The Knowledge Transfer Process on the Development of Dynamic Capabilities through Industrial Networks

The overall objective of this study is to analyze the processes of knowledge transfer generated in networks in the industry to produce dynamic capabilities, specifically the development of innovation. To achieve the proposed aims, the relationship between network, innovation, learning and knowledge is analysed. Interactions between companies allow combining existing ideas to give new perspectives and also to create new ideas that are sources of innovation. To generate and transmit knowledge companies develop effective learning processes. The key points for the development of learning are: the creation of learning environments and the development of a collaborative culture of learning, based on trust, allowing interaction between companies for the mutual benefit of collaboration.

The Role of Strategic Outsourcing in Global Business

This chapter reveals the role of strategic outsourcing in global business, thus describing the theoretical and practical concept of strategic outsourcing; the management theories related to strategic outsourcing; the applications of Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) and Information Technology Outsourcing (ITO); and the significance of strategic outsourcing in global business. The fulfillment of strategic outsourcing is vital for modern organizations that seek to serve suppliers and customers, improve business performance, enhance competitiveness, and reach continuous achievement in global business. Therefore, it is necessary for modern organizations to explore their strategic outsourcing, establish a strategic plan to usually check their practical advancements, and immediately respond to strategic outsourcing needs of customers in modern organizations. The chapter argues that applying strategic outsourcing in global business has the potential to increase organizational performance and attain business goals in the digital age.

Operational Risk Management in Third Party Logistics (3PL)

Supply chain risk management processes are among the most important activities in the value chain of any industry. The supply chain risk management process includes different activities, focused on the identification, measurement, assessment, and mitigation of the main risk sources that can affect a supply chain. The increasing complexity facing global supply chains generates the need for suppliers to collaborate in different processes in a supply chain. In this context, Third Party Logistics Providers (3PL) have been widely promoted by the phenomenon of outsourcing, on which companies increasingly rely. The growth in logistics outsourcing is mainly attributed to the benefits it brings in terms of reducing costs, improving performance, allowing companies to focus on their core businesses and building virtual enterprises through strategic alliances. In this chapter we develop a model to identify the operational risk factors of a 3PL provider.

Improving the Supply Chain (SC) Stream with Green Product Design (GPD) Strategy

The current Supply Chain (SC) is under change. The traditional way to generate a product contained the following stages: product design, raw material selection, material transportation, manufacturability, distribution and disposition at end of life. Product design for instance, is considered an extremely important stage of a product, being that, it directs the way the product can potentially be managed along the SC. It defines the raw material to be used, the possible supplier to select, the industrial processes involved in its fabrication, the packaging for its transportation and the newest stage where the product reaches its end of life and needs to be disposed. The Product design then becomes Green Product Design (GPD), where energy, time, resources become critical for a company. GPD takes into account the whole product life cycle. This chapter presents the importance of having a GPD process into the SC, the way to incorporate it, and the benefits of implementing it into the SC.

Optimizing the Reconfiguration of Machining Desktop Micro-Factory Based on Scheduling Simulation

Today, the micro-factory concept of downsizing production systems is essential to manufacturing small products in sustainable growth. Concerning this, this paper presents the developments accomplished during the recent years at Tecnológico de Monterrey (Mexico) and Holguin University (Cuba) introducing new findings related to the design of reconfigurable micro-factories based-on micro-machine tools. The chapter discusses the proposed framework for the optimizing the development of micro-factories in the context of micro-reconfigurable manufacturing systems based-on micro-reconfigurable machine tools. The novel methodology for optimizing the scheduling of reconfigurable micro-factories were exposed and a scheduling optimization of a reconfigurable micro-factory prototype was designed and tested.

The Management Commitment and Its Impact on Economic and Competitive Benefits Gained by the Implementation of Kaizen in the Industry

This chapter provides an analysis of the effect of management commitment as a critical success factor Kaizen, on the economic and competitive benefits obtained by implementing the same in industrial enterprises during their planning stage is presented. To collect information apply 423 questionnaires distributed to 68 companies in the states of Tabasco, Sinaloa and Chihuahua in Mexico. The partial least squares method was used with the software WarpPLS 4.0 software to develop a model of structural equations that explain such effects. The results show that when there is a high management commitment, this impacts on the economic and competitive benefits to companies directly and positiva.Como result of this study is shown in a tangible way, the impact of a certain critical success factor Kaizen, the benefits of implementing it, essential to their sustainability over time element.

SMED

Short changeover times have always been critical in manufacturing and are a necessity nowadays in all types of industries, due every wasted minute means inefficiency. Single Minute Exchange of Dies (SMED) is a methodology developed by Shigeo Shingo in 1985, which seeks to reduce the setup time of a machine to less than ten minutes (Shingo, 1985). It provides a rapid and efficient way of converting a manufacturing process from a current product that is been running in the production process, to the next product (Tharisheneprem, 2008), aimed always to decrease the setup time in industrial machinery, given flexibility in product and their characteristics. Through this research, we found that we can achieve some benefits through the implementation of the SMED methodology such as: the reduction of changeover time up to 90% with moderate investments (Cakmakci, 2009), reduce waste and increase quality, it makes low cost flexible operations possible.

Factorial Design for Reduction of Variation on Plastic Parts Weight

This research aims to find the causes of weight variation of plastic products that cause a high cost and rework. The importance of using statistical control on the weight of plastic parts is presented; describing the type of machinery used to manufacture, considering the properties and applications of material as Acetal and conditions for injection molding operation, where a 24 factorial experimental design was used to find the variables which influence the weight of the product to maintain a stable process. An efficient solution was developed considering the variables of pressure and injection time to be highly significant in the weight of the plastic parts. Finally an optimal arrangement is generated for the plastic injection process which ensures a stable production process and ensures the quality of the product, which implies a reduction of costs and compliance with design specifications.

Automatic Defect Detection and Classification of Terminals in a Bussed Electrical Center Using Computer Vision

In this chapter, an intelligent Computer Vision (CV) system, for the automatic defect detection and classification of the terminals in a Bussed Electrical Center (BEC) is presented. The system is able to detect and classify three types of defects in a set of the seven lower pairs of terminals of a BEC namely: a) twisted; b) damaged and c) missed. First, an environment to acquire a total of 56 training and test images was created. After that, the image preprocessing is performed by defining a Region Of Interest (ROI) followed by a binarization and a morphological operation to remove small objects. Then, the segmentation stage is computed resulting in a set of 12-14 labeled zones. A vector of 56 features is extracted for each image containing information of area, centroid and diameter of all terminals segmented. Finally, the classification is performed using a K-Nearest Neighbor (KNN) algorithm. Experimental results on 28 BEC images have shown an accuracy of 92.8% of the proposed system, allowing changes in brightness, contrast and salt and pepper noise.

Macroergonomic Work Systems' Design Factors and Elements

Currently there is no a literature survey which evaluates and classifies the papers according to the macroergonomic factors and elements that authors consider needed to work systems' design. For that reason, this chapter offers a review to identify the most frequent macroergonomic work systems' design factors and elements enounced in literature and propose a classification for them. A manual search was performed in seven databases by using keywords such as sociotechnical systems, macroergonomics, and work systems design. Bibliographical sources were classified into five main groups, corresponding to the factors of work systems' design, named Peron factor, Organization factor, factor of Tools and Technology, Tasks factor, and Environment factor, and their corresponding subgroups (elements). The macroergonomic Organization factor presented the highest frequency, while the macroergonomic factor of Tools and Technology presented the lowest frequency. Regarding the elements, Teamwork was the most frequent, while Advanced Manufacturing technology and Work Schedules were the less frequent.