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Automation and the new buzzword, “Industry 4.0”, have dominated the media headlines in recent months. In this scenario, apparel manufacturers should not only install automatic machines but also standardise them based on specific industry requirements, and precise measures are required for daily target demands.

This study demonstrates the application of Predetermined Motion and Time System (PMTS) tools in various automatic and semiautomatic machines to obtain higher productivity and the highest utilisation percentage of operator and automats between the 1:1 and 1:2 man vs machine configuration models. In this study, timeSSD® was used to calculate the micro motions of humans. In addition, a video annotation and modelling software Tracker was used to calculate high-speed machine movements with loading frames of 30 FPS.

After the implementation of PMTS tools, it was found that for a 1:1 man vs machine configuration, the operator utilisation is 75% per shift and the operator idle time is 50% per cycle time, and the operator is sitting idle for 2 h per 8 h of shift. So, there is scope to improve the utilisation and idle time of operator.

With the PMTS software, an industrial engineer professional with knowledge of the micromotion economy can only calculate micromotion.

Exploring the first time in the world to establish standard allowed minute (SAM) of a partly automated single-unit sewing machine with partial human intervention and a semiautomatic machine. Theoretical underpinnings indicate that manufacturers use the experience to determine the SAM of any operation over time, necessitating this work to calculate standard minutes automatically.

This study aims to investigate the mediating role of management control system (MCS) characteristics in the relationship between state type, reflected through societal institutions (SIs), and two sets of management accounting techniques (MATs), namely, performance measurement techniques (PMTs) and cost measurement techniques (CMTs).

Structural equation modeling was used to analyze data from a cross-sectional survey of 136 firms in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

The findings show a direct positive impact of state-type construct on MCS characteristics, and that MCS characteristics partially mediate the reported significant relationships between state type and the use of PMTs. While the findings show a similar positive relationship between state type and CMTs, MCS characteristics do not mediate this relationship.

Although these results are affected by limitations associated with the survey method used, they are useful in explaining the necessary conditions supporting the use of MATs in general and performance measurement techniques in particular.

The study uses a cross-section of companies in the UAE, an attractive global investment destination, as its sample. The results can help investors better understand the choice of MATs in the UAE and its relation to MCS characteristics.

This study contributes to management accounting literature by determining the mediating role of MCS characteristics on the relationship between state type and the choice of two sets of MATs, whereas existing literature assumes a direct relation between the two.

Presents the results of some recent studies undertaken to discover the effect of various factors on basic motions by conducting laboratory experiments, and the models derived from them. Argues that the PMTS in use since the 1920s do not take into consideration all the factors that affect time in basic motions. Argues that simultaneous motions, simultaneous symmetrical reach, asymmetrical motions, and cranking motion must all be studied and modelled.

Rice processing, an important feature in rice production involving the transformation of harvested paddy into edible rice, is dependent on the type of rice processing techniques used. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the choice of processing techniques among rice processors in Nigeria.

The study was carried out in Nigeria using structured questionnaires among 410 rice processors selected from four states (Ebonyi, Ekiti, Ogun and Nasarawa) from three geo-political zones (Southeast, Southwest and North-central) of Nigeria. Information on socio-economic characteristics (age, sex, household size, marital status and education) and processing characteristics (experience, paddy source, processing activities, processing techniques, credit and distance) were obtained. Data were analyzed with the use of descriptive statistics and multinomial logistic regression model at 0.05.

The mean age of processors was 47.8±9.9 years, mean household size was 6.5±4.2 persons and 88.7 percent were married. In total, 73.6 percent had formal education and mean years of experience was 16.4±9.2 years. Main processing activities were parboiling and drying (50.0 percent); milling (40.0 percent); and de-stoning (10.0 percent). In all, 65.7, 20.4 and 13.9 percent used traditional and modern techniques (TMTs), traditional techniques (TTs) and purely modern techniques (PMTs), respectively. The probability of choice of TT relative to TMT reduced by years of education (4.5 percent), paddy source (1.8 percent) and distance to processing center (4.4 percent), while probability of choice of PMT relative to TMT increased for male processors (7.3 percent), membership of association(18.0 percent) and other income sources (6.2 percent).

Level of education of processors and reduction in the distance taken to paddy source reduced choice of TTs.

Other income sources increased the choice of PMTs of rice processing in Nigeria.

Processors with high level of education, who also engage in other income generating activities, were able to choose modern processing techniques.

This research was an original research carried out among rice processors in Nigeria.

