The development of most sectors in Western economies goes towards a more flexible, project-oriented way of doing business. However, the vast majority of projects exceed their planned budget in terms of time, financial resources and other resources. In companies, which organize work in the form of projects, reinventions of the wheel can also often be observed. One reason for problems of project management is learning deficiencies. Most projects have repetitive components, which make an institutionalization of them useful. However, any formalization should be seen in a balanced relation to the renewal potential of projects.

The research presented in this thesis aims to gain insight into enabling factors of Inter-Project Learning. This aim is pursued via theoretical literature studies and the study of organizations. The thesis consists of a frame and four papers covering different aspects of Inter-Project Learning. The areas discussed in the frame and the papers are Project Management, Profound Knowledge. Organizational Learning and Process Management.

In the literature it was found that Inter-Project Learning is usually not planned for, which is supported by empirical evidence. Inter-Project Learning activities partly gave the impression of being seen as pleasant side effects. A central challenge for Inter-Project Learning is the understanding and perception of time in projects, since members of a temporary organization have partly other goals than members of the permanent parental organization. Deming's concept of Profound Knowledge was found to be one useful way of achieving a better understanding of the problems surrounding Inter-Project Learning.

Experience from projects can be preserved in a process organization supporting Inter-Project Learning. However, it was found that the relation between both project and process organization, as well as between project manager and process owner, in practice is often unclear, which can lead to problems.

Furthermore. a distinction of forms supporting Inter-Project Learning in codification and personalization forms was found to be convenient. These should not be understood as mutually exclusive approaches, but rather as a choice of emphasis. Empirical data suggest that the choice of emphasis is not a static one, but can shift over time.

Apart of the findings have been combined in a tentative model for Inter­Project Learning, which shall function as a basis for further discussion. improvement and research.

Some of the leading models and frameworks about Excellence from the last 25 years are presented and discussed: Peters and Waterman’s eight excellence attributes (1982) , Peters and Austin’s simplified excellence model (1985), Lists of Best Practices, Xerox Excellence Models (1990, 2002), the European Excellence Model (1992) and two different but overlapping “4P Models” (1999, 2004). At the end of the paper past, present and future of TQM and Excellence is discussed.

"Qualität ist nicht alles, aber ohne Qualität ist alles nichts!", so Walter Masing. Wie kaum ein anderer hat Masing den Qualitätsbegriff geprägt und durch sein Wirken maßgeblich beeinflusst. Die DGQ gedenkt mit diesem Werk ihrem langjährigen Präsidenten und Ehren-Präsidenten. Unter der Herausgeberschaft von Herrn Professor Schnauber zeigen namhafte nationale und internationale Autoren aus Wissenschaft und Praxis, wie eng Kreativität und Innovation mit Qualitätsmanagement verknüpft sind - getreu des Leitmotivs von Walter Masing: nur mit einer gesicherten Basis lassen sich neue Gedanken generieren! Die Autoren widmen ihre Beiträge dieser großen Persönlichkeit des Qualitätsmanagements, dessen Einfluss weiterwähren wird.

  Quality Tools and Methods for The 21st Century. Perspectives of the International Academy for Quality.  

A collection of writings about quality as a management discipline, business management, and product management. Edited by Tito Conti, Yoshio Kondo, and Gregory H. Watson.  Also includes valuable quality ideas and concepts from Hans Dieter Seghezzi, Barrie G. Dale, Norman Burgress, Jens J. Dahlgaard, Su Mi Park Dahlgaard, Herbert Schnauber, Joachim Zulch, Asbjorn Aune, Sijo Shiba, David Walden, Yoji Akao, Thong Ngee Goh, and Shoichi Shimizu.

The topics in this book are divided into three parts. The first part describes quality as a management discipline that must be practiced with the same degree of attention to detail as is required for finance systems, information systems, and people systems. The focus of the second part is on topics where integration of quality and business management practices will create a more stable overall management system. The third part of this book describes contributions of quality methods to the innovative design of products and services. It is in this area that organizations can continue their development by using new management practices, methods and concepts as enablers of change to help them achieve their desire for long-term competitive strength.    

As quality transitions into the mainstream of management, the emphasis of quality professionals must focus on the areas of innovation and design to ensure the future quality of business. This challenge of innovation will define the next focus areas for management in the coming decades.

Many companies that are achieving the most significant business results today, made a shift in focus from the management of quality in the twentieth century to the quality of management in the twenty-first century. The big difference is that these companies focus on quality as a fundamental organization and market-wide strategy for their company’s competitiveness.

Quality into the 21st Century: Perspectives on Quality and Competitiveness for Sustained Performancefocuses on the call for a more expansive use of quality practices throughout business in the twenty-first century than in their original application in manufacturing. It also calls for a definitive emphasis on the use of quality principles throughout health care, education, technology, medicine and government. 

