Total Improvement Management

Total Improvement Management is a concept promoted by Dr. H. James Harrington, CEO of Harrington Institute Inc.

He identifies Total Quality Management (TQM), Total Resource Management (TRM), Total Cost Management (TCM), Total Productivity Management (Tpmgmt), and Total Technology Management (TTM) as five improvement movements competing for the scarce budget resources of an organization. Harringon did not mention industrial engineering. But industrial engineering is a discipline focused on improvement right from its inception. The formal industrial engineering academic program started in 1908. Its roots go back to 1880s. 

To aid management decision making in this competitive situation for improvement efforts and projects, an improvement pyramid is advocated by Harrington.



A Video by Harrington Group
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A Presentation by Harrington (Good Presentation - Download and read it)
http://www.inlac.org.co/web/images/stories/inicial/tim.pdf?phpMyAdmin=1514a1a35fca6f74ef5f02825d55afa0

H. James Harrington, (1995) "The new model for improvement: total improvement management", Management Decision, Vol. 33 Iss: 3, pp.17 - 24

Total Improvement Management - Book By Harrington
http://books.google.co.in/books/about/Total_Improvement_Management_The_Next_Ge.html?id=NmfHaWfUkL0C

http://www.qualitygurus.com/gurus/list-of-gurus/h-james-harrington/

Article by Harrington
http://www.harrington-institute.com/knowledge-objects/methodologies/total-improvement-management-system-for-the-organization.pdf (Not available now)

2 page brochure
http://www.harrington-institute.com/knowledge-objects/methodologies/harrington-institute-methodology-total-improvement-management.pdf

Posts by me

Systems and Processes - Improvement Made Easy (IME) - Improvement Management Made Easy (IMME)

https://nraomtr.blogspot.com/2024/10/systems-and-processes-improvement-made.html

Summary - Important Points - Book - The Goal - A Process Ongoing Improvement - Eliyahu Goldratt

https://nraomtr.blogspot.com/2024/09/summary-book-goal-process-ongoing.html

Processes Improvement Strategy - Manufacturing Strategy Component

https://nraomtr.blogspot.com/2021/01/processes-improvement-strategy.html

Strategy Aspects of Improvement Activity - Component of Manufacturing and Operations Strategy

https://nraomtr.blogspot.com/2021/02/strategy-aspects-of-improvement.html

Supply Chain Improvement

https://nraomtr.blogspot.com/2021/02/supply-chain-improvement.html

System Improvement Process

https://nraomtr.blogspot.com/2014/07/system-improvement-process.html

Rules for Successful Kaizen Management

https://nraomtr.blogspot.com/2013/11/rules-for-successful-kaizen-management.html

Kaizen Costing, KAIZENshiro and Kaizen Cost Management

Lesson 280 of IEKC Industrial Engineering ONLINE Course Notes.

#IndustrialEngineering #Productivity  #CostReduction  #CostMeasurement

https://nraomtr.blogspot.com/2012/01/kaizen-costing-and-kaizen-cost.htm

Determination of Optimum Productivity Improvement Programs: Total Productivity Based Model
Mohamed Zaki Ramadan,
http://faculty.ksu.edu.sa/mramadan/Publication/Determination%20of%20the%20Optimum%20Productivity%20Improvement%20Programs.pdf

Industrial Engineering Knowledge Revision Plan - One Year Plan

January - February - March - April - May - June

July - August - September - October - November - December

Ud. 18.12.2025

Pub. 20.5.2014

Cornerstones of Cost Management - Don R. Hansen, Maryanne M. Mowen - Book Information

5th Edition, 2021

https://books.google.co.in/books?id=HhQcEAAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover

Cornerstones of Cost Management

Don R. Hansen, Maryanne M. Mowen

Cengage Learning, 01-Jan-2014 - Business & Economics - 1120 pages

Hansen/Mowen's CORNERSTONES OF COST MANAGEMENT demonstrates the dynamic, exciting nature of cost accounting in today's changing business environment. The text first covers functional-based cost and control and then activity-based cost systems, giving students the understanding and skills to manage any cost management system. Cornerstones examples throughout each chapter provide students with step-by-step coverage of the How, Why, and What Ifs of solving and mastering basic cost management concepts, while also getting at the conceptual understanding that students often struggle to grasp. It includes CPA-Type Exercises in each chapter that have been taken directly from past CPA Exams or have been written by the authors to prepare students for their futures in business.

https://books.google.co.in/books?id=EUbAAgAAQBAJ

Interesting Book Contents

UpdAted 29.11.2025

Departmentation in Organizations - Review Notes

Principles of Management Revision/Review Articles - List

Departmentation by numbers

This simple-numbers method of departmentizing is useful to place undifferentiated persons under supervisors for managing them.

Departmentation by enterprise function

Henri Fayol identified technical, commercial, accounting, financial, security as five important activities and he added management as the sixth activities. Departments in organizations can be created based on the functions carried out by organizations. While functional departments are created under CEO, each functional department is further divided as needed into derivative functional departments to facilitate management following the span of control principle.

Departmentation by territory or geography

Departmentation by territory or geography is a commonly used method for physically dispersed enterprises. Sales departments used this method and Internal Revenue Service uses this method.

Departmentation by customer categories

The special and widely varied needs of customers for clearly defined service impel suppliers to departmentize on this basis.

Departmentation by process or equipment

In production function, this basis of departmentation is used.

Departmentation by product

The grouping of activities on the basis of product or product lines is steadily growing in importance in multiline large scale-enterprises.

