Journal of Industrial Integration and Management

Reverse Logistics Networks (RLNs) have grown in importance after return policies became compulsory. Lately, questions have been raised whether they effectively decrease environmental impact: efforts to optimize the eco-efficiency of RLNs through minimizing costs and emissions were deployed, but results are not advancing with the necessary speed. Alternatively, the eco-effectiveness (“doing the right thing” for the environment) approach emerges, promoting a supportive relationship, balancing environment and economy. This research aims to model the design (or redesign) process of eco-effective RLNs. There are numerous ecodesign tools focusing on product or service design, but an eco-effective design process conceived specifically for logistics design purposes is yet to be delivered. Research was carried out using the Design Science Research Methodology and an exemplification for the Poultry Industry was outlined to demonstrate how the process unrolls. The model was conceived using a combination of Upcycling, Industrial Symbiosis, TRIZ rationale and Collaboration for Sustainability. The proposed design process model will help the conception of more innovative, eco-effective logistics networks.

This paper presents the integrated product development tool Design for Autonomy for reengineering of complex products. The objective is to assure that the product can be designed, produced and operated in Brazil for a defined period of time at a minimum risk of being dependent on export bans or unavailability of components. This tool is a new member of the Design for X family, which aims at integrating the requirements from the autonomy area into the conceptual phase of the product development process. Development guidelines derived from the procedures of the generic Design for X development framework are presented that lead to a balance between functionality and operability. The Design for Autonomy tool contains four steps: (1) Analysis of the product in order to identify critical elements; (2) Preparation of nationalization; (3) Reverse engineering of the original product in order to obtain technological know-how; and (4) Forward engineering for a national product, stimulating improvements and added value. The implementation can be evaluated by qualitative and quantitative performance criteria comparing the national product with the baseline configuration of the original product. The Design for Autonomy tool is being successfully applied and verified on a pilot project in the Brazilian space sector.

Knowing how value creation is understood and managed by Big Data-based companies can be a key strategy to boost business. The typical process of identifying value creation in organizations is quite complex, since it involves internal and external factors to them. In Big Data scenarios, we should also consider the uncertainty about future processes of value creation, regarding the trends inferred by predictive analytics processes. Big Data environments operate in a scale of large volumes of parallel-processed data; and aim to generate relevant information that otherwise would be impossible for traditional systems, especially if we expect good performance of transaction speed and of coping with the extensive variety of data types, inherent to such environments. In order to properly identify and work with the idea of value in their businesses, Big Data-based companies have thus far more challenging hurdles to overcome. This paper proposes a survey of the creation of value in such environments. For this purpose, we undertook a theoretical study, which relied in a qualitative method approach of bibliographical, exploratory and descriptive nature. Finally, since this work is still on progress and it is not yet a conclusive proposal, we aim to compare our preliminary results to the typical perception of value creation, found in the literature.

Maintenance culture is a critical factor in sea power delivery and is embedded throughout all aspects of the maritime support solution. Preliminary research suggests that Royal Australian Navy (RAN) maintenance staff and civilian support organizations do not hold positive attitudes towards asset management. As a result, there is evidence that maintenance culture should be defined and improved. However there are no adequate instruments available to measure this gap in culture and attitude within the RAN, or their associated support organizations. Hence the intent of this research is to validate the theory of a poor maintenance culture across all facets of the RAN ship maintenance support solution. Maintenance culture has for too long been about maintaining ships rather than maintaining ship’s reliability (also known as conducting maintenance for the sake of conducting maintenance). This paper investigates asset maintenance support solutions leveraging experience from alternative industry to augment the culture towards maintaining naval assets.

There is a dearth of guidelines for preventing the impacts associated with technology transfer process (TTP). The paper proposes a set of preventive guidelines to minimize this problem between industrial companies in Latin America. The literature on TTP between companies and the variables that affect them is reviewed. Moreover, an exploratory action research case study involving technology transfer (TT) from a Brazilian company to a subsidiary in Mexico is shown. This same case is then used to simulate the use of the proposed guidelines in order to determine their potential. The paper presents 11 guidelines that seek to minimize the 14 variables identified as having an impact on a TTP. Once these guidelines were applied, it was found that the company tended to better meet local customers’ requirements. The most important impacts can vary depending on the context and might not necessarily be the same as those in the present study.

This study deals with the gain in quality and cost reduction in the pressing of the spark plug wires from the need to ensure a standard, eliminate quality defects such as poor contact of the cables generating low power failures and unexpected problems. The main objective is to study the best practices in the automotive market, to ensure a standard for fixing the spark plug wires, comparing them with the current method, pointing out potential gains from the analysis of deployment costs by reducing the time of labor and applying the results in the production line to ensure that the spark plug wires come out correctly set. To understand this work some key points were studied and addressed such as the system World Class Manufacturing (WCM), quality tools like FMEA, PDCA cycle and Kaizen. These were applied in the process of pressing the plug wires, highlighting their advantages and disadvantages, seeking the best way to use. The results show the implementation of automation to press the spark plug wires in a positive manner towards the operation performed by the operator. Automation was accepted and used to run the company in 2014. Referring to the layout of the production area, there was a reduction in the cycle time of the post. Moreover, reducing the cycle time of the operator with consequent cost savings for the company and improved ergonomic operation was observed. It is concluded that the main goal, which was to ensure a standard for pressing the plug wires and eliminating quality defects, was achieved as evidenced by cost analyses, beyond the desaturation of the job, thus receiving new activities.