The editors complied a collection of papers that focus on the emerging themes in quality including social values, privacy, security, and software quality.

Today, the use of statistical methods and tools for solving problems in industry is growing steadily. The increased application of statistics in industry is attributable to the many theoretical advancements made by researchers over the years, but also to the increased awareness in industry that statistical methods and tools constitute an important resource of great strategic value. The foundation of this thesis lies in the ideas presented by Walter A. Shewhart in the early 1930s and the influence they have on today's activities in industry. The thesis uses an integrated framework for linking customer satisfaction to product development activities to establish the relationship between Shewhart's statistical perspective and customer focused product development. In particular, the important role of designed experimentation in this framework is highlighted. In detail the following topics are considered.

An important challenge facing product developers is to link customer satisfaction to development activities carried out within a company. Success in the marketplace is very much dependent on the ability to translate satisfaction into product properties and to do it as early as possible in the product development process. The use of Quality Function Deployment combined with Customer Satisfaction Modeling is presented as means for linking internal product development and improvement activities to increased customer satisfaction.

Separating active factors from inert ones represents an important problem in the analysis of designed experiments. An extensive simulation study comparing eight procedures complementing the normal probability plot for this separation is presented. The study shows that only small differences appear between different procedures, regardless of complexity, when the sparsity assumption is not violated. As the number of active factors increases, so do the differences in the performance of the studied procedures. Among the best performing procedures is one that rests on a Bayesian foundation and utilizes generic a priori knowledge for the selection problem. To further improve its performance a modification is proposed that will allow introduction of more elaborate and foremost less generic domain knowledge. The performance of the modified procedure is evaluated in a simulation study and it is found that considerable improvements can be made unless the introduced domain knowledge strongly contradicts the reality. A procedure for construction of new contrasts supplementing the original experimental design is introduced that will allow more efficient use of the available data. The new contrasts can be defined in various ways and thereby be given different interpretations in order to serve special purposes according to the agenda of the analyst. Apart from an enhanced interpretation of the experimental results, these contrasts contribute to a more elaborate representation of the experimental error when using normal probability plotting.

In an effort to encourage use and to illustrate the possible benefits from using Conjoint Analysis, a step-by-step introductory workflow is presented. One of the apparent problems when designing a conjoint analysis study is the conflict between including many product attributes and not overloading the respondents. Non-geometric Plackett-Burman designs represents a class of orthogonal designs that provide an opportunity to resolve this conflict. The use of non-geometric Plackett-Burman designs for conjoint analysis is advocated and a procedure that takes advantage of the special properties of the non-geometric Plackett-Burman designs is proposed and demonstrated.

The application of different technologies in managerial work has received widespread attention among both academics and practitioners. Performance measures constitute one such technology related to planning, coordination, control and improvement of organizational activities. What kind of significance do performance measures have in their usage in managerial work? This study focuses on the various social, material, temporal and spatial resources of usage of performance measures; the activities taking place within meetings where performance measures are being used, and the significance of performance measures in the coordination of units within a hierarchical organization.

The usage of performance measures is conceptualized by a modified version of behavior setting theory, which was originally developed by the psychologist Roger Barker and his research group. A behavior setting can be seen as a small-scale social system whose components include people and physical objects. This social system is guided by its setting program; the goal and the sequentially ordered activities. To fulfil the requirements of the focus in the present study, a setting program must partly consist of activities devoted to the usage of performance measures.

The empirical study encompasses observations from managerial meetings (selected by a formal procedure) within various hierarchical levels of a manufacturer of complex industrial products. Some of the themes highlighted in this study are: I) the social, material and temporal environment of managerial work influencing the usage of performance measures; 2) that the usage of performance measures is mainly a reflective activity emerging from the organizational history; 3) that linkages between hierarchical levels, such as leadership and population overlapping as well as performance measure overlapping, both limit and enable coordination; and 4) that performance measures within the studied context constitute an important role in creating knowledge about organizational activity.

Many successful industrial companies aim at improving product development in order to be competitive. This thesis is intended to make a contribution to the work of fulfilling this goal.

Rapid advances in technology in recent years have set new demands on product development. As a consequence, an increasing variety of products are built on heterogeneous technologies. Such products incorporate a mixture of technologies, often combinations of computer, electrical, and mechanical systems. Specialists from different engineering disciplines must co-operate to a greater extent than before in order to understand the products. Increased cooperation and heterogeneous technologies in products set high demands on communication and systems integration if product development is to deliver products with high quality, short lead times, and low cost.

