Indicators for managing human centred manufacturing

Establishing indicators for managing human factors (HF) aspects in the design of production systems remains a challenge. We address the problem in two dimensions – firstly, what aspects of HF are to be considered, and secondly, where in the development process HF is to be measured. In these dimensions a large number of HF metrics are possible in the perceptual, cognitive, physical and psychosocial domains of HF. The relevance of these measures to injury, productivity, quality and organizational strategy continue to be poorly understood. From this perspective we make propositions on the need for: 1) strategic HF metrics selection, 2) metrics application throughout the development process, 3) predictive ‘virtual’ HF metrics approaches, 4) metrics based design guidelines, 5) connecting metrics with design choices and strategies, 6) integrating HF metrics within existing approaches, 7) continuous improvement of the metrics system, and 8) the need to evaluate metrics system quality

The Whole World in Your Hand: Active and Interactive Segmentation

Object segmentation is a fundamental problem in computer vision and a powerful resource for development. This paper presents three embodied approaches to the visual segmentation of objects. Each approach to segmentation is aided by the presence of a hand or arm in the proximity of the object to be segmented. The first approach is suitable for a robotic system, where the robot can use its arm to evoke object motion. The second method operates on a wearable system, viewing the world from a human's perspective, with instrumentation to help detect and segment objects that are held in the wearer's hand. The third method operates when observing a human teacher, locating periodic motion (finger/arm/object waving or tapping) and using it as a seed for segmentation. We show that object segmentation can serve as a key resource for development by demonstrating methods that exploit high-quality object segmentations to develop both low-level vision capabilities (specialized feature detectors) and high-level vision capabilities (object recognition and localization)

Agile Requirements Engineering: A systematic literature review

Nowadays, Agile Software Development (ASD) is used to cope with increasing complexity in system development. Hybrid development models, with the integration of User-Centered Design (UCD), are applied with the aim to deliver competitive products with a suitable User Experience (UX). Therefore, stakeholder and user involvement during Requirements Engineering (RE) are essential in order to establish a collaborative environment with constant feedback loops. The aim of this study is to capture the current state of the art of the literature related to Agile RE with focus on stakeholder and user involvement. In particular, we investigate what approaches exist to involve stakeholder in the process, which methodologies are commonly used to present the user perspective and how requirements management is been carried out. We conduct a Systematic Literature Review (SLR) with an extensive quality assessment of the included studies. We identified 27 relevant papers. After analyzing them in detail, we derive deep insights to the following aspects of Agile RE: stakeholder and user involvement, data gathering, user perspective, integrated methodologies, shared understanding, artifacts, documentation and Non-Functional Requirements (NFR). Agile RE is a complex research field with cross-functional influences. This study will contribute to the software development body of knowledge by assessing the involvement of stakeholder and user in Agile RE, providing methodologies that make ASD more human-centric and giving an overview of requirements management in ASD.Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad TIN2013-46928-C3-3-RMinisterio de Economía y Competitividad TIN2015-71938-RED

Responsible Commercial Activity Of Smes And Specific Values Of Sustainable Development In Terms Of The European Excellence Model

The paper underlines part of the value of the research based on survey results conducted on SMEs in Romania, in 2007-2008, within the national research project IDEAS 856 "Increasing the competitiveness of SMEs in Romania by implementing a model evaluation and improvement of their performance in accordance with the European model of quality management.” One of the research objectives was the assessment of the satisfaction degree of requirements relating to protection of human health and environmental protection by SMEs from Romania, including those in trade, in terms of an integrated approach to sustainable development values within the European Excellence Model as defined by the European Foundation for Quality Management - EFQM). As a consequence of the study it appears that there is a correlation between the degree of meeting these requirements and mature quality management system of enterprises. Thus, it was found that for SMEs in trade, whose interests in implementing a quality management system is in its early stages, the degree of satisfaction of the requirements of society, from the perspective of an integrated approach to sustainable development values in the EFQM Excellence Model, is relatively low. On the other hand, research carried out showed that data obtained by SMEs in trade in the process of evaluating and monitoring the impact on the environment are used mainly to establish corrective actions, following the complaints occurred, and less to define continuous improvement programs to meet these requirements.responsible commercial activity, sustainable development, demands of society, social responsibility, SMEs in trade, the EFQM excellence model

