Improving Production with Lean Thinking

How statistical thinking and methodology can help you make crucial business decisions Straightforward and insightful, Statistical Thinking: Improving Business Performance, Second Edition, prepares you for business leadership by developing your capacity to apply statistical thinking to improve business processes. Unique and compelling, this book shows you how to derive actionable conclusions from data analysis, solve real problems, and improve real processes. Here, you'll discover how to implement statistical thinking and methodology in your work to improve business performance. Explores why statistical thinking is necessary and helpful Provides case studies that illustrate how to integrate several statistical tools into the decision-making process Facilitates and encourages an experiential learning environment to enable you to apply material to actual problems With an in-depth discussion of JMP® software, the new edition of this important book focuses on skills to improve business processes, including collecting data appropriate for a specified purpose, recognizing limitations in existing data, and understanding the limitations of statistical analyses.

Bohdan W. Oppenheim has pulled together experience-based insights of experts across industry, government, and academia into a comprehensive sourcebook for lean systems engineering principles and practices. This book can educate those new to lean engineering, as well as provide new insights and enablers that best-in-class organizations will want to adopt. —Dr. Donna H. Rhodes, Principal Research Scientist, SEAri and LAI, Massachusetts Institute of Technology «Lean for Systems Engineering is targeted at the practitioner who is trying to make systems engineering more effective in her or his organization or program, yet its scholarly underpinnings make the text very suitable for teachers. Educators and trainers who wish to weave lean thinking into their systems engineering curriculum will find this an invaluable text.» —Earll M. Murman, Ford Professor of Engineering Emeritus, Massachusetts Institute of Technology "At last, a book that distills years of research and scholarly inquiry into a concise and coherent form for both the student and practitioner. This book will become the favored guide and 'must read' for any engineer and manager trying to establish and maintain lean practices and principles in their systems engineering/product development processes. —J. Robert Wirthlin, PhD, Lt. Col., USAF, Program Director of the Graduate Research and Development Management Program, Air Force Institute of Technology Visiting Faculty, U.S. Air Force Center for Systems Engineering «A vital contribution to linking lean practices to systems engineering. I will definitely use it as a reference for my course and writings on a value approach to product and system development.» —Dr. Stanley I. Weiss, Consulting Professor, Dept. of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Stanford University «Taking the opportunity to develop and refine the Lean Enablers for Systems Engineering provided clear direction for Lean Engineering Accelerated Planning at Rockwell Collins. The Lean Enablers form a solid basis for Lean Product Development. Following this checklist and methodology promotes Lean value and waste elimination—and commonsense best practices.» —Deborah A. Secor, Principal Project Manager and Lean Master, Rockwell Collins «Bo Oppenheim has been at the forefront of lean systems engineering for the better part of the last decade…An ardent advocate of lean systems engineering, the author has offered an honest appraisal of where lean systems engineering stands today. Practitioners interested in lean systems engineering will find the Lean Enablers especially useful.»– Azad M. Madni, PhD, Professor and Director, SAE Program, Viterbi School of Engineering; Professor, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California

The first comprehensive book to uniquely combine the three fields of systems engineering, operations/production systems, and multiple criteria decision making/optimization Systems engineering is the art and science of designing, engineering, and building complex systems—combining art, science, management, and engineering disciplines. Operations and Production Systems with Multiple Objectives covers all classical topics of operations and production systems as well as new topics not seen in any similiar textbooks before: small-scale design of cellular systems, large-scale design of complex systems, clustering, productivity and efficiency measurements, and energy systems. Filled with completely new perspectives, paradigms, and robust methods of solving classic and modern problems, the book includes numerous examples and sample spreadsheets for solving each problem, a solutions manual, and a book companion site complete with worked examples and supplemental articles. Operations and Production Systems with Multiple Objectives will teach readers: How operations and production systems are designed and planned How operations and production systems are engineered and optimized How to formulate and solve manufacturing systems problems How to model and solve interdisciplinary and systems engineering problems How to solve decision problems with multiple and conflicting objectives This book is ideal for senior undergraduate, MS, and PhD graduate students in all fields of engineering, business, and management as well as practitioners and researchers in systems engineering, operations, production, and manufacturing.

Explore the practices and cutting-edge research on the new and exciting topic of paradata Paradata are measurements related to the process of collecting survey data. Improving Surveys with Paradata: Analytic Uses of Process Information is the most accessible and comprehensive contribution to this up-and-coming area in survey methodology. Featuring contributions from leading experts in the field, Improving Surveys with Paradata: Analytic Uses of Process Information introduces and reviews issues involved in the collection and analysis of paradata. The book presents readers with an overview of the indispensable techniques and new, innovative research on improving survey quality and total survey error. Along with several case studies, topics include: Using paradata to monitor fieldwork activity in face-to-face, telephone, and web surveys Guiding intervention decisions during data collection Analysis of measurement, nonresponse, and coverage error via paradata Providing a practical, encompassing guide to the subject of paradata, the book is aimed at both producers and users of survey data. Improving Surveys with Paradata: Analytic Uses of Process The book also serves as an excellent resource for courses on data collection, survey methodology, and nonresponse and measurement error.

