SPC is one of the most powerful tools available to any organization or workgroup that wants to implement continuous improvement. Unfortunately, it is not widely used outside of manufacturing or companies that are committed to quality. One of the reasons is that is perceived to be difficult to learn. This wonderful book changes that by introducing statistical process controls in a clear, gentle manner.

The book is divided into modules, each of which builds upon the preceding one, and can be used as a training text or as a self-study guide. The first module covers the basics: causes of variation, tools (historgrams, control charts, variable and attribute charts).

Modules 3 and 4 go deeper into the tools, explaining why you would use them, how to use them and how to interpret them. This is the heart of the book.

Machine and process capability, the subject of module 5, can be applied beyond the shop floor. For example, I work as an information technology consultant and was able to apply the knowledge from this module to project estimation and controls, service level measurement and quality assurance processes. This information is also applicable to other areas and will be useful to anyone who works at a company registered as ISO-9000.

Module 5 covers all of the common quality problem-solving tools ranging from brainstorming to scatter diagrams. IT consultants and practitioners will find the sections on cause and effect diagrams and Pareto analysis useful for process improvement for defect identification and removal, and other related objectives.

Elements of a TQM system covered in module 8 may have been better placed in module 1, but it is thorough and a good starting point for anyone who is new to quality.

This book finishes with a module that provides the answers and solutions to practice problems from the preceding modules, which underscores its value as a class test or self-study guide.

I recommend this book to associates who either have never heard of SPC (and there are a lot of them) or think it is beyond their ability to grasp. It is impossible to have a viable, effective program of continuous improvement without SPC. The authors have done a remarkable job of writing a book that lives up to its title by simplifying SPC. As such they have made an important contribution to quality by making this effective tool available to anyone who will take the time to read the book and apply what they learn.

SPC Simplified came along at just the right time. I needed help developing statistical analysis that I could interpret to upper management. I used this text to assist me in constructing my first run charts, variance analysis, error analysis, root cause analysis, brainstorming session and my first Process Cause and Effect Analysis. Great job. A good buy for anyone in Performance Improvement.

I used an earlier edition of this text during my own doctoral training. That it has been revised and updated speaks to its excellence as a comprehensive text covering all aspects of aging and mental health. I will be using this text in my counseling classes because it is chock full of useful information, (practical, medical, and psychological,) and emphasizes " the dignity and worth of each individual irrespective of age." Professional counselors, psychologists, and all those who work with aging adults need to read this book and keep it as a ready reference. As the population ages we need to understand the special needs and attributes of older adults, as well as how aging is viewed in a diverse society.

I would to know the contents of the book

this book was throughly enjoyable. it was hard for me to put down. the plot was deep and the main character had many conflicts. i'd say this book is a must buy for any lover of suspense books.

Ecobeetle has concerns for all species and habitats and the great blue heron is a favorite animal. Beautiful and majestic in flight the Heron is the sentinel of the shoreline and wetlands. Throughout British Columbia this species is under threat through loss of habitat and nesting sites due to encroaching development. The appearance of a thriving heron population is a measurement of a healthy ecosystem. Unfortunately as Robert Butler describes and summarizies in his book 'The Great Blue Heron' that the status of the heron and it's recent struggles with the rapid development of BC's Fraser Valley is a foreshadowing and environmental warning concerning the health of all west coast animal and marine life. Conservation and protection of this magnificent bird is of paramount importance for the Great Blue Heron is a west coast icon, a symbol of our health as an enviroment. Ecobeetle highly recommends this book to anyone with a concern for species at risk or an interest in natural history.

This is essentially the same book as "SPC Simplified: Practical Steps to Quality". The key differences are that the material is sequenced differently and the emphasis is on using SPC in service industries. Like the book upon which it's based, it's divided into modules, each of which builds upon the preceding one. The value of this approach is that this book can be used either as a training text or as a self-study guide.

Basic principles are covered in the first module, followed by modules on quality tools (module 2 covers problem solving tools, and module 3 covers quality improvement tools from the larger body of TQM tools and techniques).

