Iso Reviews

As an EMS project manager I found this book to very comprehensive with easy to follow case studies that were clear, concise and proved to be very valuable. So much of implementing an EMS deals with change management and this handbook lays out what changes an organization and skills a project manager needs to consider as it makes steps on this path toward ISO 14001 implementation. Another benefit is the excellent, easy to read examples created for each element of the standard providing a great starting point from which to take that leap! I recommend the handbook to others investigating environmental management systems.

Practical, straight-forward, simple approach to EMS implementation! We have used as part of our standard training with employee teams.

This handbood explains the elements of ISO 14001 and how to implement them in a clear and concise manner. The authors make the reader feel confident that they can implement an EMS no matter what their industry.

I like how they step through each element of the standard, explain what it means and then show how others have addressed that element with real world examples. We hear from environmental managers in five companies (from a small, Midwest tool manufacturer to a mulit-national pharmaceutical conglomerate) how they implemented their EMS. Actual copies of policies, aspects lists, management meeting notes and cost data as well as tips and advice are, sprinkled throughout the book. There is also a list or resources and related websites listed in an appendix.

This is an easy read (a plus for anyone with limited time) and would make an excellent addition to an EMS training package. I will recommend it to my membership.

Curtis Lindskog, President, Pacific Industrial and Business Association

If you consider ISO9001 more than a paper on the wall then you should read this book. The author tells you what to do rather than a detailed prescription of how to do it. But more important he explains the reason of each ISO9001 requirement. This helps anybody that works with this standard to think about what the rational behind and how does this fit in each business.

Everybody should understand first and implement after and that's the purpose of this book: to deeply understand the standard in order to create or transform your management system (and by this way the quality system) into a customer driven management system

With the introduction of the ISO 9001:2000 standard, a number of publications offering ideas, advice and assistance to anyone who have been charged with implementing quality systems, have made their appearance on the bookshelves. The ISO 9000 Quality Systems Handbook 4th Edition, by David Hoyle is one of the best I have read on this subject. In this 4th edition, David analyzes each section, clause and requirement of the ISO 9001:2000 standard in detail.

David Hoyle has over 30 years experience in quality Management and has authored or co-authored more than five books on ISO 9000. He is also the director of Transition Support, a firm that provides training and consulting in business improvement.

The book is easy to understand and is suitable for students, managers, instructors as well as auditors. The novice ISO practitioner as well as the seasoned ISO 9000 enthusiast will find this book a valuable tool when implementing ISO 9000 quality management systems. For those making the transition from the 1994 version of the standard, this book helps to point out the changes from the 1994 to the 2000 standard.

The standard has changed considerably. In the 4th edition, the meaning of each of the requirements of the ISO 9001:2000 standard is explained in detail and some of the sometimes confusing ISO language is clarified. The author explains why each of the requirements is necessary. He shows how each requirement links to the eight quality management principles on which the ISO 9001:2000 standard was based. The book gives practical guidance on implementing each requirement. This is the strong point of the book.

After introducing some basic quality concepts, the book explains the role, the origins and application of the ISO 9000 family. The succeeding chapters, 4 through 8, correspond to each of the five sections of the standard. This makes it easy when looking for help in understanding and implementing a certain requirement of the standard.

The 4th edition has a summary, a questionnaire that provides food for thought for the reader, and a list of references at the end of each chapter. A glossary and a list of related websites are included in the appendix.

The 4th edition of ISO 9000 Quality Systems Handbook will find a permanent place on your desk. Auditors will find this book indispensable.

This is David Hoyle third edition on ISO 9000:1994. This book gives you a good understanding of the requirements of the standard.

When I wrote my quality manual in line with ISO 9000:1994 I found the book Indispensable, as the standard required you to comply with the clauses of the standard, and most people (my self included) wrote their quality manual in line with those requirements. This was OK until the new requirement came out in September 1999. Now the standard has changed from the clause approach to the processes approach. This is saying there must be a link between processes i.e. if one processes does not fulfils its requirement, then you cannot proceed to the next stage of the process. The overall message is that you "must satisfy your customer requirements".

