scholarly journals Sparking Manufacturing Innovation: How Temporary Interplant Assignments Increase Employee Idea Values

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philipp B. Cornelius ◽  
Bilal Gokpinar ◽  
Fabian J. Sting
Keyword(s):  
Operations Management ◽  
Learning By Doing ◽  
Shop Floor ◽  
Manufacturing Plants ◽  
Level Data ◽  
Manufacturing Innovation ◽  
Econometric Tests ◽  
Production Knowledge ◽  
Productivity Gains

Shop-floor employees play a key role in manufacturing innovation. In some companies, up to 75% of all productivity gains are the result of bottom-up employee ideas. In this paper, we examine how employee interplant assignments—short problem-solving jobs at other manufacturing plants within the same firm—influence employee-driven manufacturing innovation. Using unique idea-level data from a large European car parts manufacturer, we show that interplant assignments significantly increase the value of employees’ improvement ideas due to the short-term transfer of production knowledge and long-term employee learning. Both effects are amplified by assignments to plants that have high functional overlap (i.e., plants producing similar products using similar processes and machinery). One implication is that, for the purpose of employee-driven manufacturing innovation, assignments between peripheral plants with high functional overlap can be more effective than assignments to and from central plants. These findings are robust to several econometric tests. Our study provides novel and detailed empirical evidence of manufacturing innovation, and goes beyond previous research on the learning curve (learning by doing) by investigating how interplant assignments affect the value of employees’ improvement ideas (learning by moving). This paper was accepted by Charles J. Corbett, operations management.

Growth through export: evidence from Iran’s manufacturing plants

2020 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
pp. 111-131 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kowsar Yousefi ◽  
Seyed Ali Madnanizdeh ◽  
Fateme Zahra Sobhani
Keyword(s):  
Growth Rate ◽  
Growth Effect ◽  
Developing Economy ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Firm Level ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Manufacturing Plants ◽  
Level Data ◽  
Second Year

PurposeDoes the long-term growth rate of a firm increase by exporting? If yes, how large is that increase in a developing economy? The paper aims to discuss this issue.Design/methodology/approachThe authors incorporate data from the manufacturing plants in Iran as a developing economy for 2003–2011 to address this question. Using fixed effect panel and propensity score matching method, the authors examine whether exportation can affect a firm’s growth rate to test for the learning to grow hypothesis.FindingsThe findings document that: not only the exporters are larger and more productive than non-exporters, but they also grow faster in size and productivity measures as well. Additionally, the authors find that the rise in the growth rate is a short-term phenomenon and it disappears in the second year; meaning that exportation does not have a permanent growth effect. The findings are consistent with a spot effect of learning, compared to a permanent growth engine. Results are robust to different analysis tests.Originality/valueThe authors investigate the learning effect of exporting within recently released firm-level data of a developing country.

Productivity gains through standardization-of-work in a manufacturing company

2019 ◽  
Vol 30 (6) ◽  
pp. 899-919 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rahul S. Mor ◽  
Arvind Bhardwaj ◽  
Sarbjit Singh ◽  
Anish Sachdeva
Keyword(s):  
Operations Management ◽  
Lean Manufacturing ◽  
High Performance ◽  
Continuous Process ◽  
Shop Floor ◽  
Productivity Analysis ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Work Shift ◽  
Manufacturing Company ◽  
Productivity Gains

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to identify the non-value-adding activities (NVAs) of core making process and to eliminate them through the standardization-of-work (SW) procedures in a manufacturing company. Design/methodology/approach The action-research methodology was adopted for the current study. First, various lean tools were identified through literature review, and the bottleneck area was identified in discussion with the shop-floor executives. NVAs were recorded after a continuous process study including method study and motion analysis followed by the standard operating procedure. Second, the standardized work combination tables were prepared and NVAs were eliminated using the SW procedures. SW has been opted because it is a set of actions which helps in analyzing, improving and controlling the process and it leads to continual improvement. Findings The production logbook revealed that the capacity in this particular workstation was 54 pieces per 7 h work shift against the current production of approx. 45–50 pieces (past data). SW saved 31.6 s per cycle which boosted the production up to 58 pieces per 7 h work shift. Finally, the authors came to know that the productivity of this particular process increased up to 6.5 percent which may upsurge if this action is executed continually with the support from shop-floor executives and management. These results were also compared with previous research works in this area and found significant relevance, and hence, the results appear to be reliable. Research limitations/implications This is a unique study in itself which explores the lean model by assessing NVAs of core making process. The proposed approach needs to be tested across different other core making processes of the case company so as to generalize the effectiveness of SW as well as the results obtained in the current study. Practical implications The current study illustrates an important step to give more visibility to the lean concept by addressing the problem of lack of standard procedures. This study will help the shop-floor executives and managers to focus their efforts in achieving high performance through effective implementation of SW. The study should be of the interest of researchers in the area of lean manufacturing, operations management, productivity analysis, etc. Originality/value The findings of this study are based on the problem formulation for productivity gains using SW procedures in the case company. The study introduces a new perspective for the execution of SW for core making processes. SW created transparency in workflow, enhanced the safety and eliminated the 3Ms. The outcome of the current study was discussed with the production team and management of the company to validate the productivity gains and received an optimistic response. Most importantly, these improvements were achieved with no investment in machinery or tooling.

