QC-story as cost management support tool application and evaluation in a clothing industry

A good cost management is a business need, where the process failures are identified and corrected, seeking continuous improvement, since competitiveness and lower prices are the market demanding. Such good management reflects on process economies, whether economic or energy efforts, and results in benefits for the company and final consumer, who receives a less costly product. In order to achieve this process of continuous improvement in costing process, the QC-story method was used to identify and analyze problems in cost calculation. For analysis of the problems some Quality Tools were used, making possible to identify the causes of the problems with cost management. At the end of the analysis, an action plan was proposed using the 5W2H tool to achieve the desired improvements. The application of the QC-story method was justified by the fact that divergences in cost management are common in all collections, directly impacting the company's income generation.

Salary-Quality Beliefs: Products Made by Well-Paid Employees are Expected and Perceived to be of Higher Quality

Determinants of quality and value perceptions are a central issue for marketers and consumer psychologists alike. Seven experiments (six preregistered; N = 3453, with U.S. American, British, and French participants) show that consumers expect and perceive products made by well-paid workers to be of higher quality. This increases consumers’ choice likelihood and willingness-to-pay for products made by well-paid workers. We suggest that consumers interpret workers’ salaries and satisfaction as costly product quality signals from the firm. Therefore, consumers’ lay theory benefits firms who pay their workers higher salaries. This effect is driven by the consumers’ belief that well-paid workers are more satisfied, and that more satisfied workers exert more effort, resulting in them producing higher-quality products. This suggests that consumers subscribe to a happiness lay theory to determine value. The present work contributes to the theoretical advancement of scholarly literature in marketing, consumer psychology, and applied psychology. We make several practical suggestions for marketing managers, workers’ unions, and policymakers on how to use, communicate, and regulate worker salary and satisfaction information, taking into account worker welfare and fair market competition as well as revenue and profit maximization.

Consumer-Based Optimization and Product Profiling of Garlic-Flavored Oven-Roasted Peanuts

An optimization study of food products is important to be able to develop a nutritious and least costly product using the most efficient processing method. In this study, optimization of an oven-roasted peanut product was done. A two-factor factorial experiment with three levels of garlic solution (4,6, &8 w/w) and roasting time (40, 45 & 50 min) was conducted. Consumer acceptance test and specturm descriptive analysis were done using the 9-point Hedonic scale and 15-cm semi-structrued line, respectively. Roasting time had significant effects on all sensory parameters studied. Garlic level significantly affected fracturability. The optimum combination of 4-8% (w/w) garlic solution and below 47 min roasting time produced a product with acceptability scored of >6.50. Verification study showed the predictive ability of the model which implies that the processor has confidence to choose any combination from the above-mentioned values. Product quality specifications and intensity for color, garlic aroma, hardness, crunchiness, fracturability, toothpacking, saltiness, garlic taste, bitterness taste, peanutty taste and roastedness flavor were established.

Software Engineering Practices to Improve Code Quality and Prepare for Validation

Programmers creating mission-critical applications — embedded control applications, industrial monitoring applications, and high-performance test systems — cannot afford to introduce errors or uncertainty into the system. The stakes are especially high in medical applications, where failure can often lead to patient injury and costly product recalls.

Development of a Dual-Handed Haptic Assembly System: SHARP

Virtual reality (VR) technology holds promise as a virtual prototyping (VP) tool for mechanical assembly; however, several developmental challenges still need to be addressed before VP applications can successfully be integrated into the product realization process. This paper describes the development of System for Haptic Assembly and Realistic Prototyping (SHARP), a portable virtual assembly system. SHARP uses physics-based modeling for simulating realistic part-to-part and hand-to-part interactions in virtual environments. A dual-handed haptic interface for a realistic part interaction using the PHANToM® haptic devices is presented. The capability of creating subassemblies enhances the application’s ability to handle a wide variety of assembly scenarios at the part level as well as at the subassembly level. Swept volumes are implemented for addressing maintainability issues, and a network module is added for communicating with different VR systems at dispersed geographic locations. Support for various types of VR systems allows an easy integration of SHARP into the product realization process, resulting in faster product development, faster identification of assembly and design issues, and a more efficient and less costly product design process.