To some, the near perfection of the Six Sigma management system appears to be an impossible ideal, especially for small and medium enterprises. FIT SIGMATM, a flexible and more sustainable approach, was developed through the integration of the ‘hard' Six Sigma approach with Lean Enterprise philosophy. It consists of three elements; fitness for purpose, fitness for improvement and integration, and fitness for sustainability. FIT SIGMA: A Lean Approach to Building Sustainable Quality Beyond Six Sigma shows how this tripartite approach can be used to add value to both large and small organisations through improved use of resources, and through the provision of improved customer satisfaction. It shows that a holistic approach to operational excellence underpinned by a data driven methodology can be applied equally to the manufacturing, service or public sectors. As the Six Sigma philosophy has evolved in recent years to take into account new challenges faced by companies, including climate change, green supply chain, emerging markets and a growing service sector, so FIT SIGMATM has also adapted itself to these new demands. FIT SIGMA: A Lean Approach to Building Sustainable Quality Beyond Six Sigma covers key developing areas including: Sustainability and Environment Non-profit organizations Service Operations Supply Chain Management Project Management Emerging Markets Small and Medium Enterprises Green Thinking Each chapter contains practical implementation guide, illustrative examples and case studies, and concludes with a summary of key elements for ease of reference and revision. In addition the book includes a comprehensive glossary of common terms and phrases used in managing quality, along with an appendix which illustrates the applications of basic statistics in Six Sigma and Fit Sigma.

Six Sigma is a data-driven management system with near-perfect performance that is a statistical target of operating with no more that 3.4 defects per one million chances. Six sigma has both created avid interest and raised concerns among executives and its practioners. This is all very well for multinationals like Motorola or General Electric but how can it help small and medium-sized enterprises or the service industry? How do you ensure that solutions stick? Quality Beyond Six Sigma responds to this challenge and provides a practical implementation of the issues of Six Sigma, Lean Enterprise and Total Quality and aligns the 'hard' sigma message with the softer sustainable 'strategic issues'. The result is FIT SIGMA. The authors utilize major and minor case studies to support principles and learnings of FIT SIGMA and include review examples and self-assessment that underpin the sustainable process. The three major case studies are contributed by General Electric, Dow Chemical and Seagate Technology. Senior Executives and Managers of organizations of all types and sizes, Management Consultants and Students of all disciplines will find this book a stimulating guide to quality and operational excellence.

Starting from the concept that "there is no point driving a Ferrari in a traffic jam", Basu and Wright demonstrate the importance of good supply chain management in Managing Global Supply Chains. Building on the successful Total Supply Chain Management and incorporating the new challenges of globalisation, this book demonstrates the practical tools and techniques that add value, deliver cost reduction and improve customer satisfaction. This new edition has been substantially revised and extended to include a holistic approach, incorporating the upstream suppliers and the downstream customers. Further updates to this edition include: New chapters on e-business, emerging markets, sustainability and green issues, global supply chains for services and event management, retail management and major project management A section of brand new case studies A new companion website to support lecturers with their teaching This book also provides comprehensive insight into lean and agile supply chains supported by tools, techniques and case examples. Managing Global Supply Chains is a practical text with excellent coverage and is ideal for post-experience business students or learning professionals in supply chain management.

Demonstrating how to add value to an organization through the efficient use of resources to provide improved customer satisfaction, this text shows how a holistic approach can be used to achieve operational excellence in manufacturing, service and public sectors.

Streamline data analysis with an intuitive, visual Six Sigma strategy Visual Six Sigma provides the statistical techniques that help you get more information from your data. A unique emphasis on the visual allows you to take a more active role in data-driven decision making, so you can leverage your contextual knowledge to pose relevant questions and make more sound decisions. You'll learn dynamic visualization and exploratory data analysis techniques that help you identify occurrences and sources of variation, and the strategies and processes that make Six Sigma work for your organization. The Six Sigma strategy helps you identify and remove causes of defects and errors in manufacturing and business processes; the more pragmatic Visual approach opens the strategy beyond the realms of statisticians to provide value to all business leaders amid the growing need for more accessible quality management tools. See where, why, and how your data varies Find clues to underlying behavior in your data Identify key models and drivers Build your own Six-Sigma experience Whether your work involves a Six Sigma improvement project, a design project, a data-mining inquiry, or a scientific study, this practical breakthrough guide equips you with the skills and understanding to get more from your data. With intuitive, easy-to-use tools and clear explanations, Visual Six Sigma is a roadmap to putting this strategy to work for your company.