The foundation of SPC is laid in module 4, which introduces variation, histograms and checklists. This material prepares you for module 5 (variables control charts) and 6 (attributes control charts). The service specific part of this book emerges in module 7 (sampling plans) and 8 (systems capability). All examples in these two modules use examples that are common to services industries, which adds realism and practicality to the material for the intended audience. Module 9 ties together the preceding modules by giving a framework for problem solving. Also included are answers to practice problems from the various modules, and an appendix of factors and formulas that make this book valuable long after it has served its purpose as a training tool.

If you're new to SPC or think it is beyond your ability to grasp this book will give you a solid foundation in the basics. After reading this book and working through the practice problems you will understand how to use the highly effective problem solving and quality improvement tools, and will be able to develop and apply common control charts to measure variation and process capability. After you've mastered the skills this book provides you may want to read "Design and Management of Service Processes" by Rohit Ramaswamy, which goes much deeper into service processes, process improvement and SPC.

This is a wonderful book, and will be helpful for anyone facing the inevitable issue of parents or other relatives growing older and needing care of any kind. Easy to read through, as I have just done, it is also a wonderful resource to pull off the shelf as these issues manifest, from talking to your parents about what needs to be discussed as soon as possible, to knowing when to intervene and when to get out of the way, what questions to ask whom, and what to expect. Information about contacts and agencies is liberally sprinkled throughout the book, and a helpful index at the back helps you to find whatever you need at a moment's notice. An initial read-through makes you familiar with what the book has to offer, making it more familiar as the needs arise. Highly recommended.

As the number of "baby boomer" caregivers increases, so, too, has the number of books on how to best care for our aging parents. Virginia Morris book, How To Care for Aging Parents, is a personal favorite for several reasons. In layman's lingo she addresses almost every concern a caregiver might experience. She provides ample options and suggestions for dealing with those concerns. Additionally, she offers information on community and national resources to contact for help.

Details relating to the physical, emotional, and cognitive aspects of aging are addressed as well as dying and bereavement issues. Likewise, housing alternatives, financial, and legal aspects are presented in a readable and clearly detailed manner.

The challenge of caregiving for parents can be monumental at times. I only wish that this book had been in print sixteen years ago when I became a caregiver for my father following his stroke. Kudos to Virginia Morris for offering this much needed book. It will inform and encourage anyone who cares for our elderly.

This book helped me tremendously as I stuggled through a difficult time being both a parent to my children and having to care for an ill parent. The book is easy to use with helpful information and resources, as well as being emotionally supportive. Easily read, not cover to cover, but as I needed help and support at different moments I picked it up. I have kept it next to my bedside...

Sight and Insight! As a painter this book is invaluable to me, as an appreciator of art and a viewer it is an opportunity to view some of the most magnificent and masterfully executed paintings all bound together in a spectacular reproduction of artwork in itself. The execution in his draftsmanship, the use of form and the genius of the use of color by Mr. Silverman is incredible to behold. The narrative is clear and thoughfully written. I have purchased not just one book but two, one for use in my studio as a reference book. The other is a special edition signed by the Master. All who pick up the book have a delightful treat in store for them, for each time one gazes at his art, there are new discoveries to be made. As an artist I am in awe and hold a great deal of admiration and respect for his art, to have this treasure to enjoy and learn from in the form of a book is indeed a feast.

Most people who would buy this book are already familiar with Burton Silverman's paintings. The book is no disappointment; the reproductions are large and sensitive to color nuances, on heavy paper, and there are a lot of them. There are short essays by Silverman about each painting which show an honest, contemplative mind at work. It's not a how-to book; there's no pedantic bloviating, just a humble, intelligent man describing the circumstances behind each picture. At first I pegged Silverman as one of those East Coast types who paint their Greenwich Village friends sitting still with expressionless faces and vacant stares. It all seemed too academic, lacking action and vigor, like most modern art. But his understanding of color and composition is undeniable, and the personalities he depicts grow on you. They are of the type of person who can be found in artist's lofts, in front of Folger's coffee cans full of paintbrushes, wearing sweaters and spectacles, New York academics and intellectuals who go to poetry readings, listen to Public Radio, and fret about the fate of the Rosenbergs. He's a world traveller, so he has other types of people, too, but he seems to know all of them personally, and doesn't just paint anonymous models. Though his work is a little tame compared to the kind of entertainment industry stuff I'm interested in, commercial illustrators could learn a lot from Silverman's penetrating eye and calm, balanced judgement.

