scholarly journals Discussing the Use of Complexity Theory in Engineering Management: Implications for Sustainability

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (24) ◽  
pp. 10629
Author(s):  
Gianpaolo Abatecola ◽  
Alberto Surace

What is the state-of-the-art literature regarding the adoption of the complexity theory (CT) in engineering management (EM)? What implications can be derived for future research and practices concerning sustainability issues? In this conceptual article, we critically discuss the current status of complexity research in EM. In this regard, we use IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, because it is currently considered the leading journal in EM, and is as a reliable, heuristic proxy. From this journal, we analyze 38 representative publications on the topic published since 2000, and extrapolated through a rigorous keyword-based article search. In particular, we show that: (1) the adoption of CT has been associated with a wide range of key themes in EM, such as new product development, supply chain, and project management. (2) The adoption of CT has been witnessed in an increasing amount of publications, with a focus on conceptual modeling based on fuzzy logics, stochastic, or agent-based modeling prevailing. (3) Many key features of CT seem to be quite clearly observable in our dataset, with modeling and optimizing decision making, under uncertainty, as the dominant theme. However, only a limited number of studies appear to formally adhere to CT, to explain the different EM issues investigated. Thus, we derive various implications for EM research (concerning the research in and practice on sustainability issues).

2013 ◽  
Vol 10 (05) ◽  
pp. 1340015 ◽  
Author(s):  
LEA M. WAKOLBINGER ◽  
CHRISTIAN STUMMER ◽  
MARKUS GÜNTHER

Market introduction and diffusion of new products is complex and multifaceted since it involves spatially dispersed customers with individual preferences who may be exposed to a wide range of influences including word-of-mouth communication within a social network. During the past decade agent-based modeling approaches for simulating this process have become increasingly popular, because they not only capture the customers' behavior more realistically, but also allow for new insights for innovation management. The aim of this work is to provide an overview of recent developments, to discuss challenges, and to highlight promising directions for future research.


2013 ◽  
Vol 470 ◽  
pp. 392-395
Author(s):  
Tzu Chuan Chou ◽  
Sheng Hsiung Wu ◽  
Ming Hung Shu

Applications of DC cooling fans in auto electronics cover a wide range of areas. Since they all need to meet the requirement of the clients in providing customized products, many product combinations have been developed. In the past, when DC cooling fans manufacturers have not implemented the requirements of TS16949 and the core tools, their developmental process could only meet the spirit of process-orientation suggested by ISO9001. There was an obvious deficiency in terms of the quality management tools during the development and manufacturing processes, as well as the development information that should be produced; therefore, they were unable to meet the requirements of TS16949. This study constructs a new product development (NPD) procedure through the application of the five core tools that meets the requirements of TS16949, and satisfies the characteristics of the DC cooling fans industry. With this process, the Taiwanese DC cooling fans industry can effectively control the entire production process, from sales and marketing, R&D, manufacturing, to customer services. Moreover, the manufacturers could not only elevate their ability to self-manage, but also meet the requirements and gain market shares in the international automobile supply chain.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emelia Delaney ◽  
Wei Liu

Abstract The aim of sustainability is to fulfil the needs of current generations without compromising the needs of future generations. It is also a rising area of concern within industry, it is therefore important that graduate designers are equipped with the skills to accommodate sustainability issues as well as demands from industry. Additionally, the product design stage during New Product Development has been identified to have the greatest impact on the sustainability of the entire product, however how educated designers are on the topic of sustainability is unclear. An initial literature review has been conducted to investigate design education on sustainability as well as teaching styles. Following this the study identifies and reviews UK Product Design courses to establish the current status of sustainability integration in higher education. The exploration into university prospectuses has found that around half of UK universities implement sustainability in some way, however there are limited courses which dedicate specific modules to sustainability. Additionally, links with industry and accreditation organizations between UK product design courses have been confirmed, but there is no definite information to suggest that the universities use this to aid in the implementation sustainability education. From this review future research directions have been outlined.


