Institutional Work: A Review and Framework based on Semantic and Thematic Analysis

Institutional work as a concept has evolved and diffused beyond roots in management and organizational studies since it was first defined by Lawrence and Suddaby (2006). A diverse literature and recent criticism call for an extensive review of the field. We conducted a systematic review of 452 peer-reviewed articles in 185 different journals published from March 2006 to December 2019. Semantic analysis revealed changes in topics over time, the rise of institutional maintenance, and a focus on individuals and agency. Using thematic analysis, we inductively categorized the claimed contributions to institutional work as theory combining, actors, contexts, institutional work types, representations, and methodology. The findings led us to develop an integrative conceptual framework for future institutional work study built around setting, motivations, types, and outcomes. We visualized the discourse around institutional work, growth of key themes from early theorizing, and an original process model.

Transfer and Optimisation of Injection Moulding Manufacture of Medical Devices Using Scientific Moulding Principles

Scientific moulding, also known as decoupled injection moulding, is a production methodology used to develop and determine robust moulding processes resilient to fluctuations caused by variation in temperature and viscosity. Scientific moulding relies on the meticulous collection of data from the manufacturing process, especially inputs of time (fill, pack/hold), temperature (melt, barrel, tool), and pressure (injection, hold, etc.). This publication presents a use case where scientific moulding was used to enable the transfer and optimisation of an injection moulding process from an Arburg 221M injection moulding machine to an Arburg 375 V model. The part was an endovascular aneurysm repair dilator device where a polypropylene hub was moulded over a high-density polyethylene dilator insert. Upon transfer, multiple studies were carried out, including material rheology study during injection, gate freeze study, cavity balance of the moulding tool, and pressure loss analysis. A design of experiments was developed and carried out on the process with a variety of effects and responses. The developed process cycle time was compared to that achieved theoretically using mathematical modelling and the original process cycle time. The studies resulted in the identification of optimum parameters for injection speed, holding time, holding pressure, cooling time, and mould temperature. The process was verified by completing a 32-shot study and recording part weights and dimensional measurements to confirm repeatability and consistency of the process. The output from the study was a reduction in cycle time by 12.05 s from the original process. A cycle time of 47.28 s was theoretically calculated for the process, which is within 6.6% of the practical experiment results (44.15 s).

Hydroxytyrosol-Fortified Foods Obtained by Supercritical Fluid Extraction of Olive Oil

A new original process has been set-up to obtain hydroxytyrosol-enriched food by means of CO2 supercritical fluid extraction. The process is based on the direct adsorption of hydroxytyrosol on selected foodstuff (e.g., flour, whole-wheat flour, and sugar) when placed in contact with olive oil (which is known to contain this phenol) under controlled temperature and pressure conditions of supercritical CO2. The transfer of the nutraceutical to the foodstuff was initially evaluated using a fortified olive oil model and was then applied to commercial olive oil and foodstuff. The yield of the hydroxytyrosol transfer was demonstrated to be quantitative. In order to prove the suitability of the final products, hydroxytyrosol-enriched flour was used to prepare a bread roll, which maintained the nutraceutical characteristics after the cooking. Finally, DPPH based experiments were performed to prove the radical scavenging activity of the functionalized foodstuff.

To reduce the Turn Around Time (TAT) of trucks and improve in-plant logistics

This paper talks about the reduction of in plant operations time and reduction of turn-around time of the trucks in any FMCG Company. The plant has almost 300 vehicles for loading and unloading. The current systems and process for receiving and dispatching of goods is poised with several challenges. This process with the inspection of material at the entry of a truck to the billing procedures in an effective manner is a challenge due to various constraints. The load, which needs to be dispatched in a day, requires a very less turnaround time of trucks but the actual time, when analysed, was significantly higher than what was required. Higher turnaround time was causing ineffective operations in terms of placing the vehicles in the plant by the transporters. Subsequently, there was a considerable deviation between the planned orders to be dispatched and actual dispatch of goods. The complete process was studied for identifying the loopholes and time motion study was conducted to analyse the current issues, which was leading to more VIVO time of vehicles. The whole process was analysed and thus major factors, which were causing the delay of the vehicles were identified. A survey was conducted to pen down the issues causing the problems in managing the in-plant logistics of the company. Results were analysed and was found that deployment of more manpower and optimizing the entire process would help only marginally towards achieving the goal. Hence, automating the redundant and time-consuming activities would help in achieving a considerable amount of reduction in the turn-around time of trucks. This will indirectly increase the dispatch quantities of the company. In addition, there is a requirement to redefine work, which would primarily mean altering the original process. Thus, various issues in the existing processes were identified and reduction in turnaround time was observed with the implementation of the new process and tools used to reduce the redundant processes

METHODS OF ENSURING OPTIMAL PRODUCTION PRODUCTIVITY AT ENTERPRISES

The article shows that modern production systems must be able to perform various machining operations and quickly adapt to changes in consumer demand. When planning processes, only the capabilities of production resources are taken into account, but not their quantity, availability and condition. Plans created under these conditions can easily become ineffective or invalid. Changes to the original process plans or even redevelopment then become commonplace at the production floor level. This will significantly affect the productivity of production systems and industrial enterprises.

