Quality is a topical issue in manufacturing. Competitive quality performance still eludes many manufacturers in the traditional industrialized countries. A lack of quality competitiveness is one of the root causes of the relative industrial decline and consequent trade imbalances which plague some Western economies. Many explanations are advanced for poor quality performance. Inadequate levels of investment in advanced technology, together with insufficient education and training of the workforce, are perhaps the most prominent. Some believe these problems are caused by a lack of awareness and commitment from top management, while others point to differences between industrial cultures. The established remedy is known as Total Quality Management (TQM). TQM requires a corporate culture change, driven from the top, and involving every employee in a process of never-ending quality improvement aimed at internal as well as external customers. The techniques deployed to achieve TQM include measures to improve motivation, training in problem-solving and statistical process control (SPC). Quality is, however, only one of the competitive pressures placed It is also upon the manufacturer by the modem global economy. imperative to remain economical and efficient, while increasing the flexibility and responsiveness of the design and manufacturing functions. Here the reduction or elimination of stock is of great importance, particularly as financial interest rates in the less successful manufacturing nations are frequently high. Product life cycles must become ever more compressed in response to the phenomenal design to-manufacture performance of some Pacific rim economies.

The overwhelming majority of a software system’s lifespan is spent in use, not in design or implementation. So, why does conventional wisdom insist that software engineers focus primarily on the design and development of large-scale computing systems? In this collection of essays and articles, key members of Google’s Site Reliability Team explain how and why their commitment to the entire lifecycle has enabled the company to successfully build, deploy, monitor, and maintain some of the largest software systems in the world. You’ll learn the principles and practices that enable Google engineers to make systems more scalable, reliable, and efficient—lessons directly applicable to your organization. This book is divided into four sections: Introduction—Learn what site reliability engineering is and why it differs from conventional IT industry practices Principles—Examine the patterns, behaviors, and areas of concern that influence the work of a site reliability engineer (SRE) Practices—Understand the theory and practice of an SRE’s day-to-day work: building and operating large distributed computing systems Management—Explore Google's best practices for training, communication, and meetings that your organization can use

C. Amting Directorate General Information Society, European Commission, Brussels th Under the 4 Framework of European Research, the European Systems and Soft ware Initiative (ESSI) was part ofthe ESPRIT Programme. This initiative funded more than 470 projects in the area ofsoftware and system process improvements. The majority of these projects were process improvement experiments carrying out and taking up new development processes, methods and technology within the software development process ofa company. In addition, nodes (centres ofexper tise), European networks (organisations managing local activities), training and dissemination actions complemented the process improvementexperiments. ESSI aimed at improving the software development capabilities of European enterprises. It focused on best practice and helped European companies to develop world class skills and associated technologies to build the increasingly complex and varied systems needed to compete in the marketplace. The dissemination activities were designed to build a forum, at European level, to exchange information and knowledge gained within process improvement ex periments. Their major objective was to spread the message and the results of experiments to awider audience, through a variety ofdifferent channels. The European Experience Exchange ~UR~X) project has been one ofthese dis semination activities within the European Systems and Software Initiative.~UR~)( has collected the results of practitioner reports from numerous workshops in Europe and presents, in this series of books, the results of Best Practice achieve ments in European Companies over the last few years.

“This book fills a huge gap in our knowledge of software testing. It does an excellent job describing how test automation differs from other test activities, and clearly lays out what kind of skills and knowledge are needed to automate tests. The book is essential reading for students of testing and a bible for practitioners.” –Jeff Offutt, Professor of Software Engineering, George Mason University “This new book naturally expands upon its predecessor, Automated Software Testing, and is the perfect reference for software practitioners applying automated software testing to their development efforts. Mandatory reading for software testing professionals!” –Jeff Rashka, PMP, Coauthor of Automated Software Testing and Quality Web Systems Testing accounts for an increasingly large percentage of the time and cost of new software development. Using automated software testing (AST), developers and software testers can optimize the software testing lifecycle and thus reduce cost. As technologies and development grow increasingly complex, AST becomes even more indispensable. This book builds on some of the proven practices and the automated testing lifecycle methodology (ATLM) described in Automated Software Testing and provides a renewed practical, start-to-finish guide to implementing AST successfully. In Implementing Automated Software Testing, three leading experts explain AST in detail, systematically reviewing its components, capabilities, and limitations. Drawing on their experience deploying AST in both defense and commercial industry, they walk you through the entire implementation process–identifying best practices, crucial success factors, and key pitfalls along with solutions for avoiding them. You will learn how to: Make a realistic business case for AST, and use it to drive your initiative Clarify your testing requirements and develop an automation strategy that reflects them Build efficient test environments and choose the right automation tools and techniques for your environment Use proven metrics to continuously track your progress and adjust accordingly Whether you’re a test professional, QA specialist, project manager, or developer, this book can help you bring unprecedented efficiency to testing–and then use AST to improve your entire development lifecycle.

This publication provides a framework for the quality control (QC) of radiographic and mammographic imaging systems using remote and automated tools. The methodology provided in this publication is designed to be easy to implement, in order to support initiation of remote/automated QC programmes. It is based on simple, inexpensive test objects and promotes collection of data in a uniform, harmonized manner allowing for intercomparison and benchmarking. These tests are not intended to replace the comprehensive performance evaluation of the radiographic systems by a CQMP. They can, however, detect deficiencies in system performance before they become clinically significant. Furthermore, frequent QC testing promotes a culture of quality in imaging.

Quality Systems and Control for Pharmaceuticals is an accessible overview of the highly-regulated area of pharmaceutical manufacture, the production of biomedical materials, and biomedical devices. Introducing the subject in a clear and logical manner it enables the reader to grasp the key concepts of the multidisciplinary area of control science and specifically quality control using industrial and theoretical models. Taking a multidisciplinary approach to the subject the reader is guided through key topics such as product safety which takes into account aspects of analytical science, statistics, microbiology, biotechnology, engineering, business practice and optimizing models, the law and safeguarding public health, innovation and inventiveness and contemporary best practice. The author has both industry and academic experience and many ‘best practice’ examples are included throughout the text based on his own industry experience and current practicing industrial pharmacists. This is an invaluable reference for all students of pharmacy who may have little or no familiarity with industrial practice and for those studying BSc chemistry, biomedical sciences, process analytical chemistry and MSc in Industrial Practice.

This volume constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 24th EuroSPI conference, held in Ostrava, Czech Republic, in September 2017.The 56 revised full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 97 submissions. They are organized in topical sections on SPI and VSEs, SPI and process models, SPI and safety, SPI and project management, SPI and implementation, SPI issues, SPI and automotive, selected key notes and workshop papers, GamifySPI, SPI in Industry 4.0, best practices in implementing traceability, good and bad practices in improvement, safety and security, experiences with agile and lean, standards and assessment models, team skills and diversity strategies.