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In the vast majority of the individual robot installations, the robot arm is just one piece of a complex puzzle of components, such as grippers, jigs or external axis, that together compose an industrial robotic cell. The success of such installations is very dependent not only on the selection of such components but also on the layout and design of the final robotic cell, which are the main tasks of the system integrators. Consequently, successful robot installations are often empirical tasks owing to the high number of experimental combinations that could lead to exhaustive and time-consuming testing approaches.

A newly developed optimized technique to deal with automatic planning and design of robotic systems is proposed and tested in this paper.

The application of a genetic-based algorithm achieved optimal results in short time frames and improved the design of robotic work cells. Here, the authors show that a multi-layer optimization approach, which can be validated using a robotic tool, is able to help with the design of robotic systems.

The usage of the proposed approach can be valuable to industrial corporations, as it allows for improved workflows, maximization of available robotic operations and improvement of efficiency.

To date, robotic solutions lack flexibility to cope with the demanding industrial environments. The results presented here formalize a new flexible and modular approach, which can provide optimal solutions throughout the different stages of design and execution control of any work cell.

This study aims to proposed that blockchain helps the organization improve supply chain (SC) performance by improving integration, agility and security through real-time information sharing, end-to-end visibility, transparency, data management, immutability, irrevocable information and cyber-security platforms.

This study has made an initial effort toward proposing a framework that shows the problems and challenges for the O&G SC under its segments (upstream, midstream and downstream) and provides the interlink among blockchain properties for SCM problems. SC managers were selected for survey questionnaires from the Pakistan O&G industries.

This study analyzes the impact of blockchain-enabled SC on firm performance with an understanding of the SC robustness capabilities as a mediator. The result revealed that the SC manager believes that the blockchain-enabled SC has a positive and significant on firm performance and robustness capabilities.

Blockchain technology is reflected as high-tech to support the firm process, responses and methods. The technology helps eliminate bottlenecks, avoid uncertainties and improve decision-making, leading to improved SC functions. This study guides managers about the potential problems of existing SC and how blockchain solves SC problems more effectively.

The oil and gas (O&G) sectors are neglected by researchers, and there are limited studies on O&G supply chain management (SCM). Additionally, no empirical evidence suggests implementing blockchain for O&G as a solution for potential problems. Furthermore, present the roadmap to other industries those having complex SC networks for the implication of blockchain to improve the SC performance.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the evolution of school nursing in the USA in the early decades of the twentieth century, highlighting the linkages between schools and public health and the challenges nurses faced.

This historical essay examines the discussions about school nursing and school nurses’ descriptions of their work.

In the Progressive period, though the responsibilities of school nurse were never clearly defined, nurses quickly became accepted, respected members of the school, with few objecting to their practices. Nonetheless, nurses consistently faced financial complications that limited, and continue to limit, their effectiveness in schools and communities.

Few histories of school health have documented the critical role nurses have played and their important, although contested, position today. This paper points to the obstacles restricting the development of dynamic school nurse programs today.

Noting the failure of social economists to appreciate the “context” of Marxist philosopher Antonio Gramsci′s writings, attention is brought to the historical context of Gramsci′s writings by detailing his early life and work. Gramsci′s thoughts on worker ascendancy, labour unions, and political organisation are also received. Gramsci′s plans for the realisation of his ideas are presented as exemplary of worker movements in post‐First World War Italy. The fate of Gramsci′s factory council movement is also discussed.

This paper aims to assess the needs for a lean continuous improvement professional certificate and/or lean leadership cognate for a Doctorate of Education in leadership focused in three main research questions: “What do organizational leaders need from a Lean graduate programming?”; “What are the preferable methods of delivery for Lean teaching/learning?” and “What are the main learner outcomes and do how these impact organizational and continuous improvement outcomes?”

A survey to 37 organizational leaders in a North-American state was conducted via telephone and email that were returned to the researcher. The survey was designed to target a solid cross-section of organizational decision makers in regard to the need for and type of lean training desired, if at all, for employees. Using a mixed methods approach, the survey was designed to collect both qualitative and quantitative information.

Respondents indicated that lean continuous improvement thinking and lean process-project management were most the desirable content options. The method of delivery was not as clear with on-ground and online relying on job-embedded, project-based methods as most desirable approaches. Learner outcomes of mastery of lean content along with the ability to impact organizational and continuous improvement outcomes were favored.

Lean leadership education is valued learning by organizational leaders. As so, higher education institutions must be aware of matching better organizational needs with learning experiences. This paper presents a survey that intended to do this in an original way.

The purpose of this study is to develop a moderated mediation model by which quality-oriented product design practices influence operational performance via supplier involvement under the different levels of product modularity.