Enhancing community welfare through improved water quality: a case for applying staggered pollution charges in the river Musi sub-basin of Andhra Pradesh, India

Water Policy ◽  
2005 ◽  
Vol 7 (5) ◽  
pp. 469-483
Author(s):  
Tishya Chatterjee
Keyword(s):  
Andhra Pradesh ◽  
Relevant Literature ◽  
Pollution Prevention ◽  
Economic Benefits ◽  
Environmental Damage ◽  
Marginal Costs ◽  
Community Acceptance ◽  
Level Data ◽  
Over Time

In conditions of severe water-pollution and dormant community acceptance of accumulating environmental damage, the regulator's role goes beyond pollution prevention and more towards remediation and solutions based on the community's long-term expectations of economic benefits from clean water. This paper suggests a method to enable these benefits to become perceptible progressively, through participatory clean-up operations, supported by staggered pollution charges. It analyses the relevant literature on pollution prevention and applies a cost-based “willingness to pay” model, using primary basin-level data of total marginal costs. It develops a replicable demand-side approach imposing charge-standard targets over time in urban-industrial basins of developing countries.

scholarly journals It Is Not Just Mortality: A Call From Chile for Comprehensive COVID-19 Policy Responses Among Older People

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pablo Villalobos Dintrans ◽  
Jorge Browne ◽  
Ignacio Madero-Cabib
Keyword(s):  
Older People ◽  
National Level ◽  
Health Issues ◽  
Negative Consequences ◽  
Access To Health Services ◽  
Term Care ◽  
Policy Responses ◽  
Level Data ◽  
Definition Of

Abstract Objective Provide a synthesis of the COVID-19 policies targeting older people in Chile, stressing their short- and long-term challenges. Method Critical analysis of the current legal and policy measures, based on national-level data and international experiences. Results Although several policies have been enacted to protect older people from COVID-19, these measures could have important unintended negative consequences in this group’s mental and physical health, as well as financial aspects. Discussion A wider perspective is needed to include a broader definition of health—considering financial scarcity, access to health services, mental health issues, and long-term care—in the policy responses to COVID-19 targeted to older people in Chile.

scholarly journals Different approaches to quantify years of life lost from COVID-19

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tamás Ferenci
Keyword(s):  
Years Of Life Lost ◽  
Expected Number ◽  
Long Term Conditions ◽  
Developed Country ◽  
Individual Patient Level ◽  
Level Data ◽  
Parametric Survival Model ◽  
Epidemiologic Risk ◽  
Parametric Survival

AbstractThe burden of an epidemic is often characterized by death counts, but this can be misleading as it fails to acknowledge the age of the deceased patients. Years of life lost is therefore widely used as a more relevant metric, however, such calculations in the context of COVID-19 are all biased upwards: patients dying from COVID-19 are typically multimorbid, having far worse life expectation than the general population. These questions are quantitatively investigated using a unique Hungarian dataset that contains individual patient level data on comorbidities for all COVID-19 deaths in the country. To account for the comorbidities of the patients, a parametric survival model using 11 important long-term conditions was used to estimate a more realistic years of life lost. As of 12 May, 2021, Hungary reported a total of 27,837 deaths from COVID-19 in patients above 50 years of age. The usual calculation indicates 10.5 years of life lost for each death, which decreases to 9.2 years per death after adjusting for 11 comorbidities. The expected number of years lost implied by the life table, reflecting the mortality of a developed country just before the pandemic is 11.1 years. The years of life lost due to COVID-19 in Hungary is therefore 12% or 1.3 years per death lower when accounting for the comorbidities and is below its expected value, but how this should be interpreted is still a matter of debate. Further research is warranted on how to optimally integrate this information into epidemiologic risk assessments during a pandemic.

