International Journal for Quality Research

12

Authors: Sérgio Afonso Mulema, Andrés Carrión García

The cultivation of aquatic species in aquaculture aims at improving fish production, making the activity more dependent on human capacity, especially with what concerns to the application of efficient methods for its management. The weight and standard length are the biometric parameters mostly used to control the growth of tilapia in the cultivation process. In this work there is presented a statistical method based on transfer function ARIMA model to adjust and predict the weight of tilapia with the support of the values of the standard length. The model was adjusted to the data recorded in 21 weeks in the tilapia growing tank of the company Aquapesca de Moçambique, and the results showed that there was a good adjustment (with an explained variability of 97.8%) with which the model can be used to predict the future values of tilapia weight and make the activity more controllable and profitable.

14

Authors: Mohammad Ashiqur Rahman Khan, Stanislav Karapetrovic, Linda Carroll

This paper investigates an application of ISO 10004 in a specific care continuum assumed to be an integrated health care case. It also illustrates the integrative augmentation of ISO 10001- and ISO 10002-based promise and feedback systems. An emergency and inpatient care continuum within a Canadian hospital was investigated by interviewing nurses and managers. Patients' service encounters with the care and support providers were examined and the existing measurement activities were studied. Steps for customer satisfaction measurement along the continuum were defined. Sources to determine patient expectations were identified and the measurement activities, such as a survey encompassing all stages within the care continuum, were developed. Research participants were interviewed again to verify the usefulness of the developed measurement activities. The presented work depicts the relationships among the aspects of customer satisfaction, key principles of integrated care and ISO 10004. It is one of the first examples of an application of ISO 10004 and the integrative augmentation of systems standardized by the ISO 10000 customer satisfaction series in health care. This paper is a revised version of Khan et al. (2017).

16

Authors: Maria João Fãlix, Verãnica Duarte

Meals prepared at home are healthier than those that are purchased. So, we have been considering the possibility of offering an aesthetically appealing product whose purpose is to store, protect and carry meals, particularly meals prepared with healthy food in balanced quantities. The SIPOC diagrams were considered in the present work. The results obtained demonstrated that the SIPOC diagram plays an important role in the process definition and improvement and should be reflected firstly before the mapping process. The prototype under study triggered more positive than negative emotions in the respondents. We hope the product can contribute to future researches, both in the promotion of a strategic planning in the design of sustainable products, and also contribute to future research on the SIPOC diagram.

16

Authors: Cláudia Vale Matilde A. Rodrigues, Rui Azevedo, Delfina Ramos, Isabel Loureiro

The European Union faced an economic crisis with a significant expression in Portugal. The financial unsustainability of this country led to austerity measures with negative impacts on organizations and families. The paper aims to analyse the views of the employed population about the influence of crisis on occupational safety, and workers' quality of life. A self-completed questionnaire named External Environment Questionnaire (EEQ) was applied in 2013. A total of 510 questionnaires were filled by Portuguese employees of eight cities from the North of Portugal. The results indicate that the crisis has an important impact in the financial conditions of the workers and an important effect in the job security. Moreover, companies were seen by workers to compromise their safety performance in a crisis period. A strategy to manage safety issues in a crisis context as well as improve the quality of life of workers is needed

18

Authors: Karolina Simat, Ivana Blešić, Sanja Božić, Miša Avramović, Milan Ivkov

The principal aim is to test the Customer Oriented Service Employee (COSE) model and customer sided consequences in travel agencies in Serbia. Data was collected from 243 customers of travel agencies willing to evaluate customer orientation of employees in selected travel agencies in Serbia. Data analysis incorporates structural equation modeling. COSE consequences model was only partially confirmed (three of six hypothesized relationships between COSE dimensions and customer-sided consequences).This article contributes to the theory and practice in the field of customer relationship building. Providing a discussion on COSE model implication in the travel industry, this study highlights the differences which occur in the field of service marketing. This study extends measurement model of customer orientation in travel industry implementing the COSE model in a developing country. Unlike typically measured customer orientation by self-reports from travel agents, this study presents their customer orientation just from the customer's perspective.

20

Authors: Maria João Fãlix, Gilberto Santos, Antãnio Barroso, Paulo Silva

The main goal of this work is to propose a generic model of an urban vertical garden that can be folded and that can adapt to different types of spaces, taking advantage of the natural resources to the practice of urban agriculture. The methodology of this research obeys five main ideas, the relation between wasted space, man, living space and sustainable design in the production of biological products. The main findings are, improving the quality of life by promoting the practice of urban agriculture; the integrated management of sustainability components in a global market. This case study is pioneer in the Portuguese researches about foldable urban vertical gardens. The authors believe that it can be useful in the creation of a Portuguese guideline for the integration of controlled plant foods production. It promises environmental benefits resulting from the design and development of a product that includes new technologies and the choice of reusable materials.

20

Authors: Ján Závadský, Mária Kožárová, Miroslava Vinczeová, Zuzana Tučková, Jana Krivosudská

The paper identifies the influence of organizational innovations in work of managers by means of empirical research. Four sets were identified in the paper and they present the basis for reviewing the influence of organizational innovations. The set V1, ... Vi,...Vn defines types of organizational innovations, the set X1, ... Xj, ... Xm managerial activities, the set Y1, .... Yk, .... Yo types of changes which can be caused by organizational innovations and the set Z1, ... Zl, ... Zp determines hierarchical levels of management. The goal of the paper is to identify which types of organizational changes cause particular changes at individual level of management and how they influence work of managers at these hierarchical managerial levels. The research was carried out in a selected basic set of companies consisting of Slovak medium sized and large companies performing in the area of industrial production. The basic method which is used is sociological interrogation. We find that the implementation of organizational innovations demonstrable influence managerial work at all levels of management. We identified the most frequently implemented organizational innovations in Slovak medium sized and large companies, innovations with the highest intensity of changes and managerial activities in which was the impact of organizational innovations is mostly seen.