Customer Reviews

The Five Pillars of TQM: How to Make Total Quality Management Work for You

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

What I like about Creech's approach to TQM and more effective organizational management & leadership, is his emphasis on the need to attend to all five pillars of TQM: Product, Process, Organization, Leadership, and Commitment. If you try to improve piecemeal (as so many have), the results will be minor improvement. It is only when you get all five pillars in alignment that you start to get dramatically better results. Also, his specific advice makes so much sense: Organizations need to get a clearer picture of what constitutes quality in their product or service; they need to organize the work process with small teams as much as possible; they need to provide much more training, from the CEO on down; they need to provide clear feedback on how well the organization is doing ("scoreboarding"); etc. One other reviewer is right: Now that I have read this book, I find myself looking around for evidence of TQM practices by the employees every time I interact with an organization. It is amazing what differences you can see in organizational performance, once you are sensitized and start looking for them.

A convincingly argued book on how to bring leadership to all levels of a company. Not so much a book about TQM, but more about what separates great organisations from those which are simply "OK". There are so many books at the moment seeking to answer this question - this one actually does (but may well be missed by those looking for it because of its title).

Written by someone who has actually "been there, done that". Unfortunately because Bill Creech was not an academic (only a former four star general!) he does spend more time than necessary establishing his credentials. It is also four years old and this shows in the examples it uses.

Nevertheless, it is one of those books whose ideas will stay with you. Once you have read it, your view of business will never be quite the same again.

The Five Pillars of TQM is an excellent book on how to stucture and manage an organization for success. Mr. Creech captures in one book everything I have been looking for, but not found, in countless other books, magazines, journals, and training courses. There are some spots where it becomes a bit wordy, but the nuggets of knowledge in between are worth every page.

General Bill Creech's turnaround of the Air Force's Tactical Air Command is nothing short of miraculous. He did it through the application of the basic canons he developed and so eloquently describes in his book, The Five Pillars of TQM. His book is the textbook we use for our leadership and management course that I developed and teach for engineering seniors and graduate students at The University of Oklahoma. General Creech's approach to management has become the benchmark by which we measure every case we study. The student's analyses of problems in our case studies always ask, "What would General Creech do"? Two years ago when we brought in a new Dean of the College of Engineering, he launched a change program toward a new vision and new goals. General Creech's book, The Five Pillars of TQM became every Department Chair's guide for achieving the new vision and goals. Additionally, for the past two years, faculty and staff from colleges and staff agencies across the campus of the University of Oklahoma have been lining up for our series of leadership seminars using General Creech's Five Pillars as the text.

The way General Creech got everybody involved and the way he created leaders at every level during his turnaround of Tactical Air Command allowed him to take full advantage of the vast human resources and ingenuity in his huge organization. His leadership of this monumental effort caught on like a religious revival. Everybody wanted to be a part of this winning organization-the largest in the Air Force. When the leaders of government and industry took notice, TAC became the standard of excellence for the entire Department of Defense. General Creech's principles work in every type and size of organization-military units; large corporations; small start-up businesses; universities; not-for-profit foundations; everything! If every organization adopted General Creech's people-centered, common sense, five-pillar approach to management, the results could be the most dramatic increase in productivity we have seen in modern time.

When General Creech retired from the Air Force, he applied his Five Pillars approach to the corporate world where he is in great demand as a consultant. He is a regular guest lecturer at the University of Oklahoma where he draws large audiences of converts to his management principles. If you want your organization to succeed in the competitive world economy, The Five Pillars of TQM can show you the way to make it happen.

Jerry D. Holmes Adjunct Professor, College of Engineering University of Oklahoma Norman, Oklahoma March 25, 2001

The book is verbose and repetitive. However, the message is stellar. TQM in Creech's style works. Even if a company does not completely implement the method, Creech's philosophy of empowerment and responsibility for the quality of a product is something that everyone should take to heart. As to the negative reviews on this site, it seems that people have problems with organizations that did not implement the methods fully, or fell back into the management styles that Creech warned against.

Bottom line, anyone interested in management would do well to learn from the book's philosophy of responsibility for the product at all levels.