As the art director of the Merrill-Johnson Gallery, we are privileged to exhibit Mr. Silverman's work including several of the paintings in the book, "Sight and Insight". The paintings depicted in the book are fine example of the work that has made Mr. Silverman one of America's most respected realist painters. There are many books that are "how-to" paint (in fact Silverman has written two wonderful ones himself), but there are few "why-tos." "Sight and Insight" provides the reader an insight into the interpretive and artistic motivations behind his paintings. The book deserves to be in every serious art book collection for both the artist and the art appreciator.

I'm a sucker for any anthology that ends with Richard Petty accepting the National Book Award. . . This one also has a lot of heart. The first of what promises to be an annual collection of stories promoting "a rebirth of beauty and life-affirming values," the Silver Rose Anthology offers a strong mix of voices and attitudes. Not every story here will appeal to every reader (the opening story, for instance, does little for me), but the collection overall is outstanding. Personal favorites (in addition to George Singleton's outrageous "Richard Petty Accepts the National Book Award") include Robert Olen Butler's seamless "Rafferty and Josephine," Julie Orringer's touching "Note to Sixth-Grade Self" Patry Francis'"Limbe," and Patricia Hackbarth's provocative "A Brief Geological Guide to Canyon County."
Move over Bill Henderson, Katrina Keneson, and Larry Dark. Watson's in the house!

When Kevin Watson gathered the stories for this anthology, he was doing us a public service. This is a hard world: hearts break, and lives are shattered. Stories that don't deal with those realities aren't true to life. But there's so much more to life--and should be to art. These stories are "life-affirming" in the best kind of way: They don't stay sunk in gloom, but they don't stoop to easy answers. Each one shows us a new facet of getting on with life, making things work, following the path. The individual stories are excellent--I especially like the story by Pulitzer Prize-winner Robert Olen Butler, although it's one of several strong stories--and in their cumulative effect, the collection becomes (and I mean this in the best kind of way) inspirational.

i only gave this book 5 stars because i could not give it more. i went to a reading of one of the writers and soon went on to read the rest. it has a good mix of voices, but by far the best writer is Heidi Shayla and her story "The Coffin Builder's Romance", it is a beautiful story of quilts, boxes, and of course, coffins. it is my all time favorite anthology, and i would definetly recomend it.

Notwithstanding its ominous title, this book is a reasonably conventional professional autobiography of a career diplomat. Author Richard Butler served as executive chairman of the United Nations Special Commission ("UNSCOM") charged with disarming Iraq from 1997 until 1999. Prior to that, he was Australia's ambassador to the United Nations and Thailand. Most of the book is devoted to disarmament issues, especially efforts to enforce U.N. Security Council resolutions requiring Iraq to destroy its weapons of mass destruction and to forbear rebuilding them and the subsequent decision to abandon those efforts. These issues must concern anyone interested in global security because, in Butler's view, the post-Cold War "new world order" may be every bit as dangerous as the frostiest years of the United States-Soviet Union confrontation.

