In Part 5, we now turn our attention to cause-and-effect diagrams (CE diagrams). CE diagrams are designed to help quality improvement teams identify the root causes of problems.
Shore pine is a subspecies of lodgepole pine that inhabits the coastal strip in Oregon. Insect pests, diseases, and nonbiological (abiotic) factors may have an impact on growth, visual appearance, and productivity of trees. In this publication, we review the general nature of shore pine in Oregon and the common...
This publication introduces the reader to a process called lean manufacturing, sometimes called the Toyota Production System. The intended audience is manufacturers of forest products, although manufacturers of other types of products will also find this publication useful.
With rising costs for natural gas, fuel oil, and electricity,more people are thinking of burning firewood or wood pellets to heat their homes. How do you know when it is time to switch from one heating source
to another? This publication can help you make that decision by comparing the...
The objective of this series is to help improve the competitiveness of
Oregon’s wood products manufacturers. This can be achieved by fostering a companywide focus on and dedication to continuous quality improvement.
W. Edwards Deming (1982) described the “chain reaction of quality.”
1. Quality is improved.
2. Costs decrease due...
According to the Operations Research Society of America, “Operations
research is concerned with scientifically deciding how to best design and
operate man-machine systems, usually under conditions requiring the allocation of scarce resources.” This publication is the first in a series describing operations research (OR) techniques that can help forest products...
A key problem faced by managers is how to allocate scarce resources among activities or projects. Linear programming, or LP, is a method of
allocating resources in an optimal way. It is one of the most widely used operations research (OR) tools. It has been used successfully as a decision...
The goal for Part 2 is to build management understanding and
confidence in SPC as a profit-making tool. It is unreasonable to expect
managers to commit to and support SPC training and implementation
if they do not understand what SPC is and how and why it works. This
publication discusses...
A key problem faced by managers is how to allocate scarce resources
among activities or projects. Linear programming, or LP, is a method of
allocating resources in an optimal way. It is one of the most widely used operations research (OR) tools. It has been used successfully as a decision...