Lean is about building and improving stable and predictable systems and processes to deliver to customers high-quality products/services on time by engaging everyone in the organization. Combined with this, organizations need to create an environment of respect for people and continuous learning. It's all about people. People create the product or service, drive innovation, and create systems and processes, and with leadership buy-in and accountability to ensure sustainment with this philosophy, employees will be committed to the organization as they learn and grow personally and professionally. Lean is a term that describes a way of thinking about and managing companies as an enterprise. Becoming Lean requires the following: the continual pursuit to identify and eliminate waste; the establishment of efficient flow of both information and process; and an unwavering top-level commitment. The concept of continuous improvement applies to any process in any industry. Based on the contents of The Lean Practitioners Field Book, the purpose of this series is to show, in detail, how any process can be improved utilizing a combination of tasks and people tools and introduces the BASICS Lean (R) concept. The books are designed for all levels of Lean practitioners and introduces proven tools for analysis and implementation that go beyond the traditional point kaizen event. Each book can be used as a stand-alone volume or used in combination with other titles based on specific needs. Each book is chock-full of case studies and stories from the authors' own experiences in training organizations that have started or are continuing their Lean journey of continuous improvement. Contents include valuable lessons learned and each chapter concludes with questions pertaining to the focus of the chapter. Numerous photographs enrich and illustrate specific tools used in Lean methodology. Baseline: Confronting Reality & Planning the Path for Success focuses on change management and how to manage and accelerate change. The authors also outline how to get ready to implement lean, how to baseline your processes prior to implementing Lean, and how to create a value stream map of processes. This book also discusses Lean accounting.

Lean is about building and improving stable and predictable systems and processes to deliver to customers high-quality products/services on time by engaging everyone in the organization. Combined with this, organizations need to create an environment of respect for people and continuous learning. It's all about people. People create the product or service, drive innovation, and create systems and processes, and with leadership buy-in and accountability to ensure sustainment with this philosophy, employees will be committed to the organization as they learn and grow personally and professionally. Lean is a term that describes a way of thinking about and managing companies as an enterprise. Becoming Lean requires the following: the continual pursuit to identify and eliminate waste; the establishment of efficient flow of both information and process; and an unwavering top-level commitment. The concept of continuous improvement applies to any process in any industry. Based on the contents of The Lean Practitioner's Field Book, the purpose of this series is to show, in detail, how any process can be improved by utilizing a combination of tasks and people tools and introduces the BASICS Lean (R) concept. The books are designed for all levels of Lean practitioners and introduce proven tools for analysis and implementation that go beyond the traditional point kaizen event. Each book can be used as a stand-alone volume or used in combination with other titles based on specific needs. Each book is chock-full of case studies and stories from the authors' own experiences in training organizations who have started or are continuing their Lean journey of continuous improvement. Contents include valuable lessons learned and each chapter concludes with questions pertaining to the focus of the chapter. Numerous photographs enrich and illustrate specific tools used in Lean methodology. Assess and Analyze: Discovering the Waste Consuming Your Profits explores the tools used to assess and analyze the process. It starts off with Learning to See waste and follows with the three analysis tools: mapping the product flow, documenting the full work of the operator, and implementing SMED or changeover reduction and closes with exploring Lean and change management.

Lean is about building and improving stable and predictable systems and processes to deliver to customers high-quality products/services on time by engaging everyone in the organization. Combined with this, organizations need to create an environment of respect for people and continuous learning. It's all about people. People create the product or service, drive innovation, and create systems and processes, and with leadership buy-in and accountability to ensure sustainment with this philosophy, employees will be committed to the organization as they learn and grow personally and professionally. Lean is a term that describes a way of thinking about and managing companies as an enterprise. Becoming Lean requires the following: the continual pursuit to identify and eliminate waste; the establishment of efficient flow of both information and process; and an unwavering top-level commitment. The concept of continuous improvement applies to any process in any industry. Based on the contents of The Lean Practitioners Field Book, the purpose of this series is to show, in detail, how any process can be improved utilizing a combination of tasks and people tools and introduces the BASICS Lean (R) concept. The books are designed for all levels of Lean practitioners and introduces proven tools for analysis and implementation that go beyond the traditional point kaizen event. Each book can be used as a stand-alone volume or used in combination with other titles based on specific needs. Each book is chock-full of case studies and stories from the authors' own experiences in training organizations that have started or are continuing their Lean journey of continuous improvement. Contents include valuable lessons learned and each chapter concludes with questions pertaining to the focus of the chapter. Numerous photographs enrich and illustrate specific tools used in Lean methodology Check: Identifying Gaps on the Path to Success Transactional Processes contains chapters on implementing Lean, Kanban systems, line balancing, Heijunka-leveling, and the +QDIP process plus case studies of machine shop and transactional implementations. The implementation model describes the different approaches to Lean, compares them to Toyota, and explains each implementation model.

