Understanding Variation: The Key to Managing Chaos
Author: Donald J. Wheeler
List Price: $35.00
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ISBN: 0945320353
Publisher: SPC PRESS (Statistical Process Control) (June, 1993)
Sales Rank: 27,818
Average Customer Rating: 5 out of 5
Customer Reviews
Rating: 5 out of 5
Once you read this, you'll never view the world the same way
The major theme of this book is Variation. Wheeler does an excellent job at explaining this important idea. Although these ideas have been around for over 70 years I have found no other book that even comes close to presenting this topic in such an accessible manner. Wheeler provides managers a rational way to look at daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly figures and tell whether the actions they take have resulted in improvement. This is the greatest value of this book - with an understanding of variation it is possible to define what improvement looks like when presented with numbers. This is sure to become a classic. Every person, Managers in particular, looking to improve any operation will be served well by reading this book. How many times has someone declared that an improvement has taken place only to find out later it was all smoke and mirrors? This book will provide the concepts and tools to be able to see through the smoke and mirrors. No more opinions, no more tap dancing, "show me the data" and we'll see if there is improvement. Read it - you will see figures in a new light.
Rating: 5 out of 5
The best beginning SPC book on the market
Dr. Wheeler has given a major contribution to the field of statistical process control in this work. With depth and breadth of material, Wheeler has created a simple yet powerful guide to a topic that at times can be quite intimidating to the statistically untrained. With his simple and illustrative presentation style, this book is easily accessible to all levels of practitioners - professional statisticians will enjoy and benefit from the book as well as novices in the field. While only taking two or three hours to read, it is a treasure-trove of information and we have successfully used it as a textbook in a basic seminar in statistical process control. I think this is an important and landmark piece of work, quite worthy to be mentioned in the same breath with works from legendary figures in the field such as Deming and Shewhart
Rating: 5 out of 5
Enlightening
I am a non-technical, non-mathematician, steeped in Deming-oriented Continuous Improvement, which I teach at university-level. This is simply the best (and easiest to read) book on the subject of 'control-chart' based SPC. It's in a class all by itself. It's an enlightening book about Life. It will change the way you look at and understand phenomenon. I wish Wheeler would write a series of such books, treating the rest of mathematics in as enlightening and cogent a fashion. Similar Products
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