This thesis presents research that advocates tools and methods for performance­ related robustness improvements in product development. Robust products, or subsystems, are insensitive to disturbances and perform well under a wide range of conditions. It is found that robustness in product development increases multidisciplinary optimization, communication, and systems integration. Thus, robustness provides a solution to a number of important questions relating to systems integration and communication in product development.

The presented research consists of theory development, mainly in the field of engineering design and, more specifically, Axiomatic Design. The research in the appended papers provides: (1) A tool for customizing and designing company unique strategies; (2) An approach to problem solving and quality­ related performance improvements by combining design object analysis with Axiomatic Design, Quality Control tools, and designed experiments; (3) Algorithms for computing the Information content in decoupled design solutions.

A research methodology based on an explaining foundation is combined with a more hermeneutic approach when working with interviews and human/organizational aspects of the case studies. Case studies are carried out with the researcher actively taking part in problem solving.

Two of the presented studies have been carried out in industry and the results have been implemented successively. A third study is performed in an academic environment, although the results and simulations indicate industrial relevance when applied to real-life problems.

In robust design experiments the objective is somewhat different compared to classical experimentation. What traditionally have been regarded as nuisance factors which ought to be held constant or nullified by blocking or randomization, are now exploited to improve the robustness of a system to variation outside and within the system. Instead of focusing only on location effect modeling, emphasis has been directed also to factors affecting the variance of the data, known as dispersion effect modeling. This thesis directs focus to three aspects of the parameter design step of robust design engineering: identifying design by environmental interaction effects, identifying dispersion effects, and improving robustness by reducing error transmitted through the system components. In detail, the following topics are considered.

Regarding design by environmental interaction effects, the 12 run Plackett-Burman design is considered for use in situations where interaction effects are present or can be expected. It appears that the 12 run design provides an appealing compromise to the two-level 8 and 16 run designs and holds properties which enable interaction effect identification even if the experimentis saturated. Moreover, a tentative strategy for follow-up experimentation is also considered for those cases in which the initial experiment does not provide a basis for unequivocal conclusions.

Regarding dispersion effect identification, a new method is proposed which facilitates the use of common hypothesis testing principles for judging the importance of dispersion effects from unreplicated experiments. The method is introduced in a 2^k-p design context and generalized to other multilevel experimental designs and to the inner and outer array set-up. The use of normal probability plotting is also considered for dispersion effect identification, and the effects of non-normality are investigated in a study using simulation.

Regarding error transmission from the system components, the Wheatstone bridge application, originally used by Taguchi, is revisited to illustrate and bridge the gap between engineering and statistical approaches for solving the parameter design problem.

Overall, the thesis consists of a framework and eight appended papers addressing the topics overviewed above.

In order to map improvement activities in Swedish health care, we surveyed the managers of all primary health care centers (n = 958) and clinical hospital departments (n = 1355), with a response rate of 46%. The majority reports that their staff view improvement work positively. The most common driver of improvement is work environment problems, whereas external drivers have less influence. Among 35 methods, the most commonly used are educational initiatives, stress management, guidelines, and leadership development, whereas accreditation is used the least. Respondents who report extensive improvement efforts indicate the greatest benefit from educational interventions, analysis of patient incidents, guidelines, and rapid cycle tests. Respondents claim that improvement initiatives yield positive results, in particular regarding the working environment, administrative routines, workflow, and communication, although only 15%-30% of respondents report having data to support their claims. Our findings indicate an introverted focus of most improvement efforts, starting with staff and administration needs. Further research is needed to understand how and why some centers and departments have managed to achieve strategic, measurable, patient-focused, systems improvements, whereas most have not.

Quality Management has, in addition to its establishment as a management discipline of organisational and industrial importance, instituted itself as a topic of national concern with nationwide surges and contractions in the dissemination of practices. Empirical data are examined in this thesis in relation to the current status and historical development of such trends among twelve leading industrial nations. 

In the interpretation and analysis of the country data, a model based on a new theoretical framework is introduced. The framework is abstracted from an extensive literature review concerning the historical development of ideas in Quality Management. It postulates that the development of the field has been in accordance with two distinct schools of thought, the Deterministic School of Thought and the Continuous Improvement School of Thought. The ability of the proposed dual-path framework to overcome main criticism against Quality Management is also elaborated. 

The comparative analysis shows that China, Japan, South Korea, Sweden and the United States, in terms of current national approach, predominantly position themselves within the Continuous Improvement School of Thought. Similarly, Australia, Brazil, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Norway, and Saudi Arabia relate more to the Deterministic School of Thought. In addition to this classification, the comparison of the historical development patterns also reveal nuances so far unaccounted for in empirical studies. On a more general level it is then discussed how the proposed framework accommodates a synthesising of other studies on current status and historical development. Empirical data on the attitudes and beliefs of bluecollar workers in the twelve countries are also presented. In this analysis it is revealed that the two schools of thought in certain areas provide a basis for interpreting bluecollar workers' expressions of attitudes and beliefs in Quality Management. 

