Transforming an EPA QA/R-2 quality management plan into an ISO 9002 quality management system.

The Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Office of Emergency and Remedial Response (OERR) requires environmental data of known quality to support Superfund hazardous waste site projects. The Quality Assurance Technical Support (QATS) Program is operated by Shaw Environmental and Infrastructure, Inc. to provide EPA's Analytical Operations Center (AOC) with performance evaluation samples, reference materials, on-site laboratory auditing capabilities, data audits (including electronic media data audits), methods development, and other support services. The new QATS contract awarded in November 2000 required that the QATS Program become ISO 9000 certified. In a first for an EPA contractor, the QATS staff and management successfully transformed EPA's QA/R-2 type Quality Management Plan into a Quality Management System (QMS) that complies with the requirements of the internationally recognized ISO 9002 standard and achieved certification in the United States, Canada, and throughout Europe. The presentation describes how quality system elements of ISO 9002 were implemented on an already existing quality system. The psychological and organizational challenges of the culture change in QATS' day-to-day operations will be discussed for the benefit of other ISO 9000 aspirants.     

能力成熟度模型和ISO/IEC15504的比较

能力成熟度模型（CMM）和ISO/IEC 15504是国际上关于软件过程能力评价的两个主要标准，它们分别从不同的角度为组织的软件过程改进提供了方向。CMM着重于组织整体的软件过程能力，为组织指引了一条软件过程改进的阶段性道路。ISO/IEC 15504则提供了一个两维的框架模型。通过软件过程和过程能力的定义，为过程能力改进设计了一条连续性的道路。     

Assessing the Process Maturity Utilized in Software Engineering Team Project Courses*

Many computer science departments offer an introductory software engineering course, which normally provides an introduction to software engineering topics in conjunction with a semester long team project. To ensure students acquire the correct lessons from this project experience, it is essential that the teams utilize well‐defined software development processes similar to those practiced by leading software development organizations. Since its inception, the Software Engineering Institute Capability Maturity Model (CMM) has served as a guide for organizations seeking to improve their development practices, through a self‐assessment questionnaire. In an effort to assess the maturity of development practices utilized in software engineering courses, an “academic” version of the CMM questionnaire was developed. This questionnaire was distributed to a sample of software engineering instructors in an effort to assess the maturity of academic software engineering course projects. The questionnaire and the survey results are presented and discussed.     

Knowledge management in two universities before and during the COVID-19 effect in Peru

Knowledge management evaluation is an important and complex problem in Peruvian universities. An efficient policy in knowledge management is a critical success factor and will also advance teaching and research. Likewise, innovation is a key resource for the well-being of national economies and international competitive advantage, especially with COVID-19 9 restrictions. This research article has demonstrated that an assessment of knowledge management (KM) capability in two private universities could be used for an efficient policy, in order to obtain the best result in knowledge management maturity. Having discussed how to construct a model for KM, the final section of this paper addresses ways of the incorporation of this technology in the society. The case study has been developed in Lima, associated to two universities with 271 teachers and 5928 students; with this model could be used for KM assessment in all university in Peru. This study uses the “Intellectus Model, Mejia model organizational knowledge capability areas and Knowledge Management Capability Assessment (KMCA) model for the assessment, before and during COVID-19. Our findings have demonstrated the university performance and challenges associated to knowledge management during COVID-19, the new policy for virtual instructions and digital transformation of the educational process have improved the cost efficiencies. However, this system also has a number of serious drawbacks and challenges in innovation, researching, connections with industry and academy; this 2021 requires a new perspective in innovation with a knowledge management scheme in Peruvian universities.     

基于工序成本的多元过程能力指数分析

单一的多元过程能力指数在反映企业制造多元质量特性产品能力时存在缺陷,无法反映由于各工序成本的差异而造成的工序能力重要性的差别.基于此,从企业工序质量控制和工序成本关系的角度来分析,构建了基于工序成本修正的多元过程能力指数,反映企业的成本控制能力和产品竞争能力.最后,通过修正得到的多元过程能力指数,一方面优选企业的质量改进或控制方案,另一方面判定企业在同类产品制造中的实际质量控制能力和过程成本损失差异.     

