Vital tools for implementing Lean Six Sigma--what they are, how they work, and which to use--The Lean Six Sigma Pocket Toolbook is today's most complete and results-based reference to the tools and concepts needed to understand, implement, and leverage Lean Six Sigma.

The only guide that groups tools by purpose and use, this hands-on reference provides:

• Analyses of nearly 100 tools and methodologies--from DMAIC and Pull Systems to Control Charts and Pareto Charts
• Detailed explanations of each tool to help you know how, when, and why to use it for maximum efficacy
• Sections for each tool explaining how to create it, how to interpret what you find, and expert tips
• Lean Six Sigma is today's leading technique to maximize production efficiency and maintain control over each step in the managerial process

With The Lean Six Sigma Pocket Toolbook, you'll discover how to propel your organization to new levels of competitive success--one tool at a time.

Genre theory has been used to describe patterns within certain types of mass media, especially patterns associated with written and spoken language. These same methods can be applied to interviewing and the planning and creation of focus groups. Elicitation Strategies for Interviewing and Fieldwork: Emerging Research and Opportunities is a pivotal reference source that provides vital research on the application of textual strategies associated with initiating or eliciting texts and strategies for keeping responders on task. While highlighting topics such as microgenre, interview protocol, and cultural context, this publication explores interview techniques as well as the methods of using these strategies to keep interviews relevant. This book is ideally designed for academicians, researchers, journalists, communication specialists, and interviewers seeking current research on interview strategies and textual strategies important to recognizing and evaluating patterns within responses.

Information value and quality can be considered an essential factor to evaluate both conceptual and practical contributions in organisational, technical, and scientific tasks and projects. It is important to effectively observe and implement these concepts in real organisational plans and efforts. Rethinking the Conceptual Base for New Practical Applications in Information Value and Quality discusses the re-evaluation of the conceptual base of information value and quality found in different forms of media; and how these concepts can be analyzed in real applications and business scenarios. This book is a vital reference source for scholars, practitioners, IT specialists, and students interested in information and knowledge management.

This book asks fundamental questions about the extent to which India is participating in the global shift towards knowledge-based forms of competitiveness. It charts Indian performance and progress using a unique framework benchmarked against fourteen other countries. In the course of the analysis, critical areas for improvement are identified, and the book provides detailed and objective insights for policy-makers and researchers to facilitate change and institutional reform in India. Readers will derive a comprehensive understanding of India's performance and prospects as it emerges as a serious global economic player. A particular feature of the work is the development of an original knowledge footprint concept that measures the extent and impact of knowledge development and diffusion domestic and internationally.The views expressed in this book are the author's.

This book provides hands-on techniques for writing engineering procedures to achieve ISO 9000 compliance. It is designed for individuals responsible for writing these procedures in any industry. Readers will find actual examples of clearly written, compliant engineering procedures, ready to adapt to your own industry and your own particular needs and use immediately. It answers virtually all your procedure writing questions. Procedure writers will gain a general understanding of engineering documentation principles and how to apply them to their own situations. Simple diagrams and other graphics illustrate key ideas, giving a bird's-eye view of what is coming next. The intent of the book is to familiarize the reader with the essential elements and concepts of engineering procedure development and management and show how to apply these concepts to their own specific applications. The author emphasizes engineering principles and tools that are common to all engineering disciplines, with examples for their use.Step-by-step procedures shown for each document format enable readers to apply each format to their own engineering documentation programs quickly and easily. The book provides a fingertip reference that covers the entire engineering procedure process, using the latest technology for engineering documentation systems.

The topic of Enterprise Information Systems (EIS) is having an increasingly relevant strategic impact on global business and the world economy, and organizations are undergoing hard investments in search of the rewarding benefits of efficiency and effectiveness that these ranges of solutions promise. Organizational Integration of Enterprise Systems and Resources: Advancements and Applications show that EIS are at the same time responsible for tremendous gains in some companies and tremendous losses in others. Therefore, their adoption should be carefully planned and managed. This title highlights new ways to identify opportunities and overtake trends and challenges of EIS selection, adoption, and exploitation as it is filled with models, solutions, tools, and case studies. The book provides researchers, scholars, and professionals with some of the most advanced research, solutions, and discussions of Enterprise Information Systems design, implementation, and management.

Recently, the use of statistical tools, methodologies, and models in human resource management (HRM) has increased because of human resources (HR) analytics and predictive HR decision making. To utilize these technological tools, HR managers and students must increase their knowledge of the resources' optimum application. Statistical Tools and Analysis in Human Resources Management is a critical scholarly resource that presents in-depth details on the application of statistics in every sphere of HR functions for optimal decision-making and analytical solutions. Featuring coverage on a broad range of topics such as leadership, industrial relations, training and development, and diversity management, this book is geared towards managers, professionals, upper-level students, administrators, and researchers seeking current information on the integration of HRM technologies.

