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This chapter examines trans and gender non-conforming persons' experiences of recreational sport and physical activity (PA). Semi-structured interviews were conducted with trans and gender non-conforming people, which were then analyzed using critical discourse analysis (CDA). Participants highlighted that while they did derive enjoyment from sport and physical activity, most mainstream spaces they had experienced, such as organized sport and gyms, were still unsafe and unwelcoming. These experiences were largely due to the continued influence of binary notions of gender on the organization of sport and physical activity as well as assumptions about bodily performance and presentation. Participants discussed how gendered bodily norms influenced the way they experienced their own bodies, both a result of others' perceptions and through self-surveillance. They also reflected on creating their own physical activity communities as a way to derive the benefits of physical activity while avoiding discriminatory experiences in mainstream spaces.

The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the understanding of the workplace experiences and access to career-enhancing opportunities of transgender employees and to apprise organization leaders of opportunities to create an all-inclusive workplace environment.

This phenomenological study used semi-structured interviews with transgender and gender non-conforming individuals in the US. Study participants (n = 12) varied slightly in racial and ethnic identities, the highest level of formal education completed and the industry sector they were employed at the time of interviews.

The data reveals a lingering presence of dominant narrative (cissexism) in US organizations and its adverse impact on workplace experience and access to career-enhancing opportunities of transgender and gender non-conforming individuals. The participants’ narratives reveal recommendations for effective organizational practices for a transgender-inclusive workplace.

The challenge of recruiting qualified participants from the marginalized group along with the selection criteria of English proficiency and legally adult age resulted in a relatively limited sample (n = 12) nevertheless adequate for the study.

Results of this study point at the urgent need to increase visibility and acceptance of the represented population and expand workplace diversity policies to create inclusive, just and equitable organizations for all individuals that will translate into job satisfaction and improved productivity.

This study contributes to developing a culture of inclusion and prevention of discrimination in the workplace thus ensuring respect, safety and agency for gender minority employees.

This study contributes to a better understanding of workplace experiences, access to career-enhancing opportunities of transgender and gender non-conforming individuals and best practices for a transgender-inclusive workplace.

Many audits, subsequent to various fire incidents, revealed that the failure to prevent the use of non-compliant and non-conforming building products earlier in the process have been mainly attributed to the inability of the existing building and building product certification processes to mitigate the risks of having non-compliance and non-conformance. This paper presents findings from a research project in Western Australia (WA) set up to evaluate and manage the risks of non-compliance and non-conformance of building products, with a specific focus on (although not limited to) aluminum composite panels as an external cladding material, across the project processes by mapping the lifecycle of building products used in building projects. The research is underpinned by the basic principles of risk management applied in the construction industry but considering the impact of the regulatory environment.

Lessons learnt from various jurisdictions indicated a real need for reform to the current building and building product certification processes unique to a jurisdiction in order to better manage such risks in these jurisdictions. This research focuses on a specific jurisdiction, namely the WA. The methodology used to gather and analyse data was both a quantitative and qualitative approach, facilitated through administering an online questionnaire followed by validation and refinement of interviews involving practitioners from WA.

The findings demonstrated that mitigating such risks will be feasible if an integrated and concerted approach is applied. Such a holistic approach has also unveiled specific potential reforms to the current building product certification framework that could be implemented to mitigate such risks. All of these led to the development of an idealised building product certification framework as the main contributions of this research.

The proposed idealised framework can be used as the framework to instigate reforms aiming to reduce the risks of allowing non-compliant and non-conforming building products within the WA jurisdiction. Whilst the framework was developed using the data from, and therefore aimed for the WA jurisdiction, the methodology applied here can be used as the basis to develop further frameworks in other jurisdictions.

In the past few years, several capability indices have been developed for evaluating the performance of multivariate manufacturing processes under the normality assumption. However, this assumption may not be true in most practical situations. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to develop new capability indices for evaluating the performance of multivariate processes subject to non-normal distributions.

