The improvement process

Traditionally, the design and development of corporate SHE information systems has been a concern for the SHE department in the company only. The SHE experts of the company have been the owners of the system. They have felt that they need better tools to store and retrieve accident reports and to generate periodic accident summaries. Usually, the introduction of computer support has been a key issue. 

We here assume that the company is of a size and complexity to use modern information-technology network solutions for the general handling of information. This inclndes a common database-handling system, e-mail, standard PC software for word-processing, spreadsheets, graphical presentation and access to the Internet. The development of computer solutions to the SHE information system is a central task in the improvement process. It is natural to choose solutions that utilise existing compnter resources at the company. 

Finding and customising the right software is only one of the many concerns in the design of the SHE information system. From Section 1.1 we remember that a SHE information system is made up of the following parts  

We have to review all the different parts in parallel. The Deming circle offers a structnred development process for this work. It is also important to involve all concerned interest groups at the company in the process in order to ensure adequate ownership to and quality of the results. 

By applying computer support, our immediate aim is to make the feedback to decision-makers of information about accident risks quicker and more efficient. A further aim is to reduce man-hours needed for the administration of reports. Computer support also makes information retrieval much easier, and the accumulated experience from SHE practice will be available through a few keystrokes. Long-term effects include a reduced risk of accidents, improved production regularity, more efficient safety work, improved knowledge and motivation, improved goodwill, etc. 

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H. James Harrington, The Improvement Process, McGraw-Hill Book Co., New York, NY, 1987. 

Like Medical Care, Nursing Care etcetera PC consists of core components the philosophy, the patient care process, and the practical management system to support the practice. PC was developed from Clinical Pharmacy Services (see below) with more focus on the patients need and on the practitioners (pharmacist) responsibilities towards the patient and the outcome of the drug therapy. To be able to show the improved process of care a categorisation system for drug-related problems was developed. The taxonomy has been further developed into seven categories (Cipolle et al. 1998). This can be used for practice and in studies. 

The improved process reduced the cycle time from 3 min to less than 10 sec and showed excellent capability and controllability with the value of Cp] at 2.33. The ex situ testing of the plate exhibited an encouraging performance, which included high electrical conductivity (600 800 S/cm), high flexural strength (600 - 7,000 psi), and low hydrogen permeability (smaller than 2 x 10 cm /sec)—all of which exceeded or reached DoE 2010 fargefs (see Table 5.1)... 

Develop a corrective action plan Identify all possible solutions. Using brainstorming, correlation analysis, polling, and consensus techniques, prioritize the list of solutions. Perform a barrier analysis, defining driving forces that will help the improvement process to succeed as well as restraining forces that may hold the team back. 

Background. Once indicators are selected, baseline practice data must be measured in order to determine current practices. This step is important to objectively denote the current practice, make sure all major stakeholders are involved in the improvement process, and set the stage for problem solving. CQI should be data driven, so that measurement of current practice by collaboratively developing quality indicators clearly defines the extent of the problem. It is important to measure the baseline data at several time... 

Compression of the hot, spongy metal before cold-working is the novel feature of Knight s method and it represents an important advance in the history of platinum metallurgy. However, even the improved process failed to give consistent results. Knight never produced malleable platinum himself, nor did anyone else who used his published procedure. 

The third aspect of improvement may mean an entirely different process for making an old substance. For many decades soap has been manufactured by caustic soda saponification of fats in the batch process. In recent years plants have been installed for the high pressure, high temperature rapid hydrolysis of fats in the countercurrent liquid mixed phase using water and a catalyst. In this case the sodium fatty acid or the soap may be prepared by neutralizing the free fatty acid hydrolysis product with caustic soda or soda ash depending upon convenience and the market. Naturally the unit consumption factors changed when the improved process was used. 

After new package versions containing improved process definitions have been created, migration of currently enacted process instances may be performed selectively. During migration, process instances are to be updated such that they are consistent with the improved process definition. It is crucial that temporary inconsistencies do not prevent migration because a consistent state is reached only eventually (if ever). 

Similar to their approach and extended from Hsleh s previous paper, (3), a simple but much Improved route was devised. Stepwise addition of an alkylalumlnum halide, which follows that of an alkylene oxide to the alkylllthlum-lnltlated "living" prepolymer, provides the desired oxyl-alumlnum chain end as a modified ringopening site for cyclic esters. The Improved process Is Illustrated In Figure 1. 

Figure 1. simplified scheme of the Improved process for caprolactone ring-opening polymerization. 

The significant improvement in flow properties of resin IV vs. V is evident from the data. First, the torque from Brabender mixing indicates that resin IV is an easier-flowing material (Table II). The lower torque values for IV indicate the necessity of a lower-energy input to mix the polymer melt. This lower rotational force therefore indicates the polymer melt has a lower melt viscosity. Secondly, injection-molding conditions demonstrate the improved processability of resin IV (Table III) in comparison with resin V. At the same injection cylinder temperatures, the injection pressure for the tensile bar and Izod/heat distortion bar molds is lowered by 300 psi and 250 psi, respectively. 

The patentee descTibes a proposed field application and gives the conditions of the CO2 at various positions in two situations. The first situation is if the CO2 flows to the surface under its subterranean formation pressure and the second is if the improved process is in operation. In subterranean formation CO2 is found at conditions of 2,400 psig and 75 °C. If it were to flow to the surface unaided, it would airive at 835 psig and 20 °C. If a pump is placed downhole at an appropriate distance, the CO2 can be brought to the surface in a supercritical state. In the specific case discussed, downhole is at a depth of... 

The improved process uses CO2 to extract both nicotine and aromas in one step and then the nicotine is removed selectively from the CO2 before it is recylced to the vessel holding the tobacco. The selective removal is carried out by passing the nicotine-aroina-laden CO2 phase through an acid trap. A variety of acids are suggested such as sulfuric, phosphoric, nitric, malonic, succinic, citric, and tartaric and their alkali metal salts. I he acid can be dissolved in water or it can be distributed onto a packing. 

The improved process utilizes CO2 to extract ethylene oxide from water in a flow scheme which is similar to the other liquid extractions described previously. A block diagram in the patent depicts operation of the process. Ethylene oxidation and adsorption of the ethylene oxide in an absorber are carried out in the traditional manner, but the water stream from the absorber is then sent to a stripper where CO2 strip extracts the ethylene oxide from the water solution. The CO2 stream containing the ethylene oxide is lowered in pressure and sent to a high pressure distillation column called the ethylene oxide purifier. CO2 is vaporized, and as previously described throughout this book, vapor CO2 exhibits little dissolving power. Almost pure CO2 vapor is distilled and condensed in the column and a concentrated ethylene oxide stream containing some CO2 is obtained. 

Where appropriate, an actual measure of possible process intensification will be given. In some cases, a reaction system will be used to show the potential of the improved process. 

A major feature of the improved process is the unique method of separating ammonia and HCN. An aqueous solution of a polyalcohol-boric acid complex is used in an absorption and desorption operation for this separation. ... 

The modifying performance of cycloaliphatic monoepoxides in the curing processes of cycloaliphatic diepoxy compounds was described in [75]. ACECs are very efficient as modifiers of epoxyamine [76] and epoxynovolak [77-79] resins. The search for reactive diluents for epoxy compositions was initially directed towards an improvement of the processing characteristics, in particular the viscosity suppression, whereas the increase in mechanical strength and heat resistance was considered to be the result of the improved processing character-... 

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