International Journal for Quality Research

10

Authors: Dominik Zimon

The aim of this publication was determining the impact of implementation of the ISO 14001 standard requirements on creating sustainable supply chains in the textile industry. The research process included the development of research tools such as questionnaires. Surveys of anonymous nature were sent by e-mail to top management representatives organizations operating in the south-eastern Poland and Slovakia who hold a certified quality management system according to ISO 14001. The research process carried out as well as the analysis of the obtained results allowed to respond to the research questions. As a result it can be stated that the ISO 14001 standard is an instrument that has a noticeable impact on improving the concept of sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) in the textile industry.

12

Authors: Matej Babič, Cristiano Fragassa, Grzegorz Lesiuk, Dragan Marinković

In this article, a new method for complexity determination by using fractals in combination with an artificial intelligent approach is proposed and its application in laser hardening technology is detailed. In particular, nanoindentation tests were applied as a way to investigate the hardness properties of tool steel alloys with respect to both marginal and relevant changes in laser hardening parameters. Specifically, process duration and temperature were considered, together with nanoindentation, later related to surface characteristics by image analysis and Hurst exponent determination. Three different Machine Learning algorithms (Random Forest, Support Vector Machine and k-Nearest Neighbors) were used and predictions compared with measures in terms of mean, variability and linear correlation. Evidences confirmed the general applicability of this method, based on integrating fractals for microstructure analysis and machine learning for their deep understanding, in material science and process engineering.

12

Authors: Zuzana Mitalova, Darina Duplakova, Dusan Mital, Juliana Litecka, Velimir Dedic, Enes Sukic

Wood-plastic composites present the specific group of composite materials consisting of plastic matrix and natural reinforcement in meal or fibre form. There are publications which are presented in the scientific databases whose field of investigating is the mechanical and physical properties, the way of manufacturing and chemical composition of WPC materials. However, there is only a small percentage in the field of machining of composite materials with the natural reinforcement. The presented article is focused on the surface topography evaluation of wood plastic composite materials after turning. Parameters of surface roughness were evaluated using the optical contactless method - MicroProf FRT optical profilometer. During the turning process, a trace is formed on the surface profile - in the form of thread with the expected pitch. Surface roughness parameters and conclusions were formulated according to obtained results.

14

Authors: Mohammad Ayed Aloufi

The aim of this review was to examine to what extent the need for nursing specific Clinical Decision Support Systems has been realised in terms of progress in research on this topic, areas of such researches and the findings of these researches. The topic title itself was used as the search term in Google Scholar for different time frames and only papers which have nursing CDSS in their titles were selected. This process yielded 32 papers, which were listed and described briefly. From the listed and described 32 papers, some trends on types of papers and assessment results were tabulated in terms of number of papers in each category and the pertinent references. Three tables were obtained in this manner. The maximum number of papers dealt with evaluation or effects of nursing CDSS. There were nine reviews on the topic spread over time. Seven papers had factors or barriers as their topics. Notably, only one paper dealt with use of mobile devices in nursing CDSS in spite of the fact that use of smart phones is rapidly increasing in every part of life. While 14 papers assessed CDSS positively, seven assessed it negatively. Another seven were neutral in assessment or there was no clear statement on this. Three papers dealt with scope for nursing CDSS, which should prompt more research on this. Reviews were mostly used. There were only two papers which used high quality RCT, The findings of the review are discussed using appropriate arguments and scope for future research has been indicated at each point and listed at the end. Some limitations of this review have also been listed.

14

Authors: André Luis Korzenowski, Wagner Lourenzi Simões, Lucas Schmidt Goecks, Melissa Gerhard, Pablo Fogaça, Rossano Santos Noronha

This study aims to evaluate the economic viability of SPC implementation in an out-of-specification production system in order to find the most sustainable point to change from the 100% inspection to sampling inspection. It can prevent losses with false alarms and, or, excessive inspection. It was a computational simulation study through the application of Duncan's (1956) model for the economic design of control charts. The model was optimized using a simulated annealing algorithm to find the parameters' values - a comparative study realized with a real case and a decision flow chart for SPC implementation provided. The results have several relevant practical implications, since the correct decision concerning the inspection type to be adopted based on the proportion of defective items allows its operation with lower costs, eliminating wastes in unnecessary inspections. The optimization of resources also contributes to focusing efforts on continuous process improvement.

16

Authors: Martin Schadler, homas Teichert, Tim Herzhoff, Sascha Klein, Karl-Armin Brohm

In 2017, around 99.5% of all companies in Germany belonged to the small and medium-sized enterprise category. They generated a turnover of 2.33 trillion euros, corresponding to 35.0% of the total turnover in Germany. SMEs are dependent on gaining a competitive advantage through a wide range of unique selling points and specializations in order to stand out from the competition and ensure their long-term existence in the market. The vast majority of products and innovations are planned, developed, and implemented within a project framework. This paper deals with the questions of which success criteria are particularly important for SMEs, which conditions must be fulfilled, and which monitoring and control measures are necessary to ensure that the project remains on the road to success and has a particularly high probability of being completed successfully. Extensive literature research was conducted in the course of the investigations. Sources by both project management specialists in the working environment and academic publications from project management associations and interest groups were examined.