In the final part, it is described how the whole research process extends beyond the identification of the dual-path framework in terms of empirical evidence, knowledge and perspectives on Quality Management. A number of future research issues are also discussed, both in relation to the proposed and alternative frameworks.  

Around the world Quality Management is commonly regarded by industrialists and academics as a management concept that encompasses the potential in any organisation of developing into a company-wide philosophy with a profound focus on stakeholder values and improvement processes. However, there are mounting evidence that Quality Management has developed into an important strategic issue also on a national level, and that some leading industrial nations have enjoyed significant gains in the post War era by means of nation-wide progresses in Quality Management. In this thesis organisation is therefore substituted with nation state as the unit of analysis, with the ultimate objective to gain insight into how quality management movements in the industrialised world develop and prosper. 

Based on empirical data from the Cross-cultural Quality Management Research Project, a bird' s􀀧eye view of Quality Management is taken in twelve leading industrialised nations. Comprehensive descriptions of Quality in Australia, Brazil, Germany, Japan and Sweden are given in order to identify what national driving factors that currently have an influence on national quality management movements, whereas China, Great Britain, Italy, Norway, Saudi Arabia, South Korea and the United States are assessed on a more overriding level with an objective to determine the factors' scope and characteristics. 

The existence and influence of national driving factors in Quality Management was firstly discovered in the mid 1980s by one of the field's pioneers, Dr. Joseph M. Juran, and a core task in this thesis is to re-examine the identified factors current applicability. The outcome is a proposed set of national driving factors, embracing economy, national quality societies, people, certification bodies, industrial structure, organisation and its quality function, and government. Although, these national driving factors are found to be common to all countries, they are genuinely national in the sense that the national context by and large determines the factors' character and influence. To gain insight into how national quality management movements in the industrialised world develop and prosper, it is therefore recommended that focus be direct towards the national context with its national driving factors. The factors are powerful explanatory variables that so far have largely remained an untapped fountain of knowledge within the field of Quality Management.

The project's primary objective is to make a survey of quality management in Korea, with an in-depth study of how management motivates employees to work for quality. A secondary objective is to make proposals on how Scandinavian and Korean industry can learn and improve in quality management areas. The main focus was on the automobile, electronics and shipbuilding industries.Our survey revealed that the Korean conglomerates have extensively implemented and applied quality management in their operations, and deserve more international respect and recognition in this area. Regarding motivation for total quality, we found that Korean workers are not so much involved in quality related work, but management is now succeeding in enhancing everybody's awareness, in essence through materialistic incentives.We reckon that Scandinavia can learn something when it comes to building employees' company pride, using TPM, and making decisions. Likewise, Korea can learn from Scandinavian industry in terms of service quality, capability-based human resource management and employee involvement. Further, we stress the importance of principles in the adoption process.

New work organization and new computer-based tools can save costs and improve quality. A fact that often is not acknowledged is that new work organization and new computer-based tools take resources from the organization.

Three empirical studies were performed in production, concerning changed work organization and managerial innovation. The aim of the companies concerned was that most employees in each studied department should be able to work more flexibly, and thereby manage most work tasks and achieve better quality. Three other studies focused on the application of new computer-based tools to product-development work, i.e. on technological innovation. The computer-based tools (for simulation) were used as a test bed for new ideas and trouble-shooting to obtain improved quality and shorter lead times. The methods employed were interviews, group discussions, questionnaires, workcontent matrices, observations, statistical quality control, and quality-assessment tests. The studies showed that the change effected was not as extensive as management had intended. Inertia was found to have an important role to play in the change process. More specifically, individuals were unwilling to learn new tasks because of the pay system, barriers between departments, the work environment, status of tasks, and the initiation and implementation processes. Information about forthcoming redundancies influenced willingness to rotate tasks and learn new ones. Roles and domains of computer-based tools and participation are other contextual variables that must be discussed in relation to change. The studies also show the importance of integrating technology, organization and human aspects in the course of change.

Theoretically, the thesis discusses conceptions of resistance, inertia and restraining forces, and analyzes different theoretical models that integrate technology, organization and human aspects. Some of the subject areas touched upon are industrial and organizational psychology, ecological psychology, sociotechnology, and participatory ergonomics.

The thesis shows that contextual aspects influence change/innovation, and the will of the individual to learn new tasks. Contextual aspects acquire new opinions on usability. The thesis also shows that the reasons why changes fail in companies may include difficulties in integrating technology, organization and human aspects. Treating technology, organization and human aspects as interwoven is a complex task theoretically, and is also highly relevant to research design.