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1 – 10 of 221Margaret Webster and David Sugden
The paper considers the implementation of a virtual manufacturing system as an alternative to outward technology licensing in a high technology industrial sector. Brief…
Abstract
The paper considers the implementation of a virtual manufacturing system as an alternative to outward technology licensing in a high technology industrial sector. Brief theoretical definition and description of the two strategy options is provided to give background and context. This is followed by empirical material from a longitudinal case study of a company that has developed a virtual manufacturing system in addition to its pre‐existing outward technology licensing business stream. A summary account of the company history and development is followed by description of the virtual manufacturing proposal. Analysis of this identified a number of competencies that would be required in order to succeed. The final part of the paper describes the company's response to this analysis and discusses early implementation of the virtual system. It is shown that implementation of the proposal has represented a positive response to the business challenges facing the company.
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Margaret Webster, David M. Sugden and Mike E. Tayles
The paper discusses the measurement of manufacturing virtuality and, in doing so, contributes to knowledge in the fields of operations strategy, operations management and…
Abstract
The paper discusses the measurement of manufacturing virtuality and, in doing so, contributes to knowledge in the fields of operations strategy, operations management and accounting. Initially, the use of a virtual manufacturing operations strategy within the contemporary business environment is considered. Thereafter, a conceptual scale by which the extent of the virtuality of a manufacturing organisation can be measured is presented. A preliminary version of the scale is described together with its application to three companies manufacturing in the global electronic and electrical industrial sector. These companies, each having adopted different operations strategies, potentially represent the two extremes and a mid‐point on the virtuality scale. The empirical component of the work includes presentation of case study descriptions of the companies and the results of the application of the scale. These are shown to provide evidence of its validity. The final section of the paper analyses the current form of the model and describes how its performance might be informed by the incorporation of concepts from accounting that embrace the financial measurement of intangible company assets. It is a further demonstration of the limitations of conventional financial reporting in dealing with contemporary issues in management and business. The paper concludes by discussing the generic significance of the work and by presenting future directions for the research.
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Feroz Khan, Yousaf Ali and Dragan Pamucar
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has subjected a considerable strain on the healthcare (HC) systems around the world. The most affected countries are developing…
Abstract
Purpose
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has subjected a considerable strain on the healthcare (HC) systems around the world. The most affected countries are developing countries because of their weak HC infrastructure and meagre resources. Hence, building the resilience of the HC system of such countries becomes essential. Therefore, this study aims to build a resilience-based model on the HC sector of Pakistan to combat the COVID-19 and future pandemics in the country.
Design/methodology/approach
The study uses a novel hybrid approach to formulate a model based on resilient attributes (RAs) and resilient strategies (RSs). In the first step, the multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) technique, i.e. full consistency method (FUCOM) is used to prioritize the RAs. Whereas, the fuzzy quality function deployment (QFD) is used to rank the RSs.
Findings
The findings suggest “leadership and governance capacity” to be the topmost RA. Whereas “building the operational capacity of the management”, “resilience education” and “Strengthening laboratories and diagnostic systems” are ranked to be the top three RSs, respectively.
Practical implications
The model developed in this study and the prioritization RAs and RSs will help build resilience in the HC sector of Pakistan. The policymakers and the government can take help from the prioritized RAs and RSs developed in this study to help make the current HC system more resilient towards the current COVID-19 and future pandemics in the country.
Originality/value
A new model has been developed to present a sound mathematical model for building resilience in the HC sector consisting of FUCOM and fuzzy QFD methods. The main contribution of the paper is the presentation of a comprehensive and more robust model that will help to make the current HC system of Pakistan more resilient.
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Most industries have become increasingly competitive nowadays, and a good supply chain relationship is essential for a company to survive and to acquire reasonable profit…
Abstract
Purpose
Most industries have become increasingly competitive nowadays, and a good supply chain relationship is essential for a company to survive and to acquire reasonable profit. Therefore, supplier selection is very important. The purpose of this paper is to propose a novel model for evaluating the performance of suppliers.
Design/methodology/approach
A supplier performance evaluation model based on analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and data envelopment analysis (DEA) is constructed. DEA is applied first to evaluate quantitative factors, and the results are transformed into pairwise comparison values for AHP analysis. Qualitative factors are also evaluated through AHP analysis, and a final ranking of suppliers can be obtained by combining the quantitative and qualitative results.