In this paper, the authors propose three non-normal multivariate process capability indices (MPCIs) RNMC _p , RNMC _pm and RNMC _pu by relieving the normality assumption. Using the two normal MPCIs proposed by Pan and Lee, a weighted standard deviation method (WSD) is used to modify the NMC _p and NMC _pm indices for the-nominal-the-best case. Then the WSD method is applied to modify the multivariate ND index established by Niverthi and Dey for the-smaller-the-better case.

A simulation study compares the performance of the various multivariate indices. Simulation results show that the actual non-conforming rates can be correctly reflected by the proposed capability indices. The numerical example further demonstrates that the actual quality performance of a non-normal multivariate process can properly reflected by the proposed capability indices.

Process capability index is an important SPC tool for measuring the process performance. If the non-normal process data are mistreated as a normal one, it will result in an improper decision and thereby lead to an unnecessary quality loss. The new indices can provide practicing managers and engineers with a better decision-making tool for correctly measuring the performance for any multivariate process or environmental system.

Once the existing multivariate quality/environmental problems and their Key Performance Indicators are identified, one may apply the new capability indices to evaluate the performance of various multivariate processes subject to non-normal distributions.

Quantitative metrics should be used as a risk management option whenever possible. This work proposes a framework for the risk quantification and the resulting risk-based design of control charts to monitor quality control points.

Two quality control models were considered for the risk quantification analysis. Estimated operating characteristic curves, expressing the defect rate (on a ppm basis) as a function of the sample size, process disturbance magnitude and process capacity, were devised to evaluate the maximum rate of defective product of the processes. The proposed framework applicability on monitoring critical control points in Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) systems was further evaluated by Monte Carlo simulations.

Results demonstrate that the proposed monitoring systems can be tuned to achieve an admissible failure risk, conveniently expressed as the number of non-conforming items produced per million products, and these risks can be properly communicated. This risk-based approach can be used to validate critical control point monitoring procedures in HACCP plans. The expected rates of non-conforming items sent out to clients estimated through stochastic simulation procedures agree well with theoretical predictions.

The procedures outlined in this study may be used to establish the statistical validity of monitoring systems that uses control charts. The intrinsic risks of these control systems can be assessed and communicated properly in order to demonstrate the effectiveness of quality control procedures to auditing third parties.

This study provides advancements toward practical directives for the implementation of statistical process control in the food industry. The proposed framework allows the assessment and communication of intrinsic failure risks of quality monitoring systems. It may contribute to the establishment of risk-based thinking in the constitution of quality management systems.

The purpose of this paper is to propose a new mixed repetitive group sampling (RGS) plan based on the process capability index, C_pk, where the quality characteristics of interest follow the normal distribution with unknown mean and unknown variance. Tables are constructed to determine the optimal parameters for practical applications for both symmetric and asymmetric fraction non-conforming cases. The advantages of this proposed mixed sampling plan are also discussed. The proposed sampling plan is also compared with other existing sampling plans.

In order to determine the optimal parameters of the proposed mixed RGS plan based on C_pk, the authors constructed tables for various combinations of acceptable and limiting quality levels (LQLs). For constructing tables, the authors followed the approach of two points on the operating characteristic (OC) curve. The optimal problem is formulated as a non-linear programming where the objective function to be minimized is the average sample number (ASN) and the constraints are related to lot acceptance probabilities at acceptable quality level and LQL under the OC curve.

The proposed mixed RGS plan will be a new addition to the literature of acceptance sampling. It is shown that the proposed mixed plan involves minimum ASN with desired protection to both producers and consumers compared to other existing sampling plans. The practical application of the proposed mixed sampling plan is also explained with an illustrative real-time example.

In this paper, the authors propose a new mixed RGS plan based on the process capability index C_pk, where the quality characteristic of interest follows the normal distribution with unknown mean and unknown variance. Tables are constructed to determine the optimal parameters for practical applications. The proposed mixed sampling plan can be used in all production industries. This kind of mixed RGS plan is not available in the literature.

