This book is about the philosophy and practice of Evolutionary Operation (called EVOP for short), a simple but powerful statistical tool with wide application in industry. Experience has long shown that statistical methods, sometimes quite sophisticated in character, can be of great value in improving the efficiency of laboratory and pilot-plant investigations made by specially trained chemists and engineers. What originally motivated the introduction of EVOP, however, was the idea that the widespread and daily use of simple statistical design and analysis during routine production by process operatives themselves could reap enormous additional rewards.

GEORGE E. P. BOX, PhD, is Ronald Aylmer Fisher Professor Emeritus of Statistics and Industrial Engineering at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. His lifelong work has defined statistical analysis, while his name and research is a part of some of the most influential statistical constructs, including Box & Jenkins models, Box & Cox transformations, and Box & Behnken designs. Dr. Box is the coauthor of a number of Wiley books, including most recently, Statistical Control by Monitoring and Adjustment, Second Edition; Response Surfaces, Mixtures, and Ridge Analyses, Second Edition; and Improving Almost Anything: Ideas and Essays, Revised Edition.

George C. Tiao is emeritus professor in the Booth School of Business at the University of Chicago. He contributed to the development of Bayesian Statistics, Time Series Analysis and Environmental Statistics. He has authored, co-authored or co-edited seven books.