Matrix organization

Matrix organization combines functional and project or product patterns in the same organization structure. In this structure, there are functional departments which have a functional manager, but members of the department are deputed to various projects or product groups. This form is common in engineering and research and development organizations or departments.

Strategic business units (SBUs)

SBUs are distinct businesses set up as units in a larger company to ensure that certain products or product lines are promoted and handled as though each were an independent business. To be called an SBU, the business unit must have its own mission, definable groupsof competition, have an integrated plan and budget, and manage its own resources in key areas. Each SBU is entrusted to a manager with the responsibility of guiding and promoting the product from the research laboratory through product engineering, market research, production, packaging, marketing, and he is responsible for the profit of the SBU.

While each form has its advantages and disadvantages, managers have to select the department for the situation based on the jobs to be done, ways in which it is done, the people involved and their personalities etc.

Mixing Types of Departmentation

The authors mentioned cases where different departments in an organization are organized in various forms. Even within a functional department like marketing, some activities may have territory based departmentation and some may have customer category departmentation.


Updated  24.11.2025,  3 May 2019,   2 Feb 2015,  6 Jan 2014, 12 Dec 2011

MBA Core Management Knowledge - One Year Revision Schedule

A criticism of Matrix Organization - Tom Peters - 1979

https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/people-and-organizational-performance/our-insights/beyond-the-matrix-organization

https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/people-and-organizational-performance/our-insights/beyond-the-matrix-organization

Supply Chain Resilience Index

 https://www.achilles.com/products/supply-chain-resilience-index/

https://www.bain.com/consulting-services/operations/supply-chain/supply-chain-resiliency-index/

Developing a strategic supply chain resiliency index: an assessment of the global lithium supply for U.S. automotive EV battery production

Hazel He,Thomas Brush,Hua Cai,Dutt Thakkar,Steve Dunlop &Stephan Biller

 Published online: 22 Jul 2025

we propose a supply chain strategic resiliency index (SRI) to comprehensively measure strategic SCR. The index integrates the consideration of supply network structure, supplier reliability (especially geopolitical risks), and each supplier’s contribution of material flow into a unified metric. Such an index can serve three primary purposes: (1) benchmarking the resilience of the existing supply chain, (2) evaluating the impact of strategic supply chain management decisions, and (3) assessing the resilience impact of new technology developments. As a use case, we analyzed the lithium supply chain of U.S. electric vehicle manufacturers, utilising real-world lithium imports and vehicle production data. Our results show that automakers are increasing their SCR, as exemplified by General Motors’ SRI increase from 27 in 2022 to 59 in 2023, and further to 65 in 2024.

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00207543.2025.2534842#d1e330  (pdf downloaded)

Financial Advisors - USA

Model portfolios and third-party investment management

Learn about the wide range of professionally managed investments available through our Chief Investment Office and some of the industry’s leading investment managers

https://videos.bofa.com/video/1_0bwslg52 

Tonya Gatt 

Financial Advisor

504-586-7649

601 POYDRAS ST

NEW ORLEANS, LA, 70130

Deming On Management, Quality and Productivity

 

Deming Birthday - October 14

Out of Crisis

Preview

https://books.google.co.in/books?id=RTNwDwAAQBAJ

The Deming Route to Quality and Productivity

Road Maps and Roadblocks

By William W. Scherkenbach, William Edwards Deming · 1986

Preview

https://books.google.co.in/books?id=g5Y9GEMjjUUC

Ud. 13.10.2025

Pub. 4.12.2020

AI Agents in Procurement

 By 2027, 50% of procurement tasks will be automated by AI agents (Gartner, 2024).

https://www.zycus.com/blog/ai-agents/procurement-2025-transforms-forever-with-agentic-ai

New Technologies and Industrial Engineering.

Industrial Engineers have to lead their organizations in understanding and adopting new technologies.

Latest New Technology - Agentic AI.

https://nraoiekc.blogspot.com/2025/04/new-technologies-and-industrial.html

AI Agents in Procurement: A Comprehensive Guide

Zycus

Published On: 11/22/2024,  Last Modified On: 06/10/2025

https://www.zycus.com/blog/ai-agents/guide-to-ai-agents-in-procurement

AI Agents are Reshaping S2P: Intelligent GenAI agents streamline Source-to-Pay processes, enhancing compliance, efficiency, and decision-making.

Supplier & Spend Management Transformed: From fast onboarding to real-time spend tracking, AI optimizes supplier collaboration and savings visibility.

Strategic Sourcing & Tail Spend Get Smarter: AI-driven bid analysis, autonomous negotiations, and automated tail spend controls bring precision and speed.

Contract & Procurement Operations Made Seamless: Built-in AI powers contract lifecycle management and automates tactical purchases, shortening cycle times.

Risk, Decision-Making & Enterprise Scalability: AI delivers real-time supplier risk insights, predictive analytics, and scales for mid-size to large enterprises.

CPOs Guide

https://www.zycus.com/knowledge-hub/whitepapers/cpos-guide-to-agentic-ai-in-procurement

AI agents in procurement - IBM

https://www.ibm.com/think/topics/ai-agents-in-procurement

News

2025

The Autonomous Advantage: How Agentic AI is Redefining Competitive Edge in Procurement

Picture of Saketa Chilukuri

Saketa Chilukuri

Published On: 04/28/2025

https://www.zycus.com/blog/ai-agents/autonomous-sourcing-with-agentic-ai

2025: The Year Procurement Transforms Forever with Agentic AI

Picture of Amit Shah

Amit Shah

Published On: 02/21/2025

https://www.zycus.com/blog/ai-agents/procurement-2025-transforms-forever-with-agentic-ai