Enhancing the Quality of Life by Adopting IBS: An Economic Perspective on Mechanisation and Automation

AbstractIncorporating mechanisation and automation in the construction process is necessary to reduce production time and costs, improve working conditions, avoiding dangerous works, allow work to be performed where people cannot do, and eventually will increase performance, and product quality. This paper discusses a preliminary study on enhancing the quality of life by adopting Industrialised Building System (IBS) focusing on the economic perspective on the use of mechanisation and automation. The sustainability principles in the IBS have always maintained the harmony between environment and construction, improve human self-respect and encourage economic development to strive for a better quality of life

Структурні дисбаланси якості людського потенціалу у фокусі викликів політики зайнятості населення України (Structural imbalances of quality of human potential in focus challenges employment policy Ukraine)

У статті розглянуто якість людського потенціалу України з позиції методології системного та компаративного аналізу. Наголошено на існуванні зв’язку між рівнями й якістю елементів компонентної будови цього потенціалу. Вказано, що структура людського потенціалу є динамічною величиною і під упливом факторів середовища якість окремих компонент може зазнавати таких змін, що ведуть до порушення внутрішньої рівноваги людського потенціалу як системи. Обґрунтовано, що в Україні структурні дисбаланси якості людського потенціалу входять у протиріччя з намаганнями держави адаптувати в соціально-економічну систему положення концепції гідної праці. Запропоновано заходи політики зайнятості для подолання структурних диспропорцій якості людського потенціалу. (There is considered in the article the quality of human potential of Ukraine from the perspective of methodology system and of comparative analysis. Emphasized the existence of a connection between levels and quality of the component elements structure of the potential. It is indicated that the structure of human development is dynamic value and under environmental influence the quality of individual components may undergo changes, leading to disruption of the internal balance of human potential as a system. Proved that Ukraine’s structural imbalances in the quality of human potential are in conflict with the state’s attempts to adapt to the socio-economic system of the concept of decent work. Offered an employment policy measures to cope with the structural imbalances of quality of human potential.

Software Design Guidelines for Usability

For years, the Human Computer Interaction (HCI) community has crafted usability guidelines that clearly define what
characteristics a software system should have in order to be easy to use. However, in the Software Engineering (SE)
community keep falling short of successfully incorporating these recommendations into software projects. From a SE
perspective, the process of incorporating usability features into software is not always straightforward, as a large number
of these features have heavy implications in the underlying software architecture. For example, successfully including an
“undo” feature in an application requires the design and implementation of many complex interrelated data structures and
functionalities. Our work is focused upon providing developers with a set of software design patterns to assist them in the
process of designing more usable software. This would contribute to the proper inclusion of specific usability features
with high impact on the software design. Preliminary validation data show that usage of the guidelines also has positive
effects on development time and overall software design quality

E-Service Quality and E-Wom Regarding Consumer Behavior Based on Maqashid Asy-Shariah

The E-commerce usage service quality index is the lowest among other parameters. The purpose of the study investigates the effect of e-Service Quality and e-WOM on consumer behavior using the maqasid ash-shariah approach. This research uses quantitative methods with an associative statistical approach. The results showed that e-service quality and e-WOM have a positive influence on consumer behavior. This means that when the e-service quality and Electronic Word of Mouth variables increase, so does the consumer behavior variable to make purchases in e-commerce transactions. The novelty of this research is the development of marketing management theory from the perspective of Islamic Economics in the digital era. Theoretical implications show that choosing the right e-service quality and e-WOM results in a positive response to the service quality of e-commerce users. From the perspective of Islamic Economics, the values of maqashid asy-syari'ah can influence the goal of achieving human welfare. So that all needs for goods/services have a benefit for human needs, be it dharuriyah, hajiyah and taxiniyah. The results of this research can be used as input for the Government to improve Electronic System Operator (PSE) services. So that later e-commerce can provide even better services.