With continuous improvement (kaizen) and Total Quality Control (TQC) becoming increasingly important to world class companies, there's an urgent need to build quality into every management decision. The tools presented in this book allow you to do just that. They represent the most important advance in quality deployment and project management in recent years.

Unlike the seven traditional QC tools, which measure quality problems that already exist and are used by quality circles, these seven new QC tools make it possible for managers to plan wide-ranging and detailed TQC objectives throughout the entire organization. These tools, some borrowed from other disciplines and others developed specifically for quality management, include the relations diagram, the KJ method (affinity diagram), the systematic diagram, the matrix diagram, matrix data analysis, the process decision program chart (PDPC), and the arrow diagram. Together they will help you to:

• Expand the scope of quality efforts company-wide.
• Set up and manage the systems necessary to resolve major quality problems.
• Anticipate potential quality problems and actually eliminate defects before they happen.

Never before available in English, "Management for Quality Improvement" is absolutely essential reading if you are in any area of project management, quality assurance, MIS, or TQC.

Strategic Total Quality Management is a new way of looking at quality. It views quality from corporate performance and product quality. Corporate performance is measured by the response of the firm to the emerging changes in its business environment. Increasingly, issues concerning the environment, business ethics and integrity are important and do affect the competitiveness and survivability of the firm. Quality must, therefore, take a more systemic or holistic definition. Also, with the increasing focus on product quality and many companies targeting six sigma or zero defect, product quality alone will not be enough of a competitive weapon for any one firm. Strategic Total Quality Management is based on a measure of quality as the overall performance of the firm.

The book discusses all aspects of quality management from a strategic total quality management perspective. It starts with an introduction of this new philosophy of quality, and presents guidelines for its implementation and strategic framework to guide the practice of strategic total quality management. The importance of environmental quality planning is discussed and a chapter is presented on the role of statistics in strategic total quality management. The book then discusses leadership and paradigm innovation and how they influence visionary management and quality practice. An examination of the works of Deming and Juran is synthesized in the context of strategic total quality management. The book will be useful to quality practitioners who need to know of alternative views of quality, students who are constantly challenged by the emerging quality management philosophies, and researchers who need to explore in depth some of these concepts of quality.

This is a practical guide for those who do the work of maintaining and improving the reliability of mechanical machinery. It is for engineers and skilled trades personnel who want to understand how failures happen and how the physical causes of the great majority can be readily diagnosed in the field. It explains the four major failure mechanisms, wear, corrosion, overload, and fatigue and, using easy-to-read charts, how they can be diagnosed at the site of the failure. Then, knowing the physical failure mechanics involved, the reader can accurately solve the human causes. To improve the reader's understanding, all the diagrams and most of the tables have been redrawn. The number of actual failure examples has been increased, plus the last chapter on miscellaneous machine elements includes new material on couplings, universal joints, and plain bearings. Features A practical field guide showing how to recognize how failures occur that can be used to solve more than 85% of mechanical machinery failures Incorporates multiple easy-to-follow logic trees to help the reader diagnose the physical causes of the failure without needing detailed laboratory analysis Explains how the mechanics, corrosion, materials science, and tribology of components can fit together to improve machinery reliability Includes more than 150 completely redrawn charts and tables, plus almost 250 actual failure photographs to help guide the reader to an accurate analysis Contains clear and detailed explanations of how lubricants function and the critical roles of corrosion and lubrication play in causing mechanical failures

