Gower Handbook of Quality Management (3rd ed.)

Citation

Narasimhan, K. (2004), "Gower Handbook of Quality Management (3rd ed.)", The TQM Magazine, Vol. 16 No. 2, pp. 160-160. https://doi.org/10.1108/tqmm.2004.16.2.160.1

Matt Seaver, has contributed to four of the 33 chapters of this Handbook. He has wide experience in the food industry and is principal of Seaver Associates, which specializes in quality management systems, food safety and laboratory accreditation. He has been deeply involved in the last two revisions of ISO 9000 and has written other books on that topic.

The 33 chapters of the Handbook are grouped into four parts according to the plan‐do‐check‐act (PDCA) concept of quality management. This Handbook caters to the needs of both managers and academics who want to gain a broad knowledge of the field of quality management. For those interested in the detail of a specific topic, references and notes are provided at the end of chapters.

Part one, on planning, comprises five chapters. The very short Chapter 1 was written by the late Frank Price ten years ago and deals with the fundamentals of the quality concept and the importance of quality in satisfying a customer. Chapter 2 is devoted to briefly considering the impact of health and safety legislations. Product liability and product safety issues are dealt with in Chapter 3. In Chapter 4, the need for training to delivery quality goods and services; and how it can be planned for is covered with the aid of an example. The topic of control of the design process and the importance of designing in quality from the outset are covered in Chapter 5.

Part two is entitled “Do” and comprises 11 chapters. There are very short chapters (nine pages each) on procurement, servicing, and ISO 9000 documents; and a long chapter (34 pages) on product reliability. The other chapters are on the just‐in‐time supplies, process capability, materials handling, servicing (after‐sales), documentation and cecording, control procedure for design changes, and standardization. It is emphasized in the chapter on product reliability that it is not enough to conform to specifications, but it is necessary to design the product according to customer requirement in the first place. Failure mode and effect analysis, fault tree analysis, and reliability analysis of test and service data are some of the techniques that are very briefly covered.

Part three, comprising ten chapters, deals with the “check” stage of the PDCA cycle. The first chapter in this section is an introduction to the theory underpinning statistical analysis of uncertain and variable data. The following two chapters deal, respectively, with the application of these concepts and techniques (for example, control charts and cumulative sum charts) to analyze process variability. The next four chapters deal with the reasons for inspecting goods and services, functional testing, principles connected with measuring equipment maintenance, and the role of measurement in assuring quality. The final three chapters deal, respectively, with issues related to quality audit and reviews, quality‐ and safety‐related costs, and the benchmarking process.

The fourth phase (act) of the PDCA cycle is covered in seven chapters. Managing non‐conformity and how to use it as a basis for improving quality and a leading quality guru’s ideas for effecting process improvement are covered in the first two chapters. Issues connected with ISO 9001 certification, culture and organizational aspects and the basics of total quality management are dealt with in the following three chapters. Environmental management systems are briefly covered in the penultimate chapter; and, in the final chapter, an integrated model for quality, safety and environment that is based on management practice is very briefly described.

Most of the chapters are written by single authors; and 22 authors from diverse backgrounds (academics, practitioners, and consultants) have contributed to this work. Hence, the structure of chapters varies, as evidenced from the different systems of referencing used by the authors. This is quite a useful handbook which will help increase the appetite for further reading on quality and safety issues.