Abstract

Continuous improvement has become a common requirement in system development. Plenty of tools and techniques exist, and are being developed, to support continuous improvement. The plethora of tools makes it difficult for improvement teams to choose the right tool to use in a given situation. Even if the right tool is identified, it is usually difficult to master it within the limited timeframe binding improvement teams. To address this problem, this thesis presents a decision support system (DSS) that would help improvement teams identify the appropriate tool for a given situation, and provide a quick and effective tutorial on its application. The DSS is named QTEST for Quality Tools Expert System (ES) and Tutorial. QTEST is based on a classification scheme that utilizes the Plan-Do-Check­ Act cycle. The basic attributes of the classification scheme include: improvement process stage, improvement purpose, type of investigation, size of improvement team and topic sensitivity.

A special coding scheme was designed to simplify the implementation of the

S. All tools are assigned a code that reflects their capabilities based on the classification scheme. These codes are constructed by a special program in QTEST using input from the knowledge engineer. A case code is built by another program in QTEST based on a user's input describing an improvement situation. Tool f recommendations are performed through a simple match between case and tool code QTEST was implemented and was tested in real industrial applications by various users who verified its utility.

Date of Award

2-1-2007

Online Submission Date

7-25-2006

First Advisor

Lotfi K. Gaafar

Committee Member 1

Hamdy S. Elwany

Committee Member 2

Abdelghani Elimam

Committee Member 3

Mohamed N.Abou Zeid

Document Type

Thesis

Extent

xi, 100 leaves :

Library of Congress Subject Heading 1

Decision Support Systems.

Library of Congress Subject Heading 3

Shakespeare, William,;Defoe, Daniel,

Rights

The American University in Cairo grants authors of theses and dissertations a maximum embargo period of two years from the date of submission, upon request. After the embargo elapses, these documents are made available publicly. If you are the author of this thesis or dissertation, and would like to request an exceptional extension of the embargo period, please write to thesisadmin@aucegypt.edu

Call Number

Thesis 2006/87

Location

mgfth

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