18

Authors: Mercurius Broto Legowo, Budi Indiarto, Deden Prayitno

The purpose of this research is to develop a unified model of quality assurance system for ISO-certified higher education institutions, by integrating Accreditation of The BAN-PT and ISO 9001:2008. BAN-PT is National Accreditation Board of Higher Education in Indonesia has a standard for quality academic process improvement for higher education institutions. ISO 9001 is a standard for quality management systems. There are two issues need to be resolved when an ISO-certified higher education institutions implement Accreditation of BAN-PT. First, it is not easy to identify reusable ISO clauses and requirements when applying for BAN-PT accreditation. Second, it is difficult for ISO-certified higher education institutions to implement BAN-PT Accreditation directly, due to the differences in language, structure, and detail of these two sets of documents. The results of this study, we present a unified model that solves these two problems and can support to implement the BAN-PT Accreditation.

18

Authors: Salman Althobaiti, Sultan Alharthi, Ali Moosa ALZahrani

The aim of this qualitative systematic review is to review the studies on patient perceptions of nursing care quality. All the papers available in the first five pages of Google Scholar using time frames of any time and 2016-2020 (10 web pages) and 2020 (five web pages) were reviewed. The review found that surveys using many different types of measurement frameworks was the methodology of choice for a majority of works. Among the topics, framework validation, care dimensions and specific problems like AIDS, surgery patients and cancer patients were researched most. Many types of measurement frameworks have been used for measuring patient perceptions of nursing care quality. Factors related to the patient, care environment and nursing were identified by the researchers. Individualised care, communicating the truth, competent and prompt care and response to various personal care needs of the patient, timely attention to urgent calls, safety, avoiding medical errors, empathy and instilling trust and confidence in the patient are important care dimensions. Patient-related dimensions are mainly demographic. They include age, education, occupation, income, marital status and certain behavioural attributes, which are outside the control of hospitals. Nurses may be able to adjust to individual behavioural problems to some extent, but not of all patients all the time. Nursing dimensions like working environment, staff strength, leadership effectiveness, involvement or empowerment for independent decision making, strain and burnout and work-life balance problems affect their care quality at professional level. At their personal level, knowledge, skills, competence and training, positive attitude towards the profession are important determinants. A care quality improvement bundle can be designed by the hospital to facilitate the nurses to improve on these factors. The hospitals need to obtain periodical feedback on the administrative aspects of nursing care from the nurses and make any improvement required to provide the proper working conditions without strain and burnout and facilitating work-life balance.

18

Authors: José Salvador da Motta Reis, Fernanda De Oliveira Silva, Maximilian Espuny, Larah Giffoni Lescura Alexandre, Luís César Ferreira Motta Barbosa, Ana Cláudia Munhoz Bonassa, Amanda Marcondes Faria, Nilo Antonio de Souza Sampaio, Gilberto Santos, Otávio José de Oliveira

With it's rapid contagion, the new coronavirus is spreading more and more around the world. Studies point out that the difficulty in solving this pandemic lies in the lack of identification of those infected for their symptoms, which sometimes do not exist. The objectives of this work are to carry out a bibliometric study, identifying the main countries, authors, journals, institutions and keywords that make up this field of knowledge; analyze the research opportunities in the main articles to identify the main study trends about Covid-19; and check if there is a correlation between the number of publications and the number of infected by Covid-19. Among the main groups identified in the studies, the following stand out: regulation of the wildlife market, detection, prevention, impacts on patients, proposal of vaccines, treatment and Covid-19 cure. One of the main contributions of this study was the transmission of relevant knowledge about Covid-19 with the intention to improve quality of life.

22

Authors: Marek Bugdol, Piotr Jedynak

The article discusses the importance of remuneration systems in organizations using Total Quality Management (TQM) and presents the current state of knowledge regarding the role of remuneration systems in quality improvement. The main objective of this paper is to determine the role played by (rarely researched) bonus systems in the process of motivating employees to improve product and service quality. Firstly, the authors indicate to what extent quality criteria are included in the designing of remuneration systems. Secondly, they provide employee feedback on how motivating their pay systems are. Thirdly, they determine to what extent different pay solutions are assessed as fair. Findings: decisions on bonus granting are based on not only objective product/service quality criteria but also opinions such as assessments made by superiors and criteria such as zero work-related accidents, zero sickness absences, or customer satisfaction levels. Thus, it is difficult to assume that bonus granting criteria are completely fair. The conducted analysis shows that a considerable group of the respondents consider bonus awarding as a source of perceived injustice. The most important factors influencing employee motivation include commendations from superiors (in service enterprises) and the possibility of self-control in production enterprises. Contributions: the conducted research extends the knowledge of the role of bonus systems in processes aimed at improving the quality of services and products.

8

Authors: Marta Bogusławska-Tafelska, Alina-Andreea Dragoescu Urlica, Natalia Malenko

The paper presents an extended version of a theoretical exploration proposing an intervention program to promote more sustainable and ecological modes of communication and collaborative education in language learning. Our joint project in progress is grounded on the framework of ecolinguistics and a 'newparadigmatic' school of thought which consists of shared interdisciplinary methodologies with expanded input from the life sciences, especially ecology. In our view, ecological communication and language learning are based on developing meaningful interpersonal relationships within disciplines in the humanistic area (such as foreign languages) and beyond the learning environment. The aim of this exploration is to investigate the psycho-linguistic quality and the potential of ecologically sustainable environments for learning how to communicate. The question raised in our preliminary study addresses the complexity of ecological models for language learning and promotes the high quality of language education from a meaningful eco-communicative perspective.

