collection and summarization of data, probability distributions, measurement system analysis, process capability and performance); analysis (exploratory data analysis and hypothesis testing); and improvement and control (design of experiments and statistical process control). The CD-ROM includes test questions, data sets and blank forms. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

The desk reference of statistical quality methods, 2d ed.

Clearly arranged and filled with helpful examples, this reference presents 48 chapters that describe specific statistical methods used for quality science. Arranged alphabetically, each chapter concludes with a list of references. Techniques are presented in seven categories with descriptive methods being the most well represented, including topics such as confidence interval for the proportion, discrete distributions, and histograms. Techniques are also included in statistical process control, process improvement, reliability, and comparative data analysis. Twelve chapters are devoted to special applications, mainly various control charts. New sections have been added to the second edition, including those on hypothesis testing and design of experiments. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)