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Recognising the enormous potential of just‐in‐time (JIT) concepts for boosting productivity and quality, an increasing number of US and European firms consider adopting JIT concepts in manufacturing. However, the transfer of a manufacturing policy from traditional to JIT always requires radical structural changes in a production line design. One typical example of these changes is uniform assembly which does not allow high variability in the production schedules. Consequently, major hindrance to uniform assembly is a random fluctuation of task processing times in assembly line balancing. This article proposes a heuristic which takes into account stochastic task processing times and further develops a work assignment with the lowest expected total cost as well as an assignment with the highest work completion probability crucial for the success of JIT manufacturing.

In pursuit of zero‐defect quality, a growing number of JIT manufacturing firms often consider a line‐stop strategy that allows workers to stop the assembly line when abnormalities occur during production process, and to repair defects immediately as they occur. The line‐stop strategy contrasts with a traditional off‐line repair strategy that either scraps the defects or sends them to a separate repair station. Develops an expected total cost model to demonstrate the cost‐effectiveness of the line‐stop strategy over the off‐line repair strategy in JIT environments. Computational experiments indicate that cost savings resulting forum using the line‐stop strategy are greater than those using the off‐line repair strategy.

Examines the effectiveness of the line‐stop (on‐line) repair policy over traditional off‐line repair policy through two mathematical models developed based on total quality failure costs (TFC). The proposed models demonstrate that the TFC framework can be a valuable performance measure for evaluating the contribution of the line‐stop repair policy. The computational results also show that the line‐stop policy can bring substantial savings over the off‐line repair policy.

This study aims to explore consumers' vicarious experience of touch, namely, mental simulation for touch, through product pictures as visual stimuli and the use of touch devices as motion stimuli in the context of online fashion shopping.

Participants were randomly exposed to one of the two texture conditions (weak vs strong tactile sensitivity). The responses from the participants who used a laptop as a non-touch device and a touch device were considered in the analysis. A total of 179 responses were analyzed with analysis of variance and the PROCESS procedure for path analysis using SPSS 20.0.

The interaction effects of tactile sensitivity and device types on mental simulation for touch were significant; seeing a less tactile-sensitive product facilitated a greater mental simulation for touch when using a touch device; however, seeing a tactile-sensitive product produced a similar mental simulation for touch, regardless of device types. Furthermore, browsing a less tactile-sensitive product using a touch device increased favorable product attitudes, fully mediated by mental simulation for touch.

This study contributes to the literature on online shopping behaviors of fashion consumers by showing the role of mental simulation for touch that is shaped by the tactile qualities of products and device types. Exploration of this topic can contribute significantly to online fashion retailers because studies on consumers' mental simulation for touch are limited.