How do you go about changing the way you now write your quality manual, that is easily answered you read David Hoyle's 4th edition ISO 9000:2000 "Quality System Handbook " this is the one with the picture of the pearl on the front. The 3rd edition 1994 is the one of a hand passing a scrawl to an other hand.

If you are serious about quality and want to write or modify your quality system that complies with the new requirements, then it is imperative you obtain a copy of the 4th edition.

This is an excellent book to generate cost saving ideas from. It combines simple engineering and management principles with a focus on proving to the reader how good environmental performance translates into good economic performance. The authors have done a great job in showing the basic prinicples and benefits of pollution prevention within the context of environmental management systems. The many industry-specific examples on P2 and waste minimization are simply excellent. I highly recommend this book for environmental managers.

Very informative book with new concepts on how to apply life cycle costs to pollution prevention projects. This book brings together two related subjects very clearly. It has helped our refineries see more clearly how an EMS can be applied within the context of pollution prevention. It clearly shows by many examples reasons for displacing end of pipe treatment trechnologies.

This is an excellent text that shows both engineers and managers how to apply principles to reducing environmental compliance costs. The works of Dr. Cheremisinoff are well known in the environmental management and pollution prevention fields. This book is a wonderful source of ideas and techniques for senior environmental managers.

Frankly, I never read about "Process Approach" in any books until my father handed me this one. After I read it, I knew that "process approach" was all about preventing problems through measurable quality objectives folded into the operations' quality procedures. The author provides 235 pages worth of tutoring flowcharts from the books' 565 pages on how to construct, implement, integrate, and maintain a quality management system based on prevention. He is actually implementing the system from the floor as a business is operating. I used only the flowcharts at this time in writing my procedures.

I own a daycare business and was recently cited by the State of Connecticut for numerous process-related violations. So who was at fault, my employees who didn't follow my verbal instructions or I who didn't give them written process instructions. I think the answer is obvious that I was at fault. I'm the business owner. Needless to say, I needed help and needed it fast. Since I read quite a bit about six sigma initiatives, I knew that if I followed the methodologies given, I would be able to solve the cited violations quickly. The more I reviewed my problems the more I became confused. After evaluating my daycare's operating processes, I have determined that applying six sigma practices wouldn't give me everything I needed, because it was not a preventive system. It was a process repair system, problem at a time, and it would cost me an arm and a leg to install it. No. I said. Six Sigma would continue pinpointing my problems alright after my employees made them, but I can't afford running my business through the analysis of statistical charts. I cannot accept piling up additional problems while one is being corrected. I needed total prevention in my operations from the beginning to the end, from everybody, including myself. This is where Mr. Gaal's book guided me in writing my procedures to prevent problems from taking over my business. I flowcharted all my business processes the same way as the author did in his "Training Metrics". I followed the same layout, process numbering, work-title, responsibility identification and process instructions for quality objectives the same way as Mr. Gaal did. Except, I tailored everything to suit my operations. Now I took the citations and made them quality objectives and plugged them in as were needed under the various sub-processes in the operations' flow cycle. For sure, if I didn't put in the quality objectives in terms of measurable quality objectives, in due time, my employees would have made mistakes again possibly in every process step - a different kind than the citation identified, a different kind for a new citation later. Now I can monitor everybody's job actions from the recorded data and take on-spot corrective action on violations. I'm doing in-process continual improvements. No hassle, no added cost, no statistics, and most importantly, no misunderstanding. The quality objective procedures in flowchart format do it all. Process by process, they are my procedures, the instructions, check sheets, audit sheets. They are my records. When the State did the follow-up audit, they not only found a fualtless operation, but I was the first daycare in the State with no problems found on re-audit. I received my daycare license for two more years on the spot.

Later on, I will create my quality management system straight from this book, for it has a lot more real information and examples than I will ever need on how to prevent mistakes. This book puts on a new face about how to implement ISO requirements that is actually putting money in my pocket.

The methods used in this book can provide the easiest and most cost-effective way to prevent quality problems by the practical application of measurable quality objective requirements.