Findings
The proposed model can be applied to evaluate and select the most appropriate integrated circuit packaging company for outsourcing. With the incorporation of experts' opinions and the consideration of qualitative and quantitative factors, the model can provide a both subjective and objective supplier performance ranking.
Practical implications
The proposed model can be tailored and applied to supplier evaluation and selection in other industries.
Originality/value
Although many models are available for supplier evaluation, this paper considers both the subjective and objective performance characteristics simultaneously in the evaluation process.
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The purpose of this paper is to develop an approach for quantifying the operational value of IT‐enabled reliability improvement in a supplier network.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to develop an approach for quantifying the operational value of IT‐enabled reliability improvement in a supplier network.
Design/methodology/approach
Specifically, the paper investigates an e‐procurement scenario involving emergency material purchases where web services provide for real‐time response, a dynamic supplier set, and the ability to perform cross‐enterprise purchase processes in an inter‐operable fashion. The paper proposes engineering reliability models for three network configurations as a basis for quantifying the value of web services, and develops a numerical illustration to both test its usefulness and to derive preliminary insights into supplier network design in this environment.
Findings
This research finds that a stand‐by model is descriptive of reliability in networks where suppliers are identified and managed using web services, and that this approach quantifies operational improvement in this type of e‐procurement system. The research also finds that the benefit derived from using web services for emergency purchases depends on the characteristics of the supply network itself, specifically the failure frequency of the existing suppliers and the time to restore operation after a failure occurs.
Originality/value
These findings are important to information system managers when assessing the financial and technical benefits of real‐time and dynamic information technologies, as well as supply chain managers seeking to implement a dynamically configured supply network. Future research directions include extensions of the reliability models, data acquisition for specifying their parameter values, and investigation into the usefulness of this approach in hardware decisions of web services applications in business.
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Milesa Ž Sreckovic, Branka Kaludjerovic, Aleksander G Kovacevic, Aleksandar Bugarinovic and Dragan Družijanic
The purpose of this paper is to present the results of interaction occurring during the exposition of some specific carbon textile materials obtained in laboratory conditions to…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to present the results of interaction occurring during the exposition of some specific carbon textile materials obtained in laboratory conditions to beams of various laser types.
Design/methodology/approach
Carbon fabric materials – fiber, felt and cloth – obtained from different precursor materials and prepared at various process conditions (oxidized, partially carbonized, carbonized, graphitized), were exposed to pulses of various lasers (Nd3+: YAG, alexandrite, ruby).
Findings
Depending on the laser power, plasma and destructive phenomena occurred. In the case of an interaction between a Nd3+: YAG laser beam and specimens of thickness in millimeter range, the authors have estimated the threshold of the energy density for drilling and discussed the possible models of the interaction.
Research limitations/implications
The results have implications in the estimations of quality as well as in the improvement of material processing, giving some new light to the changes of mechanical and optical constants of the material, as well as to the changes of carbon groups of the material, which would be useful for different types of modeling. Future research will be in the interaction of laser beams with various textile materials, where the investigation would cover the microstructure changes and the implications on cloth cutting and welding, concerning the damages as well as relief structures, specially renew for fs laser regimes.
Originality/value
The area of laser applications in the textile industry is supported by scientific and applicative exploration. However, fewer results are concerned with deep introspection into the microstructure of the damages considering the laser interaction with carbon fiber and other carbon-based textiles.
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Bernard Lamien, Leonardo A.B. Varon, Helcio R.B. Orlande and Guillermo E. Elicabe
The purpose of this paper is to focus on applications related to the hyperthermia treatment of cancer, with heating imposed either by a laser in the near-infrared range or by…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to focus on applications related to the hyperthermia treatment of cancer, with heating imposed either by a laser in the near-infrared range or by radiofrequency waves. The particle filter algorithms are compared in terms of computational time and solution accuracy.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors extend the analyses performed in their previous works to compare three different algorithms of the particle filter, as applied to the hyperthermia treatment of cancer. The particle filters examined here are the sampling importance resampling (SIR) algorithm, the auxiliary sampling importance resampling (ASIR) algorithm and Liu & West’s algorithm.
Findings
Liu & West’s algorithm resulted in the largest computational times. On the other hand, this filter was shown to be capable of dealing with very large uncertainties. In fact, besides the uncertainties in the model parameters, Gaussian noises, similar to those used for the SIR and ASIR filters, were added to the evolution models for the application of Liu & West’s filter. For the three filters, the estimated temperatures were in excellent agreement with the exact ones.