瑞侃上海库存管理系统的实施

本文着重介绍了瑞侃上海SAP项目实施的背景,前期准备,主要实施过程,和库存管理模块的主要关键问题,阐述了制造业工厂库存管理的概念、作用、与目标,详细论述了SAP系统库存管理(WM)模块的功能和过程,以期对欲实施和正在实施ERP信息化管理的单位有一定的帮助。     

Two data bases in every garage: information quality systems.

Enterprises, including Federal agencies such as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), are now identifying their information as a strategic resource. As part of a new strategy, enterprises address quality system planning. This technical paper presents some of EPA's approaches and techniques for reconciling quality system considerations for science and technical activities with quality system considerations for information technology and resources. Identification of key information quality indicators, management processes, and assessment processes are addressed.     

Applied Integrated Design in Composite UAV Development

This paper presents a modern approach to integrated development of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle made of laminated composite materials from conceptual design, through detail design, strength and stiffness analyses, definition and management of design and production data, detailed tests results and other activities related to development of laminated composite structures with main of its particularities in comparison to metal structures. Special attention in this work is focused to management processes of product data during life cycle of an UAV and experimental tests of its composite wing. Experience shows that the automation management processes of product data during life cycle, as well as processes of manufacturing, are inevitable if a company wants to get cheaper and quality composite aircraft structures. One of the most effective ways of successful management of product data today is Product Life cycle Management (PLM). In terms of the PLM, a spectrum of special measures and provisions has to be implemented when defining fiber-reinforced composite material structures in comparison to designing with metals which is elaborated in the paper.     

Partial least square-based model predictive control for large-scale manufacturing processes

The Model Predictive Control (MPC) method has been widely adopted as a useful tool to keep quality on target in manufacturing processes. However, the conventional MPC methods are inadequate for large-scale manufacturing processes particularly in the presence of disturbances. The goal of this paper is to propose a Partial Least Square (PLS)-based MPC methodology to accommodate the characteristics of a large-scale manufacturing process. The detailed objectives are: (i) to identify a reliable prediction model that handles the large-scale "short and fat" data; (ii) to design an effective control model that both maximizes the required quality and minimizes the labor costs associated with changing the process parameters; and (iii) to develop an efficient optimization algorithm that reduces the computational burden of the large-scale optimization. The case study and experimental results demonstrate that the presented MPC methodology provides the set of optimal process parameters for quality improvement. In particular, the quality deviations are reduced by 99.4%, the labor costs by 84.2%, and the computational time by 98.8%. As a result, the proposed MPC method will save on both costs and time in achieving the desired quality for a large-scale manufacturing process.     

Modelling engineering change management in a new product development supply chain

The changes within a new product development (NPD) process are handled differently depending on the stage of the project. The changes during the initial stages of the project are addressed by design iterations, while the changes after the product design is complete are addressed using a formal engineering change management (ECM) process. The ECM process is a complex process, especially under a collaborative environment, where various independent entities work together for a common cause of product development. The interactions between the NPD and ECM processes have rarely been investigated in the research community. In this paper, we attempt to study the interactions between the various NPD and ECM process parameters by modelling the processes and simulated the model to understand the parameter interactions. The organisations in a supply chain have been characterised based on their interactions with the original equipment manufacturer (OEM) during the NPD process. The organisation process templates representing the NPD and ECM processes of each type of organisation in the supply chain have been modelled. The templates have been used to develop a simulation model representing the NPD and ECM processes for a supply chain. The process variables, such as processing rates, resources, resource composition, resource allocation priority, processing quality and phase overlap, have been included in the model. The results indicate that most of the variables and interactions among the variables have a significant influence on the NPD lead time. By identifying the status of?the NPD process, the decision-makers can use these results to develop appropriate management policies to govern their product development projects.     

Process Capability Analysis for NonLinear Profiles Using Depth Functions

There are practical situations in which the quality of a process or product can be better characterized by a functional relationship between a response variable and one or more explanatory variables, which is called profile. Such profiles frequently can be represented adequately using linear or nonlinear models. While there are several studies in monitoring profiles, there are few studies to evaluate the capability of a process with profile quality characteristic; specifically, there is no method in the literature to analyze process capability characterized by nonlinear profiles. In this paper, we propose two methods to measure the capability of these processes, based on the concept of functional depth. These methods do not have distributional assumptions and extend to functional data the Process Capability Indexes proposed by Clements 1 to measure the capability of a process characterized by a random variable. Performance of the proposed methods is evaluated through simulation studies. An example illustrates the applicability of these methods. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Activity-Based Throughput Management in a manufacturing company

