Assessment, examination processes

For each quality objective you should have a plan that defines the processes involved in its achievement. Assess these processes and determine where critical decisions are made and who is assigned to make them. Audit the decisions and ascertain whether they were contrary to the objectives. A simple example is where you have an objective of decreasing dependence upon inspection. By examining corrective actions taken to prevent recurrence of nonconformities you can detect whether a person decided to increase the level of inspection in order to catch the nonconformities or considered alternatives. Any person found making such a decision has clearly not understood the quality objective. 

Search and examination of an application are necessary in most countries before a patent can be granted. The purpose of the search is to identify documents (whether earlier patent applications or journal articles) which are relevant in assessing whether the invention claimed in the patent application is new or non-obvious the purpose of the examination is for a patent office examiner to assess whether the claimed invention meets all the requirements of patentability and other requirements of patent law. The examination process is an interactive procedure between the patent examiner and patent applicant (or more usually his professional representative) in which the patent applicant may have to put forward arguments and evidence to rebut objections that the patent examiner may have to the patent application. During this process the patent applicant may have to amend (i.e. redefine) the claims to his invention. 

As indicated earlier, evaluation is probably the most diffi-cut problem. How does one conjecture the value of an arbitrary reaction Thermodynamics can tell one how far a reaction may proceed, but no one can yet predict how fast a reaction will proceed since the rate depends on such things as the effect of catalysts. Also assessing the processing costs is a complex exercise. Generally, evaluation is done very indirectly in these programs by allowing the use only of named chemistry and then, for those reactions which might work, other effects such as stereo hindrance are sometimes examined. 

One of the principal elements of Green Zia that will be the focus of this paper is the third-party assessment and feedback report process. Like our Baldrige brethren at both the national level and at the state Quality Award Program level, Green Zia employs a number of volunteers to read applications that are submitted to our state Environment Department, provide nonprescriptive feedback on strengths and opportunities for improvement, determine a score for the application based on a 1000-point scale, and possibly conduct a site visit to verify/clarify the application. This paper will describe all aspects of the third-party examination process and will provide some personal insight as to the strengths and opportunities for improvement of our own process. 

Candidates for licensure in all states but California must pass the North American Pharmacist Licensure Examination (NAPLEX ), a computer-adaptive, competency-based examination that assesses the candidate s ability to apply knowledge gained in pharmacy school to real-life practice situations. California administers a unique examination process. Most states also require candidates to take a state-specific pharmacy law examination. Currently, 36 states use the Multistate Pharmacy Jurisprudence Examination (MPJE ), a computer-adaptive assessment that tailors each examination to address the pharmacy law and regulations of the state in which the candidate is seeking licensure. 

The director of the CMA requested that the National Research Council (NRC) assess and evaluate current and proposed policies and approaches by the Army and its contractors to adequately anticipate and address equipment and facilities obsolescence issues at chemical agent stockpile incineration facilities. This assessment examines the extent to which these policies and approaches are consistent with generally accepted practices in the chemical process industry. In conducting this assessment in accordance with the statement of task, the NRC s Committee on Continuing Operability of... 

Needs analysis (sometimes called needs assessment) examines what should be done so that employees can better perform jobs. Needs analysis focuses on outcomes to determine optimal performance for jobs. Rossett (1987) has provided a detailed needs-analysis techniqrre. Instead of needs analysis, many organizations unfortunately conduct a kind of wants analysis, a process that asks employees and/or supervisors to state what is needed to better perform jobs. Because employees and managers frequently cannot distinguish between their wants and their needs, wants analysis t5rpically yields a laundry list of information that is not Unked well to performance outcomes. 

In this chapter we explore some important aspects of chemical reactions. Our focus will be both on the use of chemical formulas to represent reactions and on the quantitative information we can obtain about the amounts of substances involved in those reactions. Stoichiometry (pronounced stoy-key-OM-uh-tree) is the area of study that examines the quantities of substances consumed and produced in chemical reactions. Stoichiometry (Greek stoicheion, element, and metron, measure ) provides an essential set of tools widely used in chemistry, including such diverse applications as measuring ozone concentrations in the atmosphere and assessing different processes for converting coal into gaseous fuels. 

If too much solder wicks up the lead, it may cause solder shorting, particularly near the package body, where the lead spacing may be finest. Therefore, fillet examination alone is not sufficient to accurately assess soldering process performance. But, for a fixed set of process parameters, fillet appearance may provide a good means of first-pass comparative assessment of solderabihty and soldering results. 

