The purpose of this bachelor thesis is to develop a generic model to be applied on to a Swedish company. In order to reduce variations in quality, production time and work routines.  The study starts by investigation of the relevance of this thesis and continues with providing relevant theories on the subject. Then a model was developed for continues improvement projects with different keys that can be applied in the different steps of the model. The keys show the importance of involving the employees in continuous improvements projects. The model is aimed to be applicable to different kinds of project and depending of the size of the project, different keys can be utilized. The purpose of the model in this thesis is to decrease variation in quality, production time and work routines at a case company. The case company in this study is International Färg AB who is a manufacture of protective coatings. During the testing phase of the model, planning, analysis and measurements has been performed in order to achieve suggestions that would lower the variation within the production at the case company.  The result of this thesis and the model is that with the use of the model developed in this thesis it is possible to achieve lower variations in the production. The thesis is aimed to be suitable to Swedish industrial companies. The authors provide a generic user-friendly model.  From the results recommendations to the case company has been developed. The thesis end with a discussion about topics not fully covered in the report.

Gene regulation in bacteria is highly complex and requires the activity of sigma factors that function as transcriptional regulators. In Pseudomonas syringae pv. syringae B728a, 14 sigma factors have been identified. One of the more interesting is rpoN, encoding Sigma 54, which was initially described for its role in nitrogen utilization and later shown to be involved in regulating adhesion, motility, toxin production, and pathogenicity. The only commonality identified amongst these genes is that gene regulation by Sigma 54 is not essential for normal growth and development because mutational inactivation of rpoN is not lethal. Unlike Sigma 70, which recognizes promoter sites located at positions -10/-35 upstream of the transcription initiation site, Sigma 54 recognizes sites located at positions -12/-24. P.s. pv. syringae B728a encodes an RpoN that shares 80-98% identity with other Pseudomonas species. Promoter scans were conducted on the B728a genome to look for probable binding sites of RpoN. Analysis revealed that RpoN may be involved in regulating genes encoding ABC transporters, drug efflux pumps, flagella proteins, nitrate transporters, and several regulatory proteins. An insertional mutation in the rpoN gene was constructed in the B728a genome and a phenotypic analysis was initiated. Decreased swarming and adhesion ability of the rpoN mutant was observed as compared to B728a. The ability to utilize sole nitrogen sources was also affected. The rpoN mutant showed little or no growth on sole nitrogen sources such as alanine, histidine, lysine, and serine. Pathogenicity was shown to require a functional RpoN, as both HR and disease development was effected by an rpoN mutation. Pseudomonas syringae pv. syringae is most known for the production of two phytotoxins. Unlike RpoN in other species, in P.s. pv. syringae B728a it appears to indirectly down regulate toxin production of syringomycin and syringopeptin. The goal of this study was to characterize some of the important roles RpoN is known to possess and to understand its role in the plant pathogenic and epiphytic lifestyle of P. s. pv. syringae B728a.

Since the successful implementations in some prestigious companies such as Motorola, GE & Allied Signal the ¡§Six Sigma¡¨ quality management system has become more and more companies¡¦ priority approach in upgrading their overall competitiveness. With its actual progress made in competitiveness and the shining financial results in the past the Six Sigma has attracted numerous followers and it is now indeed the main quality management stream after the TQM era. No matter the Six Sigma implementation is still under evaluation or has been accepted and ready to kick off, it is no other than one of the main strategic plans of almost all the contemporary companies. However, in spite that Six Sigma has been maturely implemented for some time and there have been some global companies and local companies here in Taiwan that have phased it in already, there are still a lot of local companies that rather wait-and-see and decide not to be the front runners. In Taiwan the number of Six-Sigma companies that have truly phased in and paid off are still quite limited so far. Because of that this research summarized the existing literature based on the key success factors and then validated this hypothesis through expert validation. After the hypothesis was validated, there followed investigations upon the middle and upper level managers who were mostly also students of the NSYSU¡¦s EMBA, MBA (on-job), MBA (night-session), English MBA, MBA (HR, on-job) and ISU¡¦s EMBA and PMBA programs, to have an in-depth understanding on what were theirs and the temporary companies¡¦ wants and anticipated results, what were the differences between their perceptions on the Six Sigma¡¦s key implementation factors, what were the correlations between different independent and dependent variables, and whether there still embedded any tacit factors that could otherwise result in failures. From the result of this research we concluded that no matter what industries and what scales most of the companies have faced with pressure of having to implement Six Sigma. In addition, they believed that Six Sigma truly would be able to help them upgrading their overall competitiveness and corporate images. Also, we learned that there existed differences in independent variables vs. different dependent variables. The perceptions of the middle and upper managements were found not in line with the key success factors in certain degrees in some ways that could otherwise contribute to failures if we do not pay attention to prevent them from happening. Generally speaking, no matter how many employees the companies may have, what capital and revenue sizes they are, all the companies should know of their industries¡¦ own features well for deciding their own directions. They should have appropriate benchmarking and consultants, and need to seek for helps from outside if necessary so that they could take advantage of this new Six Sigma era.

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Thesis (M.S.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2007. / The entire dissertation/thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file (which also appears in the research.pdf); a non-technical general description, or public abstract, appears in the public.pdf file. Title from title screen of research.pdf file (viewed on January 4, 2008) Includes bibliographical references.

Techn. Univ., Diss.--Dresden, 2007.

Zugl.: Passau, Univ., Diss., 2007

Thesis--University of California, Berkeley, 1961. / "UC-34 Physics" -t.p. "TID-4500 (16th Ed.)" -t.p. Includes bibliographical references (p. 102-104).

Ilmenau, Techn. Universiẗat, Diss., 2001.

Nos últimos anos, tem se observado o crescimento do mercado agrícola em um cenário caracterizado pelo aumento de exportações, incentivos governamentais e entrada de novos competidores mundiais. Respondendo a este cenário, as empresas montadoras de máquinas e implementos agrícolas estão buscando fortalecer sua cadeia de fornecedores, visando atender rapidamente as necessidades de mercado. Para contribuir com o desenvolvimento de fornecedores, novas metodologias têm sido empregadas, onde pode ser destacado o programa Seis Sigma. Este trabalho apresenta a utilização da metodologia Seis Sigma em um fornecedor com o objetivo de reduzir o índice de componentes rejeitados. Como contribuição, apresenta-se um método de análise para a aplicação do Seis Sigma no desenvolvimento de fornecedores. O método apresenta como etapas principais: (i) o entendimento do mercado onde a empresa atua, (ii) a avaliação, seleção e conscientização do fornecedor, (iii) o desenvolvimento do projeto baseado na metodologia Seis Sigma e (iv) o registro das lições aprendidas. Em última análise, buscase identificar as causas prioritárias e propor soluções de melhor custo benefício, visando aumentar o nível de qualidade do fornecedor. A aplicação do projeto Seis Sigma inicia pela definição do problema, fazendo o levantamento do histórico de qualidade do fornecedor e estratificando os possíveis fatores que podem interferir no seu desempenho. Os resultados finais demonstram os benefícios da utilização da metodologia Seis Sigma para desenvolvimento no fornecedor e os níveis de qualidade alcançados. Também é enfatizada a importância do fortalecimento da parceria entre montadora e fornecedor para sustentar os ganhos a longo prazo e transformá-los em vantagem competitiva no mercado atual.