12

Authors: Mariana Enes, Ângela Silva

This project was developed in a food retail company with a complex distribution system, with several distribution centres located in Portugal, different temperature requirements for their products and different dimension store formats. The aim of the work was to analyze procedures to increase the service quality to the warehouse and stores through the improvement of the volumetric occupancy rate of the trucks, which depends mainly on the relationship between the number of pallets transported in each vehicle and its volume. After analyzing and diagnosing the picking, loading and unloading operations, it was found that the volumetric occupancy rate of the vehicles was 48.5%, which means that more than half of the truck is empty. To increase this indicator, two strategies were proposed to be implemented: the revision of the current volume and weight limits; and the consolidation of different product categories in the same pallet for the small-format stores. After conducting pilot tests, a potential gain was obtained of more than 577,908 €/year.

14

Authors: Maria João Félix, Gilberto Santos, Ricardo Simoes, Jorge Rui Silva

The main goal of this work is to demonstrate that the concerns about the qualification of research in the field of design have had in the last years of this decade an extraordinary development due to the recognition of its importance for quality innovation and competitiveness of business, but also due to its importance as a strategic partner in a system-oriented approach. The methodology of this research will focus on a literature review that shows that Design Research itself is a very complex area of knowledge production, thus it requires an equally rich repertoire of methods and positions. The main findings point to the need to position individual researchers approaches in this complex scenario that ensures quality in design and development processes. In conclusion it is necessary to continue defining its particularities and also to develop a scenario proposal for Design Research through practice.

16

Authors: Elena V. Sofiina

This paper is aimed at identifying the key quality factors of agricultural products in contemporary Russia and developing recommendations for managing these factors in the interests of improving the quality of products under consideration and promoting the development of agriculture at the regional level (through the example of the Kirov Region). The research is carried out in two consecutive stages. At the first stage, all-Russian data are used due to insufficient detail of regional statistics. The method of regression analysis is used for determining the dependence of quality indicators on potential factors. Then, the simplex method is used to determine the values that are expected to be taken by the factor variables so that the target values could be achieved by the response variables. As a result, the arithmetic means of the factor variables are determined and the values that will be taken by the response variables in this case are calculated; the increment in the values of all variables compared to 2018 is analyzed. At the second stage, the results obtained, conclusions drawn and recommendations made are tested through the example of the Kirov Region of Russia - a qualitative analysis of land use processes in the region is performed. As a result of the research, the key quality factors of agricultural products (horticulture) in Russia have been substantiated, recommendations were made, and limitations of managing them in the interests of improving the quality were specified.

16

Authors: Natalia V. Gritsuk, Nadezhda V. Gamulinskaya, Elena V. Petrova

The purpose of the article is to develop the innovative approach to managing the quality of products in the digital economy based on intellectual accounting and audit and to determine the conditions of its application. The authors determine the essence and advantages of intellectual accounting and audit as compared to the traditional approach to managing the quality of products and perform a comparative analysis of the traditional and innovative approaches to managing the quality of products in view of the forms of organization of entrepreneurship. Based on this, the authors determine the cases in which the innovative approach is preferable and determine the expedience of transfer to it. During comparison of the approaches to managing the quality of products the authors formulate the task of multi-criterial non-linear optimization and solve it with the help of the analytical hierarchical procedure (method of Thomas L. Saaty). Advantages of the innovative approach to managing the quality of products in the digital economy based on intellectual accounting and audit are substantiated, and it is shown that they are recognized by companies of all forms of organization. However, the possibilities of gaining these advantages and their value for companies are different. That's why each case requires consideration of possibilities and priorities of a company in the aspect of managing the product quality.

18

Authors: Elena G. Popkova

The research aims at specifying the scientific treatment of quality of goods and services in the conditions of the knowledge economy through the prism of correlation of traditions and innovations. The paper contains a case study by the example of modern Russia - as one of the countries with the most developed knowledge economy. The author develops a new method of collection of factual data for determining the correlation of traditions and innovations during treatment of quality of goods and services in the knowledge economy by the example of modern Russia. The methodology of the research includes the regression analysis and factor analysis. As a result of the research, scientific treatment of quality of goods and services in the conditions of the knowledge economy is specified through the prism of correlation of traditions and innovations. It is determined that in modern Russia (2019) the consumers pay a lot of attention to the indicators of innovations during determination of quality of goods and services. Consumers' opinion is taken into account in modern Russia. Quality of the considered goods and services in 2019 grew, as compared to 2015, due to improvement of their innovative characteristics. Based on this, it is recommended - in the mid-term - to continue the set course of state and corporate management of quality of goods and services in Russia and to pay more attention to improvement of their innovative characteristics.

18

Authors: Rashmi Srinivas, D R Swamy, T S Nanjundeswaraswamy

Quality Management Practices (QMP) has evolved as a management philosophy with a claim to improve organizational performance. The oil and gas industries have realized the importance of quality to compete and survive in unpredictable market arena. This paper examines the extent of QMP implementation in Oil and Gas sector. Around 52% of the respondents of oil and gas sector opinioned that QMP is implemented. Based on the literature seven QMP factors with 60 items were considered for the study, through the Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) 32 items were extracted based on the item loading more than 0.5. Further, these factors were validated by Confirmatory Factor analysis (CFA) using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). This resulted in five important factors with 31 items indicating good model fit with fit indices all above acceptable range (chi-square statistics was 246.158 with CMIN 1.399, GFI = 0.929, AGFI = 0.907, NFI = 0.902, IFI = 0.968, CFI = 0.967, TLI = 0.961 and RMSEA = 0.037). The five factor QMP measurement model was tested for discriminant and convergent validity. The study reveals that age, educational qualification of employees; nature of job and nature of activities carried out are significantly associated, while gender and experience are not associated with the level of QMP implementation. The results of this paper provide guidance for managers and practitioners in oil and gas sector to implement the proposed 5 factor QMP model (Top management commitment, Employee involvement, Training and Development, Customer focus, Supplier Quality Management) in a systematic way to enhance organizational performance.

