Integrated supply chain planning is well understood by theory and widely applied in practice – however, only with respect to intra-organisational supply chains. In inter-organisational supply chains, an additional, yet unresolved problem arises: due to confidentiality reasons, decentralized parties keep their local data private, which prevents an integrated planning. Local planning procedures such as upstream planning, which are... more...

SIX SIGMA Do you want to improve your business processes and reduce wastage, cut costs, improve quality, and enhance service delivery? Do you want to use Six Sigma to increase productivity in your organization? Do you want to cut costs and boost your bottom line? Do you want to empower your employees to achieve their productive potential? Are you interested in meeting your customer’s needs? Do you want to learn how... more...

This book is unlike many other books you may see on the bookshelf that focus on the theory of LEAN management. It goes beyond theory to provide practical examples and actual case studies to enhance the understanding of LEAN concepts, and also as a valuable source of practical ideas.

The most complete, current guide to Six Sigma “Best practices in Six Sigma are continuously evolving, just as Six Sigma itself evolved from earlier best practices in quality improvement. …This fourth edition...(features) expanded materials on innovation, strategic development, Lean, and constraint management. …You’ll notice many references to free online materials within the text, such as Excel file templates that can be used... more...

The fourth in Springer’s series on Stakeholder Management books, this volume looks back at the beginnings of Stakeholder Management and how it has developed into a fully-fledged system over the last 20 years. It also highlights the importance of a benchmarking database generated from several thousand case studies for comparing businesses. What’s more, international case studies look at the application of Stakeholder Management in a... more...

5S is a simple and immensely practical approach to quality improvement which, when implemented effectively, can transform the fabric of a company. Traditionally used in manufacturing companies for little more than housekeeping, its latent power has yet to be leveraged by service companies. Author Debashis Sarkar has pioneered a blueprint for 5S implementation that can take service organizations to greater heights. The principles can also be applied to... more...

This book follows the ASQ Certified Six Sigma Black Belt (CSSBB) Body of Knowledge exactly and is designed to walk the reader through at a medium-level of detail. Organization of the material is completely straightforward— broken down into "bite-size" chunks with the student in mind. While a plethora of books claim some relation to Six Sigma, unfortunately very few of them support the body of knowledge explicitly. The author supplies the Black Belt... more...

This book describes a pragmatic set of steps which make it possible for an organization of any type to engage every person on their payroll in the continual effort to improve everything the company does. The authors' intention is to re-energize the “Quality Revolution” in the United States by giving organizations a realistic option for tapping into the talent already on their payrolls. The book presents not only logical theory but also a real-life,... more...

Do you remember the first time you drove a car? To prepare for this you probably read the drivers manual, watched movies, practiced in your driveway, and endlessly discussed the impending event with your friends. The result - you knew a lot about the theory of driving, you just didn't know how to translate that theory into practice. Quality Management poses a similar problem to many organizations. The time has come to put Quality Management theory to... more...

The purpose of this field guide is to assist organizations, step by step, in implementing a quality management system (QMS) in conformance with ISO 9001:2008, whether from scratch or by transitioning from ISO 9001:2000. It examines each sub-clause of Sections 4 through 8 of ISO 9001:2008, which contain the requirements, and gives a list of the documentation/documents required, internal audit questions, a summary of management s responsibilities, and a... more...