According to W. Edwards Deming, American companies require nothing less than a transformation of management style and of governmental relations with industry. In Out of the Crisis, originally published in 1982, Deming offers a theory of management based on his famous 14 Points for Management. Management's failure to plan for the future, he claims, brings about loss of market, which brings about loss of jobs. Management must be judged not only by the quarterly dividend, but by innovative plans to stay in business, protect investment, ensure future dividends, and provide more jobs through improved product and service. In simple, direct language, he explains the principles of management transformation and how to apply them.

Out of the Crisis

行銷硏究 : Marketing research

What makes organizations so similar? We contend that the engine of rationalization and bureaucratization has moved from the competitive marketplace to the state and the professions. Once a set of organizations emerges as a field, a paradox arises: rational actors make their organizations increasingly similar as they try to change them. We describe three isomorphic processes-coercive, mimetic, and normative—leading to this outcome. We then specify hypotheses about the impact of resource centralization and dependency, goal ambiguity and technical uncertainty, and professionalization and structuration on isomorphic change. Finally, we suggest implications for theories of organizations and social change.

The iron cage revisited: Institutional isomorphism and collective rationality in organizational fields (Chinese Translation)

THE NEED FOR QUALITY The first thing that we need to consider, in any organization, is that quality is the most important thing. The quality of your work defines you.  Whoever you are,  Whatever you do,  I can find the same products and services cheaper somewhere else. But your quality is your signature. Developing and delivering high quality products and services means that you are doing things correctly from the beginning. As a consequence, you are reducing the need for additional services, from verification to warranty.

Total quality management.

THE FIFTH DISCIPLINE The Art & Practice of the Learning Organization

Purpose - The authors analyze the principles and results of lean production and compare the lean production philosophy with the six sigma quality process and the principles of total quality management (TQM). At the end of the paper, it is discussed how to build the necessary company culture for having success with these principles/management philosophies. Design/methodology/approach - Literature search and comparative analysis complemented with a Danish case on wastage in a core process. Findings - It is shown that the lean production philosophy and the six sigma steps are essentially the same and both have developed from the same root - the Japanese TQM practices. The improvement process from six sigma, the DMAIC process, can be regarded as a short version of the Quality Story, which was developed in Japan in the 1960s as a standard for QC-circle presentations. We conclude that the roadmaps of lean production and six sigma quality are examples of new alternative TQM roadmaps. We also conclude that especially with lean production and six sigma quality there seems to be too much focus on training people intools and techniques and at the same time too little focus on understanding the human factor, i.e. how to build the right company culture. Originality/value - The detailed and historical analysis of six sigma quality, lean production and TQM combined with a focus on the human factor and the needed corporate culture. © Emerald Group Publishing Limited.

Lean Production, Six Sigma Quality, TQM and Company Culture

Purpose: To discuss how a performance measurement system called 'the flow model' is designed to measure changes towards lean thinking in health care services.
Design/methodology/approach: Integrate ...

Measuring lean initiatives in health care services: issues and findings

ISO 14000 is based on the concept that better environmental performance can be achieved when environmental aspects are systematically identified and managed. Despite the growing interest in voluntary environmental management standards, little empirical information exists and only a few survey studies have been made. This paper contains an evaluation of results from a survey on ISO 14000 and ISO 9000 companies. The study presents experiences from the standards implementation processes in Sweden. It focuses on motives for implementation, perceived benefits and key implementation factors. Further, comparisons are made between ISO 14000 and ISO 9000 systems. Swedish companies mainly use the standard to demonstrate their commitment to environmental protection. Most benefits are also perceived in the improved relations with stakeholders and in marketing advantages. Since the standard requires companies to set their environmental policy and objectives themselves, the identification of environmental aspects was stated as most important and also as the factor requiring most effort. Organizations require their suppliers to implement ISO 9000 to a greater extent than ISO 14000.

Implementing ISO 14000 in Sweden: motives, benefits and comparisons with ISO 9000

Employees are recognized as the most crucial asset of today's organizations by both academics and practitioners. The importance of employees is also reflected in the EFQM Excellence Model, since tw...

A causal model for employee satisfaction

The purpose of this article is to present and discuss the development of a system for assessing and improving healthcare organisations. The system components comprise (1) a framework or model for a ...

Jens J. Dahlgaard

Papers

Lean Production, Six Sigma Quality, TQM and Company Culture

Measuring lean initiatives in health care services: issues and findings

Implementing ISO 14000 in Sweden: motives, benefits and comparisons with ISO 9000

A causal model for employee satisfaction

Quality and lean health care: A system for assessing and improving the health of healthcare organisations