Advances in Engineering Networks

There is no doubt about the impact that the 4th Industrial Revolution is having in our factories. New technologies are being developed, and huge quantities of money are being invested for modernizing our plants. Theses technologies are also impacting on operational and people management, and new professional competences are required for being able to work successfully in this environment. In this paper, combining literature review and fieldwork with 22 different companies that operate with 4.0 technologies, we identify and prioritize a list of 23 professional competencies.

Currently, the construction industry has found a way to improve its competitiveness in Lean Construction, particularly in its Integrated Project Delivery (IPD) tool. The IPD methodology is based on collaboration between all the participants in a project and seeks to identify and eliminate waste in all construction activities. Motivated by IPD’s potential, this paper systematically reviews the literature in order to structure concepts linked to the approach. As a result of this review, the authors develop a framework and reveal a series of gaps that could be used to define a path forward for future research work.

Recent studies have highlighted the significant impact that business model innovation (BMI) has on business strategy, performance, and competitive advantage. However, the literature is still quite fragmented; there is no commonly accepted definition of the term, and progress toward solid theoretical constructs is still under development. Thus, the need to identify empirical measurement instruments that enable the definition and measurement of BMI has been identified. The present paper conducts a systematic literature review, selecting four empirically validated BMI measurement scales for analysis. After comparing them, it was concluded that the four measurement instruments are helpful tools for managers to assess business models (BM), benchmark the competition or plan a strategy. In addition, the instruments contribute to a better understanding of BM and BMI, and establish the basis for further research in the field. Some limitations were found, however, namely, that the instruments are not generalizable to study a particular phenomenon and their reliability could be affected when applying them in a different context to the original study. Finally, some items used in the scales were found to be open to multiple interpretations and thus care must be taken to ensure alignment with the research question.

The number of listed companies offering alternatives to cash dividends is increasing in Europe. Companies can reduce the cash outflows by giving shareholders the option to receive either shares or cash. Some investors favor scrip dividends due to the implicit-free call option attached to the scrip distributions, and recent studies confirm that the market does not react negatively, helping to reduce the agency problem. Additionally, companies can avoid dilution by repurchasing the shares offered in the scrip. Repurchase strategies using volatility and derivatives can guarantee a lower repurchase price, improving the capital ratios of the company and increasing BVPS.

The connection among different agents provides data and information embedded in different objects and materials that can challenge the way industry and factories are been running. In this way, Business Intelligence enables Smart Manufacturing and leverage data to improve company performance. Business Intelligence facilitates new insights about product developments from a different point of views: customers, suppliers, manufacturing process, quality, innovation, etc. In twenty-first century, decision-making process in business is being not only evolved but also revolutionized by the way firms are being able to manage information, thanks to new artifacts, like sensors, and engineering methodologies like systems of system engineering (SoSE) and neuroinformatics.

This article presents an overview of the Industry 4.0 concept in the production management and engineering context with a view to identifying the most relevant aspects that comprise it. To this end, the different available definitions about it, the considered support elements, and the proposed main differences between conceptual frameworks are analyzed. Finally, some relevant contributions made to production planning in an Industry 4.0 context are covered.

Industry 4.0 promises a new and disruptive innovative approach to businesses, their business models, and operations. Nevertheless, SMEs approach to this new paradigm shows a real need for a guided support in the implementation of Industry 4.0 projects, and the selection of initiatives and technological investment projects in an environment full of technological offer and jargon. In this context, we propose a process model to guide SMEs in the implementation and prioritization of Industry 4.0 projects. By systematically running the stages proposed in the process, companies will determine their needs, challenges, and opportunities regarding the implementation of Industry 4.0 from a vertical and horizontal integration approach of their value chain and business processes. This methodology involves the analysis of the operations, the diagnosis and evaluation of Industry 4.0 impacts, the portfolio management, and the implementation of the selected projects. This methodology helps companies evaluate impacts and make decisions based on an integral approach. This unique and integrated decision-making process has been tested in one industrial service small company with very high management satisfaction results, due to its structured decision-making approach.