Design of a modular exhibition structure with additive manufacturing of eco-sustainable materials

In this paper the mechanical characteristics of an innovative bioplastic material, the HBP® -HempBioPlastic® filament, is investigated. HBP® was recently patented by an Italian company Kanésis that focused its activity on nature-derived materials. The filaments are the upshot of an original process allowing to reuse the surplus of the agricultural supply chains and transform it into new sustainable materials. At first, the 3D printed HBP® samples were tested in tensile tests according to the ASTMD638 standard and monitored in term of deformations by the Digital Image Correlation techniques (DIC) in order to evaluate the stress-strain behavior of different HBP® textures under loading. In addition, using the HBP® and the results coming from the experimental campaign, the design of an exhibition pavilion was proposed. The pavilion was modelled starting from the geometric construction of the fullerene. The supporting modular structure is combined by HBP® modular elements, that can be produced by 3D printing or moulding. Finally, in order to demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed pavilion, a linear finite element analysis is presented on the base of the experimentally determined mechanical properties of HBP® elements, under the effects of wind and seismic environmental actions.

A generalization of Matérn hard-core processes with applications to max-stable processes

Matérn hard-core processes are classical examples for point processes obtained by dependent thinning of (marked) Poisson point processes. We present a generalization of the Matérn models which encompasses recent extensions of the original Matérn hard-core processes. It generalizes the underlying point process, the thinning rule, and the marks attached to the original process. Based on our model, we introduce processes with a clear interpretation in the context of max-stable processes. In particular, we prove that one of these processes lies in the max-domain of attraction of a mixed moving maxima process.

Does social psychology persist over half a century? A direct replication of Cialdini et al.’s (1975) classic door-in-the-face technique

Many failed replications in social psychology have cast doubt on the validity of the field. Most of these replication attempts have focused on findings published from the 1990s on, ignoring a large body of older literature. As some scholars suggest that social psychological findings and theories are limited to a particular time, place, and population, we sought to test whether a classical social psychological finding that was published nearly half a century ago can be successfully replicated in another country on another continent. To this end, we directly replicated Cialdini et al.’s (1975) door-in-the-face (DITF) technique according to which people’s likelihood to comply with a target request increases after having turned down a larger request. Thereby, we put the reciprocal concessions theory – the original process explanation of the DITF technique – to a critical test. Overall, compliance rates in our replication were similarly high as those Cialdini et al. (1975) found 45 years ago. That is, participants were more likely to comply with a target request after turning down an extreme request than participants who were exposed to the target request only or to a similarly small request before being exposed to the target request. These findings support the idea that reciprocity norms play a crucial role in DITF strategies. Moreover, the results suggest that at least some social psychological findings can transcend a particular time, place, and population. Further theoretical implications are discussed.

Initial Process Planning of a Hybrid Multi-Tasking Platform

Applications of hybrid technology are expanding from refurbishment and repair to low quantity, specialty part production, which are staple characteristics in medical implant, energy, and aerospace industry sectors, among others. This expansion has led to the development of the Mazak VC-500A/5X AM HWD, a wire fed laser cladding unit equipped with a standard 5 axis CNC. This unit is capable of building near net geometry of complex medium to large parts within a profitable timeframe, due to its comparatively high rate of deposition to that of a powder fed hybrid system. In this study, deposition and machining capabilities of the VC-500A/5X AM HWD are assessed through the production of three different test geometries by different process plans. Production of these test geometries is supported by an open loop sensor package primarily for monitoring machine health, data collection, and machine operator aid. The viability of extended deposition followed by machining is evaluated against a more cyclical strategy of reoccurring deposition and machining operations. Lastly, common defects in as-built geometries are evaluated and addressed through revisions to original process plans and toolpaths, indicating the need for continued innovation in hybrid manufacturing specific CAM/CAD software, as well as closed loop machine monitoring and quality control.

Data Analytics Applied to Coal Fired Boilers for Detecting Leaks

Data analytics were used to detect boiler leaks from five different coal-fired boilers including both subcritical and supercritical systems. Discriminant functions were developed that detected leaks up to two weeks prior to forced plant shutdowns for repairs. The leaks were identified to occur at different sections of the boiler for each plant, including waterwalls, economizer and superheater using conventional process measurement data. Leaking conditions were detected with a high degree of confidence (≪ 1% misclassified observations) and were able to distinguish normal operations from those time periods with steam leaks even while operating the power plants in power cycling mode. Multivariable statistical analyses, including Principal Component (PCA), cluster, and Fischer Discriminant Analysis (FDA) were used to characterize the leak occurrence. Normal and operational states with steam leaks were provided in the original process datasets. These datasets were split into two different groups for training and validation purposes. The data were sorted chronologically, and every third observation was assigned to training the Discriminant Function Model (DFM) while the rest were reserved for validation. PCA was used to reduce dimensionality of the original datasets. Canonical and FDA analyses were used to investigate the relationship between process variables. The outcome of the analyses revealed that nearly 35,000 observations were classified correctly; less than 0.05% of total observations were misclassified to be leaking, i.e. both false positives and false negatives.