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Lot‐splitting involves the possibility of lot sizes at intermediate processing steps being less than the production release of the finished good. However, the limited research in this area has not been sufficient to counter the conventional wisdom that lot‐splitting (1) is appropriate only where there are sophisticated control mechanisms, and (2) may actually create a log jam on machines where there is already a bottleneck because of the additional set‐ups required. This article includes a lot‐splitting provision as an extension of a published study of alternate routing strategies in a job shop environment. The lot‐splitting rule is very simple and tractable in any job shop; its performance is compared with the situation where, under identical conditions, the lot‐splitting provision is removed.

In a small‐lot manufacturing facility, process planning is the task of specifying a machine series that will produce a certain part from a given raw material. Traditionally, the same machine path or routing is followed each time the part is released for manufacture. A prototype system is developed which adapts routings according to job specification (process quantity and due date), as well as shop conditions (the relative cost and availability of alternative resources). The performance of this system is then compared against the traditional fixed method, as well as two single‐focus, adaptive strategies (least‐cost and least‐load), drawn from research.

Purpose – The purpose of this research is to analyze traditional duties of academic administrators in light of fundamental changes in the ways universities operate, increasing demands in teaching, research and costs management, and a looming shortage of qualified faculty, to determine need and opportunity for a better administrative design. Design/methodology/approach – Survey, interview and budget data are collected across a major public university. Findings – Across seven categories of chair duties, 71.3 percent of time demands, more than 3.5 of 5 days in a typical week, involve general managerial tasks that require no discipline‐specific academic credentials. Costs of performing these tasks, both in the way of lost productivity and extra pay, are compiled. Research limitations/implications – While the personal and institutional costs of placing senior faculty in managerial roles has been well‐discussed, prior research has not been directed toward quantifying those costs to suggest remedy. Practical implications – Delegating appropriate duties to committee and non‐academic staff could free senior faculty in leadership roles to remain fully active in teaching and research, the productive work of colleges they're highly trained and most needed to do. Originality/value – This paper builds foundations for restructuring academic leadership more in tune with current realities within higher education so senior faculty are not consumed with duties more efficiently done other ways.

Job competency frameworks are based on the listing skills required for a job. The assumption is that if a candidate is presumed to have the skills, then the candidate should be able to do the job. Thus, employers hope to identify prospective employees having the required skills. However, this may differ from knowing whether the employee is ready to be trusted to do the job activities with minimal or no supervision. The authors pose the question how employers might know about the capability of prospective employees to perform the job activities for which the employees are being hired.

In health professions education, a job activity-based framework has been developed called “entrustable professional activities” (EPAs, activities to be entrusted). This paper reviews the job activity framework and EPAs used in medical education, considering how this might support preparation for work in other sectors of the labor market.

The authors describe the EPA framework, some implementation issues and how EPAs lead to a type of microcredential being awarded to individuals as the individuals demonstrate that the individuals can be entrusted with specific job activities.

The focus of this paper is to demonstrate that a medical education model could potentially be adopted by other industries to provide employers with information regarding the ability of a prospective employee in performing the job activities required. Such an approach would address employer's concerns about the job readiness of potential employees.

This paper presents the development of personal thermal comfort models for older adults and assesses the models’ performance compared to aggregate approaches. This is necessary as individual thermal preferences can vary widely between older adults, and the use of aggregate thermal comfort models can result in thermal dissatisfaction for a significant number of older occupants. Personalised thermal comfort models hold the promise of a more targeted and accurate approach.

Twenty-eight personal comfort models have been developed, using deep learning and environmental and personal parameters. The data were collected through a nine-month monitoring study of people aged 65 and over in South Australia, who lived independently. Modelling comprised dataset balancing and normalisation, followed by model tuning to test and select the best hyperparameters’ sets. Finally, models were evaluated with an unseen dataset. Accuracy, Cohen’s Kappa Coefficient and Area Under the Receiver Operating Characteristic Curve (AUC) were used to measure models’ performance.