The aim of this document is to describe the potential opportunities of implementing blockchain technology for electronic voting purposes, which may help reduce the costs of traditional voting systems (on-site, off-site), as well as the potential effects that it may have in electoral outcomes. This work also describes the initiatives adopted by some countries that have used this technology in electoral processes seeking to improve quality, confidence, transparency, and security.

This work aims to know if there are barriers to introduce medical devices in the European market. It integrates a research project that studies the same topic from two different perspectives: developed and developing countries. It consists of an exploratory case study with Spanish companies, whose results are presented in this article. It will be complemented by a descriptive case study with Cuban companies in the sector, the latter in progress. Preliminarily, some disagreements are shown regarding technical barriers, and the internal limitations of companies are highlighted as their main difficulty in accessing this demanding market. The final results are not yet available.

This work presents the bases of a managed market, “Lonja”, using combinatorial auctions. This is used to purchase products made with 3D printing (additive manufacturing technologies). In this market, the organization and coordination of collaborative offers will be facilitated between the customers that will receive the bids from the manufacturers or providers of 3D printing services. This “Lonja” or market will enable customers to obtain better prices from the manufacturers. On the other hand, the manufacturers can optimize their installed production capacity, and they can reduce operating costs in each case according to the technology.

This paper contains the main aspects of a research project that, between its objectives, sought to redefine the logistics–energetic process of companies in the chilled and frozen fish sector, relying on an intelligent software system. This project was co-financed by the European Fund for Regional Development (ERDF) within the framework of the operational program Feder Galicia 2007–2013, call CONECTA PEME (IN852A 2013/19-0).

Small farms are responsible for 80% of the world’s agricultural production although they have difficulties to meet the market quality requirements. Corporate social responsibility (CSR) programs where modern retailers invest in empowering small farmers have been implemented obtaining an increase of the supply chain (SC) profits in cases where supply and demand are balanced. In this paper, a MILP model based on Wahyudin et al. (In: Proceedings of the international multiconference of engineers and computer scientists, Hong Kong, pp. 877–882, [1]) to select the investments to carry out by modern retailers, and the product flow through the SC in situations of supply and demand imbalance is proposed. Its objective is to find out if collaboration programs have a positive impact on SC profits when supply and demand are not balanced. This model allows for the rejection of demand and product wastes. Results show that collaboration programs positively impact on the SC profits and consumer satisfaction level when there is an imbalance between demand and supply.

This paper presents a mixed integer linear programming model (MILP) for optimizing the volunteers’ assignment to types of tasks required by the organizers of a sports event. The model takes into account a set of volunteers and their profiles, a set of required tasks, and a set of venues of the event. The main objective is to maximize the global aptitude (Fitness) of the volunteers to perform the tasks on the venues, considering a cut-off mark as lower bound for the selection. The study case is related to the 17th FIBA Basketball World Cup that took place in Spain in 2014. By using the CPLEX solver, the model is exploited and the proposed method can solve instances with nearly 15,000 volunteers, 2148 job positions as a result of 14 types of tasks, and 6 venues, in a CPU time less than 6 s.

European universities have been suffering several changes in their regulatory frameworks during the last decade. As a result, these universities are adopting new strategic policies with regard to their workforce planning. This paper addresses the strategic staff planning problem in public universities. Besides aspects considered in previous works, such as worker’s promotion rules, hiring and laying off, workforce diversity, as well as the available economic resources, here it is addressed the possibility of strategic decisions to reach higher rates in promotions. The problem is formulated as a mixed integer linear program. The objective is not only economic but also the achievement of a preferable staff composition.

Construction worksites are characterized by their dynamic and complex nature, making that work safety awareness a major concern during the project life cycle. In this regard, the analysis of historical data might be useful to identify the most frequent relationship between the variables of accidents in order to help safety practitioners in the task of prioritizing preventive actions. In this work, we propose an approach that will allow to explore unknown relations, expressed as association rules, among diverse variables from a database of construction accidents’ data. These association rules may be useful for efficient safety prevention and control.