The authors use the multisource data from 268 manufacturing firms worldwide and apply regression and the PROCESS macro model to test the moderated mediation model.

The findings reveal that quality-oriented product design practices enhance operational performance directly and do so indirectly through promoting supplier involvement in quality improvement. In addition, this indirect effect is stronger when the level of product modularity is high.

By exploring the interaction effects of quality-oriented product design and product modularity, this study provides valuable insights into the ways in which manufacturing firms improve operational performance more effectively.

The purpose of this paper is to trace the evolution of paternalism as a long-term component of a management control system (MCS) in a multi-national business enterprise.

The authors used a historical methodology involving the collection and evaluation of both primary and secondary data. Annual reports of Michelin (2009–2021) were also analysed to trace the evolution of the MCS towards corporate social responsibility (CSR).

This research traces the evolution of Michelin's Paternalistic MCS from “Traditional Paternalism” to “Welfare Paternalism”, “Managerial Paternalism” and “Libertarian Paternalism” thereby leading the way to CSR. The findings indicate that the evolution of the MCS revealed “Managerial Paternalism” as a specific type of paternalism and an important component of the “Personnel and Cultural Controls” (Merchant and Van der Stede, 2018, p. 95) at Michelin.

Many multi-national companies began as family-owned and controlled firms (e.g. Ford, Toyota, Fiat, Renault, Tata) and they often employed paternalistic MCSs during their early development (Newby, 1977; Perrot, 1979; Colli, 2003). Such MCSs have been seen as being anachronistic and are often abandoned as the family-owned enterprise grows into a multi-national company (Casson and Cox, 1993; McKinlay et al., 2010). The research challenges this assertion and demonstrates how aspects of a paternalistic MCS can survive in a multi-national business enterprise.

With respect to practical implications, this research shows that paternalism can still be a component of an MCS in a multi-national enterprise.

Using a historical approach, this research addresses a gap in the prior literature regarding the variations and persistence of paternalism in companies. In the case of Michelin, the authors investigate the evolution of its paternalistic MCS from a traditional form to an emphasis on CSR.

Based on a decolonial perspective from Latin America, this paper aims to offer a different history of the creation of Brazil’s Consumer Defense Code (CDC), analyzing the process through which Eurocentric influences, especially coming from Consumers International (CI), became present in the development of the code.

A qualitative historical research was developed using marketing amnesia and decolonialism as its theoretical backdrop. Primary and secondary data are used as source of information. Primary data were obtained through interviews with two authors of the CDC. Secondary data were collected from academic articles and books, reports, magazines and consumer organization websites, as well as journalistic articles.

During the drafting of the CDC and after its promulgation, the presence of Eurocentric forces was constant, given the interests of CI and other agents in influencing Brazil’s consumer practices, subordinating them to those of the Global North. This Eurocentric presence was accepted by the Brazilian jurists that drafted the CDC, which led to the incorporation of both laws and bills from Eurocentric countries and the United Nations Guidelines for Consumer Protection into the code.

Such discussions are scarce in marketing, due to the area’s amnestic state regarding the past. While selectively forgetting certain pasts, marketing fails to both acknowledge its tendency to subordinate consumerist actions to those accepted by the Eurocentric world, and to establish analyses that deal with mimetic processes, to minimize asymmetries between companies and consumers, especially in emerging economies, and, even more, dichotomies between the Global North and the Global South.

The numbers are staggering. Between 1820 and 1980, a span of 160 years, approximately 50 million immigrants have entered the United States (see Tables 1 and 2). The United States has traditionally received immigrants and, in fact, has received a larger number of immigrants than any other country in history. Even now, immigrants are still flocking to the US. More recent statistics for this decade show that during the five year period between 1981 and 1985, an average of 573,000 legal immigrants were admitted to the US. In addition to legal immigrants, according to some estimates, the number of illegal immigrants is growing by up to 500,000 a year. This steady flow of immigrants is having a significant impact on demographics. The Census Bureau estimates that immigration now accounts for about 28 percent of the US population growth. Because of the close proximity to many Latin American countries, one of the fastest growing ethnic groups of immigrants is the Hispanic (see Table 3). Latin Americans accounted for 35 percent of all legal immigration between 1981 and 1985 and account for three‐fourths of the estimated 500,000 yearly illegal immigrants. Hispanics, as a group, are growing so fast that according to a study conducted by Leon F. Bouvier and Robert W. Gardner, if present trends continue, within a hundred years non‐Hispanic whites of European origin will no longer constitute a majority of the US population. In addition, if current legal and illegal immigration trends continue and annual immigration averages one million, the non‐Hispanic white population would drop to just under 50 percent by 2080.