One of the unique qualities of this "Five Pillars" book is that it covers in detail the contributions of all the early "quality pioneers"--including Juran, Deming, Feigenbaum, and Crosby. It also covers the works of others who have contributed to our knowledge on "management" matters writ large--not just the far more narrowly focused "quality control" literature. For example, the works of Drucker, Iacocca, and the like are also covered and blended with those of the quality pioneers. The "Five Pillars" praises Deming for what he contributed to the quality movement, but also places his contributions in their needed perspective for those seeking real and not superficial results. Accordingly, it is not suprising that one Balaji S. Reddi from Pune, Maharashtra, India would not like the book. It will be noted that Balaji S. Reddie is an electrical engineer who specializes in teaching the "Deming Way." In fact his e-mail address places him at "DemingIndia.org." Within the pages of the "Five Pillars of TQM" the prediction is made that the book will draw flak from those who have turned Deming into "The Man Who Discovered Quality" and the "patron saint" of quality management. It took a long time for the flak to arrive, and then all the way from India! In fact, a deciple of Walter Shewhart of the Bell Laboratories along with Joseph Juran, W. Edwards Deming made contributions of the "SPC" and "SQC" variety of "QM" but provided false and irrelevant guidance on most of the broader management issues. "TQM"--a term invented by General Bill Creech--is likened as "Total" because its reach is far broader than a set of quality control tools--and the "Five Pillars" book says that in an unambiguous fashion. ("Process" being but one of the five pillars upon which success is built.) What is taught at the DemingIndia organization is unknown to this reviwer, but according to Balaji S. Reddie's reaction it is certainly not the broad based approach to "quality management" that the Bill Creech book is all about. Read it and verify that for yourself.

I have done a tremendous amount of reading on TQM and in my opinion this book covers it best. A Product-Process-Customer focus along with a properly trained and empowered workforce that shares in the rewards and successes of the Company is a winning formula. Those who think they have all the answers, are afraid to share control, want all the rewards for themselves, or look down on frontline workers will no doubt hate it.
This book has given me a completely new way to look at the art of "managing human endeavor".

Bill Creech's The Five Pillars of TQM, first published in 1994 and since reprinted a dozen times and in eight languages, lays out an uncommonly clear-headed approach toward results-oriented management. Creech, a former Air Force four-star general and now valued industry consultant, has served on ten corporate boards of directors and worked with five national speaking bureaus. His management philosophy, while mindful that most organizations are not democracies, is essentially a variation on the golden rule embodying basic decency toward others as a core unifying theme. Best summarized as empowerment with accountability, it is rooted in a recognition that loyalty is a two-way street and that an organization can only be as successful as those at the bottom are willing to make it. Among the many insights to be gleaned from this informed and empathetic book are the virtues of managing by walking around rather than by hunkering down in a mahogany-row fortress, unburdening those who want to get things done by lifting the overlay of rules and kibitzers from their backs, and recognizing that what ultimately determines organizational success is what goes on at the front, not on mahogany row. These principles, which Creech first pioneered during his tenure as commander of the Air Force's Tactical Air Command from 1978 to 1984, are now being reapplied by the current Air Force chief, who recently included Five Pillars on his recommended reading list for all Air Force officers. Yet Creech's principles of TQM (for "total quality management"--a term and construct he invented) transcend service applicability and have been amply proven in the corporate world as well. His idea of how a top-flight organization should be run resonates implicitly with how any responsible and motivated worker would like to be treated by his superiors. Such notions as the indispensability of mutual trust and respect; the power of inclusion rather than exclusion; the vast difference in effectiveness between decreeing and persuading; and the central role of pride as a motivator are part and parcel of Creech's enlightened approach to effective leadership. Five Pillars spells out these principles and more in rich detail, offering must-read insights for those at all levels who deal with people as resources.

Bill Creech's The Five Pillars of TQM, first published in 1994 and since reprinted a dozen times and in eight languages, lays out an uncommonly clear-headed approach toward results-oriented management. Creech, a former Air Force four-star general and now valued industry consultant, has served on ten corporate boards of directors and worked with five national speaking bureaus. His management philosophy, while mindful that most organizations are not democracies, is essentially a variation on the golden rule embodying basic decency toward others as a core unifying theme. Best summarized as empowerment with accountability, it is rooted in a recognition that loyalty is a two-way street and that an organization can only be as successful as those at the bottom are willing to make it. Among the many insights to be gleaned from this informed and empathetic book are the virtues of managing by walking around rather than by hunkering down in a mahogany-row fortress, unburdening those who want to get things done by lifting the overlay of rules and kibitzers from their backs, and recognizing that what ultimately determines organizational success is what goes on at the front, not on mahogany row. These principles, which Creech first pioneered during his tenure as commander of the Air Force's Tactical Air Command from 1978 to 1984, are now being reapplied by the current Air Force chief, who recently included Five Pillars on his recommended reading list for all Air Force officers. Yet Creech's principles of TQM (for "total quality management"--a term and construct he invented) transcend service applicability and have been amply proven in the corporate world as well. His idea of how a top-flight organization should be run resonates implicitly with how any responsible and motivated worker would like to be treated by his superiors. Such notions as the indispensability of mutual trust and respect; the power of inclusion rather than exclusion; the vast difference in effectiveness between decreeing and persuading; and the central role of pride as a motivator are part and parcel of Creech's enlightened approach to effective leadership. Five Pillars spells out these principles and more in rich detail, offering must-read insights for those at all levels who deal with people as resources.

In international trade, price has become secondary to product quality, warranty coverage, and reliable customer service. We try to emphasize this principle by recommending that our clients read Bill Creech's excellent publication - and heed his advice and guidance. John R. Jagoe, Director, Export Institute END