One of the main objectives of an inventory system consists of guarantee a target service level. However, classical approaches are based on assumptions that introduce significant errors. This fact can lead to design inventory policies that do not guarantee the achievement of the target service level. This paper suggests an expression to compute the fill rate for the continuous base-stock policy based on the classic derivation that neglects undershoots at the reorder point. Subsequently, the error incurred for neglecting the undershoots is calculated and corrected by means of the state-dependent parameter approach expressed in a state space framework. The results show that the empirical approach reduces the classic fill rate bias. Simulation is employed to corroborate these results.

This paper presents a review of recent academic papers (since January 2017 until February 2018) on the FAHP applications on manufacturing environments. The main aim of the research was to identify whether FAHP was still of interest to the academic community, as a previous phase to decide its application on further research that the authors aim to undertake. The main results point out that FAHP applications on manufacturing environments: (1) are still of interest at the light of both the number of publications and the quality of the journals; (2) FAHP is usually not used in isolation but complemented with other tools, mainly TOPSIS; (3) the most common applications are for evaluating and/or selecting suppliers, resources, sustainability, or risk factors; (4) There is a lack of applications on core operational improvement processes.

Two mathematical models are proposed in order to obtain assembly line configurations that guarantee a maximum productivity while the ergonomic risk of workstations is controlled and the available space for the line is respected. Both models, with different optimization approaches, are assessed through a daily demand plan linked with the Nissan powertrain plant in Barcelona. Results show the influence of limitations on the efficient assignment of operations to workstations of the line. The effectiveness of models for establishing the number of workstations and the cycle time of the assembly line that maximizes productivity is demonstrated given a demand plan.

Production environments vastly vary in the industrial reality and can also do so with time. To manage production as optimally as possible, having tools that guide the people in charge of production would greatly help to know the best approach to take to perform the task according to the factory’s production typology. These tools should also be able to identify when the production typology has been amended and a new approach is required to optimally manage it. The present work aims to present a structure that allows the production typologies in the company to be classified, and to link them to more suitable management approaches in order to specifically manage production scheduling.

The agri-food sector is one of the most important economic and political areas in the EU due to its impact on sustainability. The abrupt changes in the quality, quantity, and availability of resources, especially under unexpected environmental circumstances, caused by uncertainty in relation to climate, pests, and diseases, as well as volatile market conditions and the prices, have strongly pressured the agri-food sector to improve its resilience capabilities. The mismanagement of such sources of uncertainty can very negatively impact the quality, safety, efficiency, and sustainability in the SC. In this paper, a Conceptual Framework (CF) to characterize the vegetable breton sc (VBSC) in an uncertain context is proposed. The utility of the CF is twofold: (1) to deeply understand the problematic as a first step for the later development of solutions that contribute to the VBSC sustainability and (2) as a reference model for characterizing other horticultural SCs and compare with VBSC.

Supply chain management has gained a strategic importance in recent years because rivalry is moving from “firm vs. firm” to “supply chain vs. supply chain”. Hence, supply chain key actors are facing extremely hard decision-making because of risk management, inventory management, ethical procurement, total cost, and service challenges, among other major concerns. In this work, we propose a methodology to design appropriate decision support systems for dealing with the said issues. Organizational cybernetics offers a series of components that are very useful to device key points so to experiment decision-making based upon simulation tools. The implementation of the supply chain model through Petri nets and multi-agents systems empowers the managers to increase the probability of making the right decisions in a bid to increase the supply chain viability over time. The work also shows a case study in which a decision support system has been implemented for the well-known Beer Game scenario. The interface of the developed prototype includes the parameter configuration area, the Colored Petri net and a monitoring board with the most relevant key performance indicators for the managers.

Transport efficiency is becoming increasingly important due to their high impact on companies’ results. In this article, some factors which influence the transport cost are presented in order to perform an empirical study with the aim of determining the level of impact of each one. By analyzing data from 81 companies, we found which factors have more influence on transport cost and, consequently, on its efficiency. Study results also indicate the level of influence of each aspect depending on the type of fleet used. Considering the levels of influence found, companies could pay attention to these aspects in order to improve their transport performance.

