43 research outputs found
A state-of-art survey on TQM applications using MCDM techniques
In today’s competitive economy, quality plays an essential role for the success business units and there are considerable efforts made to control and to improve quality characteristics in order to satisfy customers’ requirements. However, improving quality is normally involved with various criteria and we need to use Multi Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) to handle such cases. In this state-of the-art literature survey, 45 articles focused on solving quality problems by MCDM methods are investigated. These articles were published between 1994 and 2013.Seven areas were selected for categorization: (1) AHP, Fuzzy AHP, ANP and Fuzzy ANP, (2) DEMATEL and Fuzzy DEMATEL, (3) GRA, (4) Vikor and Fuzzy Vikor, (5) TOPSIS, Fuzzy TOPSIS and combination of TOPSIS and AHP, (6) Fuzzy and (7) Less frequent and hybrid procedures. According to our survey, Fuzzy based methods were the most popular technique with about 40% usage among procedures. Also AHP and ANP were almost 20% of functional methods. This survey ends with giving recommendation for future researches
Validating the theoretical underpinnings of the ISO 9001:2015 quality management system standard : a multi-country study : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Engineering at Massey University, Manawatu, New Zealand
ISO 9000 family of quality management system (QMS) standards — particularly ISO 9001, which stipulates QMS requirements for compliance — have received a great deal of attention by academia and practitioners. Every year, thousands of organisations obtain ISO 9001 certification worldwide, and a plethora of studies have examined the effectiveness of ISO 9001 implementation, empirically or otherwise. One existing knowledge gap is the absence of a comprehensive study that examines the theoretical validity of ISO 9001. Another is ascertaining how ISO 9001 compliance requirements are accepted across countries and regions, given that ISO 9001 is meant for sociotechnical systems. Using responses received from 240 ISO 9001 certified manufacturing companies in five countries, this study empirically examined the theoretical validity of ISO 9001:2015, which is claimed to underpin Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) at the overall QMS level. The theoretical model of the study which posited that “Leadership Driven QMS Planning (LDQMSP) (reflected via clauses 04 through to 07 of the standard) leads to implementing the planned processes (reflected via clause 08), and checking the effectiveness of these processes (reflected via clause 09) and taking appropriate action (reflected via clause 10) leads to QMS Results” was found to be a good fit to data, based on goodness of fit criteria used in partial least squares structural equation modelling.
As regards national culture effects and regional effects (Australasia, South Asia, and Greece), the empirical test results found that national culture (or region) plays only a very minor role in making ISO 9001 based continual improvement (PDCA) of the QMS being more acceptable to certain cultures than to others; power distance (PDI) and individualism (IDV) showed positive and negative effects (but small) respectively on Plan (LDQMSP), Do, Check, Act, and QMS Results as hypothesised. However, uncertainty avoidance (UAI) failed to show a significant effect (α = 0.05). Similarly, the mean scores of Plan (LDQMSP), Do, Check, Act, and QMS Results of South Asia were found to be higher than those of Australasia, although these effects were small. Thus, the findings support the universal relevance and acceptance of the standard, although the study was limited to ISO 9001 certified manufacturing firms of five selected countries. Contributions of the findings were highlighted, and further research directions were suggested
Air Force Institute of Technology Research Report 2015
This report summarizes the research activities of the Air Force Institute of Technology’s Graduate School of Engineering and Management. It describes research interests and faculty expertise; lists student theses/dissertations; identifies research sponsors and contributions; and outlines the procedures for contacting the school. Included in the report are: faculty publications, conference presentations, consultations, and funded research projects. Research was conducted in the areas of Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering, Electrical Engineering and Electro-Optics, Computer Engineering and Computer Science, Systems Engineering and Management, Operational Sciences, Mathematics, Statistics and Engineering Physics
Air Force Institute of Technology Research Report 2015
This report summarizes the research activities of the Air Force Institute of Technology’s Graduate School of Engineering and Management. It describes research interests and faculty expertise; lists student theses/dissertations; identifies research sponsors and contributions; and outlines the procedures for contacting the school. Included in the report are: faculty publications, conference presentations, consultations, and funded research projects. Research was conducted in the areas of Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering, Electrical Engineering and Electro-Optics, Computer Engineering and Computer Science, Systems Engineering and Management, Operational Sciences, Mathematics, Statistics and Engineering Physics
Air Force Institute of Technology Research Report 2014
This report summarizes the research activities of the Air Force Institute of Technology’s Graduate School of Engineering and Management. It describes research interests and faculty expertise; lists student theses/dissertations; identifies research sponsors and contributions; and outlines the procedures for contacting the school. Included in the report are: faculty publications, conference presentations, consultations, and funded research projects. Research was conducted in the areas of Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering, Electrical Engineering and Electro-Optics, Computer Engineering and Computer Science, Systems Engineering and Management, Operational Sciences, Mathematics, Statistics and Engineering Physics
The development and testing of a training intervention designed to improve the acquisition and retention of CPR knowledge and skills in ambulance paramedics