2019 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 257-280
Author(s):  
Wassim J. Aloulou

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationships between strategic orientations as well as the role played by them to impact the performance of industrial firms.Design/methodology/approachThe paper formulates some hypotheses from the literature review. These hypotheses are tested using structural equation modeling with data collected from 292 randomly selected firms operating in several industrial sectors in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.FindingsThe findings of this study showed the importance of these strategic orientations in enhancing the performance of Saudi industrial firms and emphasized the mediating role of entrepreneurial orientation in the relationships of market orientation and technology orientation to new product development performance and firm performance.Research limitations/implicationsThe study discusses the findings and advances certain limitations and research and managerial implications for future research avenues. It proposes some recommendations to help Saudi firms to choose more than one orientation simultaneously and adopt an appropriate configuration of orientations. Future research has to consider the interplay between these strategic orientations and the impacts of environmental turbulence in terms of market and technology turbulence on strategic orientations – performance relationship.Practical implicationsThe study suggests that managers of Saudi industrial firms should utilize a mix of aspects from several strategic orientations such as market and technology through entrepreneurial capabilities and resources that enhance higher levels of performance.Originality/valueThis study contributes to the literature on entrepreneurship and strategic management by showing the reliability of scales used and the confirmatory of the factor structure. It also contributes to business practices by showing the importance for Saudi firms to combine different strategic orientations and provide more attention to the interplay of these orientations in order to perform better in such a transitional context.


1994 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 47-69 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shaker A. Zahra

As concern over the competitiveness of the U.S. persists, attention is given to understanding the factors associated with product innovation. To date, the bulk of research has focused on the organizational variables (e.g., formal structure) that spur or impede a company's new product development and introduction efforts. The present study extends the literature by examining the relationship of a firm's industry characteristics and the content of its competitive strategy, and the number and timing of new product introductions. Data from 134 established manufacturing companies (i.e., firms that have been in existence for more than eight years) show that a firm's Industry characteristics and competitive strategy explain a significant portion of variance in both the number and early introduction of new products. The implications of the results for managerial action and future research are also discussed.


Author(s):  
Anil Caliskan ◽  
Volkan Ozdemir

Rapid developments in technology enable us to reach smart glasses and AR technology with a wide range of products and competitive prices. Hence, increase in smart glasses industrial use give an opportunity to whom work distant such as making it possible to see from each other's eyes, which increases the operational efficiency of the companies; since it is costly to make experienced staff traveled to another plant in aspects of travel cost, accommodation cost and the lack of the experienced person in his/her the main responsibility area in factories with different experiences in remote locations. This study is conducted about the application of smart glasses on one of the biggest tire manufacturing company since 2018. End to end journey of the smart glasses' remote support applications, starting with how the devices are selected and ending with an evaluation of advantages/disadvantages of the smart glasses' technology, is explained in this paper. Moreover, the study covers details and observations of staff training, new product development, and inspections, first-run test on machinery, maintenance, and audits.


Author(s):  
Brian J. Galli

Economic decisions for a new product can impact any subsequent development, as well as the launching of the product. Furthermore, unsuccessful decision-making can result in missing business opportunities or spending more money on rework. This article investigates economic decision-making in the product development process. It also enhances the understanding of the process, the difficulties involved, and how to improve decisions during new product development. Thus, this study can serve as a reference when support methods for economic decisions are being initiated. Industrial engineers and engineering managers use economic decision-making for new product development. The results of this study indicate that economic decisions are vital to new product development, as they also bring radical changes in the fields of IE/EM/PM. The engineering management practitioner will understand the importance of these topics, their relevance to engineering management, and how engineering managers can integrate these ideas into their operations and project management lifecycle and project management settings. Economic decision-making models in IE/EM/PM should replace traditional non-scientific methods because they are inaccurate and speculative at best. Overall, by using the economic models, the engineering manager is prioritizing on the long-term prospect that the decision will have.


Author(s):  
Narjès Bellamine-BenSaoud ◽  
Fatima Rateb

In this chapter, we investigate how complexity theory and more particularly how agent-based modeling and simulation can benefit the explanation of the impact of education on malaria health care in Haiti. Our model includes: (1) the environment, encompassing mainly cities, roads, hospitals and schools; (2) the agents, modeling the human actors, who can be safe or infected by malaria disease according to their location in the environment; and (3) a modelled agent can also be mobile or not, can reproduce, and can die. We run four kinds of experiments over a 50-year period each. Our main emerging results are growing total agent, susceptible, and immune populations in a “cyclic” fluctuation form. Furthermore, we confirm the positive impact of both education and hospitals in combating malaria disease.


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