Underutilization of workers: an analysis according to the lean management philosophy in basic education

One of the eight wastes that Lean production, inspired by the Toyota Production System, proposes to study is the underutilization of workers, that is, the inadequate use of their intelligence. The sense is to provide listening and participation in improvement projects, of professionals who have experience in daily life and, in many cases, consistent academic qualifications. The objective of this work is to study the importance of the participation of teachers and employees of a basic education school in the construction of new routines and work methods, in the context of the Lean management philosophy, justified by the scarcity of scientific literature on the subject. Brazil has about 184,000 basic education schools with one million four hundred thousand teachers working from kindergarten to the ninth grade of elementary school, and of these, 83.2% have a college degree, a percentage that grows every year. About the schools, 21.7% are private, 61.3% municipal, 16.6% state, and 0.4% are federal schools. As a research methodology, a systematic review of the literature was adopted, based on the PRISMA protocol, allowing the identification of 53 records, 14 of which were included in the literature review, due to their adherence to the researched subject. The main contribution of this paper is the identification of a research gap involving the underutilization of workers and adoption of the Lean management philosophy in the education sector, as well as a conceptual proposal of the positive impact on the educational organization results by not underutilizing workers, without wasting their intelligence.

Discrete event simulation applied to single queue management: a case study at a bank agency

Capacity and queue management are currently used in financial institutions. With decreasing bank units due to internet services, research in this field has focused on improving to utilize their employees efficiently and achieve service excellence. In developing countries like Brazil, the customer has become more bank-accounted due to government and labor requirements, such as the wage credit became mandatory in the wage account. The paper's aim is motivated by a real-life case study to simulate discrete events to improve queue management at a Brazilian bank branch with the Arena software simulation environment. The simulation model was designed, tested, and applied considering the Discrete Event Simulation (DES) replication for queuing strategies on a real-world banking scenario. The arrival and service times were collected from 115 customers in Ferraz de Vasconcelos/SP city. It was performed in version 15.10 (2018) of the Arena software, with processor Intel core i3 CPU dual-core 3.07 GHz and 8GB of RAM. The results indicate that the bank agency should consider providing 9 to 11 operators to attend customers considering the arrival and service rate.

Logistics as a competitive advantage in retail organizations

Retail plays an important role in the trade sector of the Brazilian economy, with net operating revenues of nearly BRL 1.7 trillion and more than 7 million workers in 2018, according to the latest Annual Trade Survey from the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics. The entry of large multinational companies into the Brazilian retail market, where it is worth highlighting Amazon, has negatively impacted the market of Brazilian retail companies, which still use archaic methods and disqualified labor in their operations and processes. Amazon provides better logistics services that directly add value to the quality of products offered through a leaner and more profitable supply chain. Additionally, the behavioral changes brought about by Covid-19 have made consumers more satisfied with online shopping experiences than with visits to physical stores. The increase in internet shopping and the reduction of visits to sales outlets has caused a migration of consumption to digital media, which may generate long-term transformations in the strategies of companies. Thus, the objective of this research is to provide a conceptual proposal of the use of logistics as a competitive advantage in retail organizations, considering the best management practices for the logistics sector. As a research methodology, a systematic literature review was adopted, based on the PRISMA protocol, allowing the identification of 94 records, 12 of which were included in the literature review, due to their adherence to the researched theme. The main contribution of this paper is the development of a conceptual proposal for the use of logistics as a competitive advantage in retail organizations, comprising five aspects: Information Systems, Application of KPIs aligned with the Strategic Objectives of the Organization, Creating Value for Products, Modern Management Concept and, Need for Organizations to recognize the Benefits and Advantages of Logistics.

Blockchain-enabled capabilities in transport operations: an overview of the literature

The blockchain was initially developed for use in the banking sector. However, over time, different areas of knowledge have adopted these technologies, including transportation operations. This use of blockchain in the transport sector is mainly due to the ability of this technology to enable the data generated by these activities to be reliable. In addition to aspects related to data immutability, blockchain enables greater data privacy, as well as making it possible for the data control process to be decentralized. In this sense, it was carried out a systematic literature review (RSL) to identify the general publications panorama on the topic, and to identify the capabilities enabled by the blockchain in the context of transportation operations. RSL has great potential to make it possible to deepen the literature on a given topic. The analysis of the RSL results included the realization of two stages. The first step consisted of a quantitative analysis of data from a sample of 50 articles, to identify this research field about the distribution by journal, year, and author. This first step enabled a general analysis of the field of study on the use of blockchain in transportation. The second stage consisted of a qualitative analysis of the ten most relevant articles in this field of study. In this way, it was possible to understand more about the use of blockchain in transport operations, as well as to identify seven capabilities enabled by the blockchain. These capabilities represent abilities that blockchain technology allows the transport sector today, demonstrating the importance of its use, as well as of study.