Despite several therapeutic advances in cardio-pulmonary resuscitation (CPR), there has been little overall improvement in the out-of-hospital, cardiac arrest (OHCA) survival rates. Reports indicate that, although the incidence and outcome of OHCA vary across the globe, the median reported rates of survival at hospital discharge have remained below 10% for the 30 years preceding this study. One of the factors associated with this low survival rate is the deficient quality of the CPR provided during an OHCA by paramedics. Despite revised training standards, structured CPR training programmes and industry-regulated CPR refresher training schedules, paramedic-delivered CPR (pdCPR) during OHCAs is reported to be both inadequate and rarely in line with established resuscitation guidelines. International resuscitation bodies such as the International Liaison Committee on Resuscitation (ILCOR) postulate the need for tailored CPR training interventions in order to improve CPR performance. The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of a tailored pdCPR training intervention on pdCPR performance. The study was conducted in four phases and, using a mixed-method, multiphase design the study developed, implemented and evaluated the impact of a pdCPR training intervention which had been designed and tailored to improve the acquisition and retention of knowledge and skills by ambulance paramedics (AP). The primary outcome measure used in the study was the achievement of a competent rating which reflected the ability of the AP in question to perform high-quality, effective CPR as determined and evaluated by a 26 measure CPR Rapid Evaluation Tool predicated on variables derived from the globally accepted Cardiff list. Each of the 26 measures represented a treatment element within a pdCPR care bundle and which had been shown to contribute to successful resuscitation
Air Force Institute of Technology Research Report 2016
This Research Report presents the FY16 research statistics and contributions of the Graduate School of Engineering and Management (EN) at AFIT. AFIT research interests and faculty expertise cover a broad spectrum of technical areas related to USAF needs, as reflected by the range of topics addressed in the faculty and student publications listed in this report. In most cases, the research work reported herein is directly sponsored by one or more USAF or DOD agencies. AFIT welcomes the opportunity to conduct research on additional topics of interest to the USAF, DOD, and other federal organizations when adequate manpower and financial resources are available and/or provided by a sponsor. In addition, AFIT provides research collaboration and technology transfer benefits to the public through Cooperative Research and Development Agreements (CRADAs)
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Towards a multidimensional approach to measure quality and safety of care in maternity units in Oman
Improving the quality and safety of maternity services is an international top agenda item. This
thesis describes the progress towards the development of a multidimensional approach to measure
the quality and safety of care in ten maternity units in Oman based on three of the five
dimensional Patient Safety Measurement and Monitoring Framework (PSMMF) which include
measuring "past harm" and "anticipation and preparedness”.
The three monitoring approaches used in this research are: (1) measuring the patient safety culture
(2) measuring patient satisfaction (3) and monitoring caesarean section rates.
The specific objectives of the research are to (1) measure patient safety culture level, (2) examine
the association between nurse’s nationality and patient safety culture, (3) validate an Arabic
language survey to measure maternal satisfaction about the childbearing experience, (4) measure
patient satisfaction about the childbearing experience, and (5) to examine caesarean section rates
across maternity units using statistical process control charts.
This thesis started with four systematic reviews that focused on (1) the use of patient safety culture
for monitoring maternity units (2) the available interventions to improve patient safety culture (3)
Arabic surveys available for measuring maternal satisfaction and (4) the use of statistical process
control charts for monitoring performance indicators. The overall conclusion from these reviews that these approaches are being increasingly used in maternity, found feasible and useful, and
there are areas that need attention for future work. Five field studies were conducted to address the
research aim and objectives.
Patient safety culture was measured by a cross-sectional survey of all staff in the ten maternity
units. It was found that safety culture in Oman is below the target level and that there is wide
variation in the safety scores across hospitals and across different categories of staff.
Non-Omani nurses have a more positive perception of patient safety culture than Omani nurses in
all domains except in respect of stress recognition and this difference need further investigation
and needs to be considered by designers of interventions to enhance patient safety culture.
Using two existing validated English surveys, an Arabic survey was developed, validated, and
used to measure maternal satisfaction with childbirth services. It was found that the new survey
has good psychometric properties and that in all the ten hospitals, mothers were satisfied with the
care provided during child delivery but satisfaction score varied across hospitals and groups of
participants.
Caesarean section rate in the last 17 years was examined using statistical process control charts to
understand the variation across the ten hospitals. It was found that caesarean section rate is above
the rate recommended by the World Health Organisation. Special cause variations were detected
that warrant further investigation.
In conclusion, the field studies demonstrated that it is feasible to use the three approaches to
monitor quality and safety in maternity units. However, further work is required to use these data
to enhance the quality and safety of care. Additionally, future work is needed to cover the other
three dimensions of the PSMMF.Ministry of Health in Oman