| 1. |
- Fathi, Masood, et al.
(författare)
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An Interpretive Structural Modeling of Teamwork Training in Higher Education
- 2019
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Ingår i: Education Sciences. - Switzerland : MDPI. - 2227-7102. ; 9:1, s. 1-20
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In the past decade, the importance of teamwork training in higher education and employers’ enthusiasm for recruiting team players have been widely discussed in the literature. Yet, the process through which effective teamwork training is developed in a higher education setting has not yet been properly discussed. The present study aims to map the precedence relationships among the key determinants of teamwork training effectiveness and explain the process through which an effective teamwork training program can be developed. The study first conducted an extensive review of the literature to highlight the key determinants of effective teamwork training. Next, the study benefitted from an interpretive structural modeling technique and captured the opinions of a group of teamwork training experts to further map the interrelationships among the potential determinants that were identified. By listing the key determinants of effective teamwork training, mapping their interrelationships, and identifying their driving and dependence power, the present study is expected to help practitioners and academicians through providing a detailed understanding of the process through which an effective teamwork training program can be developed in a higher education context.
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| 2. |
- Ghobakhloo, Morteza, et al.
(författare)
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Corporate survival in Industry 4.0 era : the enabling role of lean-digitized manufacturing
- 2019
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Ingår i: Journal of Manufacturing Technology Management. - : Emerald Group Publishing Limited. - 1741-038X .- 1758-7786. ; 31:1, s. 1-30
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- purpose– The study demonstrates how small manufacturing firms can leverage their Information Technology (IT) resources to develop the lean-digitized manufacturing system that offers sustained competitiveness in the Industry 4.0 era.Design/methodology/approach – The study performs an in-depth 5-years case study of a manufacturing firm, and reports its journey from failure in the implementation of enterprise resource planning to its success in integrating IT-based technology trends of Industry 4.0 with the firm’s core capabilities and competencies while pursuing manufacturing digitization.Findings – Industry 4.0 transition requires the organizational integration of many IT-based modern technologies and the digitization of entire value chains. However, Industry 4.0 transition for smaller manufacturers can begin with digitization of certain areas of operations in support of organizational core strategies. Development of leandigitized manufacturing system is a viable business strategy for corporate survivability in the Industry 4.0 setting.Research limitations/implications – Although the implementation of lean-digitized manufacturing system is costly and challenging, this manufacturing strategy offers superior corporate competitiveness in the long run. Since this finding is rather limited to the present case study, assessing the business value of lean-digitized manufacturing system in a larger-scale research context would be an interesting avenue for future research.Practical implications – Industry 4.0 transition for typical manufacturers should commensurate with their organizational, operational, and technical particularities. Digitization of certain operations and processes, when aligned with the firm’s core strategies, capabilities, and procedures, can offer superior competitiveness even in Industry 4.0 era, meaning that the strategic plan for successful Industry 4.0 transition is idiosyncratic to each particular manufacturer.Social implications – Manufacturing digitization can have deep social implications as it alters inter and intra organizational relationships, causes unemployment among low-skilled workforce, and raises data security and privacy concerns. Manufacturers should take responsibility for their digitization process and steer it in a direction that simultaneously safeguards economic, social, and environmental sustainability.Originality/value – The strategic roadmap devised and employed by the case company for managing its digitization process can better reveal what manufacturing digitization, mandated by Industry 4.0, might require of typical manufacturers, and further enable them to better facilitate their digital transformation process.
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| 3. |
- Ghobakhloo, Morteza, et al.
(författare)
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Modeling the Success of Application-Based Mobile Banking
- 2019
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Ingår i: Economies. - : MDPI. - 2227-7099 .- 2227-7099. ; 7:4, s. 1-21
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The present study addresses the issue of mobile banking customer retention by developing and empirically testing a theoretical model that describes the way mobile banking success is achieved. The data collection process was conducted via a web-based questionnaire survey through which 402 usable responses from users of application-based mobile banking services were collected. The data collected were further analyzed via covariance-based structural equation modeling. Results indicate that application-based mobile banking success can be defined in terms of the favorable attitude toward and repeated use of mobile banking applications. Experienced advantage, user satisfaction, and post-use trust toward mobile banking applications are among the critical enablers of application-based mobile banking success. The findings of this research can enable academicians and practitioners, banks, and financial institutions, in particular, to devise the mechanism through which the success of application-based mobile banking services can be facilitated.
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| 4. |
- Nourmohammadi, Amir, et al.
(författare)
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A water-flow like algorithm for solving U-shaped assembly line balancing problems
- 2019
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Ingår i: IEEE Access. - : Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. - 2169-3536. ; 7, s. 129824-129833
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The problem of assigning assembly tasks to the stations arranged along a material handling device is known as assembly line balancing. This paper aims to address the U-shaped assembly line balancing problem (UALBP) which arises when a U-shaped assembly line has to be configured. It is widely known that this problem is NP-hard. Accordingly, different meta-heuristics based on a single solution (such as Simulated Annealing) or a population of solutions (such as Genetic Algorithms) have been proposed in the literature. Meanwhile, it has been argued that either of these meta-heuristics with a fixed number of solutions cannot maintain efficient search progress and thus can lead to premature convergence. Thus, this study aims at adopting a novel meta-heuristic algorithm with dynamic population sizes, namely Water Flow-like Algorithm (WFA), inspired by the behaviour of water flows in nature, to address the UALBP. The line efficiency and variation of workload are considered as the primary and the secondary objective, to be optimized, respectively. To verify the efficiency and robustness of the proposed WFA, a real case study taken from an automobile manufacturer as well as a set of standard problems are solved and the results compared with the existing approaches in the literature. The computational results demonstrate the superiority of the WFA, particularly in addressing medium to large-sized problems.
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