Butler repeatedly demonstrates that he took a narrow, fundamental legalistic approach to his duties. He insists that the Security Council's decisions are binding on all of its members and that the Security Council has the ability "to enforce its decisions by military force, if needed." According to Butler, Security Council Resolution 687, which codified the terms of the cease-fire of the Persian Gulf War required Iraq to destroy all of its weapons of mass destruction - nuclear, chemical, biological, and missiles. Resolution 687 also set up the UN Special Commission - UNSCOM - as an organ of the Security Council to conduct the actual disarmament work, and the Security Council made completion of the disarmament work a prerequisite to the lifting of the economic sanctions imposed on Iraq in 1990. Butler clearly believes that Iraq never intended to cooperate with UNSCOM. As a pretext for reusing to cooperate, Iraq systematically blocked UNSCOM inspections, and this sparked a crisis that continued for 18 months. While Butler and UNSCOM were involved in an increasingly-bitter dispute with Iraq, Secretary-General Kofi Annan visited Iraq in February 1998 and proclaimed that Saddam Hussein was a man "I can do business with." In early August 1998, Iraq notified the Security Council that it had "decided to suspend UNSCOM's disarmament work." This led to a serious division in the Security Council, with the United States and the United Kingdom pitted against Russia, China, and France, which sought to end the disarmament work and discontinue the economic sanctions. UNSCOM was eventually disbanded and replaced by a body more sensitive to Iraq. Butler's outlook on the future is pessimistic. Butler asks: "Is Iraq as dangerous as it was a decade ago? And he answers: Elementally yes."

Although it is a cliché, I believe that this book is an extended exercise in preaching to the choir. Readers concerned with international-security issues already know and probably will agree with Butler that the UNSCOM period revealed "the real shape of the post-Cold War world," and they will share his criticisms of Russia, France, and China for having "clearly defined, separate interests in addition to their obviously shared concerns about a unipolar world." Much of this book is a detailed, sometimes tedious, narrative of Butler's two-year tenure at UNSCOM. After a while, it is mind-numbing, but, to the extent that Butler sought to make a historical record, he succeeds. This is an important book which ultimately asks: Can anyone have confidence in the United Nations if it allows cynical self-interest and endless palaver to prevail over principle and action?

This book is exceptional on so many levels I scarcely know where to begin. Richard Butler former Executive Chairman of UNSCOM is very definitely a man of deep integrity driven by an equally deep concern for the issue of arms control not solely in Iraq but throughout the world. This book is his story and how during the course of two years he battled to achieve the complete dismantling of Iraq's stockpile of weapons chemical biological and nuclear.

He describes in detail the stand-offs between himself and the Iraqi authorities and how ultimately the united nations through weakness and division have allowed Saddam Hussein to hold onto much of his deadly arsenal. He charts the use of these weapons by Iraq in its war with Iran as well as the use of gases on ethnic minorities inside the country itself.

The reader gets an incredible look at the UN Security Council attempting to apply a, geo-political rules as usual approach, to the problem of Iraq's non-compliance with UN resolutions. The role of the Russian diplomats along with the French and Chinese come in for close scrutiny. If Butlers understanding of Israel's defence posture during the gulf war is accurate then the reader can take it that if Saddam were to use a chemical weapon or worse against a city like Tel Aviv then almost certainly and without consultation Israel would respond with tactical nuclear weapons against Iraq. During the gulf war Israeli Jets sat fuelled and ready to fly against targets in Iraq following the deployment of some 39 Scud missiles fired at Israel during the conflict. This analysis and so much more is contained in this sober but authentic look at how dangerous the world has become. Worst of all is the ongoing capitulation by the United Nations in terms of forcing Iraqi compliance with its own resolutions.

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Book Review: Snatching Defeat from the Jaws of Victory by David Isenberg Thursday, May 18, 2000

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There is no way to say this delicately so I may just as well come right out and say it. This is a painful book to read. Why? Is it badly written? No, it is both informative and engaging. Does it deal with an unimportant topic? On the contrary, it deals with a critically important issue: the effort to stop the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, nuclear, biological and chemical weapons. Why then the pain?

This book is essentially the story of a failure, one that has consequences for the entire world. Specifically, it is the telling of the undermining and destruction of UNSCOM by Saddam Hussein. The West set up UNSCOM, short for the United Nations Special Commission, in the aftermath of the 1991 Persian Gulf War to disarm Iraq of its weapons of mass destruction.

