Nowadays, demand response programs (DRPs) play an important role in price reduction and reliability improvement. In this paper, an optimal integrated model for the emergency demand response program (EDRP) and dynamic economic emission dispatch (DEED) problem has been developed. Customer’s behavior is modeled based on the price elasticity matrix (PEM) by which the level of DRP is determined for ...

Recent evidence suggests the connection between quality improvement and financial results may be weak. Consider the case of Analog Devices, Inc., a leading manufacturer of integrated circuits. Analog's TQM program was a dramatic success. Yield doubled, cycle time was cut in half, and product defects fell by a factor of ten. However, financial performance worsened. To explore the apparent parado...

background & aim : infertility and its treatment are considered a crisis in women’s life which would affect different aspects of their quality of life. along with therapeutic measures, infertile women need educating and continuous care. this study was conducted to evaluate the effect of educating based on continuous care model on treatment-related quality of life in infertile women. methods & m...

This paper proposes a harmonization between a product quality model and a software process model used in the industry, CERTICS (a national Brazilian model) and CMMI-DEV (an international model). The focus of this harmonization is on the Competence Area of Continuous Improvement of CERTICS, which addresses the key question of whether the software is the result of Continuous Improvement actions o...

This presentation argues that a systems approach can significantly enhance healthcare improvement efforts in patient safety, service quality, and healthcare cost containment. The application of systems thinking to healthcare improvement encompasses three key principles: systems perspective of healthcare processes, structured problem-solving, and the closed-loop of continuous system improvement....

Continuous Improvement is a consolidated concept in theory and practice, mainly in the context of stand-alone companies. However, the battlefield of competition is increasingly moving from the level of individual firms to that of organisational settings based on loose company boundaries and collaborative relations among different units, such as the Extended Manufacturing Enterprises (EMEs). The...