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In the service sector, reduction of cycle time is one of the key issues. Among various approaches, Lean Six Sigma became very popular as it provides the organisation the desired speed with quality. The purpose of this paper is to present a Lean Six Sigma case study for reducing cycle time in the claim settlement process in insurance or financial services.

This paper presents an application of Lean Six Sigma methodology for claim settlement cycle time reduction in the insurance sector.

Lean Six Sigma is found to work very well in the insurance sector for reducing process cycle time by carrying out process changes. Mixing statistical and analytical techniques helps to improve the process speed and is very well demonstrated by Lean Six Sigma approach for service organizations.

This paper utilizes Lean and Six Sigma approaches in process improvement and presents an application. The main idea behind this paper is to demonstrate how combining Lean concepts/techniques with Six‐Sigma methodology can speed up problem‐solving approaches. Apart from the paper's value for managers, it can also help researchers to extend this for other areas of business processes.

Iron deficiency anaemia (IDA) is a common problem in pregnancy and may influence the health of both mother and child. The purpose of this paper is to discuss current prevention and treatment strategies for pregnancy IDA and describe alternative methods, such as food‐based approaches that may be another way forward.

A literature review was conducted to locate and summarise up‐to‐date published studies within the field.

There is good evidence that iron supplements may be used to prevent and treat IDA in pregnancy. However, there is much debate about “the optimal” dose to recommend. High doses may contribute to oxidative stress and cause gastrointestinal symptoms while there still remain problems with compliance, even for lower dose iron supplements. Encouraging the daily consumption of functional foods containing suitable levels of iron may therefore be an alternative way to improve pregnancy iron status.

There is a wealth of important studying the health implications of iron supplements in pregnancy. More work is needed to establish whether functional foods containing iron could be an alternative way to help improve iron status.

Most papers and research focus on supplement use as a preventative measure and treatment for IDA; few discuss other approaches.

In experiments utilising sweat solution and distilled water, seamed ensembles performed less thermally efficiently than unseamed fabrics.

Water may not accurately reflect perspiration when testing multi-layered clothes for thermal comfort in wet state. Most researchers used water or sodium chloride (NaCl) to measure wet state thermal comfort. However, human perspiration is an extremely complex mixture of aqueous chemicals, including minerals, salts, lipids, urea and lactic acid. This study compares the effects of simulated sweat solution to distilled water on the thermal behaviour of a multi-layered fabric assembly with different seam patterns.

Experiment results show that stitching decreases thermal resistance and thermal conductivity. Seam pattern of 10 cm diagonal spacing is more thermally resistant than 2.5 cm diagonal spacing. In comparison to that of simulated sweat, fabric that has been moistened with distilled water exhibits increased thermal conductivity. Hollow polyester wadding or micro polyester wadding as the intermediate layer exhibits greater thermal resistance than multi-layered construction with spacer fabric as middle layer.

This study considers human perspiration while designing protective clothing for wet thermal comfort.

This paper reports an experimental investigation into the effect of laundering on seam tensile properties with the variation of stitch density, linear density of sewing threads and composition of base material. Tensile properties such as initial modulus, secant modulus, seam strength, strain at fracture and work up to fracture increase with stitch and linear density of sewing threads. The impact of coarser yarn is greater on seam properties of polyester‐cotton fabric than cotton fabric. The tensile properties except seam strain are reduced due to laundering. Reduction in initial modulus and secant modulus due to laundering is higher for polyester‐cotton fabric whereas decrease in seam strength, seam efficiency and strain at break is greater for coarser sewing thread.

The purpose of this paper is to present a case study on how drinking water consumption could be potentially reduced by the introduction of dual water distribution networks. Since water of this quality is required only for drinking, cooking, bathing, and washing, delivering such water for uses that require non‐drinking water quality represents a tremendous waste of water and energy, and contributes to environmental pollution.

An overview of dual distribution networks in several countries is presented. Kuwait, in which 86 percent of the freshwater network has a parallel brackish water network, is the leader in this field, with brackish water used for a range of outdoor activities. The residential sector is the major consumer of freshwater in Kuwait and the control of demand in this sector will be a key factor in curbing the overall demand, which without any demand management measures is expected to quadruple by 2025. Computer modeling based on existing water use statistics and the proposed phasing‐in of a dual distribution network for indoor use in households has been undertaken to determine how the large quantities of reclaimed can be used to reduce drinking water consumption.

The paper presents a modeling exercise that demonstrates that by using reverse osmosis (RO) treated wastewater for toilet flushing and watering the gardens, water consumption demand can be stabilized at present levels over a 20‐year period.

The paper concludes that with foresight and long‐term planning it is feasible to implement a dual water supply network in a major city, on a scale which may lead to saving up to 25 percent of drinking quality water on top of other traditional water conservation measures.

