Eco-design case-based reasoning tool: the integration of ecological quality function deployment and case-based reasoning methods for supporting sustainable product design

Several methods and tools have been developed to facilitate sustainable product design, but they lack critical application of the ecological design (eco-design) process and economic costing, particularly during the conceptual design phase. This research study overcomes these deficiencies by integrating eco-design approaches across all phases of the product life cycle. It proposes an eco-design case-based reasoning tool that is integrated with the recently developed ecological quality function deployment method, which supports sustainable product design. The eco-design case-based reasoning tool is an intuitive decision-support tool that complements the ecological quality function deployment method and proposes solutions related to customers’ requirements and the environmental and economic impacts of the product. The ecological quality function deployment method ensures that customers’ needs are considered within the context of product sustainability. The novelty of this article is in the development of the eco-design case-based reasoning tool which is based on the premise that if experiences from the ecological quality function deployment process can be captured in some useful form, designers can refer to and learn from them. This approach helps industrial decision-makers propose solutions by reusing solutions from similar cases and from their past experiences. The novelty is in the way the cases are structured and new cases are generated, using life-cycle assessments, cost estimations, and information about related manufacturing processes and means of transportation. This article demonstrates the applicability of the proposed approach through an industrial case study

A Model for Adopting Sustainable Practices in Software Based Organizations

The present need for software organizations to seamlessly carryout software development objectives and aims results to significant high cost of electricity usage and the emission of CO2 in the environment and climate. Therefore there is need for software practitioners to adopt sustainable practices in software development process, when they utilized software to lessen electricity usage and reduce CO2 emission. Sustainable practice adoption is an attempt for software practitioners to tackle the current climatic problem, and can also improve the economic performance of software organizations. Software practitioners’ adoption of sustainable practices is beneficial to the society, climate and humanity. Existing approaches mainly focus on achieving sustainability when software practitioners develop software. Thus this paper contributes to sustainability research by presenting a model that offers an understanding of how software practitioners can adopt sustainable practices when they utilize software applications in software process. Findings from this paper show how Green practices can be diffused by software practitioners when they utilize software application in software organizations

A proposed model for green practice adoption and implementation in information technology based organizations

Green Information technology system offers opportunity for IT based organizations to act proactively in terms of environmental preservation as well as to mitigate effects of global climate change and other environmental problems. Green Information technology system adoption and implementation is a plausible attempt for IT based organizations to resolve the current environmental issues and also enhance their economic performance and possible social benefits. Currently several models and frameworks have been developed to address sustainability in various research domain. However, there are few models that can support decision making of practitioners in adopting and implementing sustainable practices in IT based organization. Therefore there is need to develop a model to assist practitioners adopt and implement sustainable practices. The proposed model comprises of Green variables, Green process and a hybrid technique of software agents and case bases reasoning. Findings from this paper shows the model variables, process, techniques applied and derived prepositions. Ongoing work involves adopting a mixed research (case study and survey) to verify the model variables, process and validate the model prepositions

Revolutionising Higher Education The Significance of Micro Credentials in Malaysias Hybrid Learning Environment A Success Story from UMPSA

The higher education landscape in Malaysia has undergone rapid transformation in recent years, driven by technological advancements and evolving workforce needs. To keep up with global educational trends, the Malaysian government has incorporated the concept of globalised online learning into its national agenda, as outlined in the Malaysia Education Blueprint 2015-2025

Integrated eco-design decision making for sustainable product design

A major challenge for any manufacturer is including aspects of sustainable development in product design that are related to the social, environmental and economic impacts. Several methods and tools have been developed to facilitate sustainable product design, but they lack critical application of the ecological design (eco-design) process and economic costing, particularly during the conceptual design phase. This research overcomes these deficiencies by integrating eco-design approaches across all phases of product life cycle. These approaches were applied and tested in two case studies, which demonstrate that the tools developed can be used to reduce a product’s environmental and economic impacts while fulfilling customer needs. The integrated eco-design decision making (IEDM) methodology is proposed and developed in this study as a method for improving product sustainability. This is the principle contribution of this thesis to the field of sustainable product design. The IEDM applies environmental considerations across three stages of product development. The first stage is the life cycle assessment (LCA), which is used to identify critical areas in which the product’s environmental performance can be improved. The results of the LCA are then analysed in the second stage using an eco-design process (Eco-Process) model. This model identifies environmental concerns relating to the manufacturing process, product use, and end-of-life (EOL) strategy. These concerns are then addressed within the third stage, which uses an ecological house of quality (Eco-HoQ) embedded in an ecological quality function deployment (Eco-QFD) process. The ecodesign case-based reasoning (Eco-CBR) tool was also developed in this study to improve product design knowledge sharing. The development of the Eco-HOQ, which is integrated into the Eco-QFD process and part of the broader IEDM, is the second major contribution of this work. The Ecov HOQ is an extra “house” that can capture and manage sustainability considerations in a single place. This increases the relevance of the information used and produced in product design and encourages actions for improving sustainability at each phase of the Eco-QFD process. The Eco-QFD ensures that customer needs are incorporated within the context of sustainability. The eco-design case-based reasoning (Eco-CBR) tool was developed on the premise that if experiences from the Eco-QFD process can be captured in some useful form, designers can refer to and learn from past experiences. The Eco-CBR is an intuitive decision support tool that complements the IEDM framework and proposes solutions related to the social, environmental, and economic impacts of the product. The application of the entire IEDM framework, including the Eco-HoQ, Eco-QFD, and complementary Eco-CBR, is demonstrated in the case studies of single-use medical forceps and an office chair base. The case studies demonstrate the effectiveness of these tools when assessing a product’s sustainability, even when its design is altered. In addition, this methodology provides a complete view of the environmental performance and economic cost of these products over their entire life cycles in conjunction with an assessment of customer requirements. In summary, this thesis contributes significantly to the field of sustainable product design by proposing the integration of eco-design approaches at every stage of product development, including the critical conceptual phase. The approaches developed in this study will enable designers to improve product design, increase productivity, and reduce material usage and costs while meeting customer specifications