Quality healthcare is a cornerstone of any healthy society. In the U.S., we have access to sophisticated medical technology, world renowned physicians, highly trained nurses and hospital personnel, advanced pharmaceuticals, and innovations in diagnosis and treatment. But for all of our sophistication, serious problems afflict healthcare systems across the U.S. today - problems that cause severe hardship for families in communities large and small. Considering its impact on society, healthcare is arguably our most important industry. Good health is a key aspect of a productive and fulfilling life no matter what a person's age, cultural background, social status or career. To live well and provide for ourselves and others, we all depend on a strong healthcare system that can help us prevent illness and access effective treatment when we need it. Needless to say, building and maintaining that robust healthcare system is no easy task. According to a report by the Institute of Medicine, up to 98,000 deaths per year occur in U.S. hospitals as a result of adverse events. In other words, errors in hospitals cause more annual deaths than acceptable and are totally preventable. With the healthcare system in such critical condition, Lean is the best possible treatment as it moves to eliminate waste and improve processes. The revised edition of Taking Improvement from the Assembly Line to Healthcare supplies step-by-step guidance on how to implement Lean methods to achieve world-class improvement with the healthcare industry. The updated edition of this Shingo award winner book provides specific examples of Lean implementation in emergency medicine, diagnostic imaging, orthopedic clinics, general internal medicine, administration, and community care. Highlighting quality, safety, and financial evidence as to why immediate change is both possible and essential, the book provides a firm foundation in Lean improvement and the tools used to deliver sustainable solutions. This revised edition presents new and updated client interviews and how the process has changed or been enhanced, what worked and what didn't work. New case studies from U.S. and Canada provide readers with the real-world understanding needed to embark and sustain a successful improvement journey.

This book is a hands-on single-source reference of tools, techniques, and processes integrating both Lean and Six Sigma. This comprehensive handbook provides up-to-date guidance on how to use these tools and processes in different settings, such as start-up companies and stalled projects, as well as establish enterprises where the ongoing drive is to improve processes, profitability, and long-term growth. It contains the "hard" Six Sigma approach as well as the flexible approach of FIT SIGMA, which is adaptable to manufacturing and service industries and also public sector organisations. You will also discover how climate change initiatives can be accelerated to sustainable outcomes by the holistic approach of Green Six Sigma.

The book is about what we can do now with leadership, training, and teamwork in every sphere of our businesses. Lean, originally developed by Toyota, is a set of processes and tools aimed at minimising wastes. Six Sigma provides a set of data-driven techniques to minimise defects and improve processes. Integrating these two approaches provides a comprehensive and proven approach that can transform an organisation. To make change happen, we need both digital tools and analog approaches. We know that there has been a continuous push to generate newer approaches to operational excellence, such as Total Quality Management, Six Sigma, Lean Sigma, Lean Six Sigma, and FIT SIGMA.

It is vital that we harness all our tools and resources to regenerate the economy after the Covid-19 pandemic and make climate change initiatives successful for the survival of our planet. Six Sigma and its hybrids (e.g., Lean Six Sigma) should also play a significant part. Over the last three decades, operational performance levels of both public sector and private sector organisations improved significantly and Lean Six Sigma has also acted as a powerful change agent. We urgently need an updated version of these tools and approaches.

The Green Six Sigma Handbook not only applies appropriate Lean and Six Sigma tools and approaches, fitness for the purpose, but it aims at sustainable changes. This goal of sustainability is a stable bridge between Lean Six Sigma and climate change initiatives. Hence, when the tools and approaches of Lean Six Sigma are focused and adapted primarily to climate change demands, we get Green Six Sigma.

Have you ever been involved in a project that didn't require a meeting? Neither have we. Well-run project meetings allow teams to get through the maze of distractions and obstacles to achieve results. Unfortunately, many project meetings aren't well-run--they are viewed, by team members, as unproductive, tedious, wastes of precious time. But you can change that. "The Project Meeting Facilitator" contains practical techniques and practices that will help you facilitate our meetings more effectively, transforming them into well-planned, well-managed journeys that engage the team while achieving the intended goals.

Today's organizations find themselves in a race to adopt new technologies in order to keep up with their competition. However, two questions must be answered: Are these organizations ready for new technological advancements, and are these new technologies appropriate for every organization? Technological Challenges and Management: Matching Human and Business Needs focuses on the new advances and challenges that today's organizations face in the areas of human resources and business, resulting from continuous and highly complex changes in technological resources. Organizations need to implement a more proactive and flexible management, matching their human and business needs. Due to this reality, it is important to study and understand varied contributions made by researchers, academics, and practitioners in this field of study worldwide. With the focus of this reality, this book exchanges experiences and perspectives about the state of technological challenges and management research, and future directions for this field of study. It also takes into account the deep implications that these challenges have in the organization of human resources. The authors support academics and researchers and those operating in the management field in dealing with different challenges that organizations face today. This is especially true concerning the relationship between technological changes, human resources management, and business. They propose the sharing of knowledge, through debate and information exchange, about technological challenges and management, matching the critical items of human and business needs. The book is divided into seven chapters that span from evaluating new technologies to finding the perfect fit.

