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This paper presents a theoretical research framework that was used to analyse operational risk management (ORM) system practices in Australia. It provides a new perspective on how to use national and international operational management system standards as a basis for systematic management of operational risks. Based on the extensive literature review and the analysis of operational risk management system practices that are common in Australian organisations, this paper identifies the critical factors for effective use of an ORM system. The proposed framework could also be used as a model to research ORM system applications in other countries.

Despite the fact that much has been published about Six Sigma in the business and academic press and on the Internet in recent years, there is still confusion among many people, particularly those who work in the transactional and service environments, about the nature of Six Sigma. It is true that Six Sigma like other process improvement programs before was first applied to manufacturing processes; however, many corporations including General Electric and sony have successfully applied Six Sigma to their transactional and service processes as well. Six Sigma is used by many companies not only to improve the quality of their products and services but also to achieve quantifiable financial results, improve management style and communication, and achieve customer and employee satisfaction. Whether in manufacturing on non‐manufacturing environments, the application of Six Sigma differs from organisation to organisation. Although there are many common elements between these applications, however, special care must be taken when customizing Six Sigma to suite the organisation’s needs. In this paper, the author provides some practical and useful guidelines for Six Sigma deployment. This paper is not about the use of numerous statistical tools and techniques that can be found in a typical Six Sigma toolbox. The main emphasis has been placed both on the concept and the implementation of Six Sigma, particularly within the non‐manufacturing areas of business.

The implementation of management systems such as the quality, environmental and occupational health and safety management systems to the national and/or international standards I 9000, ISO 14000 and AS/NZS 4801 has been well researched and studied in the past. However, since the release of the completely revised quality system standard ISO 9001 in December 2000, there has been only few publications and studies about the integration of these three management systems. This paper discusses not only the methods that can be used for ingtegration of management systems but also gives practical examples of its impelementation and benefits to the organisations. It is not the intention of this paper to investigate the similarities and differences of the three standards. However, the above mentioned standards also include some information and references on compatibility, if further study is required.

Multivariate Exponentially Weighted Moving Average (MEWMA) chart is a control chart under multivariate process based on the idea of EWMA that rapidly detects small dispersion with a trend. the MEWMA chart was first time discussed by Woodall. However, in his study the correlativity among the multivariate was not considered for the selection of the constant of the diagonal matrix (the smooth parameter λ). In this paper, the EWMA chart with a generalized smooth parameter matrix has been discussed which is believed to have a better fitness for practical production processes than Woodall’s approach.

This paper presents the findings of a visiting scholarship research that was carried out at the Faculty of Engineering, University of Technology Sydney, Australia. Based on the extensive literature review, government databases and international statistics, it introduces an analytical framework for comparison of the national innovation systems (NIS) of China and Australia in regards to their strengths and weaknesses. This is done through individual examination and comparison of functions of typical institutions involved in innovation to reveal the structural characteristics and performances of the two systems. The interactions among these institutions are then analysed to illustrate their dynamics and efficiency. The comparison has shown clearly that China’s NIS has several weaknesses and gaps due to its developing and transition stage. There are positive signs that Chinese Government has recognised the nature and scope of the problem and seems to work in the right direction. This paper aims to support this process by providing some recommendations that could help bridge the gaps between the NISs of China and Australia. Due to the fact that both, China’s and Australia’s NISs, have their unique characteristics but share numerous complementary features, there is a large potential for further cooperation between the two national innovation systems.

Variation is the archenemy of quality. To reduce or control the variation in a complex production unit, firstly we need to identify the location of the root cause of the variation. This paper discusses the detection of variability and the techniques used for reduction of variation for a production unit consisting of many processes. In the first part of this paper, the background of variability detection in production systems is introduced which is then followed by a weighted network corresponding to correlation matrix of all processes. Based on the network and clustering criterion of maximum spanning tree, a classification of all processes is derived. Furthermore, the variation of each process in a class is determined by residual analysis. In the last part, the use of methods of robust design for the processes with a larger variability is discussed.

This paper aims to investigate the effect of shear rate, concentration (4–20 kg/m³) and temperature (20°C–60 °C) on the apparent viscosity of apricot gum solutions.

Apparent viscosity has been measured using a rotational viscometer.

It has been observed that the shear stress and apparent viscosity values increase at high concentrations in the prepared apricot gum solutions. However, it is understood that the higher the temperature in the operation conditions, the lower the apparent viscosity results. Power-law is found the best-fitting model to illustrate the changes in temperature and concentration. According to the consistency coefficient and flow behavior indices, the apricot gum displayed shear-thinning behavior (pseudoplastic). The apricot gum is a polysaccharide with amino and uronic acids, according to Fouirer Transform Infrared Spektrofotometre spectra.

The results suggest that power-law model can be used to estimate the viscosity of apricot gum solutions at different temperatures and concentrations for applications for which flow behavior should be taken into account.

Exudate gums have good rheological properties and, therefore, are widely used in the food industry. Apricot gum is a biodegradable and abundant polysaccharide that enhances viscosity, stabilizes suspension or emulsion and improves the flow properties of foods. Different rheological models are used to investigate rheological properties. However, those models are time-independent to fit the experimental data.

Expert systems are computer-based systems that mimic the logical processes of human experts or organizations to give advice in a specific domain of knowledge. Fuzzy expert systems use fuzzy logic to handle uncertainties generated by imprecise, incomplete and/or vague information. The purpose of this paper is to present a comprehensive review of the methods and applications in fuzzy expert systems.

The authors have carefully reviewed 281 journal publications and 149 conference proceedings published over the past 37 years since 1982. The authors grouped the journal publications and conference proceedings separately accordingly to the methods, application domains, tools and inference systems.

The authors have synthesized the findings and proposed useful suggestions for future research directions. The authors show that the most common use of fuzzy expert systems is in the medical field.

Fuzzy logic can be used to manage uncertainty in expert systems and solve problems that cannot be solved effectively with conventional methods. In this study, the authors present a comprehensive review of the methods and applications in fuzzy expert systems which could be useful for practicing managers developing expert systems under uncertainty.

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate knowledge management (KM) processes and to investigate their impact on organisational performance (OP) within the context of the airline industry (AI).

An inductive and deductive qualitative approach was used based on a preliminary study. A pilot study was conducted which involved the use of interviews as a primary data collection method. Content analysis was used to extract and analyse themes from the data.

The study showed that knowledge usage is the most influential aspect of KM in terms of the impact on OP. Moreover, the study revealed that knowledge transfer is a common KM process employed by organisations.

This study outlined the findings of a pilot study which aimed to test a proposed conceptual model and to provide an initial understanding of the interrelationships between KM processes and OP. To this end, a number of interviews were conducted in order to consolidate a conceptual model. As such, the nature of this preliminary study imposed some time and context limitations. These limitations will be dealt within later stages of the research journey.

The value of the study is generated from the extensive review of the literature it provided which enhanced proposing a conceptual model that was initially tested with the aim of defining an appropriate KM processes within a unique and yet untested context as well as describing the impact of these processes on OP. Determination of KM processes is expected to set a guideline for future research in the AI.