Ever since the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award (MBNQA) was established in 1987, many other countries have developed their own version of a national quality award (NQA). These NQAs tend to follow the general framework of the MBNQA with different emphases on criteria items such as...

When objective decisions are to be made, statistical methods should be used based on any objective information in the form of data collected about a product or process. Statistical techniques such as control charts, process capability indices and design of experiments have been used in the...

Control charts based on geometric distribution have shown to be useful when this is a better approximation of the underlying distribution than the Poisson distribution. The traditional c ‐chart, if used, will cause too many false alarms. It is noted that for geometric distribution, the control...

Traditional attribute control charts are based on the monitoring of the number of nonconforming items in a sample of fixed size. In modern manufacturing processes, since items can be checked automatically, use of samples of a fixed subjective size with traditional charts is not suitable for...

Optimal crew allocation and scheduling is an important issue in the management of a large fleet of taxis. Presents a modelling study of a taxi service operation in a Singapore public transport company, with the results adaptable for other similar operations. Proposes two quantitative techniques:...

The success of Six Sigma in manufacturing in the past decade has encouraged moves to explore Six Sigma applications to other domains, such as the software industry, for performance improvement. Owing to the uniqueness of software processes, there have been disagreements as to whether Six Sigma...

Some of the frequently asked questions about the what, why, when, how, where and who of statistical quality engineering are discussed. Questions answered include: “What would be an active approach to the objectives of statistical quality engineering?” “How is statistical quality...

The attainment of superior quality and reliability in a manufactured product depends upon the existence of a framework integrating an organization’s capabilities in management, technology and information utilization. With respect to information utilization, statistical tools are particularly...