This book is aimed at manufacturing and planning managers who struggle to bring a greater degree of stability and more effective use of assets to their operations, not realizing the degree to which production scheduling affects those objectives. It has been reported that 75% of the problems on the manufacturing floor are caused by activities outside the plant floor. Poor production scheduling strategies and systems are often the biggest contributors to the 75%. The book explains in detail that no scheduling strategy, and especially no transition to a different and better scheduling strategy, will succeed without strong commitment and guidance from senior leadership. Leadership must understand their active role in the transition, that people will feel uncomfortable and even threatened by change, and that they will need to be measured by different standards. Effective scheduling requires that following the schedule and production to plan is more important than trying to maximize each day's throughput. The book explains the advantages of a structured, regularly repeating schedule: how it can increase throughput, right-size inventory based on cycles and variabilities and therefore make it more usable, and improve customer delivery. It will explain the trade-offs between throughput, inventory, and delivery performance, how those trade-offs are actually decided in production scheduling, and how an appropriate scheduling strategy can make the trade-offs and their ramifications visible. It discusses several popular structured scheduling concepts, their similarities, and differences, to allow the readers to decide which might fit best in their environments. In addition, the authors discuss what makes an appropriate scheduling software system, and why a package designed for structured scheduling offers capabilities well beyond the Excel workbooks used by many companies, and how it offers much more design capability and ease of use than the finite scheduling modules in SAP or Oracle. Finally, the authors offer a proven roadmap for implementation, critical success factors necessary to achieve the full potential, and give examples of operations that have done this well. In addition, a guide for leaders and managers post-implementation is provided to help them fully exploit the advantages of a structured, repeating scheduling strategy.

By bringing together leading experts on quality assurance in higher education from seven countries (from Europe, the USA and South Africa), this volume intends to go several steps further than most publications on quality assurance. First, it brings together views from micro to macro levels in the multi-actor space, showing how quality assurance impacts the higher education system throughout. Second, it links quality assurance solidly to issues of regulation, translation (rather than mechanical implementation ) and transformation, instead of being only focused on quality assurance as a single policy instrument. Third, it uses this broad range of research insights to criticize current practices, explaining for instance why sometimes people have difficulty in tracing any concrete effects of all initiatives taken in this area.

Risk is the single most prevalent and enduring factor that influences every individual, organization, and society. We often seek protection from negative risk events, but also seek to take advantage of opportunities arising from positive risk events. We may feel overwhelmed by messages encountered in daily interactions with media and society, contributing to a sense of ambiguity over how to act in response to risk-related information and misinformation. We seek to leverage evidence and reason to find our own balance between both positive and negative outcomes in an uncertain world. This ground-breaking book delivers practical concepts and tools that empower readers to leverage innovations in risk science to improve their abilities to interpret, assess, communicate, and handle risk. It provides a practical non-quantitative approach to understanding risk and to making better decisions involving risk. Think RISK covers several key themes in risk science: a) The main goals and strategies for understanding and managing risk b) How readers can inform their risk stances by considering their own individual values and mission c) The difference between risk and safety, and how that difference is critical for managing risk d) The role of psychological factors when understanding and managing risk e) The role of communication when understanding and managing risk, and f) The general importance and incentives for effectively understanding and managing risk. Written for business professionals in all private and public sectors, this book will also be relevant to non-business professionals such as medical practitioners and policymakers and would be an ideal fit for executive education and seminar-style courses in universities, corporate books clubs and training seminars. Because it's based on foundational and scientifically accepted ideas and principles, the book should remain relevant for many years.

