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The purpose of this study is to examine in what type of scenarios of daily life assistive technology such as the INSENSION system would provide considerable benefit for people with profound intellectual and multiple disabilities (PIMD).

A series of focus group workshops were held with relatives of people with PIMD and direct support professionals (DSPs), as well as experts in information and communications technology (ICT). They were oriented towards the design thinking approach and moderated as per the Disney method.

The participants identified transitions from known to unknown caregivers, provision of care during the night and the impact of external factors on a person’s mood as challenging situations within the PIMD context.

Solving these problems would lead to considerable benefits to the affected people. Based on the ideas gathered in workshops, three technological applications for the INSENSION system were derived, i.e. communication application, multimedia player and smart room devices, all of which will provide remedies in specific usage scenarios.

Methods drawing on the participant’s creativity in combination with the workshops’ multi-perspectivity facilitated a direct reference to the daily life of the target group. In this manner, the innovative ICT system INSENSION can be oriented towards the requirements of this vulnerable group.

Creativity can be one of the key drivers in business today. At the Walt Disney Company, creativity is not just a tool or a technique to increase productivity; it is the heart of the business. The creative process is practiced and nurtured at Disney, and the application of a similar approach could dramatically impact businesses in a multitude of industries.

The techniques of statistical process control (SPC) are designed to monitor production processes in order to prevent the production of waste and improve the quality of future output. The emphasis is on the prevention of problems before they occur instead of simply revealing and correcting past mistakes. SPC is now increasingly used for service processes as well as the manufacturing processes for which it was originally developed. This raises the question of whether the same benefits can be achieved, and whether the techniques need to be refined in any way, if they are to be equally useful in the service arena. Looks at a number of examples of the application of SPC techniques to service processes. Argues that there are features of many service processes which have implications for the way SPC should be applied. Proposes a set of guidelines for systems for the statistical monitoring of service processes. Argues that standard SPC techniques can yield substantial benefits for service processes, provided that users remember these guidelines. In particular, argues that the use of the word “control”, and so the phrase “statistical process control”, is often inappropriate. Finally, suggests that some of the conclusions may be equally applicable to many production processes.

Spurred by the globalization of competition, organizational learning and continuous improvement have attracted a great deal of research and managerial interest in recent years. Notwithstanding the growing literature on these topics, there is still considerable conceptual ambiguity about organizational learning and continuous improvement among researchers. The paper clarifies the underlying processes through which organizations “learn,” highlights the role of learning in continuous improvement programs, and shows how an organization may go about building a continuous improvement culture. Specific tools and techniques of organizational learning which may be used in continuous improvement programs are also discussed.