In service systems, in order to balance the server’s idle times and the customers’ waiting times, one may fix the arrival times of the customers beforehand in an appointment schedule. We propose a procedure for determining appointment schedules in such a D/G/1-type of system by sequentially...

We study appointment scheduling problems in continuous time. A finite number of clients are scheduled such that a function of the waiting time of clients, the idle time of the server, and the lateness of the schedule is minimized. The optimal schedule is notoriously hard to derive within...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to study the use of the Lean Six Sigma (LSS) methodology in a construction company. Design/methodology/approach – In our study we analyze 62 LSS improvement projects carried out within a Dutch company. In our analysis we focus on both speed, in terms of...

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to discover the learning mechanisms and temporal dynamics of implementing systems (Six Sigma) as it unfolds over time. Design/methodology/approach: The data come from a European engineering company that was implementing a Six Sigma-based quality management...

This paper presents a prescriptive account of diagnostic problem solving, or diagnosis, in quality and process control. This paper identifies a general strategy, named branch-and-prune, whose manifestations can be found in disciplines such as medical diagnosis, troubleshooting of devices, and...