Reverse logistics (RL) has experienced significant growth in recent years due to legislation that favors the reduction of environmental impact and the prolongation of product life. These laws pursue environment conservation through actions that favor the reuse of materials. The increase in the severity of this type of legislation, as well as the exponential growth in e-commerce sales, has meant that many companies integrate RL processes into their supply chain (SC). These actions have converted the corresponding activities to RL management in key aspects for the competitiveness of businesses. Once the RL process is initiated, one of the key decisions is to determine what is done with each product. This paper proposes a study of the causes that activate the RL process and an analysis of the different treatment options, with the intention of relating both aspects through a process of standardized decision-making, which allows the decision-maker to adopt the best choice regarding the treatment to be chosen.

Supply chain strategy (SCS) gives a competitive edge and creates value because through the supply chain (SC) a company can provide their customers with the product and quality they want, where and when they need it at the lowest possible cost. Thus, a company creates value for both the customer and themselves, increases turnover and profits and, even more importantly for the future, wins customer loyalty. This article will describe various SCSs, product–process–supply chain alignment characteristics and the relationship SCSs have with business process management models for manufacturers of pharmaceutical products.

This paper proposes a novel, exact procedure for the joint determination of the reorder point and the price, given that demand is a power function of price and the objective is profit maximization. Some examples illustrate the effect of elasticity on the existence of a profit optimum; in fact just elastic demand items present such optima. The procedure presented in this paper overcomes others in the literature because an exact profit function is used instead of an approximate one.

Order-up-to level is one of the most popular inventory management strategies in the retail industry. However, there exist several manners to fix the up-to-level. In this paper, we consider several of these manners and analyze their application to a real retail company. The company requires a method which is simple to understand and adopt and that should seek to minimize stockouts and in-store stock levels. We empirically compare, using real data, several methods to set the order-up-to value and report the performance of the system for each of them. Our results also demonstrate the relevance of two important factors, which are the size of the packaging and the seasonality of demand.

This paper describes the redesign of the internal logistics of an industrial assembly facility. In particular, we are concerned by the management of components and parts’ flow to feed the different workstations of the production line. This flow of components starts at the reception docks where suppliers’ trucks arrive. Components unloaded from trucks are moved to one or several storage areas by means of adequate handling equipment. Finally, components are transported to demand points located along the production line when required. Internal logistics cause therefore a huge volume of transportation and intensive activities that need to be carefully planned to keep the plant’s performance. To this end, a mathematical model is proposed to redesign the assignment of logistics resources (i.e., docks, storage areas, and handling equipment) in such a way that the total time consumed during de supply process is minimized.

This work aims to propose a customer-oriented sustainable balanced scorecard (COSBSC) for agri-food supply chains (ASC). Balanced scorecard (BSC) is one of the most widespread performance measurement systems used. In ASC contexts, the inclusion of sustainability issues (mainly environmental and social) is a relevant issue not only because companies are subject to many public legislation constraints but also because final clients are becoming more concerned about purchasing sustainable products and services and force upstream the ASC to meet certain levels. This fact leads the ASC companies to adopt customer-oriented strategies in which sustainable aspects are of special relevance when managing their businesses more efficiently. For that purpose, in this work a research on BSC models is developed, along with sustainability issues specifically addressed by ASC. Then a proposal of a COSBSC for ASC is presented.

This paper is the result of the collaboration between the professors of the Department of Mechanics and the Production Management of the University of Mondragon and the 4th year students of the Karelia University of Applied Sciences in Finland. The developed case is the optimization of the flight process of a paper propeller, based on the Six Sigma DMAIC methodology. The objective was to show how to train the students of the Master in Innovation and Project Management in Mondragon University, in the acquisition of the knowledge and skills needed in continuous improvement process (CIP) and quality engineering (QE). Student feedback reflect, that the application of simulation case, has been valid to understand the theory and acquiring skills related to the techniques of QE, specifically in standard methods of continuous improvement, statistical tools, and standardization systems.

Despite the significant advancement of women in the professional sphere in the last century, scientific and technological careers are still mainly masculine; and a noticeable gender gap remains in STEM higher education institutions. We delve into this issue in a well-known Spanish Engineering School, with more than 4,000 students and about 300 faculty members.

