Insights: Books: ISBN 978-3-642-35903-3

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A Guide to Continuous Improvement Transformation:
Concepts, Processes, Implementation
Aristide van Aartsengel and Selahattin Kurtoglu

 

Series: Management for Professionals
Content Level: Professional/practitioner

• Presents a short but comprehensive overview of "Continuous Improvement" transformation and its key characteristics.
• Provides guidance on the implementation of a "Continuous Improvement" initiative.
• Delivers tools to quickly assess where an enterprise or business stands in terms of strategic management and "continuous Improvement."

 
From the back cover:
This book enables enterprise business leaders - from CEOs to supervisors - to understand what "Continuous Improvement" is, why it is probably the best answer to improved business performance in years, and how to put it to work in the unique environment of a specific organization. The book examines the core of the art of "Continuous Improvement" and delves deeper into the elements and constituent necessary to take an organization to the next level to continue to exist in the long term. It provides guidance to enterprise management and to professionals engaged in the implementation of a "Continuous Improvement" initiative and enables them to structure and manage its implementation successfully. It also provides tools to quickly assess where an enterprise business stands in terms of strategic management and "Continuous Improvement".

Extended Description:

An enterprise business exists for one purpose: to create value and generate revenues in order to continue to exist in today's ever changing business landscape. These revenues must cover the expenses of the enterprise business, provide working capital for future operations, and provide the profits expected by the shareholders.

Achieving and sustaining success in today's hyper-competitive marketplace, with severe economic turmoil, is an ultimate challenge for any company and business leader. This is an era of unprecedented change, complexity, volatility, and risk when everything seems to be moving at very fast speed. There is very little room for error. The business imperative today is not just to perform excellently, but to perform excellently consistently.

This book addresses thoroughly the basic question to ask of management for a successful implementation of any improvement initiative: "Are we doing the right things?" It enables enterprise business leaders - from CEOs to supervisors - to understand what "Continuous Improvement" is, why it is probably the best answer to improved business performance in years, and how to put it to work in the unique environment of a specific organization. The book examines what is at the core of "Continuous Improvement" and delves deeper into the elements and constituents necessary to take an organization to the next level to ensure its continued, long-term existence. It provides guidance to enterprise management and to professionals engaged in the implementation of a "Continuous Improvement" initiative and enables them to structure and manage its implementation successfully. It also provides tools to quickly assess where an enterprise business stands in terms of strategic management and "Continuous Improvement" transformation.

Selected Reviews (Before Publication):

• The authors' insights are leading edge and challenging. They delve beyond the technical issues and have a keen handle on strategy, social environment, and organizational effectiveness. They know how to drill down and ask the critical questions. They clearly articulate the need for all enterprise businesses to push the boundaries beyond standard improvement programs, which can never deliver exceptional results.
  Norman Provost - Director of Quality & Compliance, MSW
   
• Aristide serves as a speaker and consultant to IQPM as it embarked on a process of identifying transformational organizational performance programs. His book on this topic is by far the best I have ever read, and he lives up to that reputation in person. He is highly energetic and engaging as a speaker, and got us on the right path. He is also very good at tailoring his message to a non-profit association setting.
  Marvin J. Vasicek - Quality Director, IQPM Consulting
   
• Thank you so much for the wonderful workshop you led for us on "Continuous Improvement" transformation. You did a superb job of motivating the participants, and everyone found it interesting and useful. Thanks to your knowledge and ability to teach complex things in an easy and humorous way, we are convinced that we will be able to collaborate around "Continuous Improvement" transformation much better than we could before.
  Mark R. Schmidt - Quality & Reliability Engineering International, YDG Deutschland
   
• "This magnificent book by Aristide van Aartsengel and Selahattin Kurtoglu conveys a new vision for "Continuous Improvement", beyond the technical aspects of process analysis and improvement. The authors have so effectively dealt with the social and organizational aspects, especially the importance of reality, dialogue, trust, and learning. These subjects are almost never considered when business performance programs are discussed. If you want to make "Continuous Improvement" come alive in your organization, then you need to read and use this book. Thank you for expanding our consciousness about "Continuous Improvement" transformation!
  Maximilian Gretel - Process Improvement SIG Director, IBM Deutschland