26,532 research outputs found
Training Competences in Industrial Risk Prevention with LegoÂŽ Serious PlayÂŽ: A Case Study
This paper proposes the use of the LegoÂŽ Serious PlayÂŽ (LSP) methodology as a facilitating tool for the introduction of competences for Industrial Risk Prevention by engineering students from the industrial branch (electrical, electronic, mechanical and technological engineering), presenting the results obtained in the Universities of Cadiz and Seville in the academic years 2017â2019. Current Spanish legislation does not reserve any special legal attribution, nor does it require specific competence in occupational risk prevention for the regulated profession of a technical industrial engineer (Order CIN 351:2009), and only does so in a generic way for that of an industrial engineer (Order CIN 311:2009). However, these universities consider the training in occupational health and safety for these future graduates as an essential objective in order to develop them for their careers in the industry. The approach is based on a series of challenges proposed (risk assessments, safety inspections, accident investigations and fire protection measures, among others), thanks to the use of âgamificationâ dynamics with LegoÂŽ Serious PlayÂŽ. In order to carry the training out, a set of specific variables (industrial sector, legal and regulatory framework, business organization and production system), and transversal ones (leadership, teamwork, critical thinking and communication), are incorporated. Through group models, it is possible to identify dangerous situations, establish causes, share and discuss alternative proposals and analyze the economic, environmental and organizational impact of the technical solutions studied, as well as take the appropriate decisions, in a creative, stimulating, inclusive and innovative context. In this way, the theoretical knowledge which is acquired is applied to improve safety and health at work and foster the prevention of occupational risks, promoting the commitment, effort, motivation and proactive participation of the student teams.Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities / European Social Fund: RamĂłn y Cajal contract (RYC-2017-22222
Training Competences in Industrial Risk Prevention with Lego (R) Serious Play (R): A Case Study
This paper proposes the use of the Lego (R) Serious Play (R) (LSP) methodology as a facilitating tool for the introduction of competences for Industrial Risk Prevention by engineering students from the industrial branch (electrical, electronic, mechanical and technological engineering), presenting the results obtained in the Universities of Cadiz and Seville in the academic years 2017-2019. Current Spanish legislation does not reserve any special legal attribution, nor does it require specific competence in occupational risk prevention for the regulated profession of a technical industrial engineer (Order CIN 351:2009), and only does so in a generic way for that of an industrial engineer (Order CIN 311:2009). However, these universities consider the training in occupational health and safety for these future graduates as an essential objective in order to develop them for their careers in the industry. The approach is based on a series of challenges proposed (risk assessments, safety inspections, accident investigations and fire protection measures, among others), thanks to the use of "gamification" dynamics with Lego (R) Serious Play (R). In order to carry the training out, a set of specific variables (industrial sector, legal and regulatory framework, business organization and production system), and transversal ones (leadership, teamwork, critical thinking and communication), are incorporated. Through group models, it is possible to identify dangerous situations, establish causes, share and discuss alternative proposals and analyze the economic, environmental and organizational impact of the technical solutions studied, as well as take the appropriate decisions, in a creative, stimulating, inclusive and innovative context. In this way, the theoretical knowledge which is acquired is applied to improve safety and health at work and foster the prevention of occupational risks, promoting the commitment, effort, motivation and proactive participation of the student teams
Water Reuse in Europe - Relevant guidelines, needs for and barriers to innovation
An EU regulatory instrument for water reuse is planned to be developed by 2015, in order to find innovative
solutions to the challenges of ensuring water supply for urban, industrial and agriculture use. Despite the water
reuse applications already developed in many countries, a number of barriers still prevent the widespread
implementation of water reuse around Europe and on a global scale. These barriers will have to be overcome.
This JRC Science and Policy Report analyses the technical, environmental and socioeconomic challenges to the
option of water reuse as a means of ensuring sufficient supply to meet the growing needs of society. It presents
and compares the most relevant national and international guidelines on water reuse, evaluates existing water
reuse standards in EU Member States, presents a risk-based management approach for wastewater reuse, and
identifies the areas that require technological and regulatory innovation as well as the barriers to be overcome.JRC.H.1-Water Resource
Environmental proactivity and firms' performance: Mediation effect of competitive advantages in Spanish wineries
The main aim of this paper is to show the extent to which environmental proactivity is able to generate competitive advantages in a firm in order to improve their economic-financial performance by introducing the role of managerial perception into the analysis. This study focuses on Spanish wineries and their environmental practices and covers a total of 4598 wineries with a sample of 142 valid responses during the month of November 2015. The results can be summarized as follows. Firstly, there is positive environmental proactivity in terms of obtaining both cost-based and differentiation-based competitive advantages. Likewise, this proactivity has a positive impact on the manager’s perception of performance. Secondly, obtaining differentiation-based competitive advantages has a positive impact on the manager’s perception of performance although a negative impact on performance itself. There is, however, no significant evidence of the impact of cost-based competitive advantages on financial performance nor on the perception of performance itself, nor the impact of environmental proactivity on financial performance
Effects of Changes in Public Policy on Efficiency and Productivity of General Hospitals in Vietnam
The health sector reform programme which began in Vietnam in 1989 in order to improve the efficiency of the health system has altered the way in which Vietnamese hospitals operate. The programme put the spotlight on input savings. This study aims to examine the relative efficiency of hospitals during the health reform process and assess - by looking at the relative efficiency of hospitals - the effects of the regulatory changes. The study employs the DEA two-stage approach referring to data from 101 general public hospitals over the period 1998-2006. The study revealed that there was evidence of improvement in the productivity of Vietnamese hospitals over the period 1998-2006, with a progress in total factor productivity of 1.4% per year. Furthermore, the differences in hospital efficiency can be attributed to both the regulatory changes and hospital-specific characteristics. The user fees and autonomy measures were found to increase technical efficiency. Provincial hospitals were revealed to be more technically efficient than their central counterparts and hospitals located in the North East, South East and Mekong River Delta regions performed better that hospitals from other regions
Analysis of EEC Regulation 2092/91 in relation to other national and international organic standards
This Deliverable 3.2 report presents an analysis of differences between EEC Regulation 2092/91 and other organic standards and their implementation, using a specially developed database (www.organicrules.org). It further reports on database development. The work was carried out as part of the âEEC 2092/91 (Organic) Revisionâ STREP project (No. SSPE-CT- 2004-502397) within the EU 6th Framework Programme.