Practical implications
This work may help medical doctors in the future to prescribe treatment protocols and also opens the possibility of devising control strategies for the hyperthermia treatment of cancer.
Originality/value
The natural solution to couple the uncertain results from numerical simulations with the measurements that contain uncertainties, aiming at the better prediction of the temperature field of the tissues inside the body, is to formulate the problem in terms of state estimation, as performed in this work.
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Ivan Stevovic, Jovana Jovanovic and Svetlana Stevovic
The purpose of this paper is to analyze sustainability of the constructed projects (Djerdap 1 and 2) and feasibility of the planned ones (Djerdap 3) on the river Danube in the…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to analyze sustainability of the constructed projects (Djerdap 1 and 2) and feasibility of the planned ones (Djerdap 3) on the river Danube in the region of Iron Gate, with multi-criteria focus on technical, economical and environmental parameters.
Design/methodology/approach
The main objectives were achieved by using the methodology of a holistic multi-criteria approach. Electra method was applied. The design of the three projects on the international Danube River were analyzed, from technical, economical and environmental point of view, with the goal to manage a higher involvement of renewable resources.
Findings
The results of the research imply that the most profitable technical solutions cannot reach its realization and construction if the environmental quality criteria are not fulfilled and included in the multi-criteria optimization model. At the same time, the most sustainable and environmentally friendly technical solutions, such as the renewable hydro pump storage scheme, cannot be realized without proper project management and investment.
Research limitations/implications
The results and conclusions are valid for all the structures and projects of renewable resources, where there is a conflict to the environment. This research has implications to all decision-making processes focusing on holistic analyses of conflicted techno-economical and environmental parameters.
Originality/value
The value of the paper and research is in proving the necessity of simultaneous analyses of technical, economical and environmental impacts on the projects. All the results of the research are beneficial for stakeholders who intend to invest in renewable hydro energy resources, in the function of sustainable development.
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Faten F. Kharbat, Abdallah Alshawabkeh and M. Lynn Woolsey
Students with developmental/intellectual disabilities (ID/DD) often have serious health issues that require additional medical care and supervision. Serious health issues also…
Abstract
Purpose
Students with developmental/intellectual disabilities (ID/DD) often have serious health issues that require additional medical care and supervision. Serious health issues also mean increased absence and additional lags in academic achievement and development of adaptive and social skills. The incorporation of artificial intelligence in the education of a child with ID/DD could ameliorate the educational, adaptive and social skill gaps that occur as a direct result of persistent health problems.
Design/methodology/approach
The literature regarding the use of artificial intelligence in education for students with ID/DD was collected systematically from international online databases based on specific inclusion and exclusion criteria. The collected articles were analyzed deductively, looking for the different gaps in the domain. Based on the literature, an artificial intelligence–based architecture is proposed and sketched.
Findings
The findings show that there are many gaps in supporting students with ID/DD through the utilization of artificial intelligence. Given that the majority of students with ID/DD often have serious and chronic and comorbid health conditions, the potential use of health information in artificial intelligence is even more critical. Therefore, there is a clear need to develop a system that facilitates communication and access to health information for students with ID/DD, one that provides information to caregivers and education providers, limits errors, and, therefore, improves these individuals' education and quality of life.
Practical implications
This review highlights the gap in the current literature regarding using artificial intelligence in supporting the education of students with ID/DD. There is an urgent need for an intelligent system in collaboration with the updated health information to improve the quality of services submitted for people with intellectual disabilities and as a result improving their quality of life.
Originality/value
This study contributes to the literature by highlighting the gaps in incorporating artificial intelligence and its service to individuals with ID/DD. The research additionally proposes a solution based on the confounding variables of students’ health and individual characteristics. This solution will provide an automated information flow as a functional diagnostic and intervention tool for teachers, caregivers and parents. It could potentially improve the educational and practical outcomes for individuals with ID/DD and, ultimately, their quality of life.
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C.B. Besant, M. Ristic, P. Champ, E.P. Jansen, R.A. Hancke and L. Hatziconstantis
Presents a distributed manufacturing system concept designed toaddress the problem of flexibility in providing a variety of parts insmall to medium batches. Discusses links with…
Abstract
Presents a distributed manufacturing system concept designed to address the problem of flexibility in providing a variety of parts in small to medium batches. Discusses links with CADCAM hardware structure levels, software structure, and the human‐centred approach adopted. Surmises that the key to the distributed systems effectiveness lies in co‐ordination and co‐operation between the area and cell levels rather than information.
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