Lo inefable o la experiencia del límite

Este trabajo trata de definir el concepto de lo inefable a través de un recorrido por diferentes tradiciones tanto creativas como de pensamiento, centrándose, de manera especial, en las aportaciones de la mística, las que surgen en el marco de las corrientes posrománticas y en la posmodernidad. Según los casos, lo inefable se expresaría a través de diferentes sistemas sígnicos como la poesía, la música o, simplemente, el silencio.This paper is an attempt to define the concept of ineffable/unspeakeable through a revision of different traditions —mainly, philosophical, religious and literary ones— along the time with a special attention to the mystic writing and postromantic and postmodern movements. The answer to this question may be found connecting the unspeakeable to different systems of signs like poetry, music or silence

Building the resilient sme: developing the ‘4 in a row’ tool for supply chain risk management

The number of supply chain risks has sharply risen due to climate change and the increasing complexity of the 21st century business network whose firms are exporting and importing articles worldwide. Nowadays, it is not enough to ensure an effective production plant; it is high time to guarantee the perfect performance of the whole supply chain. And that means, among other issues, an intense and close relationship between suppliers and customers. This thesis addresses some of the small and medium enterprises’ concerns by developing a new procedure: ‘4 in a row’. ‘4 in a row’ is unpretentious, effective and carefully designed to be implemented taking into account its users constraints. ‘4 in a row’ is the result of a deep literature review and a passionate interaction with supply chain experts. ‘4 in a row’ is the main contribution of a project in which I started to think about one year ago: creating something valuable to improve the small and medium enterprise’s supply chain. The thesis starts with the introduction chapter and the literature review. Then, it follows the research approach chapter in which the motives of choosing a literature review and a semi-structured interview as the main study methods are reasoned. Chapter four summarises feedback from five different supply chain experts. The core of the thesis is in chapter 5: the design of a four-step procedure with the intuitive name of ‘4 in a row’. The first step of ‘4 in a row’ is the adaptation of the tool to the needs of each firm; the second step is the identification and prioritization of supply chain risks through a Failure Mode and Effect Analysis; the third step contains potential mitigation actions in order to cope with the identified high-priority risks organized in two categories, ‘Lean tools’ and ‘best practices’; and the fourth and last step is a benefit/cost analysis which aims to assess from an economical point of view which mitigation actions are worth to implement. The core of the thesis is followed, in chapter 6, by an evaluation of the performance of ‘4 in a row’ in a real small company. Lastly, there is a critical discussion in what could have been done better and some natural indications about how to continue with further investigation. I wholeheartedly expect to capture your attention through this 132-page thesis and 32.980 words mostly written in the awe-inspiring Denmark Technical University facilities. It might not be the longest thesis; however, I hope you will find this text easy-to-read and above all else, profitable and constructive.Outgoin

Algunas consideraciones sobre el estado actual de la cuestión de la Dirección de Producción/Operaciones internacionales

La globalización económica está favoreciendo la aparición de campos de estudio que suponen variantes de las principales disciplinas empresariales y que se dedican especialmente a las cuestiones internacionales relacionadas con las mismas, tales como Marketing Internacional o Finanzas Internacionales. No obstante, parece que no en todas las áreas la globalización o intemacionalización ha despertado el mismo interés y, consecuentemente, el nivel de desarrollo de cada una de ellas resulta distinto. El presente trabajo trata de analizar someramente el estado de la cuestión de una de ellas, la Dirección de Producción / Operaciones Internacionales, recogiendo algunas evidencias acerca de su implantación en la enseñanza

Analysis of interaction fit between manufacturing strategy and technology management and its impact on performance