What prompted me to read this book was the first of the features found on the back cover. "Serves as a Six Sigma tool for implementing cross-functional integration and standerdization." I looked up the Table of Contents but found no heading for this subject. So I started reading the book, here and there. I discovered right of way that this book is not based on herd mentality as most ISO books I read were. Within a short time, I found that process integration and standardization was not a separate subject but a structural, procedural requirement, a vital part of the whole process-approach framework. The surprising thing here was that process integration and standardization in the whole process-approach system was a way of doing things, a natural result of team interaction. One sees this right of way that a collaboritive action is going on here in logical order to tie cross-functional team activities together. By applying this method, the author achieved full control of each individual process as that process impacted other processes in the work cycle. It also answered the ever present question that six sigma trained personnel frequently face: where and how to flow down and document continual improvements in a quality system lacking integration in cross-functional activities. The work responsibilities here are clearly identified as to process ownership and titled and unmistakably indexed in every procedure. No questions arise where things belong. In addition, the referencing mechanism in this book is model to imitate.

Something previously unheard of that relates to the concept of defining quality objective requirements, I found in this book totally convincing to emulate. While most of us think of quality objectives in general terms, the author on the other hand gives specific requirements for them in each work process and presents them in measurable terms. The beginning and the end in each process instruction become the tolerance boundary of the quality objective requirement. This method is applied everywhere whether one does administrative or production related work. The measurable work results become the objective criteria for monitoring and auditing conformity. What is truly exceptional in this process-approach system is how the work results are accomplished. The work methods instructions are not part of any measurable quality objective requirement. The process instructions control all activities. How you achieve the work results to meet the quality objective requirements is now up to the trained personnel doing the work. The author excluded the work methods definitions from the documented quality management system and thereby eliminated a large chunk of paperwork. He charged Engineering to define work methods in the Job Travelers and in the Operation Sheets as required. What this means is that, unless otherwise required, I can do my work the most efficient way I'm trained and meet a process requirement without strapping my hands to the elaborately written work instruction procedures. I think this is a very significant improvement over current practices in the economical utilization of manpower.

In conclusion, if you are looking for a quality management book that also meets ISO requirements and that shows you how to prevent problems in shop management, this is the one that should have your fingerprints all over it. I also recommend this book for blackbelts and quality engineers to guide them in the understanding on how to implement, integrate, document, and control customer requirements and quality improvements in the work processes of your organization. It is clearly and simply written without burdening the reader with theories or six sigma statistics.

Let's go to the goal in enterprising! We are in business for two primary reasons. One: to sell our products to customers. Two: to make a profit. But first, we must satisfy our customers' requirements in order to get paid for our services.

Mr. Gaal's book is based on how to satisfy customers' requirements through process controls. He puts the emphasis on achieving product quality through first-time production maintenance. He proves through his fully documented system that product quality is a lot more than just a shop problem. Although most problems end up there because of the way we handle cross-functional activities, the contributing causes,however, originate from the lack of coordination and interfacing of those activities within the entire organizational stucture. He corrects all these through a fully documented quality management system based on integration and interfacing of all cross-functional responsibilities in one direction, - managing the entire product quality cycle from beginning to end through measurable quality objectives. The customer, the supplier, and the organization itself are very effectively coordinated and inter-linked in the product realization processes. As I see it, this is really a closed-loop process management system. And it is cleverly executed by the locked-in corrective action follow-up to prove effective implementation. Without effective follow-up, closure of the improvement action cannot take place.

As I'm implementing sections of this book in my organization, I am guided to understand the interrelationship of processes and their quality requirements. This is truly a Quality Throughput system from the beginning to the end in a product's manufacturing cycle. The written communication tools in this book, especially flowcharting, targeting core departmental interactions in maintaining the achievement of product quality in line with customer requirements, are superbly followed through. Process ownership becomes part of the job in each process assignment from the contract activities to the shipping dock. I would call this book the show-me-how-to-do handbook in managing product quality in cross-functional organizations. Up-front problem prevention is the name of the game in this book. I love it.