This research applies an online social network for managing and improving final projects of students of both engineering degrees and master degrees of the Polytechnic University of Valencia. The main idea is to use this technological tool, which has proved to be efficient in industrial and service organizations, to improve not only the communication process between students and their supervisors but also to support the activities of design, coordination, and following-up of such final projects. Additionally, it will help to assess the transversal competence named CT-05-Design and project. The results showed that, through the interchange of information between and among the different users established, the topics developed and treated within the OSN were about the production of the final project (82% of the information flows), offers of work/internships as well as about work fairs (10%) and other topics (8%), being most of the topics were posted by the final project supervisors. From a survey carried out via the OSN, it is possible to affirm that the usage of an OSN can be useful to students when developing their final projects.

This work presents a real application of the methodologic Lean Office. The project was developed into a cultural association, which was developing a process of transformation. The aim was to increase the number of activities but without increasing the staff. Lean Office successfully fulfilled its functions as a tool for continuous improvement in administrative environments.

Many companies have started a Lean Transformation (LT), but not all of them have achieved a successful transformation. In fact, based on current literature, the rate of success can be considered low. This paper will analyze and conclude on main barriers and success factors to achieve a successful LT, based on two sources: current literature and interviews with leaders working for companies involved in an LT.

This paper analyzes group of customers as part of a study to measure delight in restoration experiences to find differences among satisfied customers, very satisfied customers, and delighted customers. The study has an exploratory character using the two-step cluster analysis, mean differences, and other descriptive statistical analysis. The study finds three groups of customers with different satisfaction states influenced mainly by affective variables.

The collective concern for global warming is changing the way we behave and we act in our daily life in order to reduce energy consumption and our CO2 footprint. However, since healthier and more comfortable environments are needed, the best solution is a well-balanced relationship between these two issues. The present article exposes a methodology for a multiobjective analysis which takes into account the consumption and energy efficiency as well as the thermal comfort, based on a field study in non-residential buildings and the application of fuzzy logic. As a result, an improvement related to energy saving and lower costs for buildings’ owners without detrimental to occupants’ thermal comfort and productivity is expected.

The electric vehicle progressively increases its sales and consequently its presence in the cities. Despite its advantages, the low noise levels of electric and hybrid vehicles could pose a risk to other road users. In order to determine how drivers of electric and hybrid motorcycles perceive this risk, a field study was carried out. A questionnaire was used to collect the information. Overall, electric vehicles increase the driving comfort of electric and hybrid motorcycle drivers. Although these drivers do not believe that problems could appear, they recognize that lack of noise could pose a greater risk to other road users.

When a (corporate) decision-maker considers implementing an ecoinnovation process, it is deemed useful to evaluate the full range of impacts that this kind of activities can bring about (beyond the mere benefits in environmental terms). The purpose of this paper is to map and analyze a range of effects that ecoinnovation activities on behalf of private companies generates. To that end, around 40 (mainly industrial) companies from the Basque Country have been surveyed. The results show that ecoinnovation effects stretch beyond mere environmental impacts, and likewise influence micro-economic parameters such as profitability, internal innovation capacity, and the abilities of firms to position themselves in the market place.

In recent literature, health and safety at work has been gaining importance, both by legal and ethical points of view. In this presented case study, the focus is on improving knowledge and skills of employees to successfully identify and avoid H&S hazards in their work environment. In order to achieve the proposed objective, an action research methodology is used. Following this approach, audiovisual documentation is created with the aim of carrying out training sessions for employees. The results obtained in this paper contribute to the knowledge in the area of occupational health and safety management, paving the way for further research on these topics.

Clean air is a basic requirement of human health and well-being. However, in 2014, 92% of the population lived in places where the World Health Organization Guidelines on air quality were not respected. Different projects and studies at European, national and local levels raise strategies to fight against atmospheric pollution through the control and reduction of primary emissions from the source. In this work, the data collection and valorization will be done both by direct observation of the researcher, and also totally automated by immovable systems installed in the urban area. With these measurements, the air quality in an urban environment will be analyzed, together with urban mobility developed in this area, in order to characterize the interactions between both variables. Finally, this work presents a proposal, made to the local authorities, on decision-making concerning urban logistics, mainly in the city center.