Thesis (MBA)--Stellenbosch University, 2015. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Manufacturing plants should strive towards achieving and maintaining good safety records. It is however difficult for plants to identify specific safety problem areas that can be improved on. One way to identify specific safety areas that needs improvement is by conducting a safety culture survey. A manufacturing plant within South Africa realised the need to improve on its safety performance. However, it was not clear which aspects of its work and safety related practices were at risk. Management therefore decided to obtain an assessment of the safety culture profile of the plant. The assessment was done by way of a plant-wide safety culture survey. The safety culture questionnaire was developed, as part of this research, through an in-house consultation process. This process resulted in identifying 16 different safety-related themes. With the help of literature, these themes were further explored to design the questionnaire. The identified safety themes were measured during the survey and results obtained for each of the plant’s identified safety practices. The survey also provided an overall mean score of the plant’s safety culture, providing management with a better understanding of where they stand in their safety improvement journey. The plant’s equipment, materials and tools; overall rules and regulations; environment, health and safety suggestions; rewards and reinforcement; and management involvement practices was identified as practices that require an immediate response. The plant’s incident reporting and investigation, discipline and training safety practices were identified as less urgent risks.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Auburn University, 2008. / Abstract. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 76-78).

This dissertation study presents a conceptual framework for implementing and assessing patient safety systems in healthcare institutions. The conceptual framework consists of critical processes and performance measures identified in the context of the 2003 Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award (MBNQA) Health Care Criteria for Performance Excellence. Methodology: The Delphi technique for gaining consensus from a group of experts and forecasting significant issues in the field of the Delphi panel expertise was used. Data collection included a series of questionnaires where the first round questionnaire was based on literature review and the MBNQA criteria for excellence in healthcare, and tested by an instrument review panel of experts. Twenty-three experts (MBNQA healthcare reviewers and senior healthcare administrators from quality award winning institutions) representing 18 states participated in the survey rounds. The study answered three research questions: (1) What are the critical processes that should be included in healthcare patient safety systems? (2) What are the performance measures that can serve as indicators of quality for the processes critical for ensuring patient safety? (3) What processes will be critical for patient safety in the future? The identified patient safety framework was further transformed into a patient safety tool with three levels: basic, intermediate, and advanced. Additionally, the panel of experts identified the major barriers to the implementation of patient safety systems in healthcare institutions. The identified "top seven" barriers were directly related to critical processes and performance measures identified as "important" or "very important" for patient safety systems in the present and in the future. This dissertation study is significant because the results are expected to assist healthcare institutions seeking to develop high quality patient safety programs, processes and services. The identified critical processes and performance measures can serve as a means of evaluating existing patient safety initiatives and guiding the strategic planning of new safety processes. The framework for patient safety systems utilizes a systems approach and will support healthcare senior administrators in achieving and sustaining improvement results. The identified patient safety framework will also assist healthcare institutions in using the MBNQA Health Care Criteria for Performance Excellence for self-assessment and quality improvement.

The evolution of the manufacturing industry may be viewed as proceeding from Dedicated Manufacturing Systems (DMS) to Reconfigurable Manufacturing Systems (RMS). Customer requirements change unpredictably, and so DMS are no longer able to meet modern manufacturing requirements. RMS are designed with the focus of providing rapid response to a change in product design, within specified part families. The movement from DMS to RMS facilitates mass-production of custom products. Custom parts require inspection routines that can facilitate variations in product parameters such as dimensions, shape, and throughputs. Quality control and part inspection are key processes in the lifecycle of a product. These processes are able to verify product quality; and can provide essential feedback for enhancing other processes. Mass-producing custom parts requires more complex and frequent quality control and inspection routines, than were implemented previously. Complex, and higher frequencies of inspection negatively impact inspection times, and inherently, production rates. For manufacturers to successfully mass-produce custom parts, processes which can perform complex and varying quality control operations need to be employed. Furthermore, such processes should perform inspections without significantly impacting production rates. A method of reducing the impact of high frequency inspection of customized parts on production rates is needed. This dissertation focuses on the research, design, construction, assembly, and testing of a Non- Contact Automated Inspection System (NCAIS). The NCAIS was focused on performing quality control operations whilst maintaining the maximum production rate of a particular Computer Integrated Manufacturing (CIM) cell. The CIM cell formed part of a research project in the School of Mechanical Engineering, University of KwaZulu-Natal; and was used to simulate mass-production of custom parts. Two methods of maintaining the maximum production rate were explored. The first method was the automated visual inspection of moving custom parts. The second method was to inspect only specified Regions of Interest (ROIs). Mechatronic engineering principles were used to integrate sensor articulation, image acquisition, and image processing systems. A specified maximum production rate was maintained during inspection, without stoppage of parts along the production line occurring. The results obtained may be expanded to specific manufacturing industries. / Thesis (M.Sc.Eng.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2009.

The theoretical study of nonlinear expectations is the focus of attention for applications in a variety of different fields — often with the objective to model systems under incomplete information. Especially in mathematical finance, advances in the theory of sublinear expectations (also referred to as coherent risk measures) lay the theoretical foundation for modern approaches to evaluations under the presence of Knightian uncertainty. In this book, we introduce and study a large class of jump-type processes for sublinear expectations, which can be interpreted as Lévy-type processes under uncertainty in their characteristics. Moreover, we establish an existence and uniqueness theory for related nonlinear, nonlocal Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman equations with non-dominated jump terms.