18

Authors: Oksana M. Kulikova, Vitaliy A. Shamis, Tamara P. Sidorova

The study is based on hypotheses that the formation of clusters in engineering occurs spontaneously, and their life cycle passes through different stages. In this regard, formed clusters affect other clusters and economic structures, including the yield of products in them.Results: 1) A set of indicators for the identification of innovative engineering clusters and determining the stage of their life cycle was developed. 2) The regularities of the functioning of innovative engineering clusters at each stage of its life cycle are determined. 3) The values of the indicators for each stage of the lifecycle of innovative industrial clusters.A set of indicators developed by the authors to identify clusters of innovative engineering and determine the stage of their life cycle allows with sufficient accuracy to solve the task of pattern recognition in the study of the processes and management of development of cluster structures in the study area.

20

Authors: Irina P. Devetyarova, Oksana S. Agalakova, Larisa S. Cheglakova, Yulia A. Kolesova

The purpose of the paper is to substantiate the important role of quality management of provided educational services for success of marketing practices of a digital university and to develop recommendations for institutionalization of successful marketing practices of digital universities based on quality management in modern Russia. The authors use the case method and the methods of logical, comparative, trend, and regression analysis. The authors perform a critical analysis of marketing practices of digital universities in modern Russia and compare the consumer preferences as to the choice between the traditional and digital educational services in case of absence and in case of presence of experience of digital training. Also, growth of the indicators of quality of educational services, provided by digital universities, and growth of the indicators of efficiency of their marketing practices are compared. The research objects are top 10 digital universities of Russia (according to the 2019 rating). As a result, it is substantiated that results of implementation of marketing practices of digital universities in modern Russia depend on quality management of provided educational services. A restraining factor on the path of development of digital universities in modern Russia is their insufficient attention to the issues of quality management, which reduces the efficiency of marketing activities and causes their low competitiveness as suppliers of educational services, objects of investing, and employers. The offered recommendations will allow raising the quality and marketing activity of digital universities in Russia and ensuring institutionalization of their successful marketing practices, thus stimulating the increase of efficiency of marketing activities.

22

Authors: Marta Mas-Machuca, Frederic Marimon, Ivan Malbašić

The objective of this research is to explore the relationships between values, values' fit, and quality management with organizational performance, and to investigate the mediating role of knowledge management creation between these three antecedents of organizational performance. Aiming this purpose, a mixed-methodology approach was conducted. First step was performing quantitative research through a questionnaire on two different samples (one for the exploratory factor analysis and another for the research model). The second step consisted on qualitative research based on semi-structured interviews. The posited hypotheses are tested statistically through Structural Equation Modelling technique. The results show that quality management and knowledge creation have significant and positive impact on organizational performance. This research makes an original contribution to the existing literature by proposing new scales of the constructs that are analysed. Results suggest ground-breaking and unexpected ideas regarding values, values' congruence and the role of knowledge management with organizational performance. This study also has practical implications for managers.

10

Authors: Lulzime Kamberi, Alina-Andreea Dragoescu Urlica, Makfirete Ameti

This paper is a follow up to a previous study focusing on some relevant issues faced by university teachers of English for Specific Purposes (ESP) at the University of Tetovo (UT), Northern Macedonia and the USAMVB "King Michael I of Romania" from Timisoara, Romania. It highlights the considerable role ESP and language communication play in the students' professional training, in view of the changing global landscape. The rising focus on communication, peer feedback and other major themes will be analysed based on the preliminary qualitative results we reported earlier (Kamberi et al., 2019). By applying a qualitative exploratory approach, we investigate and further discuss the themes previously identified regarding teachers' biases and beliefs, as well as challenges they face in providing high quality ESP courses correlated with the various fields students are majoring in at the tertiary level. It is suggested that teachers and university management take more responsibility regarding the organization and delivery of ESP courses in higher education in order to better equip professionals for the global market by looking at English as a genuine "lingua franca" across professional fields and as indispensible in virtually all areas of study.

12

Authors: Karl-Armin Brohm, Sascha Klein

In scientific literature with a focus on economics, the topic of sustainability has proven to be a relevant area of research in the last decade. Particularly in connection with the food industry, the issues of corporate social responsibility and the Shared Value approach of Porter and Kramer are important. With regard to the realization of sustainability in food production processes in the agricultural economy sector, the scientific climate of climate Smart Agriculture emerged in scientific literature. So it is now necessary to examine whether the theory of the Climate Smart Agriculture can meet the requirements of the definitions around the topic of Corporate Social Responsibility and the Shared Value Theory.

14

Authors: Allyson de Freitas, Eduardo Gomes Salgado, Jean Marcel Sousa Lira

The Green Supply Chain Management (GSCM) emerges as an alternative to intervene in industrial processes for economic, environmental and social purposes and their management involves strategy, organization and control of the flow of services. The GSCM can improve aspects such as pollution and water waste. Thus, the objective this work was identifies the main criteria in the selection of suppliers of Brazilian companies in the food sector that use GSCM through the Analytic Hierarchic Process (AHP). The results obtained show that the Economic criterion (64.8%) was the most relevant and the sub-criteria considered of major importance were Quality, Cost and Technical Capacity. The environmental criterion had a lower percentage and among the sub-criteria related to the Social criterion, Health and Safety, Education and Working Conditions were the most relevant. However, the economic factor seems to be decisive in the choice of suppliers.

