Customer Satisfaction Measurement Simplified: A Guide For ISO 9001:2000 Certification
Terry G. Vavra, ASQ Quality Press, 600 N. Plankinton Ave., Milwaukee, WI 53203, 2002, 328 pp., $32 member, $40 list (book with CD-ROM).

Customer satisfaction measurement (CSM) is one requirement of the ISO 9001:2000 standard. This book focuses on CSM and its relationship to quality improvement and customer satisfaction.

The author gives three reasons CSM is important:

1. Philosophy. Satisfied customers mean improved employee satisfaction and profitability for the organization.

2. Economics. It improves company competitiveness and market shares.

3. ISO 9001:2000 certification requires it.

The book discusses how to discover and define the customers and their requirements. It also points out the difference between measurement for efficiency and measurement for effectiveness. The book explains how to design a survey questionnaire for CSM, how to analyze it, what possible statistical or nonstatistical tools can be used to analyze it, and how to report and use the results for improvement.

This book will be beneficial for quality professionals and people in corporate management who need to understand how to implement CSM.

Shin Ta Liu
Lynx Systems
San Diego

Real Management
John C. Chicken, Thomson Learning, Berkshire House,
168-173 High Holborn, London, WC1V 7AA, UK, 2001,
122 pp., $20.99 (book).

Real Management provides a comparative review of the roles of management in various types of organizations, with a focus on identifying the essential elements of the management process and explaining how these elements influence the way a manager performs.

The author defines real management as hands-on operations management as opposed to theoretical management. He examines the role of management with an emphasis on improvements in efficiency and the need to remain flexible to reflect current market conditions as an organization evolves.

The book covers the tools of management and how to assess management performance, and it presents case studies to illustrate the author's arguments.

Two things I found annoying about this book were the author's use of terms that are not in Webster's dictionary (such as "manageress") and inadequate definitions in the glossary.

Other than that, this is a well-written book with figures and illustrations to support the author's ideas. It's a great book to add to the library of any MBA student.

James F. Jaquess
Mirant
Atlanta

Six Sigma for the Shop Floor: A Pocket Guide
Roderick A. Munro, ASQ Quality Press, 600 N. Plankinton Ave., Milwaukee, WI 53203, 2002, 192 pp., $12 member, $15 list (book).

As Six Sigma is quickly becoming the hot topic in quality, there is no shortage in the number of texts available on this methodology. What makes this book unusual and refreshing is its size. This is the reference guide for the person who wants a comprehensive and concise manual for implementing and understanding Six Sigma.

This minireference does a solid job of defining Six Sigma and briefly describing the various tools you might use to improve business processes. Seasoned quality professionals will already be familiar with many of these tools, including auditing, benchmarking, cause and effect diagrams, central limit theorem, flowcharts, histograms, process capability and self-directed teams.

The author indicates his text is designed to assist shop floor operators and supervisors in implementing Six Sigma. However, this reference would be helpful in any number of business settings, for quality and nonquality professionals.

Linda Cubalchini-Travis
Simi Valley, CA

The ISO 9000 Quality System: Applications in Food And Technology
Debby L. Newslow, John Wiley & Sons, 605 Third Ave., New York, NY 10158-0012, 2001, 241 pp., $79.95 (book).

Although the title says Applications in Food and Technology, the book is generic enough that anyone interested in learning about International Organization for Standardization, known as ISO, quality management standards will be able to find something helpful in it. Actually, the book includes limited reference to the food and technology sectors.

The frequently identified nonconformances sections of the book could be useful to organizations pursuing certification and to organizations that are currently certified and have their internal and third-party auditors. However, I would have liked to see more references to the clauses of the ISO 9001:1994 or ISO 9001:2000 standards against which these nonconformances were written.

Section 13 is an accumulation of many subjects raised by organizations that have or have not been certified to the ISO 9001 standard. The author has done a good job addressing these subjects. It would have been useful to organize the questions in a logical fashion, such as by subject or by related elements of ISO 9001:1994 or ISO 9001:2000.

Herzl Marouni
ABS QE
Houston

Practical Tools for Continuous Improvement, Volume Two
Jacqueline D. Graham and Michael J. Cleary, eds., PQ Systems, 10468 Miamisburg-Springboro Rd., Miamisburg, OH 45342, 2000, 236 pp., $39.95 (book).

This book deals with practical tools for problem solving and planning. The editors provide a seven-step approach that makes learning and applying tools easy. They explain what each tool is and how it looks. They tell how to make and use the tools and provide criteria for determining when to use them. A comprehensive glossary is also included.

Some of the tools discussed include flowcharts, brainstorming, cause and effect diagrams, affinity diagrams, relations diagrams, arrow diagrams, matrices and matrix data analyses.

Practical Tools for Continuous Improvement is an excellent resource guide for quality professionals. It will equip them to apply the proper methodology to their business issues.

John Lanczycki Jr.
Creative Planners
Danbury, CT

The Practical Guide To People Friendly Documentation
Adrienne Escoe, ASQ Quality Press, 600 N. Plankinton Ave., Milwaukee, WI 53203, 2001, 260 pp., $40 member, $50 list (book).

This book discusses a simple, functional way to provide easy to use aids and records. The author looks at documentation from a process point of view. The entire cycle of production, including need, concept, form, utility, implementation, usability, feedback and improvement, is reviewed, with suggestions for the most effective and efficient way to achieve the end product (documentation).

The coverage of documentation is not limited to print media, although that is the focus. The presentation of the process of achieving Nimble Documentation is well-organized with effective diagrams, tables, checklists and information tools. There are excellent, though brief, examples throughout and coverage of documentation needs related to ISO 9001, ISO 14000, the Baldridge Award, Six Sigma and total quality management.

The Practical Guide to People-Friendly Documentation has an extensive index, and there are helpful checklists listed in the margins throughout the book.

If you are responsible for providing, revising or supervising documents for any purpose, you should have a copy of this book for reference and guidance. Following the recommendations of Nimble Documentation will most likely improve your process.

Marc A. Feldman
Solvay Interox
Houston

When Stuff Happens: A Guide To Solving Problems Permanently
Jeanne Sawyer, Sawyer Partnership, 1241 Renraw Dr., San Jose, CA 95127-4418, 2001, 168 pp., $16.95 (book).

When Stuff Happens is about solving problems and provides useful guidance for the beginner. Sawyer does provide a method, which she calls solving problems permanently (SPP). She advises the reader to use Ishikawa diagrams and Pareto charts to understand problems and devise potential solutions. Sawyer tells the readers to collect data so they can tell whether a change has brought about the desired improvement. She uses two case studies to show how to apply her SPP method. The language is easy to understand. All those things are good.

But I am bothered by what is not in the book. For example, "variation" does not appear in the index. "Common" and "special cause" do not appear, nor does "plan-do-study-act." Sawyer quotes Russell Ackoff in one spot but does not give the citation. Elsewhere she talks about "messes," a term used by Ackoff at least as early as 1986, but does not acknowledge Ackoff. Her reference list is dominated by her own publications, although she does include Peter Scholtes, Kaoru Ishikawa and Joseph M. Juran.

This book will likely find a place on the bookshelves of quality professionals. But quality professionals should understand the danger in applying a method without knowledge of the underlying theory. W. Edwards Deming admonished us not to copy.

Steven Byers
Western Institutional Review Board
Olympia, WA

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