1st Edition
77 Pillars of Quality and the Pursuit of Excellence A Guide to Basic Concepts and Lean Six Sigma Tools for Practitioners, Managers, and Entrepreneurs
This book offers a basic and practical guide for a manager, quality practitioner, or anyone interested in learning and understanding the fundamental principles, concepts, tools, and techniques of quality management and process improvement. This book enables managers to have a strong foundation for effective management and improvement of operations. It strengthens quality practitioners’ approach to people, products, or services and process improvement, to influence without authority. It provides practitioners with a comprehensive understanding of the contemporary concepts of quality, guiding principles, and quality tools and techniques and on successfully implementing them. It helps enhance how practitioners perform their work and inspires them to strive for excellence.
The book begins with an introduction and an overview of quality, followed by listing and explaining the selected 77 pillars (basic principles, concepts, and tools) of quality, grouped under the themes of quality, Six Sigma, and Lean Management. It examines the logical understanding of these pillars and how to implement them, providing practical examples and beneficial real case studies. The stories are based on the learning and practical experience of the author—a certified Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt, a quality manager, and a university lecturer.
This book benefits employees, partners, and customers of any organization, offering a great reference for practitioners and academics alike. It serves as a call to reflect on basic quality pillars first, before embarking on a quality improvement journey. It provides a solid foundation for managers and practitioners to exceed their customers’ expectations and excel in managing their business operations.
Foreword
Preface
Acknowledgments
About the Author
List of Abbreviations
List of Figures
List of Tables
Abstract
PART I. INTRODUCTION AND LITERATURE REVIEW
1. Introduction and Overview
2. Literature Review
PART II. QUALITY MANAGEMENT
3. Fundamental Pillars Related to Quality
4. Fundamental Pillars Related to Change Management
5. Fundamental Pillars Related to Strategic Quality Management and Company-Wide Management Systems
PART III. THE METHODOLOGY OF SIX SIGMA
6. Fundamental Pillars Related to Six Sigma
7. Fundamental Pillars Related to the Use of Basic Quality Tools (Utilized in Six Sigma Projects)
8. Fundamental Pillars Related to Additional Six Sigma Tools
PART IV. LEAN MANAGEMENT
9. Fundamental Pillars Related to Lean Management
10. Fundamental Pillars Related to Visual Management
11. Fundamental Pillars Related to Additional Lean Tools
PART V. CURRENT AND FUTURE QUALITY IMPROVEMENT TRENDS, RECOMMENDATIONS, AND CONCLUSIONS
12. Current and Future Quality Improvement Trends, Recommendations, and Conclusions
APPENDICES
A. Case Study A: Supply Chain (SC) Improvement Project
B. Case Study B: Revenue Assurance Project
References
Index
Biography
Dr. Souraj Salah received his B.Sc. in mechanical engineering specializing in industrial production engineering from Jordan University of Science and Technology, a Master’s degree of Engineering in mechanical engineering specializing in industrial engineering from Concordia University, Montreal (with Great Distinction), and a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering specializing in industrial engineering management from the University of New Brunswick where he won the Graduate Student Merit Award for two times.
He is currently a part-time Adjunct Professor at Hamdan Bin Mohammed Smart University and also at Abu Dhabi School of Management (teaching courses like Japanese quality, quality tools and techniques, TQM fundamentals, and operations management). He also serves as a Member of the Industrial Engineering Advisory Committee at the American University of Sharjah, UAE. He also serves as a member of the advisory board for the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Sharjah.
He is a Business Process Improvement Manager working in the logistics, contracting, services, and manufacturing sectors internationally. He worked for various local, multi-national and Fortune 500 companies across North America and the Middle East. His main research interests are quality control, Lean, Six Sigma, TQM, quality culture, operational excellence, and management systems.
He has authored and co-authored one book -- Integrated Company-Wide Management Systems Combining Lean Six Sigma with Process Improvement -- and more than 30 papers that were published in various international journals (the best of which was cited over 470 times).
In addition, he is certified as a Six Sigma Master Black Belt and Lean Leader trained by the Juran Institute, Lead Advisors, Alignment Strategies in Canada, and Johnson Controls Intl. in the USA, and as a Quality, Health, Safety, and Environment Management Systems (ISO 9001, ISO 14001, ISO 45001) Lead Auditor by Bureau Veritas. He has led and coached several Green Belt and Black Belt practitioners in executing numerous Lean Six Sigma Projects delivering millions of dollars in savings from the cost of poor quality. In 2015, he won the United Arab Emirates Quality Professional Award by the American Society for Quality (ASQ).