My boss and I took on the ISO9000 registration project for my company with very little prior knowledge or experience with the ISO 9000 standard. The President of our company didn't think we could do it. There were two other failed attempts. Little did he know, we were armed with Richard Randall's no nonsence book. We scrapped the existing quality management system, and started from scratch. We certified 3 buildings with 250 employees in 4 months thanks to Richard Randall's book. Our ISO auditor has called our quality system one of the top 2% he has seen. I highly recommend this book.

I was assigned to shepherd a manufacturing plant to ISO-9001 registration. Randall's Practical Guide helped me understand the elements of the ISO-9000 standard, and translate them into a practical, functional quality system. Our plant passed the registration audit on the first try. As long as I'm in the quality field, Randall's Practical Guide will be one of my main references.

If you are looking for a book that provides practical guidance and helpful examples for implementing an ISO 9000 Quality system... this is the book. We used it to develop our system and passed our certification audit the first time. We continue to use it as a reference for refining and improving our quality system.

In his first book "Internal Quality System Audits" (no longer in print) Mr. Lewis identified the basic fundamental auditing skills and techniques needed to ensure effective and efficient development, implementation and maintenance of "value added" internal auditing capabilities. Our internal auditing operations have been in place for over four years now and I still find myself referring to this book for guidance on regular bases. It is the most dog-eared of all my books on quality and quality operating systems.

His second book "Internal Quality Systems Auditing" includes and builds on these proven methodologies and has now replaced its dog-eared predecessor as my desk reference. The updated sections on development of audit programs and checklists, documenting audit observations and findings, and audit reporting techniques provide the latest guidance for addressing evolving quality system requirements.

The latest edition makes a great reference and helps keep my audit reporting on track.

The "Internal Quality System Audits" book has proven to be a valuable tool for our internal audit team. The guidelines and the checklists have been used by our company from the beginning of our ISO program, and all seven of our internal auditors have accomplished top quality audits with skill and confidence.

"Internal Quality System Audits" is an excellent teaching tool for internal auditor training.

As a certified quality system auditor and contracted ISO 9000/QS 9000 quality systems consultant I use the auditing methodoligies, tools and techniques presented in this book when establishing internal auditing operations for my clients. I also use the book as a desk referencs when functioning as their lead internal auditor.

If your goal is to develop, implement and maintain an effective and efficient internal audit operation this book is a must have. Internal Quality Systems Auditing is truly a "how-to" presentation.

This book cuts through the fog and confusion surrounding the three of the four main approaches to software quality (the fourth is Software Process Capability Determination, a.k.a. SPICE).

My goals in reading this book were to find the best framework with which to apply to service delivery, and to integrate this framework into application delivery. Since these terms are ambiguous in the software industry here are my definitions: service delivery encompasses the maintenance, operation and support of applications after they have been released into production. Application delivery is the analysis, design, construction and testing of applications prior to release to production.

This book compared and contrasted each quality approach and provided some surprising facts. For example, until I carefully read this book I was under the impression that the SEI CMM was the most process-oriented approach. As it turns out ISO 9000 (specifically, ISO 9000-3, which addresses software and services) is more heavily oriented towards process. Another surprise was discovering that the SEI CMM places more emphasis on leadership than the Malcolm Baldridge approach. Each of these facts were easy to discover because the author did an excellent job of correlating criteria of each of the approaches and displaying results in graphs and charts.

Prior to reading the book I was confused and frustrated by the competing standards and frameworks. This was exacerbated by the fact that there is a large body of knowledge devoted to each and these bodies comprise thousands of pages of dry material. After reading this book I felt as though I had a grasp of the focus of each approach, and their relative strengths and weaknesses. More importantly, I was able to determine which of the three is best suited to service delivery and its integration with application delivery (the Baldridge approach appears to be the best choice).

I appreciated the author's efforts in clearly outlining the what's and why's behind each approach, and the succinct manner in which each was compared, contrasted and correlated. This is an extremely valuable book for individuals and companies trying to sort through the buzzwords and assumptions on quality frameworks to select one that is most appropriate for their goals and objectives. I strongly recommend this book for software engineering managers, including members of program management offices (PMOs) and software engineering process groups (SEPGs), as well as service delivery professionals (production services, tier 1 and 2 support, etc.).