Managers trying to do a better job have plenty flavors of the month to choose from: total quality management, continuous improvement, empowerment, teamwork-the list is endless.

Everyone is searching for a magic bullet to improve productivity; however, they would have greater success in relying on the core principles of effective management, identified more than fifty years ago.

Scholars over the years have presented the principles from different viewpoints and with different terminology, but it boils down to this: Employees want to be masters of their own fate and to have a real sense of ownership. When provided with an organizational climate that allows this, employees are able to use their own intrinsic motivation to improve productivity and maintain high quality and good service.

Good managers know that people are the only sustainable competitive advantage. They require practical guidance and tools, not flavors of the month, to support employees in realizing their full potential. Create and sustain a productive workplace from the moment you hire an employee with Core Management Principles.

Employee engagement (or a lack thereof) can often be linked to poor communication and a detachment from company goals. Companies of all sizes are looking for ways to boost communication, recognizing its impact on key business outcomes, such as productivity and profitability. This book offers fresh insights about opportunities to improve the quality of employee communications based on employees' needs. It highlights the importance of simple, jargon-free communication that focuses on dialogue and content. High-performing organizations are more likely to think about communication from the audience perspective, rather than purely from the management perspective. The case studies offer readers a firm understanding of ways to implement and measure communication in daily practice. Effective communication requires planning and this book, with its focus on the US, Latin America, and emerging markets, will guide readers in using communication in the alignment of corporate and employee needs.

This work critically examines diversity, discrimination, and inclusion in the English-speaking Caribbean nations, with a specific emphasis on persons with disabilities. The chapters include an evaluative analysis on the extant theoretical and empirical literature on persons with disabilities in employment, exploring the nature of their disability, the role of information technology in gaining and retaining employment, and an analysis of the laws and relevant policies which prohibit the discrimination against persons with disabilities in the Caribbean region. Though the enactment of legislation outlawing the discrimination of persons with disabilities is not widespread in the Caribbean, a few select territories have taken positive steps towards recognition of the need to achieve inclusion of persons with disabilities and accept the diversity of the Caribbean populace. After exploring the general state of disability and discrimination in the Caribbean region, the authors analyze workplace accommodations provided to persons with disability, particularly as relations to IT and assistive devices, before focusing on workplace stigmas related to mental health disability and employment law. In addition to literature-based analyses, the book includes qualitative case studies, with the goal of providing benchmarks in organizational responses to employees with disabilities. Further, the authors highlight lessons to be learned from other countries in addressing inequality in the workplace for disabled persons. With its analysis of employment as well as socio-economic and legal issues, this interdisciplinary text will serve as a useful resource in not only understanding the organizational challenges faced by persons with disabilities in the region but also the necessary legislation needed to address discriminatory practices on a wider scale.

From modest beginnings in the early 1990's, a reform movement in the regulation of public procurement has mushroomed into a global imperative. Two fundamental values of international free trade policy--value for money and the deterrence of corruption--have brought intense scrutiny to bear on public procurement practices in nearly every country. Now international standards (notably those of the WTO and the EU) must be met if a trading nation is to take its place in the global markets. This collection of essays offers fifteen distinct views on the current status and trends in public procurement and its various aspects. From general discussion of setup, overcoming obstacles, ensuring transparency, and compliance with international rules to specific issues raised in economies as diverse as Kosovo, China, and the United States, "Public Procurement: The Continuing Revolution provides a great wealth of insight and information. Although the emphasis throughout is on legal issues, the contributors include not only lawyers but also economists and specialists in purchasing practice. In addition, this is the first book to note the relatively recent trend, in developed countries, toward a less prescriptive, more flexible approach to regulation in which a degree of transparency is sacrificed. The question of how this trend will affect international procurement regimes is perhaps the most viral and interesting aspect of current theory and practice in the field. "Public Procurement: The Continuing Revolution is of inestimable value not only to public procurement specialists, whatever their profession, but to a much wider audience who will recognise the decisive influence of this important economicactivity on the entire area embracing trade and even international relations. Most of these essays were originally presented as papers at an international conference hosted by the Public Procurement Research Group at the University of Nottingham in September 2001.

This contributed volume explores and reveals the new developments, dynamics and recommendations for entrepreneurship education in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. Presenting papers by respected experts in the field, it shares essential insights on the status quo of entrepreneurial education and training programs, the characteristics and motivations of early stage entrepreneurs, and the regional framework conditions in MENA. The book closes with a bibliometric perspective on the trends in the entrepreneurship research and education being developed in MENA.

