The latest experimental design techniques for quality improvement "The methods taught in this book are a major contribution to statistical methods as an aid to engineers, as well as to those in industry, education, or government who are trying to understand the meaning of fi gures derived from comparisons or experiments." -- W. EDWARDS DEMING Co-written by three recipients of the Deming Medal awarded by the American Society for Quality (ASQ), Quality Improvement through Planned Experimentation, Third Edition discusses the principles and methodologies for planning and conducting experiments to improve products, processes, or systems. Fully revised with up-to-date case studies and incorporating new software, this authoritative guide fosters the sequential building of knowledge essential for implementing effective improvements. End-of-chapter exercises reinforce what you've learned, and forms for designing planned experiments help you to integrate the methods in the book into your daily work. The methods of planned experimentation provide an opportunity to better meet the needs of customers, reduce costs, and increase productivity by effecting verifiably beneficial changes. COVERAGE INCLUDES: * Improvement of quality * Principles for design and analysis of planned experiments * Experiments with one factor * Experiments with more than one factor * Reducing the size of experiments * Evaluating sources of variation * Sequential experimentation * Using a time series response variable * Designs with factors at more than two levels * Applications in health care * New product design NEW: Study-it software available for download!

This new edition of this bestselling guide offers an integrated approach to process improvement that delivers quick and substantial results in quality and productivity in diverse settings. The authors explore their Model for Improvement that worked with international improvement efforts at multinational companies as well as in different industries such as healthcare and public agencies. This edition includes new information that shows how to accelerate improvement by spreading changes across multiple sites. The book presents a practical tool kit of ideas, examples, and applications.

The Health Care Data Guide is designed to help students and professionals build a skill set specific to using data for improvement of health care processes and systems. Even experienced data users will find valuable resources among the tools and cases that enrich The Health Care Data Guide. Practical and step-by-step, this book spotlights statistical process control (SPC) and develops a philosophy, a strategy, and a set of methods for ongoing improvement to yield better outcomes. Provost and Murray reveal how to put SPC into practice for a wide range of applications including evaluating current process performance, searching for ideas for and determining evidence of improvement, and tracking and documenting sustainability of improvement. A comprehensive overview of graphical methods in SPC includes Shewhart charts, run charts, frequency plots, Pareto analysis, and scatter diagrams. Other topics include stratification and rational sub-grouping of data and methods to help predict performance of processes. Illustrative examples and case studies encourage users to evaluate their knowledge and skills interactively and provide opportunity to develop additional skills and confidence in displaying and interpreting data. Companion Web site: www.josseybass.com/go/provost

The tools and techniques used in Design of Experiments (DoE) have been proven successful in meeting the challenge of continuous improvement in many manufacturing organisations over the last two decades. However research has shown that application of this powerful technique in many companies is limited due to a lack of statistical knowledge required for its effective implementation.Although many books have been written on this subject, they are mainly by statisticians, for statisticians and not appropriate for engineers. Design of Experiments for Engineers and Scientists overcomes the problem of statistics by taking a unique approach using graphical tools. The same outcomes and conclusions are reached as through using statistical methods and readers will find the concepts in this book both familiar and easy to understand.This new edition includes a chapter on the role of DoE within Six Sigma methodology and also shows through the use of simple case studies its importance in the service industry. It is essential reading for engineers and scientists from all disciplines tackling all kinds of manufacturing, product and process quality problems and will be an ideal resource for students of this topic. - Written in non-statistical language, the book is an essential and accessible text for scientists and engineers who want to learn how to use DoE - Explains why teaching DoE techniques in the improvement phase of Six Sigma is an important part of problem solving methodology - New edition includes a full chapter on DoE for services as well as case studies illustrating its wider application in the service industry

Quality improvement. Performance measurement. You hear these words every day, from JCAHO, CMS, and even the public, but implementing them within your department is a different task altogether. Until now. Introducing Quality Measurement: A Practical Guide for the ICU. Hospitals are under increasing pressure to show quality improvement and measure performance. This book will help guide the ICU director, nurse manager, or quality improvement director through the process of developing and monitoring appropriate measures for the ICU. This much sought after, one-of-a-kind resource explains, in simple terms, the practical steps you can take to incorporate quality measurement in the intensive care unit. It includes information on how to select measures, how to collect data, and how to interpret and present that data. Quality Measurement: A Practical Guide for the ICU, also features case studies, forms, tools, and control charts for overcoming common measurement barriers.

Praise for the First Edition: "If you . . . want an up-to-date, definitive reference written by authors who have contributed much to this field, then this book is an essential addition to your library." —Journal of the American Statistical Association Fully updated to reflect the major progress in the use of statistically designed experiments for product and process improvement, Experiments, Second Edition introduces some of the newest discoveries—and sheds further light on existing ones—on the design and analysis of experiments and their applications in system optimization, robustness, and treatment comparison. Maintaining the same easy-to-follow style as the previous edition while also including modern updates, this book continues to present a new and integrated system of experimental design and analysis that can be applied across various fields of research including engineering, medicine, and the physical sciences. The authors modernize accepted methodologies while refining many cutting-edge topics including robust parameter design, reliability improvement, analysis of non-normal data, analysis of experiments with complex aliasing, multilevel designs, minimum aberration designs, and orthogonal arrays. Along with a new chapter that focuses on regression analysis, the Second Edition features expanded and new coverage of additional topics, including: Expected mean squares and sample size determination One-way and two-way ANOVA with random effects Split-plot designs ANOVA treatment of factorial effects Response surface modeling for related factors Drawing on examples from their combined years of working with industrial clients, the authors present many cutting-edge topics in a single, easily accessible source. Extensive case studies, including goals, data, and experimental designs, are also included, and the book's data sets can be found on a related FTP site, along with additional supplemental material. Chapter summaries provide a succinct outline of discussed methods, and extensive appendices direct readers to resources for further study. Experiments, Second Edition is an excellent book for design of experiments courses at the upper-undergraduate and graduate levels. It is also a valuable resource for practicing engineers and statisticians.