Publisher's Synopsis
There is a growing need for a credible method of assessing the status of an organization's continuous improvement process. Such a method should: be easy to understand; be applicable to different functions in the business; be applicable in a standard way across different sites; produce clear results upon which to base action to improve; be durable and able to be used to compare results year upon year; illustrate best practice and prompt action; and facilitate comparison with other organizations. This guide, part of a range of books supporting quality improvement processes, meets these requirements. It is intended to be used as: a reminder of the eight step approach to managing self assessment; a resource for training in self assessment, thus ensuring a common approach across different functions, departments and sites; a personal checklist to ensure coverage of the elements necessary to make the assessment effective and efficient; a leader's resource to plan, direct and control the assessment team; and an assessor's resource to record findings.;The guide is designed to help conduct an assessment, in this case meaning the process of judging an organization against a model for continuous improvement in order to highlight what is being done well and what steps to take. Such models are the European Quality Award and the Malcolm Baldridge Award.;The resources section contains a range of items to help manage the eight step approach. Part of the resources are provided on an IBM Wordperfect disk; the rest are presented as hard copies on paper.