HERITABILITY OF SINGLE PLANT YIELD AND INCIDENCE OF BLACK POD DISEASE IN COCOA

2007 ◽  
Vol 43 (4) ◽  
pp. 455-462 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. LOCKWOOD ◽  
F. OWUSU-ANSAH ◽  
Y. ADU-AMPOMAH
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Mass Selection ◽  
Single Plant ◽  
Plant Yield ◽  
Clone Selection ◽  
Level Data ◽  
Family Level ◽  
Black Pod ◽  
Black Pod Disease

Broad sense heritabilities were estimated in three long-term cocoa clone trials in Ghana, with 20, 18 and 15 entries. They were 0.15, 0.05 and 0.15 for yield in pods per plant, and 0.26, 0.19 and 0.40 for incidence of ‘bad’ pods, mostly due to black pod disease, caused by infection with Phytophthora spp. The low heritability of single plant yield, which has been known for 80 years, has been widely overlooked in cocoa research and extension, compromising the success of clone selection programmes. The heritability of the incidence of black pod disease is high enough to justify mass selection where family level data are not available. The findings will be applied in a new large-scale programme in Ghana to select clones that are high yielding in the presence of P. megakarya.

Research and Design on Workshop Job Management System Based on Web Electronic Digital Signage

2013 ◽  
Vol 816-817 ◽  
pp. 1181-1184
Author(s):  
Da Wei Dong
Keyword(s):  
Operations Management ◽  
Management System ◽  
Job Shop ◽  
Production Costs ◽  
Shop Floor ◽  
Digital Signage ◽  
Job Management ◽  
Business Efficiency ◽  
Job Management System ◽  
Manufacturing Productivity

The workshop job management system for improving manufacturing productivity and workshop information management plays an important role, while the electronic digital signage is seen as the core of shop floor control system. In this paper, the traditional electronic signage is proposed based on a new electronic digital signage network design, and its integration into the shop floor management systems. This paper developed job shop management system based on web electronic digital signage, the effective integration of existing hardware and software resources of the workshop, rational allocation of production resources of the workshop, the workshop production operations management to achieve digital control, reducing the workshop production costs, improve business efficiency. This paper presents the design of specific methods, and the establishment of a specific management model.

Tornadoes, poverty and race in the USA: A five-decade analysis

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Russ D. Kashian ◽  
Tracy Buchman ◽  
Robert Drago
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
African Americans ◽  
Study Finding ◽  
Median Income ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Vulnerable Communities ◽  
Long Run ◽  
Level Data ◽  
The Usa

PurposeThe study aims to analyze the roles of poverty and African American status in terms of vulnerability to tornado damages and barriers to recovery afterward.Design/methodology/approachUsing five decades of county-level data on tornadoes, the authors test whether economic damages from tornadoes are correlated with vulnerability (proxied by poverty and African American status) and wealth (proxied by median income and educational attainment), controlling for tornado risk. A multinomial logistic difference-in-difference (DID) estimator is used to analyze long-run effects of tornadoes in terms of displacement (reduced proportions of the poor and African Americans), abandonment (increased proportions of those groups) and neither or both.FindingsControlling for tornado risk, poverty and African American status are linked to greater tornado damages, as is wealth. Absent tornadoes, displacement and abandonment are both more likely to occur in urban settings and communities with high levels of vulnerability, while abandonment is more likely to occur in wealthy communities, consistent with on-going forces of segregation. Tornado damages significantly increase abandonment in vulnerable communities, thereby increasing the prevalence of poor African Americans in those communities. Therefore, the authors conclude that tornadoes contribute to on-going processes generating inequality by poverty/race.Originality/valueThe current paper is the first study connecting tornado damages to race and poverty. It is also the first study finding that tornadoes contribute to long-term processes of segregation and inequality.

THE APPRENTICESHIP IN CRAFT GUILDS IN PREINDUSTRIAL EUROPE: A MODEL FOR ENGINEERING EDUCATION IN THE EUROPEAN HIGHER EDUCATION AREA

10.6036/9821 ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 96 (5) ◽  
pp. 460-463
Author(s):  
OSCAR MARTIN LLORENTE
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Engineering Education ◽  
Learning By Doing ◽  
Term Survival ◽  
European Higher Education Area ◽  
Educational Methods ◽  
Apprenticeship Learning ◽  
European Higher Education ◽  
Craft Guilds

This work aims to carry out a comparative study between the apprenticeship system in the craft guilds in preindustrial Europe and the educational methods used in the European Higher Education Area (EHEA), with the aim of highlighting the role, within the field of engineering education in the EHEA, of the practice-driven approach (learning by doing), which yielded excellent results during centuries to craft guilds, since their institutionalized apprenticeship system was one of the reasons for their long-term survival. The transmission of technical skills and associated innovation were effectively supported by craft guilds but not as a main objective and even, sometimes, as a cause of undesired effects (formation of future competitors, revelation of secrets or shift of control over the production process from the owners of skills to the owners of capital. It has been demonstrated that both the organizational modalities or scenarios and the educational methods of the EHEA (except the binomial scenario-method formed by the theoretical class and the master lecture) used in engineering education, have a clear precedent in the preindustrial craft guilds, which emphasize the learning process instead of the teaching process and established, several centuries in advance and without intending to, a model for the EHEA. Keywords: Craft guilds; Apprenticeship; Learning by doing; Engineering education; EEES

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