Use of A3 Report by Industrial Engineering Students As a Tool to Analyze and Interpret a Case Study

Lean Thinking is a philosophy which principles were redesigned from Toyota Production System (TPS) by Womack and Jones of MIT. Currently, Lean Thinking principles are taught in the academy and are applied in all sectors, from production to services. Services is what is provided to students in a university. Teachers provide a service to them, and they are the clients of this service. As so, teachers want to provide the best service, adding value to the “client” product. In order to do so, they search for new methods that create flow in the way students learn what they need to learn. Lean Thinking have been providing tools to the classroom to obtain such flow. This paper intends to present a tool, an A3 report, which was used by engineering students to analyze, interpret and report a published case study. This was a team assignment task among others. This task was assessed as a component for the final grade of a course of third year of Master Integrated of Industrial Engineering and Management (IEM). The presentations, A3 reports and discussions results were analyzed and compared using Bloom taxonomy levels and 3H taxonomy to infer about students learning. Main findings obtained were very positive.

Impact of Human Resource Management Practices on Organizational Performance (A Case of Nepal)

HRM practices in Nepalese organizations are undergoing continual transition, moving from former personnel concepts to modern HRM policies and strategies. This study focuses on assessing the human resource practices in the manufacturing and service sector institutions in Nepal. This study also attempts to find out the relationship between the adoptions of such practices in their performance. The correlation results suggested that there is negative association between HRM practices and employee turnover whereas there is positive association between HRM practices and productivity. The regression result suggested that there is a negative association between HRM practices and employee turnover whereas there is positive association between HRM practices and productivity. At present many Nepalese business organizations are found using team based job design that fosters the specialization as well as the synergy in the team assignment.

Teams in Management Education

The most recent recipient of the JME Lasting Impact Award, “Lessons from the Best and Worst Student Team Experiences: How a Teacher can make the Difference,” by Bacon, Stewart, and Silver (1999) is an elegantly presented examination of how the set of decisions made by instructors regarding team assignments affect student experience. An analysis of subsequent Journal of Management Education articles finds three identifiable streams of research associated with their seminal work: the approach to peer evaluation, the impact of team formation policy, and the importance of team assignment structure to effective learning outcomes. Fruitful areas of future research for more impactful and productive team assignments are offered.

The Influence of Goal Commitment and Partner Status on Team Assignment Outcomes

The present study replicated and extended research on the influence of team assignment methods on task performance and fairness perceptions. This study examined the influence of team assignment methods, goal commitment, and partner status on team member performance and fairness perceptions in a laboratory setting. The assignment conditions were comprised of three variables: assignment method (random, self-decision, and ability), performer status (assigned or unassigned), and partner status (unassigned team member stayed or left during task performance). A significant interaction was found between assignment method and performer status when the unassigned team member left during task performance, but not when the unassigned team member stayed. Random and self-decision assignment methods resulted in higher levels of goal commitment and task performance than did ability-based assignment conditions. Lastly, goal commitment was found to mediate the relationship between assignment method and task performance. The implications of these findings for the task performance and organizational justice literatures, as well as for managers in general, are discussed.

Surgical Versus Medical Team Assignment and Secondary Palliative Care Services for Patients Dying in a Cardiac Hospital

Background: Secondary palliative care (SPC) provides several benefits for patients with cardiovascular disease, but historically, it has been underutilized in this population. Prior research suggests a low rate of SPC consultation by surgical teams in general, but little is known about how surgical teams utilize SPC in the setting of severe cardiovascular disease. Aim: To determine if surgical team assignment affects the probability of SPC for inpatients dying of cardiovascular disease. Design: Retrospective, cohort study. Methods: We identified all inpatients at a large cardiac hospital who had anticipated death under the care of a cardiology, cardiac surgery, or vascular surgery team in 2016. Our primary outcome was referral to SPC, including palliative medicine consultation or inpatient hospice care. Informed by univariate analysis, we created a multivariable logistic regression model, the significance of which was assessed with the Wald test. Results: Two hundred thirty-seven patients were included in our analysis: 93 (39%) received SPC and 144 (61%) were “missed opportunities.” Secondary palliative care was less frequent in patients assigned to a surgical, versus medical, team (11% vs 47%, P < .001). On multivariate analysis, surgical versus medical team assignment was the strongest risk-adjusted predictor of SPC (odds ratio [OR]: 0.10, P < .001). Other predictors of SPC included do not resuscitate status on admission (OR: 14, P < .001), length of stay (OR = 1.05/day, P < .001), and having Medicare (OR = 3.9, P = .002). Conclusions: Primary inpatient care by a surgical team had a strong inverse relationship with SPC. This suggests a possible cultural barrier within surgical disciplines to SPC.