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This study aims to analyze how the interplay between hard and soft elements of total quality management (TQM) produces the conditions for sustaining success in the quest for quality.

A qualitative analysis (Gioia method) was carried out on an original dataset collected through both direct and indirect methods (i.e. archival sources, interviews and observations) to generate a new interpretive framework.

The interpretative framework identifies four categories of elements: trigger elements create the starting conditions for a quality virtuous cycle; benchmarking tools set the standards of performance; improvement tools enable exploration of the space of possible alternative practices and finally, catalytic forces allow the institutionalization of effective techniques discovered in this search process into new standards.

The findings the authors present in this paper are derived by a single case study, limiting the generalizability of our results in other settings.

This study has three implications: first, the design of trigger elements is critical for the success of any TQM initiative; second, the interplay of improvement and benchmarking tools at several levels should be coherent and third, to exploit the potential of TQM, efforts should be devoted to the dissemination of new effective practices by means of catalyzing elements.

The model provides a more specific understanding of the nature and purpose of the hard and soft elements of TQM and the dynamic interaction between the two classes of elements over time.

Enterprise content management (ECM) is an important topic in information management, but researchers have long had difficulty developing a consistent definition. The purpose of this paper is to analyze ECM case reports from practice to identify ECM’s objectives, processes and technologies and to provide a foundation on which ECM can be conceptualized and defined.

This paper assembles more than 1,200 case reports on industrial ECM implementations in order to characterize the ECM concept from a practitioner’s viewpoint. The paper provides a descriptive overview and historical examination of ECM implementations over time and across countries and industries, grounded in a structured content analysis.

Even though the case reports share some commonalities, their ECM projects differ considerably in terms of their objectives, processes and technologies, and vary widely across countries and industries. In addition, ECM implementations are much broader today than they once were, so the scope and boundaries of the ECM concept are increasingly blurred in practice.

While several researchers have characterized the ECM concept based on literature reviews, only a few have approached the definition problem from a practical viewpoint. This paper provides a foundation from which to evaluate how well researchers’ conceptualizations of ECM match current business practice.

Almost everyone is familiar with the word “robot” in our civilized society. A man‐made man first appeared as Talos, a bronze giant of Creta in the remote past of greek mythology. Since ancient times, the robot has been an object of human imagination. Unexpectedly, the word “robot” was used for the first time relatively recently. It was a drama title “Rossum's Universal Robots (RUR)” which Karel Capek, a Czechoslovakian dramatist produced in 1920. “Robot” was a new word which was coined from “robota” which means to work or a serf in Czechoslovakia. Hence, the robot is a man‐made man who works for and serves a human being. In the meantime, the pedigree of automata which started with Heron in about 100 B.C. uninterruptedly continues until today. An outstanding example of all those in existence is the three automata which still please people in a historical museum by the lake of Neuchatel, Switzerland. The automata, which were made in the middle of the 18th century, play the organ, write sentences and draw pictures as if they were alive. (Photo 1).

The purpose of this paper is to propose an adjustable oil film thickness test rig for detecting lubrication characteristics of the slipper. The mathematical analysis of lubrication is introduced. Based on the results from the test rig, the results comparison from test rig and mathematical analysis is carried out.

This paper introduces a mechanism which can adjust the oil film thickness between the slipper and swash-plate. Feasibility is ensured, and the accuracy of test rig is guaranteed by the three-coordinate measuring machine. Three displacement sensors show the oil film thickness and its shape. The reacting force and torque resulting from oil film can be achieved by three S-type force sensors and a torque sensor, respectively.

The relative error of the reacting force is small. The relative error reduces and is acceptable when the deformation of retainer is taken into account. The thickness and tilt angle of oil film have less effect on the reacting force. However, they are significantly impact on torque.

The test rig proposed in this paper is able to adjust the oil film thickness, which is used to detecting the lubrication characteristics in pump design.

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/ILT-05-2020-0166/

This paper proposes the lubrication characteristics of the worn slipper in the slipper–swashplate pair. The mathematical analysis of lubrication characteristics of slipper with the measured surface roughness distribution is introduced. Based on the results from the test rig, it carries out the result compassion in different operating conditions.

This paper introduces the measured surface roughness distribution of new and used slippers and generates the oil film thickness distribution with it. An average flow Reynolds equation of the pressure distribution is introduced too. The experimental results are carried out on a novel adjustable oil film thickness test rig.

The surface roughness of the worn slipper enlarges the reacting force and torque only if the oil film thickness is small. When the ratio of oil film thickness to the root mean square of surface roughness is much smaller than 3, the influence of it on torque is obvious.

Different surface roughness of worn slipper proposed in this paper has an influence on the lubrication characteristics. As the slipper is worn after a period of use, the changed lubrication characteristics should be considered in the slipper design.

This paper aims to show that systemic methods and thinking can be used to develop useful tools to address problems open in traditional science, such as Newtonian physics, universal gravitation, planetary motions, and the three‐body problem.

Expanded on the yoyo model introduced earlier for general systems, a new figurative analysis method is introduced in this paper.

