International Journal for Quality Research

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.