Derek,
I had to laugh with your introduction; about three years ago my journey
began when I, and another staff member who has since retired, were asked
to develop quality goals for the company. Went down a lot of paths
(Malcolm Baldrige Award, TQM, ISO9000, concurrent engineering, business
process reengineering, continuous improvement, etc.) that ended up being
only partial answers, at least for our purposes.
I'm not sure we're on the road to change yet, but I have found the
learning organization (including readings like The Fifth Discipline) to be
a significant support to my understanding and development. Good luck.
-- Paul Lindsey Tracor Aerospace PEL@eng2.tracor.com (512)929-2815