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.