On average, the individualised models present an accuracy of 74%, a Cohen’s Kappa Coefficient of 0.61 and an AUC of 0.83, representing a significant improvement in predictive performance when compared to similar studies and the “Converted” Predicted Mean Vote (PMVc) model.

While current literature on personal comfort models have focussed solely on younger adults and offices, this study explored a methodology for older people and their dwellings. Additionally, it introduced health perception as a predictor of thermal preference – a variable often overseen by architectural sciences and building engineering. The study also provided insights on the use of deep learning for future studies.

LIBRARIANS in Britain stand at the threshold of great possibilities. Having passed through the ages of the ecclesiastical library, the rich collector's private library, the academic institutional library, and the rate‐supported public library—all general libraries —they have reached the age of the special library. The next will be that of the co‐ordinated, co‐operative library service.

The statement of the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, coming so quickly after the ban on the use of cyclamates in food and drink in the United States, indicates that the new evidence of carcinogenesis in animals, placed at the disposal of the authorities by the U.S. F.D.A., has been accepted; at least, until the results of investigations being carried out in this country are available. The evidence was as new to the U.S. authorities as to our own and in the light of it, they could no longer regard the substances as in the GRAS class of food additives. It is, of course, right that any substance of which there is the slightest doubt should be removed from use; not as the result of food neuroses and health scares, but only on the basis of scientific evidence, however remote the connection. It is also right that there should always be power of selection by consumers avoidance is usually possible with other things known to be harmful, such as smoking and alcohol; in other cases, especially with chemical additives to food and drink, there must be pre‐knowledge, so that those who do not wish to consume food or drink containing such additives can ascertain from labelling those commodities which contain them.

THIS title, abbreviated in current fashion to the initials M.S.T., is given to what Personnel Administration Ltd. describe as a new management technique which has been developed by their research and development division under its director, Mr. B. P. Smith. Its aim is to increase the productivity of workers, particularly semi‐skilled ones engaged on repetitive tasks. Since the company claim that M.S.T. is as significant an advance on work study as work study originally was on rate fixing, it plainly calls for examination by experts.

The following is an annotated list of materials dealing with information literacy including instruction in the use of information resources, research, and computer skills related to retrieving, using, and evaluating information. This review, the twenty‐second to be published in Reference Services Review, includes items in English published in 1995. After 21 years, the title of this review of the literature has been changed from “Library Orientation and Instruction” to “Library Instruction and Information Literacy,” to indicate the growing trend of moving to information skills instruction.

Many aspects of social behaviour are manifested in project managers in interaction with team members in the construction sector. Proactive behaviour as a social behaviour impacts on project and organizational effectiveness. This paper aims to explore and explain how project managers’ proactive behaviour could be enhanced in a project by the use of integrated collaborative environments. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

To investigate this interrelationship, researchers used a survey methodology involving gathering both quantitative and qualitative data, and used regression analysis to assess the strength of impact of proactive behaviour antecedents on project manages’ performance on a construction project when using integrated collaborative technologies. For the qualitative data, researchers used content analysis.

The research showed that by developing a proactive personality, the construction project manager is more likely to pre-identify “accurately” project time and costs, and to identify project culture, collaboration strategy and project risks. Moreover, co-worker trust as a proactive behaviour antecedent has been shown to impact on raising quality issues in a project. Furthermore, project managers’ flexibility could assist them in designing procurement strategies as well as designing a project business plan and avoiding conflict. Nevertheless, flexibility, including self-efficacy, control appraisal, change orientation, job autonomy and supportive supervision, plays a significant role in the development of proactive behaviour in construction project managers and enhances project performance.

The sample is limited, but the research methodology is acceptable because the authors use mixed approach to check the correlation.

How project managers can use integrated collaborative technologies on developing their proactive behaviour and thus impacting project performance is observed.

The value of this paper is to contribute understanding of the impact of the use of integrated collaborative technologies on developing project managers’ proactive behaviour and thus impacting project performance.