Shows how modern physics supports basic claims of process philosophy.

The Process That Is the World grapples with John Cage not just as a composer, but as a philosopher advocating for an ontology of difference in keeping with the kind posited by Gilles Deleuze. Cage's philosophy is not simply a novel method for composition, but an extensive argument about the nature of reality itself, the construction of subjects within that reality, and the manner in which subjectivity and a self-creative world exist in productive tension with one another. Over the course of the study, these themes are developed in the realms of the ontology of a musical work, performance practices, ethics, and eventually a study of Cagean politics and the connection between aesthetic experience and the generation of new forms of collective becoming-together. The vision of Cage that emerges through this study is not simply that of the maverick composer or the “inventor of genius,” but of a thinker and artist responding to insights about the world-as-process as it extends through the philosophical, artistic, and ethical registers: the world as potential for variance, reinvention, and permanent revolution.

Business Process Outsourcing (BPO)-the sourcing of business services through external third parties-is a global phenomenon, which generated nearly $300 billion worldwide in 2012. BPO is highly IT-enabled, and on a growth trajectory that impacts across functions of major, medium and small enterprises, including procurement, human resources, accounting and finance, sales, marketing, legal, asset management and key administrative processes. Despite this size and spread, BPO services and the ability of clients to manage their providers, are still evolving and have a mixed record. In the course of their research, the authors have found only 20% of outsourcing arrangements are world-class performers. A further 25% are 'good', 40% are 'OK' and 15% are 'poor'. This book pinpoints and describes in detail the effective practices that characterize the top global BPO performers, including Microsoft, BP, EMC and TalkTalk. The authors provide case illustrations and examples throughout of how world-class practices were generated and evolved, and how they can be applied to real life settings and problem areas.

Model building in the social sciences can increasingly rely on well elaborated formal theories. At the same time inexpensive large computational capacities are now available. Both make computer-based model building and simulation possible in social science, whose central aim is in particular an understanding of social dynamics. Such social dynamics refer to public opinion formation, partner choice, strategy decisions in social dilemma situations and much more. In the context of such modelling approaches, novel problems in philosophy of science arise which must be analysed - the main aim of this book. Interest in social simulation has recently been growing rapidly world- wide, mainly as a result of the increasing availability of powerful personal computers. The field has also been greatly influenced by developments in cellular automata theory (from mathematics) and in distributed artificial intelligence which provided tools readily applicable to social simulation. This book presents a number of modelling and simulation approaches and their relations to problems in philosophy of science. It addresses sociologists and other social scientists interested in formal modelling, mathematical sociology, and computer simulation as well as computer scientists interested in social science applications, and philosophers of social science.

Examining Lean processes in the context of the authors’ academic research in-progress, People, Process, & Culture: Lean Manufacturing in the Real World illustrates the impact of culture on the implementation of Lean Manufacturing (LM) across various geographic and cultural areas. It identifies cultural values, as examined against Lean manufacturing disciplines, and derives culturally based Lean Manufacturing (LM) values. It then assesses these cultural values in light of specific LM components, such as PULL systems and TPM, to demonstrate varying perspectives and applications. Illustrates global cultural influences on Lean implementation Uses academic research as the foundation of the material Examines the many Lean components currently in use around the world Building on the continued prominence of LM as the preferred operational approach, the book supplies time-tested advice to help you sort through the flood of information on Lean techniques and culture. It examines the numerous Lean components currently being deployed successfully around the world and identifies the limitations that can result from the varying interpretations and applications of Lean systems. Lean culture is all about Lean vision, mission, and values. This book not only identifies the Lean values required, but also supplies the understanding to integrate these values across all levels of your organization. The book will be especially helpful to international corporate managers working to demystify the sometimes hard-to-understand characteristics of Lean transformation.

This book shows how to improve manufacturing by the use of process control. It shows specifically how improved economic performance in chemical manufacturing can be achieved and sustained through the application of process control and statistics to reduce process variability and improve quality, yield, throughput, energy utilization, and cycle time --i.e., the world class performance metrics in manufacturing. Because the technique is used to identify and assess process control improvements in terms of meeting business needs, it can also be directly applied to related processes in such industries as food and drugs, agricultural products, rubber, plastics, fibers, petroleum refining and petrochemicals, and film. Covers topics such as assessing variability; assessing control performance; process analysis to identify control opportunities; estimating benefits; prioritizing improvements for reduced resources; implementing automatic controls for reducing variability; inferential measurements; sustaining the benefits; and process design for improved controllability. For business managers, manufacturing supervisors, process engineers and applied statisticians responsible for improving the performance of their business.

The normal or bell curve distribution is far more common in statistics textbooks than it is in real factories, where processes follow non-normal and often highly skewed distributions. Statistical Process Control for Real-World Applications shows how to handle non-normal applications scientifically and explain the methodology to suppliers and custom