"Winning The War on Waste: Changing the Way We Work", William E. Conway, published by Conway Quality, Inc. (15 Trafalgar Square, Nashua, NH 03063), 1994, 240 pp, $26.95 (list) A Book Review by Norman C. Frank, PE, CQE, CQA CER Corporation, Washington, DC Conway has given us an "expert system" in a book. He has documented his thinking processes and action programs for bringing continuous improvement into a company and keeping it there. With the book you can analyze situations and make decisions almost like Bill Conway would. This book answers the "how to" questions often asked by people who are trying to initiate quality improvement using the Deming philosophy. Step-by-step guides provide for educating your associates (including an appendix that provides detailed course schedule and content); choosing what to work on, and how; and analyzing work and eliminating wastes. The book is loaded with "how to" help, suggestions for projects, case studies of applications, and questions to ask. An actual case study to show how each approach has been used in real life follows many of the "how to" guidance sections. Each case study illustrates how the relentless pursuit of waste led to higher quality products at less cost (the "quality secret"). The book promotes the concept that action leads to achievement, which increases the motivation that encourages the next action. This concept helps "bootstrap" a company from no program to a full continuous improvement program in a relatively short time. Conway discusses approaches for addressing the four guiding principles of the continuous improvement process: 1) focus on finding, quantifying, and eliminating the waste, 2) move people into action in the right direction, 3) having determined the big wastes, go to work to change and improve the major processes that cause the waste and get rid of it, and 4) treat people as we would like to be treated. Conway covers "imagineering" in detail. Imagineering is the art of visualizing how things would be if everything were perfect, with no problems, no errors, no troubles of any kind. Conway provides a set of questions to lead imagineering thinking to help you through your first project. Case studies also provide step-by-step application of imagineering. Perhaps missing are examples of using commercial email on the "electronic highway" for many operations and communications and orders. The four forms of waste - waste of materials, waste of capital, waste of time, and waste from lost sales or other opportunities - are the starting point for many of the discussions and case studies. Conway provides a step- by-step approach to finding the waste. One key chart shows "the way we work" by showing what percentage of a person's time is actually spent doing value- added and necessary work as opposed to unnecessary work and not working. Major management innovations (MMI) are covered in a separate chapter that provides cautions as well as a brief description of the steps to achieving an MMI. Conway states: "This type of project is often called reengineering. The business world is flocking to reengineering and business publications are awash in articles about it. This has reduced effort on continuous improvement because many people believe that reengineering replaces continuous improvement. Actually, reengineering is part of continuous improvement and it always has been." Conway uses several examples of continuous improvement that fall under the current management technique termed "reengineering". This book is must reading for managers and associates implementing a continuous improvement program and training people in the concepts and approaches that can be used to implement a continuous improvement program. The practical approaches and detailed guidances provide a solid basis for application in any industry. --------------------- Mr. Frank has over 25 years experience in the field of quality, in the areas of nuclear quality assurance, research and development, and consulting. He is currently in Washington, D.C., with CER Corporation out of Las Vegas, Nevada.