14

Authors: Svetla Tzvetkova

The ever-growing population and dynamic of urban traffic in the city of Sofia, as well as the utterly unsatisfactory condition of public transport have resulted in traffic jams on the capital's main streets and boulevards, exceeded limits of atmospheric and noise pollution, and multiple other negative social effects. The capital's residents prefer to use their personal cars and believe that public transport requires significant improvements - a notion that has been confirmed by a survey of citizens' opinions on the state and quality of urban passenger transport in the capital. All of this has led to a firm conviction in the necessity for adopting specific measures to improve the quality of urban passenger transport, along with determining the topicality of the current paper. The purpose of the article is to name specific measures for improving the social effectiveness of Sofia's public transport, based on an analysis of its dynamic and state.

16

Authors: Mikhail Lomakin, Alexey Buryi, Alexander Dokukin, Anatoly Strekha, Julia Niyazova, Alexander Balvanovich

The paper considers the task of evaluating product quality indicators based on the results of measurements obtained during the control testing. Data processing is proposed to be carried out in two stages. First stage comprises data compression via cluster analysis, and the second stage uses the procedure of non-parametric estimation of the observed measurements to evaluate the quality of small samples with an unknown distribution law. Quality scores are defined as guaranteed scores on a set of distributions with moments equal to sample points found from a small sample. A number of theoretical statements are formulated, and a model example is given.

18

Authors: Larisa S. Cheglakova, Irina P. Devetyarova, Oksana S. Agalakova, Yulia A. Kolesova

The purpose of the research is to study the modern Russian practice of quality management during reorganization of regional universities in the process of modernization of education in the conditions of region's transition to Industry 4.0 and to develop a marketing strategy of quality management during this reorganization, which would allow improving the existing practice and ensuring the quick transition of Russia's regions to Industry 4.0. In order to determine the consequences of reorganization of regional universities in this process of modernization of education in Russia's regions, the authors use a specially developed method, as well as the methods of trend, correlation, and factor analysis. As a result it is substantiated that the issues of marketing management of quality during reorganization of regional universities in the process of their modernization in modern Russia are not studied sufficiently - which hinders the transition of regions to Industry 4.0. This is proved by reduction of the number of universities (tendency of monopolization of the regional markets of educational services) and growth of the volume of state financing of reorganized (regional flagship) universities during insignificant implementation of the leading digital technologies and insufficient training of digital personnel for Russia's regions. It is shown that marketing management stimulates the increase of quality of education in the process of universities' reorganization. The authors develop a marketing strategy of quality management during reorganization of regional universities in mentioned process.

18

Authors: Lina Susilowati, Candra Fajri Ananda, Khusnul Ashsar, Susilo Susilo

The productivity level of labours in Micro and Small Industries (MSI), especially in leather craftsmen in Magetan regency, has increased significantly. Based on the results of research conducted through the use of panel analysis with the model equation using The Redundant Fixed Effect (RFE) and Hausman test, where the equation model for labour productivity comes from the ratio output formula for determinants that are still related and relevant to production. The results obtained by applying the Fixed Effect Model (FEM) method, show that the independent variable factors, such as capital per labour, number of labours, innovation, learning by doing, training, and the level of education in senior high school, are found to have an influence which is good at increasing productivity of labours. While at the junior high school level, it does not affect the productivity level of labours working in micro and small industries, leather craftsmen in the Magetan Regency.

18

Authors: Olena Illiashenko, Yevhenii Rudnichenko, TetianaMomot, Nataliia Havlovska

The use of the model of the state assessment of an enterprise economic security system allows to get a general assessment of the system state and its balance by type of management (strategic, operational, financial, innovation, personnel, marketing). In contrast to the existing models, this one allows to distinguish between the most important types of management influence and to operate with factors that determine the level of their development in the future. In addition, the proposed model allows to assess the balance of an enterprise economic security system and identify its imperfections within a specific type of management.

18

Authors: Dominik Zimon, Jonah Tyan, Robert Sroufe

he main objective of the research and thinking presented in this study is to characterize the conditions and barriers related to the implementation of SDGs in supply chains. The explanation of the outlined research problem and the more detailed research issues prompted the authors to formulate the following auxiliary goals: identification and emphasis on the links between SSCM practices and UN SDGs and development of a model supporting the implementation of UN SDGs in SSCM. In summarizing our analysis of information from this field of inquiry, contributions to the literature include a new conceptual model, and a dynamic context for a three phased model for implementation of successful sustainable supply chain management initiatives. We provide a grounded approach for new theoretical insights that map supply chain practices for future research and performance measurement aligned with the United Nation's 17 Sustainable Development Goals.

20

Authors: Ladan Hassani, Ehsan Taati

Recently, the competition has increased among Iranian-banks. This provides customer's satisfaction and quality-optimization. Nowadays, Credit-card is a new and significant product for Iranian-banks. Reports show customer's demand decreased by 21% in using credit-card in 2018. This study is aimed to identify high-quality customers of credit-card and develop the product quality through creating features in accordance with to their needs in order to increase customers' satisfaction. It was conducted on 1598 credit-card holders in two-phases. First, high-quality customers were selected using data-mining tools (K-means/C&RT algorithm); Results show 93 high-quality customers. Second, their data was studied the way of using credit-cards and its features from customers' perspective including how to pay installments, number of facilities documents, etc. Results show that 43% and 57% customers use the credit-card as a loan-card and revolving-credit respectively. Also, most customers of revolving-credit significantly consume allocated-credit in a transaction and start paying their debt in maximum-installments.