Praise for Lean Accounting Best Practices for Sustainable Integration «Anyone involved in a lean transformation inevitably bumps up against the vagaries of the accounting systems that reward overproduction and waste and seem to punish true improvement. We wonder what would happen if the accountants actually came to the production floor and witnessed firsthand the havoc created by their systems. This volume gathers together some of the best thinkers to take a critical look at traditional cost accounting and defines a path forward to 'lean accounting.'» —Jeff Liker, Professor of Industrial and Operations Engineering, University of Michigan «Joe Stenzel has put together a timely compendium of writings from thought leaders in lean accounting. The viewpoints in this fine book are diverse and yet proclaim a consistent message: that conventional management accounting is broken–and here is how to fix it.» —Richard J. Schonberger, President, Schonberger & Associates «If you are serious about understanding and implementing Lean Accounting in conjunction with your Lean Enterprise journey, this book will illuminate the specific techniques, but more importantly, will explain the cultural changes that are a prerequisite for success.» —Jerry Solomon, Vice President of Operations, Hunt Valley, for MarquipWardUnited, a division of Barry-Wehmiller Companies, Inc. Insights and strategies from the most experienced lean accounting and performance measurement?practitioners in America Learn how to integrate the proven lean methodologies embedded in the Toyota Production System with Lean Accounting: Best Practices for Sustainable Integration. In this comprehensive guide, leading accounting and performance measurement practitioners analyze the current business climate and provide CFOs and accounting/finance personnel with step-by-step guidelines to seamlessly and successfully integrate sustainable, lean accounting principles within their enterprise. Be a lean success story with Lean Accounting.

The design and manufacture of reliable products is a major challenge for engineers and managers. This book arms technical managers and engineers with the tools to compete effectively through the design and production of reliable technology products.

Improving Intergroup Relations focuses on emerging research directions for improving intergroup relations, a field which has been largely influenced and inspired by the life contributions of Thomas F. Pettigrew. The book Contains 18 original articles written in an accessible style by experts in psychology and related disciplines Suggests practical strategies for improving intergroup relations Looks at intergroup relations from the early influence of Dr. Pettigrew and how his seminal work has fostered many new developments in the field Explores the implications of intergroup research for the promotion of social change

Kirk Zylstra's focus on the customer is a fresh approach to lean. Companies that can bear the burden of variability will develop a strategic advantage in today's volatile market. —Travis Jarrell Institute of Industrial Engineers Program Committee Chair «Lean Distribution is a comprehensive yet concise work with clear leanings. Kirk's experience across a range of industries brings a unique understanding of common opportunities and solutions available to optimize distribution processes. Lean techniques, typically effective in manufacturing processes, are applied in the downstream supply chain in a practical and productive manner that will offer something to any business distributing tangible goods.» —F. Jeff Duncan Jr. VP, CIO, and Director of Technology Louisiana Pacific Corp. «Lean Distribution has robustly captured the revolution occurring in today's increasingly competitive and global supply chain. Eliminating losses through lean manufacturing and lean distribution initiatives will become even more critical enablers to organizations developing cost-advantaged supply chains.» —Rick McDonald Director of Manufacturing The Clorox Company

Thinking Syntactically: A Guide to Argumentation and Analysis is a textbook designed to teach introductory students the skills of relating data to theory and theory to data. Helps students develop their thinking and argumentation skills rather than merely introducing them to one particular version of syntactic theory. Structured around a wide range of exercises that use clear and compelling logic to build arguments and lead up to theoretical proposals. Data drawn from current media sources, including newspapers, books, and television programs, to help students formulate and test hypotheses. Generative in spirit, but does not focus on specific theoretical approaches but enables students to understand and evaluate different approaches more easily. Written by an established author with an international reputation.

High response rates have traditionally been considered as one of the main indicators of survey quality. Obtaining high response rates is sometimes difficult and expensive, but clearly plays a beneficial role in terms of improving data quality. It is becoming increasingly clear, however, that simply boosting response to achieve a higher response rate will not in itself eradicate nonresponse bias. In this book the authors argue that high response rates should not be seen as a goal in themselves, but rather as part of an overall survey quality strategy based on random probability sampling and aimed at minimising nonresponse bias. Key features of Improving Survey Response: A detailed coverage of nonresponse issues, including a unique examination of cross-national survey nonresponse processes and outcomes. A discussion of the potential causes of nonresponse and practical strategies to combat it. A detailed examination of the impact of nonresponse and of techniques for adjusting for it once it has occurred. Examples of best practices and experiments drawn from 25 European countries. Supplemented by the European Social Survey (ESS) websites, containing materials for the measurement and analysis of nonresponse based on detailed country-level response process datasets. The book is designed to help survey researchers and those commissioning surveys by explaining how to prioritise the reduction of nonresponse bias rather than focusing on increasing the overall response rate. It shows substantive researchers how nonresponse can impact on substantive outcomes.