Modern society is increasingly information-driven, relying heavily on Information Systems (IS) and Information Technology (IT). Business enterprises are no exception, and managers and leaders must learn to make the most of the information resources at their disposal or risk falling behind the times. Information Systems and Technology for Organizations in a Networked Society discusses methods of using information technologies to support organizational and business objectives in both national and international contexts. This reference book describes the latest research on both the technical and non-technical aspects of contemporary information societies, including e-commerce, e-learning, e-government, and e-health; supporting professionals and academicians in developing a deeper understanding of the most effective models for communication, collaboration, and business development. This book is part of the Advances in Business Information Systems and Analytics series collection.

This book is the leader among the new generation of text books on quality that follow the systems approach to creating quality in products and services; the earlier generations focused solely on parts of the system such as statistical methods, process control, and management philosophy. It follows the premise that the body of knowledge and tools documented by quality professionals and researchers, when employed in designing, creating and delivering the product will lead to product quality, customer satisfaction and reduced waste. The tools employed at the different stages of the product creation cycle are covered in this book using real world examples along with their theoretical bases, strengths and weaknesses. This textbook can be used for training - from shop floor personnel to college majors in business and engineering to practicing professionals. Graduate students training as researchers in the quality field will also find useful material. The book has been used as the text for a Professional Series Massive Open Online Course offered by the Technical University of Munich on edX.org, through which tens of thousands of participants from all over the world have received training in quality methods. According to Professor Dr. Holly Ott, who chose the book for the course, the text is one of the main factors contributing to success of this MOOC. The Third Edition has been fully revised to be friendly for self-study, reflects changes in the standards referenced such as ISO 9000, and includes new examples of application of statistical tools in health care industry. Features: Reviews the history of quality movement in the U.S. and abroad Discusses Quality Cost analysis and quality's impact on a company's bottom line Explains finding customer needs and designing the product using House of Quality Covers selection of product parameters using DOE and reliability principles Includes control charts to control processes to make the product right-the-first-time Describes use of capability indices Cp and Cpk to meet customer needs Presents problem solving methodology and tools for continuous improvement Offers ISO 9000, Baldrige and Six Sigma as templates for creating a quality system

In the 'knowledge economy', it is widely recognized that the effective engagement and utilization of human capital and the other facets of intellectual capital are critical, if not the only means, to organizations' short-term success and long-term survival. Quantitative Multidisciplinary Approaches in Human Capital and Asset Management provides robust scientific research and multidisciplinary perspectives on the theory behind the governance of human capital and human assets. Focusing on insight from the diverse fields of economics, finance, accounting, IT, biology, and development, this timely publication is designed to fit the research needs of researchers, practitioners, graduate-level students, and executives seeking methods for managing intellectual capital in the new knowledge economy.

This book provides a comprehensive, step-by-step approach to organic process research and development in the pharmaceutical, fine
chemical, and agricultural chemical industries. Process R&D describes the steps taken, following synthesis and evaluation, to bring key
compounds to market in a cost-effective manner. More people are being hired for work in this area as increasing numbers of drug candidates are
identified through combinatorial chemistry and high-throughput screening. The book is directed to industrial (primarily organic) chemists, and
academicians (particularly those involved in a growing number of start-up companies) and students who need insight into industrial process R&D. Current books do not describe hands-on, step-by-step, approaches to solving process development problems, including route, reagent,
and solvent selection; optimising catalytic reactions; chiral syntheses; and "green chemistry." "Practical Process Research and Development" will be a valuable resource for researchers, managers, and graduate students.
* Provides insights into generating rugged, practical, cost-effective processes for the chemical preparation of "small molecules"
* Breaks down process optimization into route, reagent and solvent selection, development of reaction conditions, workup, crystallizations and more
* Includes over 100 tips for rapid process development
* Presents guidelines for implementing and troubleshooting processes

"Modelling Analysis of Enterprise Information Systems" presents comprehensive coverage and understanding of the organizational and technological issues of enterprise information systems. It covers current trends and issues in various enterprise information systems such as enterprise resource planning, electronic commerce, and their implications on supply chain management, and organizational competitiveness.

This book presents a study of cooperatives as a two-layer entrepreneurial model, and analyzes cooperative enterprises. Above all, it explores how inducements (from the firm) and contributions (from its members, in their respective roles) are aligned, and seeks to answer the question of what this means for managing each cooperative as a firm as well as a group. The book is divided into three parts, the first of which begins with an analysis of specific aspects of cooperative enterprises, with a focus on the added value of cooperation, the weighing of interests, and a behavioral perspective on the imminent communities and their goals. In a structured approach, the book examines the various facets of relationships in cooperatives on a transactional, financial and control level. Further, a case study on the Dutch cooperative Rabobank illustrates what happens when members fail. In turn, part two concentrates on integrating the lessons learned with the existing economic literature on cooperatives, so as to contribute to a theory of cooperative management. Finally, the book links the theoretical approach to practice: in the third part, it reports on the outcomes of using a computerized simulation game to show members of cooperatives how to manage their business and the cooperative business at the same time, enabling them to understand and actively practice two-level entrepreneurship.