The main objective was to identify differences in organic standards in relation to Regulation (EEC) 2092/91 and to analyse selected national governmental and private organic standards with the aim of identifying specific areas in the (EEC) 2092/91 where revision in terms of harmonisation, regionalisation or simplification may be possible
Environmental proactivity and firms' performance: Mediation effect of competitive advantages in Spanish wineries
The main aim of this paper is to show the extent to which environmental proactivity is able to generate competitive advantages in a firm in order to improve their economic-financial performance by introducing the role of managerial perception into the analysis. This study focuses on Spanish wineries and their environmental practices and covers a total of 4598 wineries with a sample of 142 valid responses during the month of November 2015. The results can be summarized as follows. Firstly, there is positive environmental proactivity in terms of obtaining both cost-based and differentiation-based competitive advantages. Likewise, this proactivity has a positive impact on the manager’s perception of performance. Secondly, obtaining differentiation-based competitive advantages has a positive impact on the manager’s perception of performance although a negative impact on performance itself. There is, however, no significant evidence of the impact of cost-based competitive advantages on financial performance nor on the perception of performance itself, nor the impact of environmental proactivity on financial performance
Practical Quality Control: the Experiences of a Public Health Laboratory
In the 1930âs W.A. Shewhart pioneered the application of statistical principles to the quality
control (QC) of production processes, eventually publishing the landmark book âEconomic
Control of Quality of Manufactured Productsâ (Shewhart, 1931). In this book, he states that a
phenomenon is under control if its future variation can be predicted (within limits) based on
previous experience. This is precisely the idea behind the control charts used in
measurement processesâspecifically, for chemical analysis. The International Organization
for Standardization (ISO), in its standard ISO 9000 (ISO, 2005a), defines quality control as
âthe part of quality management focused on fulfilling quality requirementsâ. According to
the standard, quality management also includes quality planning, quality assurance and
quality improvement. The above definition is rather vague, because quality management
systems based on the ISO 9000 family of standards can be applied to any kind of
organization regardless of its field of activity, its size or whether it is from the public or
private sectors. Testing laboratories typically distinguish between internal and external QC.
In this context, the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC, 1998) gives
a definition of internal QC that is well-suited to an analytical laboratory: âthe set of
procedures undertaken by laboratory staff for the continuous monitoring of operation and
the results of measurements in order to decide whether results are reliable enough to be
releasedâ. Although the aforementioned document does not formally define external QC, it
does mention that external control may be done by submitting blind samples to the
measuring laboratory. This activity can be organized in the form of a collaborative test..
Customer-oriented risk assessment in Network Utilities
For companies that distribute services such as telecommunications, water, energy, gas, etc., quality perceived by the customers has a strong impact on the fulfillment of financial goals, positively increasing the demand and negatively increasing the risk of customer churn (loss of customers). Failures by these companies may cause customer affection in a massive way, augmenting the intention to leave the company. Therefore, maintenance performance and specifically service reliability has a strong influence on financial goals. This paper proposes a methodology to evaluate the contribution of the maintenance department in economic terms, based on service unreliability by network failures. The developed methodology aims to provide an analysis of failures to facilitate decision making about maintenance (preventive/predictive and corrective) costs versus negative impacts in end-customer invoicing based on the probability of losing customers. Survival analysis of recurrent failures with the General Renewal Process distribution is used for this novel purpose with the intention to be applied as a standard procedure to calculate the expected maintenance financial impact, for a given period of time. Also, geographical areas of coverage are distinguished, enabling the comparison of different technical or management alternatives. Two case studies in a telecommunications services company are presented in order to illustrate the applicability of the methodology
Re-evaluating green marketing strategy : a stakeholder perspective.
Purpose The present study aims to examine the influence of stakeholders on green marketing strategy (GMS). Marketing literature recognizes that stakeholders play a significant role in influencing organizations and markets, but has not targeted a single integrated approach to examine the relationship between stakeholder management and GMS. Design/methodology/approach This research comprised several phases, including the development of a typology of GMS, an analysis of how managers prioritize stakeholders, a study of the influence of stakeholders on GMS, and an analysis of the influence of the organizational context on managersâ perception of the stakeholders. The hypotheses were validated using multivariate correlational techniques. Findings The study identified the stakeholders associated with GMS and their impact on the strategy adopted by the firms, and established how this is moderated by the firmâs own economic sector and organizational characteristics. Research limitations/implications Future studies might replicate and extend the research in other industries and countries to ascertain whether environmental concerns have different effects in other contexts. Practical implications The surveys on GMS and stakeholder perception undertaken in the present survey are a potential source of information for managers because they can be used as a self diagnostic tool to determine if a firmâs attitude to the environment is reactive or proactive. Originality/value Results show that the organizational âgreeningâ process is not a linear, one dimensional progression, rather an uneven process in which several GMS profiles prioritize different stakeholders. The results also reveal that underlying perceptual, behavioral, and organizational factors influence GMS implementation.Green marketing; Environmental management; Stakeholder analysis; Spain;
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