12

Authors: Luis Miguel Fonseca, William Esteves, Valentina Mihaela Ghinea, Ramona Elena Cantaragiu

Researchers have focused on the influence of organizational models in the actions, and subsequent outcomes of organizations and the results support the view that there is indeed an association between certain features of organizational models and organizational performance outcomes. The purpose of this paper is to map the organizational models used by Portuguese companies to identify possible dominant patterns and search for differences across several dimensions (sector, size, number of customers; internal/external market). The results show a level of organizational hybridism with several models applied simultaneously and with smaller firms showing a higher emphasis on dialogue, flexibility, and response capability. There is also a general preference among Portuguese companies for the bureaucratic organizational model. The results also indicate that organizations that adopt the bureaucratic model seem to be able to implement systematic processes innovation making compatible the rules and procedures with the ability to learn and adapt.

12

Authors: António Pires, Paulo Ávila, Goran Putnik, Leonilde Varela, Maria Manuela Cruz-Cunha, Rita Caldeira

Value analysis methodology uses a structured and methodical job plan contemplating several steps to ensure success in its application. This paper intends to perspective the potential of value analysis application, namely in the furniture industry. To draw conclusions of this potential a case study was developed at an IKEA factory in Portugal. To characterize the customer needs in a clear language and to quantify the value of a product (a bookcase) produced in this factory, a value analysis study was developed. Functional analysis is the most known and distinctive phase of value analysis and is, nowadays, an autonomous tool. With this functional analysis, the authors intend to describe the functions that the product performs, to provide a better knowledge of the product, to evaluate the degree of satisfaction of the product through its functional performance and to facilitate the search for alternative solutions. The results obtained allowed us to reach some important conclusions about the application of value analysis in this type of industry and can be an initial step to promote the use of this tool in this kind of industry.

14

Authors: José Luís Pereira, Marco Costa

We are living a time in which the data generated by humans and machines has reached levels never seen before - the so-called era of Big Data. Everyday, vast amounts of data, coming from different sources and with different formats, are created and made available to organizations. First, with the rise of the social networks and, more recently, with the advent of the Internet of Things (IoT), data with enormous potential for organizations is being continuously generated. In order to be more competitive, organizations need to explore all the richness that is present in those data. Indeed, data is only as valuable as the insights organizations gather from it to make better decisions, which is the main goal of Business Intelligence (BI). In this paper, we describe the development of a decision support system in which data obtained from a NoSQL database is used to feed a BI solution.

14

Authors: Júlio C. Magalhães, Anabela C. Alves, Nélson Costa, Ana Rita Rodrigues

This paper reports the administrative processes improvement based on Lean Office tools in an office environment of a University department. Lean tools such as electronic standardization were applied on the six educational projects of the department. Also, some were used to organize the computer desktop and network drives to improve the supporting educational projects information. Additionally, due to the absence of Key Performance Indicators (KPI), some were defined and implemented on the department. The main results were the electronic standardization successful implementation, reorganization of the drives and the desktop. The impacts were a reduction of 84% on the files search time, improvements on the development of forms for student registration and projects managing, a 69% reduction of time searching for student information or data, a reduction of the input times and information handling in an estimated total of 12 hours/year, identification of KPI and development of a dashboard for visual analysis and monitoring of these.

14

Authors: Teresa Pereira, Elisabete Dias, Dalila B. M. M. Fontes

This work proposes a multi-criteria decision-making approach to select suppliers in the olive oil sector. Besides several performance criteria required to the supplier, olive oil characteristics such as colour, smell, and density, as well as organoleptic tests are used. Hence, the assessment and selection of suppliers assumes a major importance and needs to be done yearly. The process of finding a set of suppliers to choose from involves two sequential stages, namely identification and elimination. The identification stage consists of finding a set of potential suppliers. Then, in the elimination stage, suppliers that are not able to meet the thresholds associated with some technical indicators are disregarded. Thus, only a small set of very promising suppliers need to be assessed. The assessment was performed by resorting to the Macbeth approach, resulting in a ranking. The results obtained were validated through sensitivity and robustness analyses.

14

Authors: Bruno Cretú, Dalila B. M. M. Fontes, Seyed Mahdi Homayouni

This paper addresses a distribution problem involving a set of different products that need to be distributed among a set of geographically disperse retailers and transported from the single warehouse to the aforementioned retailers. The distribution and transportation are made in order to satisfy retailers' demand while satisfying storage limits at both the warehouse and the retailers, transportation limits between the warehouse and the retailers, and other operational constraints. This problem is combinatorial in nature as it involves the assignment of a discrete finite set of objects, while satisfying a given set of conditions. Hence, we propose a genetic algorithm that is capable of finding good quality solutions. The genetic algorithm proposed is used to a real case study involving the distribution of eight products among 108 retailers from a single warehouse. The results obtained improve on those of company's current practice by achieving a cost reduction of about 13%.

16

Authors: Abdilbaet A. Mamasydykov, Murat Z. Abdiev, Gulumkan M. Attokurova, Oyenbek E. Abrakhmanov

The purpose of the article is to study the scientific and methodological aspects of increasing the export potential of processing companies on the cluster basis with the help of quality management, by the example of cotton cultivation of Kyrgyzstan, and to develop practical recommendations. The research subject is organizational and economic mechanisms of increasing the export potential of processing companies on the cluster basis with the help of quality management. The research object is cotton companies of Kyrgyzstan. Based on studying the state of the sphere of cotton production and cotton processing production of Kyrgyzstan, competitiveness of products of the sphere on the basis of development of integration, procesision of deep processing, cluster organization, government support, and stimulation of development of export-oriented spheres of the AIC, the authors determine the problems of the sphere and develop organizational and economic mechanisms of organization and functioning of the cotton micro-cluster. The authors use systemic analysis and economic & statistical, monograph, and comparative methods.

