With respect to economic control chart design, this paper demonstrates that trade-off analysis following optimization has many advantages over optimization constrained by average run length. While researchers of economic design have been aware of the relatively flat cost response surface in the region of optimality, we demonstrate how this property may be exploited for improved control chart design. The flat cost surface tends to increase sharply beyond certain ARL values, causing pre-specified ARL constraints to sometimes result in substantially higher that optimal costs. Results from our trade-off approach show that, by focusing on the flat cost area, vast improvements in ARL characteristics can be obtained with minimal cost penalties.

In this volume of the Six Sigma and Beyond series, quality engineering expert D.H. Stamatis focuses on how Statistical Process Control (SPC) relates to Six Sigma. He emphasizes the "why we do" and "how to do" SPC in many different environments. The book provides readers with an overview of SPC in easy-to-follow, easy-to-understand terms. The author reviews and explains traditional SPC tools and how they relate to Six Sigma and goes on to cover the use of advanced techniques. In addition, he addresses issues that concern service SPC and short run processes, explores the issue of capability for both the short run and the long run, and discusses topics in measurement.

Control charts are widely used in industry to monitor processes that are far from Zero-Defect (ZD), and their use in a near Zero-Defect manufacturing environment poses many problems. This book presents techniques of using control charts for high-quality processes, and some recent findings and applications of statistical control chart techniques for ZD processes are presented. A powerful technique based on counting of the cumulative conforming (CCC) items between two nonconforming ones is discussed in detail. Extensions of the CCC chart are described, as well as applications of cumulative sum and exponentially weighted moving average techniques to CCC-related data, multivariate methods, economic design of control chart procedures, and modeling and analysis of trended but regularly adjusted processes. Many examples, charts, and procedures, are presented throughout the book, and references are provided for those interested in exploring the details. A number of questions and issues are posed for further investigations. Researchers and students may find many ideas in this book useful in their academic work, as a foundation is laid for the exploration of many further theoretical and practical issues.

This is the Proceedings of the Eighth International Conference on Management Science and Engineering Management (ICMSEM) held from July 25 to 27, 2014 at Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal and organized by International Society of Management Science and Engineering Management (ISMSEM), Sichuan University (Chengdu, China) and Universidade Nova de Lisboa (Lisbon, Portugal). The goals of the conference are to foster international research collaborations in Management Science and Engineering Management as well as to provide a forum to present current findings. A total number of 138 papers from 14 countries are selected for the proceedings by the conference scientific committee through rigorous referee review. The selected papers in the second volume are focused on Computing and Engineering Management covering areas of Computing Methodology, Project Management, Industrial Engineering and Information Technology.