The Regulations provide a range of means for assessing conformity. However, as far as electrical equipment is concerned, conformity assessment through a notified body will be the norm, following much the same EC type examination processes and procedures that have been used in the past. There are, however, additional requirements for product quality control and third party audits. In the UK, the Electrical Equipment Certification Service (EECS) and SIRA Test and Certification Ltd already provide conformity assessment services, basing their assessments on the harmonised standards that already exist for explosion-protected electrical equipment the main standards are identified in Chapter 15. 

A safety assessment is a formal study of your organization s current level of safety performance and the practices that impact safety. It is not the same as a safety audit. A safety assessment examines the process the organization uses to manage safety. A typical safety audit, on the other hand, examines the extent to which employees are in or out of compliance with established safety procedures and environmental conditions are in or out of compliance with established requirements. Figpre 5.1 contrasts the safety assessment and the traditional safety audit. 

The first major hazard in process plants is fire, which is usually regarded as having a disaster potential lower than both explosion or toxic release. However, fire is still a major hazard and can, under the worst conditions, approach explosion in its disaster potential. It may, for example, give rise to toxic fumes. Let us start by examining the important factors in assessing fire as a hazard. 

There are a large number of standard methods suitable for each stage in the hazard analysis and risk assessment procedure. The selection of the proper method depends on several factors. Some of these are the type of process, the stage in the lifetime of the process, the experience and capabiUties of the participants, and the step in the procedure that is being examined. Information regarding the selection of the proper procedure is available in an excellent and comprehensive reference (1). 

Assessment Phase The assessment phase aims to collect data needed to identify and analyze pollution-prevention opportunities. Assessment of the facility s waste-reduction needs includes the examination of hazardous waste streams, process operations, and the identification of techniques that often promise the reduction of waste generation. Information is often derived from obsei vations made during a facihty walk-through, interviews with employees (e.g., operators, line workers), and review of site or regulatory records. One professional organization suggests the following information sources be reviewed, as available (Ref. 7) ... 

The structure/property relationships in materials subjected to shock-wave deformation is physically very difficult to conduct and complex to interpret due to the dynamic nature of the shock process and the very short time of the test. Due to these imposed constraints, most real-time shock-process measurements are limited to studying the interactions of the transmitted waves arrival at the free surface. To augment these in situ wave-profile measurements, shock-recovery techniques were developed in the late 1950s to assess experimentally the residual effects of shock-wave compression on materials. The object of soft-recovery experiments is to examine the terminal structure/property relationships of a material that has been subjected to a known uniaxial shock history, then returned to an ambient pressure... 

Risk analysis A methodical examination of a process plant and procedure that identifies hazards, assesses risks, and proposes measures that will reduce risks to an acceptable level. 

To limit the potential for deficiencies to escape detection before the product is released, special processes should be documented in the form of procedures and specifications that will ensure the suitability of all equipment, personnel, and facilities, and prevent varying conditions, activities, or operations. Qualification in the context of special processes means that you need to conduct a thorough assessment of the processes to determine their capability to maintain or detect the conditions needed to produce conforming product consistently. The limits of capability need to be determined and the processes only applied within these limits. In qualifying the processes you need to qualify the personnel using them by training and examination as well as the materials, equipment, and facilities employed. It is the combination of personnel, materials, equipment, and facilities which ensure qualified processes. 

Objective evidence of the achieved features and characteristics of a product or service and the processes applied to its development, design, production, installation, maintenance, and disposal as well as records of assessments, audits, and other examinations of an organization to determine its capability to achieve given quality requirements. 

Each PSM system can then be examined to determine what system modifications (if any) are needed to address the new issues. For example, the process hazard assessment system might be modified to include participation by industrial hygienists to identify potential sources of exposure. Some process safety management systems (e.g., process documentation) may require no modification to support a wider scope. 

In the case of a large-scale development it may be desirable to combine several environmental services for a full environmental impact assessment (ElA). This is the process of examining, in a comprehensive, detailed and systematic manner, the existing environment (natural, built and social) and the development that it is proposed to place within it. By integrating the two, an objective estimate can then be made of the likely effects of the development upon the environment, including benefits and negative impacts. Special techniques may be employed to help identify or quantify these impacts (e.g. the use of interaction matrices, overlays, screening tests, checklists, etc.). 

---