16

Authors: Marcelo Oliveira, Samuel Batista, Dércio Reis, Gabriela Veroneze, Raíssa Maciel

The objective of this paper is to analyze the excess of failures in a mobile phone line production in order to make process improvements in a factory of the industrial pole of Manaus (PIM) by using FMEA methodology (Failure Mode, effect analysis). The excess of failures was an extremely influential aggravating factor by its customer, since the increase of the productive capacity in the company would be determined by the reduction of the percentage of failures or increase of YIELD from the conception of the product until the final phase of its life. Tracing the root causes is an important step in improving manufacturing processes for reducing failures. The impact of this is the reduction in industrial costs and an increase in the quality index of the product, ensuring customer satisfaction in having to produce its product in a factory that operates under condition the EMS (Electronic Manufacturing Services).

18

Authors: Leonilde Varela, Gabriela Amaral, Sofia Pereira, Diogo Machado, António Falcão, Rita A. Ribeiro, Emanuel Sousa, Jorge A. Santos, Alfredo F. Pereira, Goran D. Putnik, Luís Ferreira, Cátia Alves

Decision support visualization tools provide insights for solving problems by displaying data in an interactive, graphical format. Such tools can be effective for supporting decision-makers in finding new opportunities and in measuring decision outcomes. In this study, was used a visualization tool capable of handling multivariate time series for studying a problem of operational control in a textile manufacturing plant; the main goal was to identify sources of inefficiency in the daily production data of three machines. A concise rule-based model of the inefficiency measures (i.e. quantitative measures were transformed into categorical variables) was developed and then performed an in-depth visual analysis using a particular technique, the categorical time series plots stacked vertically. With this approach were identified a wide array of production inefficiency patterns, which were difficult to identify using standard quantitative reporting - temporal pattern of best and worst performing machines - and critically, along with most important sources of inefficiency and some interactions between them were revealed. The case study underlying this work was further contextualized within the state of the art, and demonstrates the effectiveness of adequate visual analysis as a decision support tool for operational control in manufacturing.

20

Authors: Julia V. Ragulina

The article seeks the goal of studying the modern experience of quality management in the AIC in view of the distinguished categories of countries and approaches and developing a scientific concept of quality management in the AIC according to the regulation approach, which allows for high level of national food security. For studying the modern experience of quality management in the AIC the author uses the method of regression analysis, and the resulting variable is the index "Quality and safety", which is calculated within the Global Food Security Index. Also, analysis of variation and correlation and scenario analysis are performed. It is determined that countries that do not specialize in the AIC (e.g., Singapore, Ireland, the UK, and the USA) use the deregulation approach to managing the quality of products in the AIC. Though in 2018 there was high quality of the AIC products in these countries, the deregulation approach does not allow guaranteeing preservation of the achieved quality in the long-term. In countries that specialize in the AIC (e.g., Albania, Republic of Moldova, North Macedonia, and Montenegro) use the regulation approach, which ensures high manageability of quality of products in the AIC. However, the level of quality of these products in 2018 was low. It is substantiated that the optimal scenario is the one envisaging the systemic quality management in the AIC on the basis of the territorial-sectoral placement and scientific & technical development. For the most effective practical implementation of the regulation approach in the countries of the both categories, a scientific concept of quality management in the AIC on the basis of territorial-sectoral placement and scientific & technical development, which allows ensuring high level of national food security, was developed.

8

Authors: Alina-Andreea Dragoescu Urlica, Laura-Ioana Coroama-Dorneanu, Lulzime Kamberi, Natalia Malenko

The paper presents the follow-up of a case study investigation with students of ESP (English for Specific Purposes) on a tertiary level (1st and 4th year students), consisting of collaborative learner-teacher activities, including concept mapping and content-based learning. The results of our project in progress are considered for an optimal adaptation of an ESP textbook which is intended for students in several areas related to the Life Sciences (Agriculture, Biotechnologies, Biology, Genetic Engineering, Horticulture, etc.). The framework of the course support we propose, as well as our methodology and tool kit are provided by ecolinguistics and the aim is achieving ecological learning and meaningful communication in the language class and beyond. The object of this exploratory study is to highlight the potential of collaborative learning environments, to enable students to employ conceptual mapping and find relations between significant concepts in the Life Sciences. The feedback was collected from ESP learners as materials were collaboratively selected and designed together with students, based on the construction of conceptual maps. The question raised in our preliminary study draws on a review of the literature pertinent to meaningful conceptual learning. Some of the key concepts addressed in the ecologically-designed English courses are analysed, focusing on feedback from the students and constantly adapting our findings to better serve their needs.

14

Authors: Iman Adeinat

Many Instruments that are developed and used to measure and evaluate the service quality do not provide a metric for firms to reference in order to adjust their resources to improve service quality. To address this deficit, this study aims at measuring the relative service-quality efficiency of fast food restaurants in a franchise system using data envelopment analysis (DEA). According to the results of the DEA model, efficient and inefficient outlets in the franchise system are identified even though there are no statistically significant differences between the restaurants in regard to their respective service quality scores. The findings open up a new discussion on how would service provider view service quality while taking into consideration efficiency of their business since the results suggest that when firms focus strongly on service quality, a decline in efficiency may result.