The purpose of this study is to present a methodical procedure on how to prepare event logs and analyse them through process mining, statistics and visualisations. The aim is to derive roots and patterns of quality deviations and non-conforming finished products as well as best practice facilitating employee training in the food processing industry. Thereby, a key focus is on recognising tacit knowledge hidden in event logs to improve quality processes.

This study applied process mining to detect root causes of quality deviations in operational process of food production. In addition, a data-ecosystem was developed which illustrates a continuous improvement feedback loop and serves as a role model for other applications in the food processing industry. The approach was applied to a real-case study in the processed cheese industry.

The findings revealed practical and conceptional contributions which can be used to continuously improve quality management (QM) in food processing. Thereby, the developed data-ecosystem supports production and QM in the decision-making processes. The findings of the analysis are a valuable basis to enhance operational processes, aiming to prevent quality deviations and non-conforming finished products.

Process mining is still rarely used in the food industry. Thereby, the proposed method helps to identify tacit knowledge in the food processing industry, which was shown by the framework for the preparation of event logs and the data ecosystem.

Zero acceptance number plans (c = 0 plans) are sometimes described as the only appropriate method of acceptance sampling in an environment in which zero defects is a meaningful concept. Considers the operating characteristic curves of such plans, and evaluates their effectiveness in the presence of low levels of defects. Suggests a confidence interval approach to establish sample size for c = 0 plans. Refers to alternative approaches.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a model‐based methodology for the repetitive testing of multiple products with limited capacity, when the testing process is imperfect.

In a repetitive testing process, items that are classified as non‐conforming may be conforming, resulting in excessive scrapping of good items. Failed items are commonly retested to reduce scrapping costs. This paper develops a stochastic optimization formulation and its solution to determine the numbers of repetitive tests for multiple products that minimize the sum of the expected scrapping costs and variable testing costs, subject to a testing equipment capacity constraint. It also develops a procedure to estimate the parameter values that are used in the optimization formulation.

Computational experiments are conducted to evaluate the estimation and solution procedure and to understand the effect of testing machine capacity on the optimal total cost. These results demonstrate the viability of the proposed approach and the criticality of accurate parameter estimation.

This research shows the usefulness of the proposed optimization/statistical estimation approach to a real‐life complex inspection problem. However, the proposed model has to be modified when the characteristics of the testing equipment are changed.

The authors capture the idiosyncrasies in semiconductor manufacturing such as the high outgoing quality level, the repetitive testing environment, the high coefficient of variation in the number of failure products, and the testing capacity constraint. Conducting extensive computational experiments, the authors demonstrate that the proposed approach is viable.

The paper describes a complex, real‐life inspection management situation, develops a rigorous model‐based solution approach, and carefully demonstrates its viability.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of other customer perception (OCP) (Brocato et al., 2012) on focal customer’s service quality perception and revisit intention in high- and low-involvement services and the effect of customer’s need for uniqueness (NFU) as a boundary condition of the above relationships.

Following a theoretical methodology, hypotheses were developed to analyze the effect of OCP, service involvement and customer’s NFU. A 2 × 2 × 2 scenario-based experiment was designed. Multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) was used to test the hypotheses.

The analysis reveals that the presence of conforming (versus non-conforming) other customers improves service quality perception and revisit intention of focal customers in high-involvement services, but not in low-involvement services. However, the relationship between similarity perception and outcome variables does not hold good for high-NFU customers.

This study suggests that conforming and non-conforming other customers are critical in forming service quality perception of high-involvement services, and highlights the boundary condition of this relationship. If service managers take service involvement and individual differences into account, and strategize their service offering aligned to their target customers, influence of other customers can be managed more efficiently.

As this study is one of the first empirical studies to focus on the effect of OCP on service quality perception and examine its boundary condition, it contributes significantly to the body of knowledge. Future research directions are discussed and managerial implications are proposed.