The purpose of this paper is to present a precise comparison between a pre-determined time rules and the evaluation performed with the help of a manual chronometer using data from a line assembly in an automotive industry besieged in the state of Paraná, Brazil. Nowadays, it is possible to verify several tools of measurement of task times, some taking less time and causing less wear of the evaluator than others, but not being in accordance with the real conditions of the workers of a certain industry.

The developed paper has its methodology based on two methods of time analysis, one of them being an adaptation of the MODular Arrangement of Predeterminated Time Standard (MODAPTS) method – called MODAPTS 2. This method is used by the industry in analyzed in this work and the other through the use of simple manual timing, through the digital timer, of the stages developed in a workstation.

The study shows that for each operation analyzed, thus presenting a situation of minimum waste, it becomes possible to judge which reasons exist for the operator during manual timekeeping not to reach the optimum times generated by the system of pre-determined times and movements (PMTSs) questioned.

This study is conducted on an automotive enterprise in a period of confidentiality, which means that only a single workstation is able to be studied. This means that the comparison obtained between the time measurements methods used, and the evaluation of the MODAPTS is carried out with the best possible movements and gestures, disregarding then that the wastes can still be postulated to the whole assembly line.

With the automation in industry, where assemble tasks are usually developed manually, it is believed possible to discard the option of measuring task times in its classic and manual form, using a timer, yet during this process, there will be variables that may not be considered by pre-determined measurements methodologies. The work developed by this paper presents different variables that are not examined by the methods of PMTS, not frequently seen in the literature, as well as the difference that occurs between the measurement of times with stopwatch and the use of PMTS, which, in its original form, disregards the wastes that the operator has in their movements.

This paper aims to present the ICRB method, a comprehensive framework for intellectual capital management that has been applied at a knowledge company, BOC IS GmbH (BOC). As nowadays a great variety of diverse conceptions of intellectual capital management and reporting approaches are discussed in both practitioner and academic journals and at conferences, one of the next steps in intellectual capital research could be the comprehensive management of an organisation's intangible assets; opting for a special intellectual capital reporting method will no longer be a first‐choice decision. Together with BOC, this paper seeks to illustrate both a management method and a tool that allows easy and intuitive management and reporting of an organisation's intellectual capital.

By relying on method engineering as well as on the modelling approach, comparable and expressive means for managing and reporting an organisation's intellectual capital will be presented.

The paper depicts the outcome of the application of the ICRB method in the knowledge company BOC for managing and reporting intellectual capital.

The range of the presented application of the ICRB method is limited to BOC's pre‐sale activities and processes.

When applying the ICRB method, managers, employees, external stakeholders, experts and academics can proceed on the question of how to achieve comparable and expressive intellectual capital reports.

The paper aims to go one step further in the research of intellectual capital management and offers a way to unify and compare diverse intellectual capital reporting conceptions.

Words like Participation tend to be labels stuck on generalities, signifying nothing. They are used as verbal bromides by publicists anxious to cover harsh realities with an attractive veneer. As a rule, once they have served their purpose, they are conveniently forgotten.

Current industry practices illustrate there is no standard method to estimate the number of hours worked on maintenance activities; instead, industry experts use experience to guess maintenance work hours. There is also a gap in the research literature on maintenance work hour estimation. This paper investigates the use of machine-learning algorithms to predict maintenance work hours and proposes a method that utilizes historical preventive maintenance order data to predict maintenance work hours.

The paper uses the design research methodology utilizing a case study to validate the proposed method.

The case study analysis confirms that the proposed method is applicable and has the potential to significantly improve work hour prediction accuracy, especially for medium- and long-term work orders. Moreover, the study finds that this method is more accurate and more efficient than conducting estimations based on experience.

The study has major implications for industrial applications. Maintenance-intensive industries such as oil and gas and chemical industries spend a huge portion of their operational expenditures (OPEX) on maintenance. This research will enable them to accurately predict work hour requirements that will help them to avoid unwanted downtime and costs and improve production planning and scheduling.

The proposed method provides new insights into maintenance theory and possesses a huge potential to improve the current maintenance planning practices in the industry.

The work described in this paper is part of a large study of the barriers to acceptance of production management techniques in UK manufacturing industry. The first part of this study is described, it:(i) establishes the use being made of proven traditional techniques of production management and operational research/statistical techiques by British production managers; and (ii) begins to investigate the barriers to acceptance of the techniques. The results reveal that in industry in the UK there is low usage of many of the techniques, particularly the highly quantitative techniques. The major barrier preventing usage of the techniques is lack of knowledge; training in production management has been found to be an extremely important factor in the usage of all the techniques examined.

INDUSTRIALLY the two ‘in’ words today seem to be participation and consensus, the first leading to the second. How these can become a reality in modern business was discussed recently by the London Region of the Institute of Work Study Practitioners.