14

Authors: Anna V. Shokhnekh

The articles studies the main notions, principles, and procedures of strategic quality management of small business in the system of digital economy in view of risks of drift from the position of the cognitive approach; directions of strategic quality management of small business are given, which allow creating a mechanism of timely classification of risks, for the purpose of forming the algorithm of leveling the strategic drift; the developed procedures of strategic quality management of small business for adaptation in the system of making of managerial decisions are presented. Negative barriers of development of small business in digital economy, which form in the conditions of weak information capacity that hinders identification of substantial changes in external environment are determined. Rejection of very important information that goes along the routes of information and digital communications due to organizational, political, and cultural motives put small business into strategic drift, causing bankruptcy.

16

Authors: Chukwunonso Emmanuel Ozoemena, Philip Hackney, Martin Birkett, David Bell

In the design of statistical experiments, situations may arise when resource constraints hinder the use of factorial designs for process improvement. This paper explores how 9, 18 and 27-run orthogonal arrays compare against each other and against a proposed experimental plan referred to as a 'Segmented Fractional Plan' when used to fractionate 33 and 34 factorial experiments. Based on the analysis of 8 responses from 6 factorial experiments, it was observed that to identify the process setting that produces the desired product quality, with a reduced number of experimental runs, the segmented fractional plan can perform as well or better than some orthogonal arrays thus, providing an option for fractionating 33 and 34 factorial experiments.

16

Authors: Natalia V. Bannikova, Tatyana N. Kostyuchenko, Natalia N. Telnova, Svetlana S. Vaytsekhovskaya

The article deals with the analysis of the status and trends of the development of the dairy business in Russia, particularly through the example of the Stavropol Territory. The analysis is indicative of the relocation of milk production in the sector of small and medium agribusiness due to the cow population decline: on the one hand, in the sector of large agricultural enterprises, and on the other hand - in the sector of household plots. A dependence of economic efficiency of the dairy business on the increase in the size of cow population has been found, but the scale effect is underused because of inadequate investment attractiveness of this type of business. Quality management should be used for increasing it. The article presents the evaluation of possible changes of status of dairy breeding based on the forecast of the key performance indicators of the industry broken down by categories of households in the region through analytical graduation and trend extrapolation. The scenario forecasting of the development of the industry in the agricultural enterprises of the Stavropol Territory served as a basis for the identification of the focus areas of the state support of the of the dairy business development on the basis of quality management. Recommendations for increasing the efficiency of dairy business (with the help of increasing the productiveness of milk cows by means of increasing the breed structure of cattle, improvement of farms, implementation of the innovational technologies of cattle-breeding management, and improvement of feeding) and for increasing the quality and milk and milk products through refusal from using mixtures and through production of "eco-milk", its branding and certification are offered. Guaranteeing high quality of "eco-milk" (high nutrition, high fat level, and rich vitamin structure) will allow reducing elasticity of demand for it and will stimulate successful development of entrepreneurship.

16

Authors: Badr Dakkak, El Hassan Irhirane, Ahmed Bounit

Industrial maintenance occupies a predominant place in manufacturing companies and it effectively contributes to the improvement and the development of the production tool. However, the major concern of industrialists is to carry out efficient interventions in optimal time without penalizing production. Faced with this challenge, maintenance actors often find it difficult to choose the right skills to assign to the different tasks, depending on the complexity and the rapidity required of each task. In this article, we present a tool that helps manufacturers to choose the right actors for maintenance interventions. It is based on the practice of the experimental design and the estimation of the levels of competences of each actor in each maintenance level. Such a tool highlights and takes into account two important responses being the rapidity and quality of interventions. The results obtained were simulated on simulation software and examples of treatment of the results were also presented.

18

Authors: Pawan Kumar Chand, Ashwin Sadasiva Kumar, Amit Mittal

The purpose of this research paper is to understand the role of employability skills and emotional intelligence toward employer satisfaction in recruiting fresh information technology engineering graduates from institutions of higher learning in India. Using a structured questionnaire, the study surveyed 507 employers from the information technology sector companies in India, who as recruiters conduct campus placement drives across various engineering schools in the country. An application of structured equation modeling to the data revealed emotional Intelligence partially mediates in the relationship between employability skills and employer satisfaction while recruiting these fresh engineering IT graduates. The finding of the study will be supportive for the students, academicians and practitioners in recognizing the need of soft skills for making young engineering graduates employable.

20

Authors: Dragana Rejman Petrović, Predrag Mimović

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to, based on the model developed to improve supplier performance and models for supplier evaluation and ranking in different types of supply chains, contribute to the expansion of existing conceptual frameworks for measuring supplier performance, indicating that some key performance indicators used to evaluate and rank suppliers have a different relative importance in different types of supply chains. Design/methodology/approach - The research includes evaluation, ranking, and comparison of six suppliers belonging to an efficient type of supply chain and an agile type of supply chain. For the evaluation and ranking of suppliers by types of supply chains, the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and the data envelopment analysis (DEA) are combined. Novelty - Research in this field has dealt with supplier evaluation and ranking without taking into account the characteristics of different types of supply chains. The contribution of this paper lies in the development of a new model for supplier evaluation and ranking, taking into account the priorities of key performance indicators in different types of supply chains, providing management support in decision-making through simulation and finding the optimal solution for a particular supply chain. Practical implications - Developed and proposed models provide company management with the opportunity to apply a multiple-criteria decision-making model as a support in evaluating and ranking suppliers in different types of e-supply chains.