Statistical Process Control: The Deming Paradigm and Beyond, Second Edition

Variation is inherent in many processes common in companies and societies. Edwards Deming, one of the architects of Japan's industrial success, regarded the understanding of variation as one of the most important managerial skills. Unfortunately only few books on management treat that subject at all, and these that do, most frequently give it only a very superficial coverage. The reviewed book is the only one I know that gives a full explanation of both the practice and the theory of statistical process control (SPC) - the way to understand variation. As a manager and TQM coach I fully recommend the book to managers and management students, as a mathematician I recommend it to students and researchers in statistics. Readers without mathematical background should not be scared by many mathematical formulas in the book that explain why SPC works. They may very well skip the reading of equations without any loss in understanding of how SPC works and how to use it in practice. In my opinion the book of James R. Thompson and Jacek Koronacki should be regarded as a must for any business school library and the bookshelf of any manager.Andrzej Blikle Professor in mathematics and computer science Member of Academia Europaea President of "A.Blikle Ltd."