Six Sigma is a data-driven management system with near-perfect performance that is a statistical target of operating with no more that 3.4 defects per one million chances. Six sigma has both created avid interest and raised concerns among executives and its practioners. This is all very well for multinationals like Motorola or General Electric but how can it help small and medium-sized enterprises or the service industry? How do you ensure that solutions stick? Quality Beyond Six Sigma responds to this challenge and provides a practical implementation of the issues of Six Sigma, Lean Enterprise and Total Quality and aligns the 'hard' sigma message with the softer sustainable 'strategic issues'. The result is FIT SIGMA. The authors utilize major and minor case studies to support principles and learnings of FIT SIGMA and include review examples and self-assessment that underpin the sustainable process. The three major case studies are contributed by General Electric, Dow Chemical and Seagate Technology. Senior Executives and Managers of organizations of all types and sizes, Management Consultants and Students of all disciplines will find this book a stimulating guide to quality and operational excellence.

This volume is a collection of lectures given by distinguished physicists from around the world, covering the most recent advances in theoretical physics and the latest results from current experimental facilities.Following one of the principal aims of the School ? to encourage and promote young physicists to achieve recognition at an international level ? the students who distinguished themselves for the excellence of their research were given the opportunity to publish their presentations in this volume.

Genetic algorithms have been used in science and engineering as adaptive algorithms for solving practical problems and as computational models of natural evolutionary systems. This brief, accessible introduction describes some of the most interesting research in the field and also enables readers to implement and experiment with genetic algorithms on their own. It focuses in depth on a small set of important and interesting topics—particularly in machine learning, scientific modeling, and artificial life—and reviews a broad span of research, including the work of Mitchell and her colleagues. The descriptions of applications and modeling projects stretch beyond the strict boundaries of computer science to include dynamical systems theory, game theory, molecular biology, ecology, evolutionary biology, and population genetics, underscoring the exciting "general purpose" nature of genetic algorithms as search methods that can be employed across disciplines. An Introduction to Genetic Algorithms is accessible to students and researchers in any scientific discipline. It includes many thought and computer exercises that build on and reinforce the reader's understanding of the text. The first chapter introduces genetic algorithms and their terminology and describes two provocative applications in detail. The second and third chapters look at the use of genetic algorithms in machine learning (computer programs, data analysis and prediction, neural networks) and in scientific models (interactions among learning, evolution, and culture; sexual selection; ecosystems; evolutionary activity). Several approaches to the theory of genetic algorithms are discussed in depth in the fourth chapter. The fifth chapter takes up implementation, and the last chapter poses some currently unanswered questions and surveys prospects for the future of evolutionary computation.

This book is intended for use by natural resource managers and scientists, and students in the fields of natural resource management, ecology, and conservation biology, who are confronted with complex and difficult decision making problems. The book takes readers through the process of developing a structured approach to decision making, by firstly deconstructing decisions into component parts, which are each fully analyzed and then reassembled to form a working decision model. The book integrates common-sense ideas about problem definitions, such as the need for decisions to be driven by explicit objectives, with sophisticated approaches for modeling decision influence and incorporating feedback from monitoring programs into decision making via adaptive management. Numerous worked examples are provided for illustration, along with detailed case studies illustrating the authors’ experience in applying structured approaches. There is also a series of detailed technical appendices. An accompanying website provides computer code and data used in the worked examples. Additional resources for this book can be found at: www.wiley.com/go/conroy/naturalresourcemanagement.

A comprehensive, user-friendly and hands-on book that is a single source of reference of tools and techniques for all quality practitioners. It covers the basics of how to manage for consistently high quality and gives good coverage of both simple tools and advanced techniques which can be used in all businesses.