Product design is becoming increasingly challenging as product complexity increases dramatically with the advent of autonomous control and the need to achieve zero emissions. Companies continue to have poor product launches with significant numbers of recall campaigns and high after-sales warranties. It is important that potential product failures are identified and fixed during the design of a product. Failure modes found late after the design has matured are normally easy to find with some being identified by the customer but are often difficult and expensive to fix since modifying one part will often have a knock-on effect on other parts causing other problems. Discovering failure modes early in the design process is often difficult requiring rigorous and comprehensive analysis but once found such failure modes are usually easy and cheap to fix. This book presents an approach to product design based on Failure Mode Avoidance that utilizes a series of strongly interrelated engineering tools and interpersonal skills that can be used to discover failure modes early in the design process. The tools can be used across engineering disciplines. Despite engineering being largely a team activity, it is often the case that little attention is paid to the team process after the team membership has been identified, with membership normally being based on technical expertise. In addition to technical expertise, an effective engineering team requires individual engineers to work together efficiently. Good leadership is also required with the leader able to both manage change and encourage individual team members to work to the best of their ability. The book interweaves technical skills, team skills, and team leadership in a way that reflects their real-life interrelationship. The book tells the fictional story of a small engineering team and its leader as they implement the skills introduced in the book and follows their experiences reflecting individual difficulties, enthusiasm, humor, and skepticism in applying the methodologies and tools for the first time. In addition, the story tells of team members' interactions with their management and peers within a company that, having been very successful, finds itself in financial difficulties. It promotes constructivist learning through the reader empathizing with the characters in the book. These characters ask questions that are typical of those that learners will ask about the subject matter. Learning reinforcement is also integrated into the storyline as a natural and unobtrusive feature. The book is intended to be read like a novel from cover to cover with a storyline that motivates the reader to read on. While including in-depth technical examples the book is not intended as a seminal text on Failure Mode Avoidance or team skills but is intended to give the reader an understanding such that they are motivated to learn more. Having read the book, it can be treated more typically as a textbook by returning to some of the technical detail or looking to further reading such as that identified in the book.

Survival and thriving in today's business environment require companies to continuously strive for operational excellence at all levels of the organization. Simply working to maintain existing operations is not an adequate or sustainable business strategy, especially when competing in a global market. To remain relevant, companies must adopt a process control and continuous improvement mentality as an integral part of their daily work activities. These two operational disciplines form the foundation and stepping stones for manufacturing excellence. Processes must be stable, capable, and controlled as a prerequisite for sustainable improvement. Sustainable improvements must be strategic, continuous, and focused on process optimization. Modern-day manufacturing is rapidly changing in the face of technological, geopolitical, social, and environmental developments. These challenges are altering the way we think and act to transform raw materials into finished goods. Meeting these challenges requires particular attention to how we develop and engage people and apply technology for long-term sustainability and competitive advantage. This book takes you on a journey to explore the fundamental elements, management practices, improvement methods, and future direction of shop floor management. Part 1 of this five-part manuscript considers workplace culture, organizational structure, operational discipline, and employee accountability as the foundation for a robust manufacturing system. Part 2 studies the impact of process standardization, data analytics, information sharing, communication, and people on daily shop floor management. Once the management system has been adequately described, Part 3 concentrates on its effective execution, monitoring, and control with a deep look into the people, methods, machines, materials, and environment that make it possible. Like every good manufacturing text, efficiency and productivity are key topics. That's why Part 4 explores various methods, tools, and techniques associated with product and process development, productivity improvement, agile methods, shop floor optimization, and manufacturing excellence. The final section, Part 5, shifts focus to emerging technologies, engaging the reader to contemplate technology's impact on the digital transformation of the manufacturing industry.

Driving innovation can reduce costs for companies, institutions, military programs, and successful businesses. Quality is key to successful innovation. Delivery of complex products must have high quality to reduce customer problems and defects. This book explains how to integrate Quality Assurance processes to produce compliant product management and gap analysis. It shows how Quality Assurance provides a common operating framework in which best practices, improvements, and cost avoidance activities can be shared. Effective Processes for Quality Assurance emphasizes improving process execution and reducing operational costs. It also focuses on how Quality Assurance personnel must support companies, institutions, military programs, and successful businesses by encouraging a cooperative, proactive approach and ensure compliance through management and team member participation. Lean and Agile can provide a competitive advantage, and this practical reference explains how to implement these two principles to deliver products that have fewer defects. It also explains: Quality Assurance methods Measuring benefits of Quality Assurance process improvement Quality Assurance performance and improvement Risk management Quality Assurance improvement with metrics Effective processes for Quality Assurance Quantitative process performance and commitments Quality Assurance plans Quality Assurance for customers and suppliers Supporting software configuration Effective Processes for Quality Assurance covers the critical issues for implementing Quality Assurance processes that can deliver high-quality products successfully.

