Shifting Gears: Applying ISO 9000 Quality Management Principles to Trucking | 
 enlarge | Authors: James J. Depillo, Robert A. Melone, Ward Warkentin
Publisher: Delmar Cengage Learning
Category: Book
List Price: $52.95
Buy New: $22.50
You Save: $30.45 (58%)
New (11) from $22.50
Avg. Customer Rating:  1 reviews
Sales Rank: 897101
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 144
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.9
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 7.2 x 0.6
ISBN: 1401850073
Dewey Decimal Number: 629
EAN: 9781401850074
ASIN: 1401850073
Publication Date: July 28, 2004
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Excellent book for the right person!
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
While formal quality management systems are a basic requirement for carriers doing business with the automotive industry, it is a companys understanding of key items such as leadership, continuous improvement, and customer satisfaction that is needed to survive and excel in todays market. Shifting Gears brings a unique approach to quality in the trucking industry, clearly defining the issues that challenge a carriers very survival of business and, through the principles embodied in ISO 9000, discusses practical measures for addressing these challenges. It identifies ISO 9000 as an effective management tool, offering information on how business leaders can reduce their costs, improve their overall business efficiency, and improve their competitive advantage in the marketplace. This quality management principles book moves beyond quality management principles to include methods for use in day-to-day operations, helping carriers easily shift gears to make these tools a part of the company culture.
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| Customer Reviews:
Easy to read and informative August 19, 2004
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
Of all the industries in the United States and around the world, few are as challenging as the transportation industry and more specifically, the trucking industry. Comprising 5% of the GDP and with over 70% of the cities and towns around the globe solely dependent on trucks to deliver their goods, trucking is truly the backbone of the economy. However, high insurance rates and fuel prices as well as a constant shortage of drivers have made running a trucking company a very difficult endeavor.
Although in use by many different industries, ISO and other quality programs are rarely used by trucking companies. In `Shifting Gears', the authors present case studies and easy-to-follow information that carriers and shippers can use to improve the processes related to shipping and trucking. Based on the premise that quality is a framework for improvement, the authors identify eight specific ISO quality management principles within the book:
Customer Focus
Leadership
Involvement of People
Process Approach
System Approach to Management
Continual Improvement
Factual Approach to Decision Making
Mutually Beneficial Supplier Relationships
Because the book is written in non-technical terms, trucking companies of all sizes will be able to learn and apply the lessons and advice within the book. Reading `Shifting Gears' will not make companies' experts in ISO 9000 but it will clearly explain the importance of structured quality programs and get them on the right path.
As someone who has spent the last 13 years in transportation and who is a certified Six Sigma Black Belt, I can attest that the trucking industry must embrace the quality principles of ISO and Six Sigma. Issues such as backhauls, revenue generation, freight pay and audit, OS&D, pick ups and deliveries, operating ratios, maintenance, etc., can be managed better through the use of a structured quality program such as ISO 9000.
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