Transitioning to a Lean Enterprise: A Guide for Leaders, Volume I, Executive Overview

This Transition-To-Lean Guide is intended to help your enterprise leadership navigate your enterprise’s challenging journey into the promising world of “lean.” You have opened this guide because, in some fashion, you have come to realize that your enterprise must undertake a fundamental transformation in how it sees the world, what it values, and the principles that will become its guiding lights if it is to prosper — or even survive — in this new era of “clock-speed” competition. However you may have been introduced to “lean,” you have undertaken to benefit from its implementation

Supply Chain Management Models To Improve The Impact Of Orthopaedic Equipment Donations

More than any other surgical subspecialty, orthopaedic surgery relies heavily on the use of implants and instruments, particularly in the provision of trauma related orthopaedic injuries, which are increasingly prevalent in low-income countries (LICs). The current international response to improving musculoskeletal care in LICs, is primarily geared towards increasing the donation of supplies used in orthopaedic surgical procedures. This study outlines the current response, and assesses the supply chain component of international aid efforts to improve fracture care. It then explores this component with a goal of determining how a sustainable source of functional implants can be delivered to skilled surgeons, to maximize the synergy of appropriate training and proper equipment towards delivering safe, simple and cost effective orthopaedic care in resource poor settings. There are two hypotheses: The first claims that the creation of a `coordinating unit\u27 authorized to manage the supply donation process and the stakeholders involved, will improve the delivery of musculoskeletal care in LICs. The second claims that the implementation of a virtual and physical supply chain platform will improve the delivery of musculoskeletal care in LICs. The hypotheses propose that a correlation exists between optimization of the donation process and the achievement of improved delivery of musculoskeletal care. The research methodology is qualitative, consisting of interviews and observations, field research, literature reviews and case studies. Study findings reveal that conducting local needs assessments, helping recipients identify and communicate demands, and confirming the presence of adequate local infrastructure and workforce capacity to receive and utilize donated equipment, are essential steps that should be executed prior to the deployment of donations, both within disaster and non- disaster contexts. In addition findings indicate that investment in logistical platforms and supply chains to manage donations, and establishment of a central coordinating unit to link stakeholders and information exchange, are highly instrumental in optimizing the provision of supplies and thus the delivery of orthopaedic care. The study results support the hypothesis that a `coordinating unit\u27 can provide a standard approach towards assessing need, capacity, and resource inventory, and can coordinate stakeholders in a manner that maximizes the use of individual and corporate donations, and supports the surgical capabilities of surgeons and healthcare workers delivering musculoskeletal care in LICs

Energy Saving Obligations and White Certificates : Ideas and Considerations for the Transport Sector

Peer reviewedPreprin

A New Project Execution Methodology; Integrating Project Management Principles with Quality Project Execution Methodologies

On an annual basis, there are numerous reports in regards to a particular company or function’s inability to execute on a large number of projects. The reasons vary widely from a lack of an initial understanding of what the customer was really looking for to a product’s failure to receive final testing approval. Numerous methodologies have been proposed over the years to improve an organization’s ability to execute a project/solution successfully with mixed successes depending on the business and methodology adopted. This field project theorizes that while all the methodologies deliver a significant amount of knowledge and useful tools, they all fall short in delivering a complete Project Execution Methodology. Therefore, the proposed Project Execution Methodology will bring together the best of both worlds. The voice of the customer and data driven decision making of the quality methodologies and the rigorous discipline of managing all aspects of a project delivered by the project management methodology. Additionally, this new methodology can pick and choose from different tools across methodologies without having to maintain a “theme” relative to a particular function such as Quality and Project Management. The field project starts with an introduction and discussion of the Deming Principles, Six Sigma Methodology, Information Technology Infrastructure Library and Project Management Institute Book of Knowledge. The field project then utilizes these methodologies to build out a new methodology that can be utilized across businesses and organizations to dramatically improve the execution success of a project. By leveraging multiple methodologies with different approaches to solving a business problem, the new methodology can deliver a more comprehensive approach that attacks a project from both a technical and “administrative” perspective. The technical side being the creation/documentation of customer requirements, design of a solution and the formalized “guarantee” that the solution then meets these requirements. The administrative side being the management of scope, schedule, budget and risks in a way that insures the solution is delivered successfully in the eyes of business. I.E., the technical side insures a solution is delivered that the customer will buy and the administrative side insures the solutions is paid for by the business

Opportunities and challenges to mass customise low-income housing in Brazil

Mass Customization (MC) stands for the ability to develop high value-added products within short time frames and at relatively low costs. Although this strategy has been successfully applied in several industries, in construction it has been mostly limited to a few companies that produce factory-built and manufactured homes. In Brazil, where traditional construction techniques are majorly adopted in low-income housing programs, there have been many critics regarding the excessive standardization and thus, non-consideration of the increasing diversity of households and their specific needs. Such standardization is mainly due to the use of mass production core ideas as a way to achieve low costs. The aim of this paper was then to explore the possibilities of adopting mass customization in this context. Two existing low-income housing programs in Brazil were investigated. The discussion on the opportunities and challenges to introduce mass customization ideas in these programs are based on the analysis of the product development process, as well as an analysis of household profiles and needs. The results indicated that the household profile is very diverse in low-income housing. Thus, demand for customization is high, as well as attributed to different products’ characteristics. However, the product development process in this context was found to be very different from a process of mass customized products. Despite the need to modify such process, it was identified that mass customization can be achieved in a variety of ways, and does not necessarily imply on the modernization of construction techniques. However, a major challenge for achieving higher customization in this context seems to be related to the programs’ rules and how it restraints innovation and diversity. Keywords: product development process, low-income housing, mass customization, value managemen

Competing by Saving Lives: How Pharmaceutical and Medical Device Companies Create Shared Value in Global Health

This report looks at how pharmaceutical and medical device companies can create shared value in global health by addressing unmet health needs in low- and middle-income countries. Companies have already begun to reap business value and are securing competitive advantages in the markets of tomorrow

Managing ERP Implementation Failure: A Project Management Perspective

In recent years, rapid progress in the use of the internet has resulted in huge losses in many organizations due to lax security. As a result, information security awareness is becoming an important issue to anyone using theInternet. To reduce losses, organizations have made information security awareness a top priority. The three main barriers to information security awareness are: (1) general security awareness, (2) employees’ computerskills, and (3) organizational budgets. Online learning appears a feasible alternative to providing information security awareness and countering these three barriers. Research has identified three levels of securityawareness: perception, comprehension and projection. This paper reports on a laboratory experiment that investigates the impacts of hypermedia, multimedia and hypertext to increase information security awarenessamong the three awareness levels in an online training environment. The results indicate that: (1) learners who have the better understanding at the perception and comprehension levels can improve understanding at the projection level; (2) learners with text material perform better at the perception level; and (3) learners with multimedia material perform better at the comprehension level and projection level. The results could be used by educators and training designers to create meaningful information security awareness materials