The old cliche states that not every manager is a leader, but the more important part of that sentiment is that to be a good manager, one has to be a good leader. This perception is because good managers do more than manage. They have to lead by inspiration, they have to lead by example, and they have to lead through the best times for their organizations as well as the absolute worst times. A Systematic Guide to Leadership Selection Using Total Quality Management Techniques identifies the application gap and presents a methodology based on Total Quality Management (TQM) to support the guidance of a process to select leadership (at any level of the organization). A modification to the House of Quality and a product of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is presented and discussed as the core of a leader selection process. Two case studies are used to reinforce the concepts and applications. Finally, the book introduces some experiments for leadership development using virtual worlds and ends with a note for the future using the metaverse and digital twins for leadership. The book is intended for professionals and executives wanting to learn more about leader selection, engineering and business students, directors of human resources, and researchers in the field of leadership.

Lean Systems: Applications and Case Studies in Manufacturing, Service, and Healthcare details the various Lean techniques and numerous real-world Lean projects drawn from a wide variety of manufacturing, healthcare, and service processes, demonstrating how to apply the Lean philosophy. The book facilitates Lean instruction by supplying interactive case studies that enable readers to apply the various Lean techniques. It provides an in-depth discussion of the Lean tools (i.e., VSM, standard work, 5S, etc.) and several real-world case studies and applications of Lean that have shown significant improvement in meeting customer requirements. The case studies follow the Six Sigma framework of Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, and Control (DMAIC) structure for process improvement. The authors include detailed descriptions of each Lean tool and examples of how each Lean technique was applied to a wide variety of manufacturing, service, and healthcare processes. These in-depth descriptions and cases studies can be used by industry professionals and academics to learn how to apply Lean. They provide a detailed, step-by-step approach to Lean and demonstrate how to integrate Lean tools for process improvement and to sustain improvements. But more than this, the approach taken in this book gives readers the tools to effectively apply Lean techniques.

Sustainable Self-Governance in Businesses and Society offers a sound introduction to Stafford Beer's Viable System Model (VSM) and clarifies its relevance to support organisational sustainability and self-governance. While the VSM has been known since the early 1980s, it hasn't been always easy to understand and to apply. It explains the self-transformation methodology to analyse the way organisations manage (or not) their complexity and govern themselves. The work is supported by multiple examples of application in organisations of all scales - from small to multi-national corporations and from organised social networks to communities and national organisations. It clarifies the relevance of Beer's theory to support systemic learning and change in organisations, and to coach them to self-organise and self-govern. Readers interested in further understanding insights from complex systems and cybernetics theories for designing and transforming organisations will benefit from this book, as it works to offer very detailed insights on how to put the VSM theory into practice. It clarifies how it improves adaptive capabilities, agile and self-regulated structures, more capable of fully implementing corporate sustainability strategies and self-governing themselves. The chapters provide key reading for managers, consultants, practitioners, and post-graduate students working in organisational transformation, governance, and sustainability.

Typically entrenched and systemic, healthcare problems require the sort of comprehensive solutions that can only be addressed by a change in culture and a shift in thinking. Organizations around the world are using Lean to redesign care and improve processes in a way that achieves and sustains meaningful results for patients, staff, physicians, and health systems. This book demonstrates how honest appraisal, intelligent planning, and vigilant follow-up have led to dramatic improvements in a variety of healthcare settings across the world. It teaches us how innovative organizations can find sustainable solutions to seemingly intractable problems by following a path guided by Lean Thinking. Lean methods may not solve every healthcare problem, but as these cases prove, changing a culture rather than personnel results in more effective sustainable change. This multi-authored book provides expert descriptions of Lean methods and their application in healthcare, written by the people who developed and tested the methods in healthcare settings. Each chapter brings together a description of the technique or approach, with examples of application in practice from the author's own practice. Authors use an engaging approach to their narrative, with examples from their personal experience or engagement being described to illustrate the practical application of theoretic approaches. In painting a picture of the environment in which these tools and techniques have been applied, readers will understand the transferability to their own workplace environment. This will be an opportunity to tell real stories of the application of Lean in healthcare and give readers the opportunity to learn from people from across the world, on subjects on which they are acknowledged topic experts, based on day-to-day Lean practice.