After establishing its theoretical and empirical foundations, this method is used to generalize Newton's laws of mechanics by addressing several unsettled problems in the history. Through the concept of equal quantitative effects, it is argued that this new method possesses some strength not found in pure quantitative methods. After studying the characteristics of whole evolutions of converging and diverging fluid motions, the concept of time is revisited using the new model. As further applications of the new method, one covers Kepler's laws of planetary motion, Newton's law of universal gravitation, and explains why planets travel along elliptical orbits, why no external forces are needed for systems to revolve about one another, and why binary star systems, tri‐nary star systems, and even n‐nary star systems can exist, for any natural number n≥2. By checking the study of the three‐body problem, a brand new method is provided to analyze the movement of three stars, visible or invisible. At the end, some open problems are cast for future research.

This paper shows for the first time in history that several well‐established laws in physics can be generalized using systemic thinking. Beyond that, an operative method of analysis is introduced to investigate problems that have been extremely difficult to handle in the scientific history. With adequate quantitative tools developed to accompany this method, it can be reasonably expected that an active systemic scientific era with a slightly different tilt from the contemporary science will follow shortly.

This study examines the underlying reasons for the police use of deadly force and potential deadly force, in the Province of British Columbia, Canada, during the period 1980‐94. Within this context, interactional violence and the phenomenon of victim‐precipitated homicide are examined in relation to the police use of deadly force. This study analyzes 58 separate documented incidents in which municipal and Royal Canadian Mounted Police officers, within the Province of British Columbia, have been confronted by a potentially lethal threat. In 27 of these incidents, the police responded by discharging their firearms and killing a total of 28 people. The remaining 31 cases that were examined reflect incidents in which the police responded with less‐lethal force. Through the examination of police investigations, verdict‐at‐coroner’s‐inquest reports, BC Police Commission data and interviews with police officers, this study reveals that, in roughly half of the cases examined (N = 28), the police reacted to a potentially lethal threat of victim‐precipitated homicide. These are incidents in which despondent individuals suffering from suicidal tendencies, mental illness, or extreme substance abuse, acted in a calculated and deliberate manner so as to force the police to use potential or deadly force. The study recommends that police personnel within the Province of British Columbia should be given further alternatives to the standard‐issue firearm, when responding to potentially lethal threats. Non‐lethal tools of compliance should be made readily available to the operational police officer with a view to providing alternatives to the traditional use of deadly force. In addition, the training of police personnel should emphasize non‐violent strategies in dealing with irrational individuals who are suicidal, mentally disordered and/or intoxicated.

The purpose of this paper is to design a smart handheld device with force regulating function, which demonstrates the concept of patient-specialized tools.

This handheld device integrates an electrical bioimpedance (EBI) sensor for tissue measurement and a constant force regulation mechanism for ensuring stable tool–tissue contact. Particular focuses in this study are on the design of the constant force regulation mechanism whose design process is through genetic algorithm optimization and finite element simulation. In addition, the output force can be changed to the desired value by adjusting the cross-sectional area of the generated spring.

The following two specific applications based on ex vivo tissues are used for evaluating the designed device. One is in terms of safety of interaction with delicate tissue while the other is for compensating involuntary tissue motion. The results of both examples show that the handheld device is able to provide an output force with a small standard deviation.

In this paper, a handheld device with force regulation mechanism is designed for specific patients based on the genetic algorithm optimization and finite element simulation. The device can maintain a steady and safe interaction force during the EBI measurement on fragile tissues or moving tissues, to improve the sensing accuracy and to avoid tissue damage. Such functions of the proposed device are evaluated through a series of experiments and the device is demonstrated to be effective.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the behavior peculiarities of the labor force participation in Eastern European countries.

The authors provide the analysis of nonlinearity in dynamics of economic active population and perform the econometric analysis using logistic smooth transition autoregressive models that are flexible and capture various kinds of behavior for different modes. The paper investigates labor markets of six Eastern European countries, Hungary, Bulgaria, Poland, Slovakia, Romania and Croatia that are characterized by lower level of labor force participation rate (LFPR) than average level in EU.

The results of modeling quantitatively characterize smooth changes in the behavior modes of labor force activity for each country and indicate how population economic activity depends on previous labor market states. The estimated slope parameters that determine the smoothness of transition between regimes show that, in all countries, the labor force participation quite quickly reacts to changes that occurred on the labor market in the past. During recession periods, households of European countries that joint EU last decade in order to prevent the depletion of their total income increased labor supply and showed increased activity in job search.

This paper indicates the nonlinearity and asymmetry in LFPR in transition economies, discovers variety of its dynamics in the different regimes and determines the indicators that cause the change of the population economic activity behavior in each country.

Design engineers use the term load path to describe, in general terms, the way in which loads path through a structure from the points of application to the points where they are reacted. In contrast, stress trajectories are more clearly identified by the direction of the principal stress vectors at a point. The first author proposed a simple definition of the term load path in 1995 and proposed procedures to determine load paths from two‐dimensional finite element solutions. In this paper, the concept of load paths will be further explored and related to stress trajectories and Michell structures. The insight given when determining the load transfer near a pin‐loaded hole will be demonstrated. In addition a cantilevered beam will be considered and an introduction to plotting load paths in three‐dimensional structures is given.