This paper presents an Activity-Based Throughput Management (ABTM) framework that is based on the premise that attaining the goal of making money through activity analysis must be the main focus of manufacturing businesses. The proposed framework integrates the basic concepts of evolving management philosophies of Activity-Based Management and the Theory of Constraints into a cohesive model. The paper explains the concepts and conventions related to building a visual- (i.e. a process map) and spreadsheet-based ABTM model and thereby provides an operational decision-making framework for manufacturing managers in the modern manufacturing environment. The usefulness of the framework and its underlying model are then demonstrated by developing a number of product and process improvement scenarios, e.g. focused quality improvement, cycle time management, technological investment justification, and optimal product mix.     

Evaluating Six Sigma failure rate for inverse Gaussian cycle times

Six Sigma is a quality philosophy and methodology that aims to achieve operational excellence and delighted customers. The cost of poor quality depends on the sigma quality level and its corresponding failure rate. Six Sigma provides a well-defined target of 3.4 defects per million. This failure rate is commonly evaluated under the assumption that the process is normally distributed and its specifications are two-sided. However, these assumptions may lead to implementation of quality-improvement strategies that are based on inaccurate evaluations of quality costs and profits. This paper defines the relationship between failure rate and sigma quality level for inverse Gaussian processes. The inverse Gaussian distribution has considerable applications in describing cycle times, product life, employee service times, and so on. We show that for these processes attaining Six Sigma target failure rate requires higher quality efforts than for normal processes. A generic model is presented to characterise cycle times in manufacturing systems. In this model, the asymptotic production is described by a drifted Brownian motion, and the cycle time is evaluated by using the first passage time theory of a Wiener process to a boundary. The proposed method estimates the right efforts required to reach Six Sigma goals.     

An Enterprise-Wide Knowledge Management Approach to Project Management

Abstract

Few research studies investigate the relationship between enterprise knowledge management (KM) and project management (PM). These studies have shown that today’s PM approaches do not sufficiently include the required KM processes to derive the highest value from project investment. This research highlights the potential benefits of implementing an enterprise-wide KM approach to project management. The relationship between the four KM pillars, as defined by Stankosky, and the PM knowledge areas, as defined by the Project Management Institute (PMI), are investigated. A survey questionnaire reveals significant positive relationships between the KM pillars and PM knowledge areas. The significance and the nature of this association support the study’s assertion that the management of projects improves as enterprise-wide KM processes and activities are increasingly used.     

Two Way Integration of Engineering Education through a Design Project

Horizontal and vertical integration of engineering education is achieved through an early‐design project where students get acquainted with Total Quality Management (TQM) principles and design processes from year‐one of their University education. The project is embedded in the undergraduate chemical engineering curriculum as an activity that involves horizontally several first‐year subjects and vertically a fourth‐year Project Management Practice course and a related Project Management subject. An assessment of the integrated design project indicates that effective teaching and learning spreads through the curriculum, with fourth‐year students acting as project managers and experiencing engineering practice. These management and leadership training processes include a shared responsibility in the organization and in the development of the project, which are key factors for the success of the integrated activity. They are also a first step towards the ETSEQ goal of becoming a sustainable student‐centered educational system.     

Quantitative model for evaluating the quality of an automotive business process

One of the key issues to business process control is the identification of measurable process attributes. For manufacturing processes these are typically physical parameters of the process (e.g. temperature, set points) or physical attributes of the manufactured product (e.g. dimension, functional performance). However, for business processes the metrics are more abstract. The challenge has been to develop metrics that capture the contributing subtle and hard to measure factors for business process control. This paper presents an analytical model that uses the weights-of-evidence concept to convert answers to audit or self-assessment questions into a single numerical process quality index. This index is used to forecast process success or failure and monitor its performance from start to end. The application of the approach is illustrated with an automotive industry product development sub-process where the process performance metric is the field warranty data, i.e. incidents per thousand vehicles (IPTV). The analytical model converts process self-assessment (failure mode and effect analysis) questions into a single numeric process quality index. The validity of the model is reflected in the strength of the correlation between the index and the IPTV results. Also, in this paper a measure is developed for identifying critical process quality assessment questions. This measure quantifies the deviation in the automotive business process that should have more focus. The significance of the analytical model proposed in this research is that the project managers or quality assurance auditors may be able to use the metric to predict product quality at any point in the product development process.