Good reading for those who are interested in the field of quality. And would like to learn more.

As a long-term quality assurance professional, I was pleased to find in Fusion Management a book that does a good job of describing the chronological progression of, and linkages between, the various quality assurance paradigms and programs, e.g., Reengineering, Lean, ISO 9000, TQM, Six Sigma, etc. Dr. Marash describes the components of the programs and evaluates and recommends specific elements of past programs for incorporation into current quality program thinking. After a good review of quality history, Dr. Marash offers a compilation of the better elements of the better quality programs and describes how they can be synergistically integrated. He concludes with a step-by-step description of how to perform Fusion Management in your own company by identifying, selecting and integrating the "best of the best" in quality programs. This is a solid and well-presented book chocked full of quality information.

There have been so many management and quality theories over the years - but nobody has told us how they all fit together - in fact they always bad mouth different programs. This book tells how different quality philosophies build on one another. It also has real world examples of how to effectively implement ISO, Six Sigma and "Fusion Management". With the current economy and layoffs I'm ready to use the roadmap to get my company back on track. It is a good quick read, with interesting case studies (I read it on a four hour flight). It may be the most usable business book I've read in quite a long time.

Pohl has managed to strike a very nice balance between reference books that are too concise (and thus leave you feeling confused unless you already know a feature very well) and too verbose (and thus make it difficult to do a "quick lookup" on something). I wish there were more reference books out there that struck such a balance.

The book is short enough (~200 pages with good amounts of white space) that you can read through it in a few days for a quick review if you've been away from C++ for a while (particularly if you've been away since before all the new C++ features were added!). Note that even though it came out in late '96, it does seem to have all of the new C++ features in it -- including STL (although the STL chapter is pretty cursory) and all of the other new language features (namespaces, new casting methods, etc).

Would also highly recommend Meyer's _Effective C++_ for those just getting into C++ or returning to it after a long absense. Also, something like Josuttis' _The C++ Standard Library: A Tutorial and Reference_ for a more in depth look at STL and the string class.

Just like one of the reviewers below, I defected from C++ to Java a long time ago - before the advent of namespaces, STL, etc. Recently I had to do some C++ work and this book was all I needed. It is literally the only C++ book I own. The author's mastery of language (both C++ and English) allows him to cover every important C++ topic without wasting any space. His writing is brief and to the point. This book helped me learn STL, re-learn C++'s terrifying I/O, and re-learn operator overloading. It's a refresher course and a reference. It's tiny, and great.

+AH4-I was asked to review this book, and I ended up buying a copy for myself. If you already know some C+-+-, this is a prefect book to have. It is so concise, that often single sentences talk volumes! Therefore if anything seems vague, it's a good hint to look into it further.

One nice feature for the intermediate programmers is "Dr. P's Prescription". These are suggestion (or often rules) at the end of each section. In a way, they add to the applicability of the book without any+AH4-+AH4- material getting lost in excess verbiage -- much like Scott Meyer's Effective C+-+-.+AH4-

Its not often a book comes along that not only is a pleasure to read but actually gives sound advice that can be understood and readily implemented 'straight from the page'! Tim O'Hanlon has provided such a text for those of us involved in ISO 9001:2000 audits. The practical approach that brings auditing into the realm of business reality makes this an immmensely useful read. Its on my compulsory reading list for clients who want to revamp their auditing process so as to realise the value-adding potential of audits. My advice -- buy it, read it then use the knowledge to improve your processes!

I was given the job of planning the transition of our existing system to ISO 9001:2000 and someone said "Read Tim O'Hanlon's book". I did and I am so pleased. I got much more than I bargained for. When I saw the title I thought it was not what I needed but I was wrong..it was the only thing I needed. This guy really knows what he is going on about.

For years I just did not get the point of auditors. I thought they were like police officers trying to find the culprits. This book makes it clear, their role is to add value and what's more, this book tells you how they should do it. Dr. O'Hanlon has opended the door for effective audits.