In this book . . . Nicolas Vandeput hacks his way through the maze of quantitative supply chain optimizations. This book illustrates how the quantitative optimization of 21st century supply chains should be crafted and executed. . . . Vandeput is at the forefront of a new and better way of doing supply chains, and thanks to a richly illustrated book, where every single situation gets its own illustrating code snippet, so could you. --Joannes Vermorel, CEO, Lokad Inventory Optimization argues that mathematical inventory models can only take us so far with supply chain management. In order to optimize inventory policies, we have to use probabilistic simulations. The book explains how to implement these models and simulations step-by-step, starting from simple deterministic ones to complex multi-echelon optimization. The first two parts of the book discuss classical mathematical models, their limitations and assumptions, and a quick but effective introduction to Python is provided. Part 3 contains more advanced models that will allow you to optimize your profits, estimate your lost sales and use advanced demand distributions. It also provides an explanation of how you can optimize a multi-echelon supply chain based on a simple-yet powerful-framework. Part 4 discusses inventory optimization thanks to simulations under custom discrete demand probability functions. Inventory managers, demand planners and academics interested in gaining cost-effective solutions will benefit from the "do-it-yourself" examples and Python programs included in each chapter.

Total quality management, continuous process improvement, process innovation, whatever you call it, it's likely that you, as a training and human resources professional, will play a key role in implementing it. This is the book that explains, in the language of HRD, how to meet the demands of TQM. For more than a decade, Elaine Biech has helped trainers and managers put quality management into practice at organizations as diverse as Land O'Lakes, the American Red Cross, and the U.S. Navy. In this immensely practical guide, she gives you a thorough grounding in TQM as a customer-driven, quality-focused, process-oriented, fact-based, team-supported philosophy. And she spells out all the steps required for HRD pros to bring TQM to every area of the organization: creating the implementation plan, gaining commitment from senior management, putting TQM strategies into widespread action, working with external consultants, designing and delivering training for quality, meeting unique needs brought on by change, preventing common TQM training mistakes, and measuring ongoing results. Not only will you learn to implement each step, but you'll realize why it's necessary, and understand how it fits into the bigger quality picture. The author readies you to assume major TQM responsibilities, as befits the evergrowing statue of the HRD function. If you're new to TQM, the exclusive "HRD Quality Improvement Readiness Survey" will help assess your initial needs. Those farther along will appreciate the detailed list of TQM implementation resources, as well as ready-to-use forms and plans. And all readers will be informed and inspired by the book's many success stories, drawn from the actual experiences oftrainers at private and public organizations of all sizes. Most of all, by explaining quality improvement in human resources terms, TQM for Training demystifies this complex management philosophy. It refers to roles that are common to all training departments and addresses issues unique to them - features you simply won't find in other TQM books. "TQM isn't business as usual", the author points out. "It's not a program that has a start and end time like so many programs you have designed, delivered, and implemented. It cannot be achieved by individuals. It is not easy". But with TQM for Training at your fingertips, you'll be fully prepared to meet the challenges and lead the TQM transformation in your organization.

The Toyota Production System (TPS) is regarded as a sophisticated concept that helps us understand the world of manufacturing. It evolved from the system of mass-producing cars, established by Ford, and the Japanese have since endeavored to make their own universal production system. Though much has been accomplished, TPS' progress is a continuous process. The theme of this book is how to understand and learn TPS. There is a TPS concept that seems to elude many, and that is that manufacturers should be able to make a product available at the moment a customer comes and asks for it. There are various ways and various tools that can be used to pursue the ideal state, and therefore we need to focus on the basic principles of TPS. This book tries to explain those Toyota Production System concepts that may otherwise be elusive. This book focuses on the factory to help readers understand the fundamental ideology of TPS. The main character started his career as a technical expert in the R&D division of an automotive Company and eventually becomes an Instructor of TPS. His broad career in companies is used to vividly describe the form of the Toyota Production System. To explain the growth of apprentices of various titles and positions, this story is woven with several short stories presented from the perspective of the main character, who grows from being a group leader to section leader to manager to general manager. Essentially, this book describes the Toyota Production System as based on the philosophy: "Always sketching out and pursuing the ideal state of manufacturing."

Highlights a clear and concise presentation through adequate study material Follows a systematic approach to explicate fundamentals as well as recent advances Incorporates various case studies for major topics as well as numerous academic examples Uses simple, lucid, and a richly annotated writing style targeted at student readers Offers an exhaustive repertoire of Engineering Pedagogy and its application to the current education system