International Journal for Quality Research

10

Authors: K.Venkatasubbaiah, K. Narayana Rao, M. Malleswara Rao

Maritime transport is considered as one of the most important sectors in the world as it is an engine to drive the national and international trade and economic growth of many countries. Today, container terminals face severe competition and these should respond to the various new requirements of shipping lines to maintain their market position. In this paper, evaluation of the container terminals or ports is carried out using AHP and DEMATEL as hybrid method in fuzzy environment. The hybrid model is illustrated with a numerical example.

12

Authors: Piotr Kafel, Pawel Nowicki

This paper is intended to answer questions about the main reasons to give up the management system certification as well as what happened with implemented management systems after resignation of its certification. There were chosen seven organization which had implemented and had certified at least one standardized management system (ISO 9001 or ISO 14001) and gave up its certification. The type of studies were case studies. The main results of that researches are: high cost of certification was the most important reason to give up the certification of environmental and quality management systems as well as there was found the lack of positive externalities related to certification. Another outcome form the researches leads to a statement that in most of studied organizations, managers declared that management system is still operating or partly operating. So this comes to conclusion, that no matter they have a valid certificate they still follow the standardized management systems requirements.

12

Authors: Luis Fonseca, David Leite, Vanda Lima

Six Sigma is a disciplined approach for dramatically reducing defects and producing measurable financial results (Anand, 2006; Linderman et al., 2003). It should not be a simple statistical tool, but rather a strategic management approach by supporting key projects aligned with the business goals and customer requirements. Although associated with considerable Return on Investments, there is not enough evidence of Six Sigma application within Portuguese companies. It is the aim of this exploratory research to study Six Sigma utilization by Portuguese Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). The descriptive analysis and the statistical tests carried out, point to lack of knowledge with this Methodology (Higher at Top Management level) and a sense of comfort with the existing management systems (mainly ISO 9001). The authors recommend increasing Six Sigma training and education and additional studies to gather further knowledge and contribute to more competitive and sustainable organizations.

14

Authors: Tarun Soota

New product developments are a moving target which become increasing complex due to a number of factors some known and others unknown. NPD is an interdisciplinary activity that transforms a market opportunity and technological concept to a successful product. The key steps towards creating a winning product must include a robust product strategy taking into consideration the positioning options, its viability and adopting a flexible development approach. The lack of structure to the allocation of product development resources causes customer expectations to get lost, in the complexity of the product development process. The replication of strategy and methods for a successful product may not guarantee success. Fuzzy Multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) methods namely the analytic hierarchy process, analytic network process, technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solutions (TOPSIS) and Elimination and choice translating reality (ELECTRE) offer valuable tools to handle complex situations incorporating the imprecise and uncertain information. As each method has its strengths it may be proper to explore and adapt different techniques according to product for sustainable development. Company should be able to put together the combination of features and value that unlocks a profitable new market.

16

Authors: Svetlana Cvetanovic, Vladimir Nedic, Milan Eric

Studies of small and medium-sized enterprise (SMEs) development around the world show that the most significant factor for increasing their numbers and improving business success is the free enterprise, as exogenous, and innovation as an endogenous variable. At the same time, the dominant view in economic theory is that innovation is a key generator of changes for which the SMEs can be considered as a kind of metaphors for a successful business over the last twenty years in a number of economies. Arguing that cooperation between SMEs is increasingly common generic strategy of their development, the paper first explains the importance of collaboration to increase innovation and competitiveness, and then provides possible models using information technology such as Workflow Management Systems (WfMS), Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) and Service-Oriented Cloud Computing Architecture (SOCCA) to support the collaboration of these business entities. Solutions provided are aimed at improving the innovativeness of SMEs and fully follow the requirements of the so-called fifth-generation innovation process whose key attributes are integration and flexibility.