A Generic Study on Green IT/IS Practice Development in Collaborative Enterprise: Insights from a Developing Country

This study investigates the perception of Information Technology (IT) professionals and IT managers towards deployment of environmental-friendly practices in Collaborative Enterprise (CE). Through literature review this study develops a model based on Perceived Organizational e-Readiness Theory (POER) and Process-Virtualization-Theory (PVT) to investigate the factors that influence IT professionals’ and IT managers intention to deploy Green IT/IS practices which are based on the current environmental-friendly initiatives deployed in CE. Data was collected using questionnaire and results indicate that the POER factors influence CE’s perception towards Green IT/IS. Moreover, results also reveal that PVT initiatives are influenced by the current environmental-friendly initiatives.acceptedVersion© 2020. This is the authors’ accepted and refereed manuscript to the article. Locked until 21.2.2022 due to copyright restrictions. This manuscript version is made available under the CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0

Conceptualizing a framework to enhance information security culture and compliance behavior in organizations through protection motivation theory

Ensuring information security compliance is essential for securing organizational data. However, comprehending the factors that impact employees' compliance behavior remains challenging. Scholars have proposed that an established Information Security Culture (ISC) in organization may impact employee compliance with policies of information security. Existing models often address only partial aspects of Information Security Culture (ISC) or lack integration of comprehensive behavioral theories. The aim of this study is to propose an enhanced conceptual framework that identifies all elements of ISC and their influence on employees' compliance with the policies of information security. Aligning with well-established concepts of organizational culture and ISC, the framework was developed by incorporating important elements from the literature. The employees’ information security behavior was explained by the Protection Motivation Theory (PMT) to offer comprehensive insights about compliance behavior. It is believed that this conceptual framework will provide more precise results on the correlations between ISC and compliance behavior of employees towards information security regulations

Propozycja modelu określania i wprowadzania Zielonych Praktyk w przedsiębiorstwach wykorzystujących technologie informatyczne

Green Information technology system offers opportunity for IT based organizations to act proactively in terms of environmental preservation as well as to mitigate effects of global climate change and other environmental problems. Green Information technology system adoption and implementation is a plausible attempt for IT based organizations to resolve the current environmental issues and also enhance their economic performance and possible social benefits. Currently several models and frameworks have been developed to address sustainability in various research domain. However, there are few models that can support decision making of practitioners in adopting and implementing sustainable practices in IT based organization. Therefore there is need to develop a model to assist practitioners adopt and implement sustainable practices. The proposed model comprises of Green variables, Green process and a hybrid technique of software agents and case bases reasoning. Findings from this paper shows the model variables, process, techniques applied and derived prepositions. Ongoing work involves adopting a mixed research (case study and survey) to verify the model variables, process and validate the model prepositions.Zielone technologie informatyczne ułatwiają firmom wykorzystującym technologie informatyczne (IT) podejmowanie działań na rzecz ochrony środowiska, a także tych prowadzących do zmniejszenia skali zagrożeń związanych ze zmianami klimatycznymi i innymi współczesnymi wyzwaniami ekologicznymi. Wdrażanie zielonych technologii informatycznych stanowi właściwe podejście dla firm IT nie tylko z uwagi na możliwość rozwiązywania bieżących problemów środowiskowych, ale także zwiększenia efektywności ekonomicznej i możliwych korzyści społecznych. Obecnie rozwija się wiele modeli odnoszących się do różnych aspektów zrównoważoności, jednak tylko nieliczne z nich nadają się do wykorzystania w procesie decyzyjnym firm IT. Z tej przyczyny istnieje potrzeba opracowania takiego modelu, wspierającego wprowadzanie zrównoważonych praktyk na tym poziomie. Zaproponowany model uwzględnia Zielone zmienne, Zielone procesy i połączenie techniki programowania agentowego z wnioskowaniem w oparciu o studium przypadku (CBR). Dzięki przyjęciu rozszerzonego podejścia (studium przypadku, ankieta) możliwa jest weryfikacja zmiennych modelu, procesów i potwierdzenie przyjętych założeń

Implementation evaluation of Cuckoo search for the benchmark Rosenbrock test function

This paper presents the implementation evaluation of the benchmark Rosenbrock test function with particular emphasis on the effect of the search population and iterations count in the Cuckoo Search algorithm's quest for good solutions. After a number of experimental procedures, this study reveals that deploying a population of 10 nests is sufficient to obtain good solutions to the Rosenbrock test function (or any similar problem to this test landscape). In fact, increasing the search population to 50 nests was a demerit to the Cuckoo Search as it resulted in longer processing time and worse outcomes. In terms of the iteration count, it was discovered that the Cuckoo Search can obtain good results in as little as 100 to 10,000 iterations. The outcome of this study is beneficial to the research community as it will help in facilitating the choice of parameters whenever one is confronted with a similar problem