Produced Water (PW) is the largest volume of waste that is normally generated during oil and gas production. It has large amounts of contaminants that can cause negative environmental and economic impacts. The management method for PW relies highly on types and concentrations of these contaminants, which are field dependent and can vary from one oil field to another. Produced water can be converted to fresh water if these contaminants are removed or reduced to the acceptable drinking water quality level. In addition, increasing oil production rate and reducing amounts of discharged harmful contaminants can be achieved by removing dissolved hydrocarbons from PW. In order to identify the types of these contaminants, effective tools and methods should be used. Six Sigma, which uses the DMAIC (Define- MeasureAnalyze- Improve- Control) problem-solving approach is one of the most effective tools to identify the root causes of having high percentages of contaminants in produced water. The methodology also helped develop a new policy change for implementing a way by which this treated water may be used. Six Sigma has not been widely implemented in oil and gas industries. This research adopted the Six Sigma methodology through a case study, related to the southern Iraqi oil fields, to investigate different ways by which produced water can be treated. Research results showed that the enormous amount of contaminated PW could be treated by using membrane filtration technology. In addition, a Multi Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) framework is developed and that could be used as an effective tool for decision makers. The developed framework could be used within manufacturing industries, services, educational systems, governmental organizations, and others. iv This work is dedicated to my scholarship providers and supporters wit

Made available in DSpace on 2014-12-17T14:52:52Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 CarlosTA.pdf: 1380797 bytes, checksum: fd7cd2a464620090370adb9a3fc1de05 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2006-05-19 / The Six Sigma methodology consists of a program guided to the continuous improvement of enterprise processes, which aims at customer satisfaction, as well as increasing financial and operational profits. Considering that more than 99% of the Brazilian companies have up to five hundred employees, this study investigates how Six Sigma can be applied in small or medium size companies. This study was conducted based on literature review and application of the ideas in a medium size newspaper company, which manufactures newspapers that circulate daily in the state of Rio Grande do Norte. The results of the research point to the viability of use of the methodology in this market segment, as well as suggest a method that can be used in similar companies / A metodologia Seis Sigma constitui um programa orientado para o aprimoramento cont?nuo de processos empresariais, que visa ? satisfa??o dos clientes, bem como maiores ganhos financeiros e operacionais. Considerando o contexto em que mais de 99% das empresas brasileiras possuem at? quinhentos empregados, esse estudo se prop?e a investigar como Seis Sigma pode ser aplicado em empresas de pequeno ou m?dio porte. Para tanto, foi realizado um levantamento bibliogr?fico e um estudo foi conduzido em um jornal de porte m?dio, que circula, diariamente, no estado do Rio Grande do Norte. Os resultados da pesquisa apontam para a viabilidade de utiliza??o da metodologia nesse segmento de mercado, bem como sugere um m?todo que pode ser aproveitado em empresas similares

Curricula assessment is an integrated process to assist higher education institutions in addressing the challenges in a designated field of study and in exploring the opportunities to better educate and prepare their students for an increasingly complex world. Although assessment as a topic has been researched extensively, there has been a lack of quantitative tools that address the requirements of many of the stakeholders that may be critical to the curriculum design and assessment processes. This research proposes the utilization of Design for Six Sigma (DFSS) to develop a quantitative model for curriculum assessment and improvement for higher education institutions. A review of the literature indicates that there is a lack of quantitative tools that enhance the reliability and efficiency of gathering customer requirements for curriculum in higher education environment. In addition, there is a lack of tools to translate these requirements into actual characteristics that can be used for curriculum design and assessment purposes. The literature also indicates that curriculum assessment is one of several educational processes that affect the quality of education. This research proposes a quantitative model for curriculum assessment and improvement in higher education institutions, utilizing design for six sigma methodology. The proposed model explores the use of the Kano model concept to translate needed requirements into desirable curriculum attributes and the general concept of establishing transfer function to determine the level at which those requirements have been satisfied. The use of the developed model can help improve student learning and provide curriculum stakeholders with timely feedback about the curriculum and identify areas in need of improvement. To validate the capability of the proposed model, an ABET accredited department of Industrial Engineering in a US university was used a case study.

Successful organizations continually seek ways to improve productivity, reduce and control costs, and increase efficiency. Governmental entities also are driven by the need for increased efficiency and accountability in public service for their constituents.There is a continuing need for better tools and a number of government entities have turned to performance management systems due to their promise of improvement in various areas of productivity and accountability. This research focused on one such system, Six Sigma, which has recently experienced widespread adoption in industry in the United States, internationally, and in some government organizations. In this study Six Sigma was compared and contrasted with several performance management systems, and its effects and organizational cultural impacts on one organization were examined.The study investigated the financial implications and perceptions of organizational cultural change resulting from the Six Sigma system implementation in a large government enterprise. The first part of the study used the organization’s published financial information from 1997 through 2006 to determine whether there was a tangible financial benefit of implementing Six Sigma. The analysis indicated that the financial implications were statistically significant and quantified them as material and relevant to the organization’s two major business units.The second component of the research explored differences in organizational culture and attitudes among and between selected employee groups through the use of interviews and a survey instrument. Interviews were also conducted with a purposive sample of the executives who were involved in the decisions to implement Six Sigma. The Organizational Culture Inventory© and Organizational Effectiveness Inventory™ survey instruments were used to measure the organizational culture perceptions of the employee groups. Discriminant function analysis results suggested that the various groups shared a common organizational culture, which supports the null hypothesis that there were no differences in the organizational cultural perceptions among the organizational groups investigated.