A growing polarization of society accompanied by an erosion of the middle class is receiving increasing attention in recent German economic and social policy discussion. Our study contributes to this discussion in two ways: First, on a theoretical level we propose extended multidimensional polarization indices based on a constant elasticity of substitution (CES)-type well-being function and present a new measure to multidimensional polarization, the mean minimum polarization gap, 2DGAP. This polarization intensity measure provides transparency with regard to each single attribute, which is important for targeted policies, while at the same time respecting their interdependent relations. Second, in an empirical application, time is incorporated, in addition to the traditional income measure, as a fundamental resource for any activity. In particular, genuine personal leisure time will account for social participation in the sense of social inclusion/exclusion and Amartya Sen’s capability approach.

Instead of arbitrarily choosing the attribute parameters in the CES well-being function, the interdependent relations of time and income are evaluated by the German population. With the German Socio-Economic Panel (GSOEP) and detailed time use diary data from the German Time Use Surveys (GTUSs) 1991/1992 and 2001/2002, we quantify available and extended multidimensional polarization measures as well as our new approach to measuring the polarization of the working poor and affluent in Germany.

There are three prominent empirical results: Genuine personal leisure time in addition to income is an important and significant polarization attribute. Compensation is of economic and statistical significance. The new minimum 2DGAP approach reveals that multidimensional polarization increased in the 1990s in Germany.

The purpose of this study is to assess (a) the relationship between internal and external IS integration and their respective impacts on internal and external cost management strategies, (b) the relationship between internal and external cost management strategies, and (c) the effects of internal and external cost management strategies on profitability, controlling for firm size. Furthermore, this study investigates whether internal and external IS integrations produce direct significant effects on firm profitability or whether these relationships are established through cost management strategies.

The study uses survey data from a cross-section of 241 U.S. manufacturing firms. Data were analyzed using structural equation modeling.

The results indicate that neither internal IS integration nor external IS integration has a direct significant impact on firm profitability. Rather, internal cost management strategy fully mediates the relationship between internal IS integration and profitability; similarly, the relationship between external IS integration and profitability is fully mediated through external cost management strategy. The results provide evidence that firms seeking profitability solely by investing in IS integration may not necessarily realize enhanced profitability; the firms must focus their attention on intervening processes, such as business strategy, in order to determine the profitability derived from IS integration.

As far as it can be ascertained, this study is the first to explore the impact of internal and external IS integration on firm profitability within the context of internal and external cost management strategies.

This chapter draws on a study on Adivasi identities in a context of protracted violence and conflict in India. The chapter examines the ethical issues that emerged during the research with young people, through a critical exploration of researcher positionality and power. The chapter is informed by a naturalistic inquiry into community interactions and youth voice in an area of civil unrest in India, and specifically, with young people from the historically marginalised Adivasi community. I reflect on my theoretical transition to poststructuralism in the doing of this research, enriched by postcolonial and feminist perspectives, which emphasises the centrality of context and the inextricability of the researcher from the researched. By critically reflecting on my power and positionality as an adult researcher, I question how the particular context of the young participants, my presence and participation within it produced particular responses, understandings and identities of young people. These understandings are entangled with ethical challenges in relation to the navigation of the research context, gendering and hierarchisation within local community relations. In encountering these complexities, my ethical positioning raises questions about ‘representation’ in the capturing of youth voices in the Indian context. The chapter suggests an articulation and linking of the ethical tensions to a substantiation of the theoretical and methodological framings of research, informed through the research context and the researcher’s positionality.

Evaluating mechanical properties of simply made samples by 3D printing technology at nanoscale provides a clear path to better understand larger-scale responses of complex natural rocks. Therefore, to realize the similarity between synthetically manufactured materials and natural geomaterials, this study focused on nanoscale mechanical characterization of a 3D printed object with only two constituent components (gypsum powder and infiltrant).

The study method includes nanoindentation technique combined with numerical simulation via discrete element method (DEM).

Four typical load-displacement curves were identified from nanoindentation of total test points indicating a typical elastic-plastic behavior of the 3D printed gypsum rock sample. Mechanical parameters such as Young’s modulus and hardness were calculated by energy-based methods and a positive correlation was observed. The infiltrant was found to considerably be responsible for the majority of the sample nano-mechanical behavior rather than the gypsum particles, thus expected to control macroscale properties. This was decided from deconvolution and clustering of elastic modulus data. Particle flow modeling in DEM was used to simulate the nanoindentation process in a porous media yielding rock-alike mechanical behavior.

The results show a matching load-displacement response between experimental and simulation results, which verified the credibility of simulation modeling for mechanical behavior of 3D printed gypsum rock at nanoscale. Finally, differential effective medium theory was used to upscale the nanoindentation results to the macroscale mechanical properties, which provided an insight into the geomechanical modeling at multiscale.