Rolf Ekeus, a Swedish diplomat, headed UNSCOM for its first six years. In 1997, after Ekeus left to become Swedish ambassador to Washington, Richard Butler took over as executive director. Butler was an experienced Australian diplomat who had previously worked on many other disarmament issues. This book is the story of the final two years of struggle with Iraq in accordance with the original U.N. Security Council Resolution 687 of 1991. This struggle more or less ended -- unsatisfactorily -- when the United States and Britain bombed Iraq in Operation Desert Fox in December 1998, an event that marked the end of UNSCOM inspections in Iraq.

Caught cheating

Bear in mind that the various global arms-control regimes are based on the presumption that if those being inspected are found breaking the rules, some sort of enforcement will take place -- usually through the U.N. system and specifically thorough the Security Council. When enforcement fails, as happened in Iraq's case, the consequences are critical. As Butler notes: "Saddam's cheating has been detected, but it has not been stopped. Nations that could take action have chosen not to. The implications of this for the maintenance of the strictures against weapons of mass destruction, built so painstakingly over almost half a century, are dire. If Saddam finally gets away with it, the whole structure could well collapse."

Butler's is a story of many disappointments. He faced lack of political will and crass appeasement on the part of member nations of the U.N. Security Council. Constant obfuscation and deception by Iraq are the main themes, highlighted by vignettes of pettiness on the part of U.N. bureaucrats, such as the advisers to U..N Secretary-General Kofi Anan, and brazen lying by such Iraqi functionaries as Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz. Butler had a reputation as a plain-spoken man. It is a reputation that is deserved. It is refreshing to see a diplomat use words like "outrageous," "appalling," "word witchcraft," "blackest lie," "phony" and "facile."

Back to Iraq?

In the first two chapters, Butler briefly describes his childhood and later working for the Australian Foreign Affairs department and the work he did prior to taking on his position as head of UNSCOM. But the remaining chapters constitute the core of the book.

Much of the book details the two wars that UNSCOM waged. Sadly, it lost both. The first and the better known is the daily war of attrition it fought with Iraq, which used ceaseless tactics of cheat, retreat and cheat in order to thwart UNSCOM. As Butler explains, Saddam Hussein did not believe he lost the Gulf War. Though Saddam was driven from Kuwait, he viewed the Dessert Storm coalition's real aim as to remove him from power or turn Iraq into a vassal state. Thus, for Iraq the battle with UNSCOM was simply the last battle of the Gulf War. And for Iraq to "cement its "victory" in that war they had to defeat both UNSCOM in general and Richard Butler personally. In fact, Iraq paid Butler an ironic compliment when it demanded his removal as item 9 of a list of demands presented to the Security Council in November 1998 in its attempt to forestall the Clinton bombing.

The other war UNSCOM fought with the U.N. to both preserve its independence and to get the Security Council to support its documentation of Iraq's continuing refusal to live up to its pledge to allow UNSCOM inspectors to carry out their work.

One of the more intriguing sections of the book deals with the allegation by Scott Ritter, former UNSCOM weapons inspector who resigned in 1998, that Butler had taken direction from the U.S. government and that UNSCOM had allowed itself to be a conduit for U.S. intelligence collection in Iraq. Ritter's view was detailed in his book Endgame published last year. We may never know the exact truth of the matter, but Butler musters a good case that his charges are false.

As Butler makes clear in his conclusions, we cannot expect UNSCOM's successor organization, UNMOVIC (United Nations Monitoring Verification and Inspection Commission), created in December 1999, to accomplish anything worthwhile. To name just two flaws, unlike UNSCOM it will be under the direction of the U.N. secretary-general; its staff will be U.N. civil servants instead of technical experts.

The conclusion that Butler leaves us with is both dismaying, and even worse, true. "When a determined criminal flouts international law under cover of the principle of state sovereignty, the world system, as currently constituted, appears able or unwilling to stop him," he writes.

In short, we should be afraid, very afraid...