A simulation-based approach to identify bottlenecks in the bearing manufacturing process

Flexible manufacturing processes improve profitability and competitiveness for the company through an efficient process, with quality in a short time, and contribute to achieving low costs. One of the approaches that have been currently developed to improve the flexible manufacturing process is simulation. Simulation models consist of an assertive and powerful tool in strategic planning. It permits a controlled way of the company's reality so that it was possible to study and analyze the organization's current situation under several circumstances without altering the production's physical environment and involving low costs. Accordingly, this study's primary purpose was to develop a simulation model to verify bottlenecks' existence in the bearing manufacturing process. For this, a case study is presented, and it was used modeling/simulation with Arena Software as a research method. The results showed no bottlenecks in the manufacturing process.

Application of lean management tools in industry 4.0: a systematic review

The concept of Industry 4.0 is very recent and has not been fully consolidated, and, for this reason, comprehensive implementations by the industrial sector may not be prudent. Studies show that only fundamentals of Industry 4.0 do not guarantee characteristics such as quality, for example, in production processes. Thus, lean production concepts are probably being used together to cover deficiencies in Industry 4.0. In this work, a literature review is proposed that points out where lean production tools are being used in the production processes of Industry 4.0. Using the results of this search, an analysis of the most important lean production tools, which appear in the works, has been made. The analysis has shown what is being used, in terms of the lean tools, in the production processes of Industry 4.0, and what improvements are provided from these tools.

Internationalization and english language in a public institution

Internationalization is defined as an integration process of international, intercultural or global dimensions with educational purpose and offers. There are many dimensions of educational institutions internationalization from research partnership to international mobility. Among the several requirements for students to participate in exchanging programs promoted by international universities and organizations is English language proficiency. On the other hand the proficiency level requirements can vary according to the mobility programs which set the minimum English level. One example is the SAKURA Science High School Program promoted by the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST) which selected science and technology students to participate in an exchanging program in Japan. In order to be selected, applicants needed to have B1 (CEFRR) as minimum English proficiency level. Thus this study aims to investigate if Brazilian students of an educational institution have such required level to successfully take part in mobility programs. The qualitative methodology of this research includes documents analysis - internationalization documents and English course program - and questionnaires to students and English teacher. The results show that students are expected to achieve B1 level by the end of high school according to the English subject program. However students believe that they do not have such level in speaking skill which would be one of the main skill in JST program. Most of them classify their level in A2. Furthermore the English teacher claims that although some students have already achieved B1 or even higher level the majority is at A2.Thus in order to allow more students to participate in mobility programs the institution should invest in extra-curricular English courses to increase study hours and focus more on developing speaking skills.

Impact of seasonality on the inbound and outbound freight of a global fertilizer company

The growing importance of agriculture in the Brazilian economy makes it essential that agricultural companies seek to increase their logistics competitiveness. This study aimed to compare and analyze the impact of seasonality of grain harvest and specific events, such as the 2018 Brazil truck drivers’ strike, on the prices of inbound and outbound freight in a multinational company located in several Brazilian states. It focused on the CIF (Cost, Insurance, and Freight) routes of the company between 2015 and 2019 in Brazil, and the relationship between time of year and cost of transportation. These data were analyzed in a descriptive level after being treated by statistical analysis. This study showed that the costs of outbound freight suffered greater increases compared to the inbound freight due to the seasonality of grain harvest and the 2018 Brazil truck drivers’ strike.

Production batch sizing and inventory level control using simulation software

Computer simulation has great application potential in the area of Production Engineering as a tool to support decision making as it allows to simulate the functioning of a real system through logical relationships, in order to observe its behavior under different scenarios. Which could not be practiced in the real system. In line with this aspect, the present work aims to present a report on the application of simulation for the design of production batches and inventory control, highlighting the process necessary for the construction of the generated simulation model, as well as the challenges and opportunities observed. In order to achieve the proposed objective, a literature review was carried out on the topics of interest; the choice and understanding of simulation software and; the survey of data from a large auto parts manufacturer located in the interior of the state of São Paulo. The main results were an increase in production volume from the inclusion and dimensioning of a buffer after the assembly process and a balance between the number of items of each component of the product structure in the supply with the real capacity of manufacturing cell processing. Cabe ressaltar que o modelo de simulação produto da pesquisa deste artigo pode ser aplicado como um sistema de apoio à decisão do gestor para a elaboração do planejamento estratégico e do planejamento operacional com o propósito de melhorar a capacidade de análise e decisão. It is important mentioning that the simulation model in this article can be applied as a support system decision for the preparation of strategic planning and operational planning, with the purpose of improving the analysis capacity for decision-making.

Inverse modeling of the stewart foot

The Stewart's leg is used today in the majority of parallel robotic systems, such as the Stewart platform, but also in many other types of mechanisms and kinematic chains, in order to operate them or to transmit motion. A special character in the study of robots is the study of inverse kinematics, with the help of which the map of the motor kinematic parameters necessary to obtain the trajectories imposed on the effector can be made. For this reason, in the proposed mechanism, we will present reverse kinematic modeling in this paper. The kinematic output parameters, ie the parameters of the foot and practically of the end effector, ie those of the point marked with T, will be determined for initiating the working algorithm with the help of logical functions, "If log(ical)", with the observation that here they play the role of input parameters; it is positioned as already specified in the inverse kinematics when the output is considered as input and the input as output. The logical functions used, as well as the entire calculation program used, were written in Math Cad.