Modular Kaizen: Continuous and Breakthrough Improvement

by Grace L. Duffy

Overview

Modular kaizen is a development of necessity in our rapidly changing world where improvement has to happen “on the fly”. Modular kaizen is the counter point to kaizen blitz, where team members are locked in a room to hammer out a solution to some problem or opportunity. In the hectic, interrupt driven environment of many organizations, it is simply not possible to remove critical players from normal operations for any length of time. Modular kaizen is an improvement approach that integrates quality techniques into the busy schedule of everyday activities. All of the components of an effective kaizen event are planned; however, the activities are scheduled in small segments, or “modules” that fit the rapidly changing time demands of team members and subject matter experts. This approach is complementary to the Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) and Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, Control (DMAIC) models of quality improvement. The author of this book calls upon a 40 year career to incorporate techniques, innovations and lessons learned in the pursuit of effective continuous and breakthrough improvement and use the resources, people, and schedules already in place to get things done. If you are looking for proven approaches to integrating quality improvement into daily work, this is your book.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781953079787
Publisher:	ASQ Quality Press
Publication date:	11/04/2013
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	224
File size:	8 MB

About the Author

Grace L. Duffy, MBA, CLSSMBB, provides services in organizational and process improvement, leadership, quality, customer service, and teamwork. She designs and implements effective systems for business and management success. Her clients include government, healthcare, public health, education, manufacturing, services, and not-for-profi t organizations. She is coauthor of The Quality Improvement Handbook, The Executive Guide to Improvement and Change, Executive Focus: Your Life and Career, and The Public Health Quality Improvement Handbook. Grace holds a master’s degree in business administration from Georgia State University and a bachelor’s degree in archaeology and anthropology from Brigham Young University. She is an ASQ certified manager of quality/organizational excellence, certified quality improvement associate, and certified quality auditor. Grace is a certified Lean-Six Sigma Master Black Belt and manager of process improvement. She is an ASQ fellow and past vice president of ASQ. During her 20 years with IBM, Grace held a series of positions in technical design, services, management, and process improvement. She helped design and deliver IBM’s executive quality training in the late 1980s. Grace retired from IBM in 1993 as head of corporate technical education. Grace served with Trident Technical College in Charleston, South Carolina, for 10 years as department head for business, curriculum owner, and instructor for Trident’s Quality and Corporate Management programs and as a dean for management and performance consulting to private industry. Grace is a member of ASTD, ISPI, and ASQ. Grace can be reached at [e-mail].