Executive Overview Toyota’s Production System (TPS) is based on “lean” principles including a focus on the customer, continual improvement and quality through waste reduction, and tightly integrated upstream and downstream processes as part of a lean value chain. Most manufacturing companies have adopted some type of “lean initiative,” and the lean movement recently has gone beyond the shop flo...

Assisted reproductive technology (ART) programs are complex organizations requiring the integration of multiple disciplines. ISO 9001:2008 is a quality management system that is readily adaptable to an ART program. The value that ISO brings to the entire organization includes control of documents, clear delineation of responsibilities of staff members, documentation of the numerous processes an...

A recent article in The Lancet analysed the barriers to reaching the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) conc cerning maternal health, child health, tuberculosis, malaria and human immuc nodeficiency virus/acquired immunoc deficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS).1 Inappropriate provider behaviour, insufficient case management, limited management capacity, and referral and communication failures were ide...

Employing equipment reliability databases can generate a process of continual improvement. This paper suggests a methodology that uses equipment reliability databases, and a process of benchmarking to establish a continual improvement procedure by learning "how others are doing it". A simple decision-making procedure is suggested too, to assist in prioritizing the processes/equipment that are c...

This paper examines what are known as the ‘maturity models’ or the ‘stage-ladder models’ which all share stages of growth or maturity with one common point; the implication of the evolution of eservices in series of stages moving upward to embody the notion of a continual process improvement. However, this paper suggests a new model called the six dimension model (6I) that provides a framework ...

Many information technology services firms now offer and consider software availability to be a critical component of achieving excellence competing in the industry. The most crucial factor for customers is quality service, consumer needs, state organization/company, present market should all considered when improving their service. In this study, an ITSM analysis will carried out at oil palm p...