Purpose – Using the matching/difference perspective, the purpose of this paper is to examine the interaction fit between a set of managerial practices from manufacturing strategy (MS) and another set from technology management (TM) and the link of this fit to operational performance. Design/methodology/approach – The paper applies multiple statistical methods to a database of an international sample of plants in the auto supplier sector to explore (deviation score analysis/multiple linear regression) and confirm (correlation and variance subgroup analysis) whether a matching model presents organisational disequilibrium, where states of fit are related to effectively higher performance than states of misfit. Findings – Results from regression show that there were no states of misfit between the levels of both manufacturing practice sets/areas. This means that there are no significant differences in performance that may be tested for matching interaction. However, subgroup analysis provides greater detail on why there might not be any misfits (i.e. state of fit), by illustrating that when grouping by plant type (high/world class performer, HP, and standard performer, SP), the slight lack of significant difference in the correlation between MS and TM was in favour of HP. The implementation levels of MS-TM found were not significantly different, showing for HP slightly higher levels for both practices (þ& þ ) than for SP, with slightly lower values in both cases (2 & 2). Therefore, it seems that both groups might perform equally well, due not to interaction but to the presence of a state of MS-TM fit alone. A state of fit such as this, known as selection or congruency, would be the reason for there being no significant matching interaction originally. Originality/value – Most of the interaction fit bibliography is from the accounting perspective.Therefore, the impact of the matching interaction fit between MS and TM (as well as its impact on performance) has not been well documented theoretically, and much less, empirically, in production and operations management.Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia DPI 2006-05531Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia DPI 2009-11148Junta de Andalucía P08-SEJ-0384

Congruency fit: beyond performance in the auto supplier industry

The effects of manufacturing strategy (MS) and technology (T) on performance have been studied separately, but few studies have examined the relationship between MS and T practices clusters that improve effectiveness when implemented jointly, and even then they do not consider possible congruency between the two. This paper develops a congruency (selection) model to test for any interconnection between said clusters, without addressing causation or their combined effect on performance. The implicit outcome is that the plant will achieve a desirable effectiveness level. Through a wide-ranging survey of auto supplier plants, two approaches are considered: 1) grouping both clusters in pairs (canonical correlation analysis); and 2) a more general selection view version, with practices from both clusters related multidimensionally and subordinated by bivariate analysis (regression) to test for any congruent pattern. Both methods find a congruent relationship between manufacturing strategy and technology practice clusters, although the second provides greater detail.Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia DPI-2006-0553

Los procesos de observación del prácticum: análisis de las competencias

El proyecto realizado de aplicación de las TIC a la formación práctica de los estudiantes de educación en su fase de observación y desarrollo de las competencias, singularmente socio-profesionales, ha puesto de manifiesto la importancia de comprender y formar un conjunto de doce competencias agrupadas en tres grandes dimensiones de síntesis: • Identidad Profesional, explicitada en la empatía, capacidad para aprender a aprender y trabajar en equipo. • Toma de decisiones, ampliada con la capacidad crítica, investigadora y de observación. • Diseñar programas, que se completa con la metodología didáctica, dominio de TIC y muy distante, la capacidad de descubrir las ocupaciones emergentes. Estos agrupamientos se confirman tanto en los grupos de discusión, como en los resultados porcentuales extraídos del proceso de auto observación de estudiantes y profesionales. Destacamos la complementariedad metodológica aplicada a la observación de las doce competencias analizadas partiendo de una meticulosa escala de estudio e indagadas desde la autobservación, la coobservación en parejas y los grupos de discusión. Esta investigación contribuye a enfocar la tarea creativa que ha de capacitar a cada estudiante, facilitando a las Instituciones un camino fecundo para la mejor preparación socioprofesional de cada aprendiz en y desde el prácticum

The pursuit of responsiveness in production environments: from flexibility to reconfigurability

Many production plants are pursuing responsiveness (i.e., timely purposeful change guided by external demands) as one of their main performance priorities and are looking for ways for their responsiveness to be improved. One of the ways that they are currently trying to do this is through the flexibility provided by production practices. On the other hand, other systems are also being now developed based on reconfigurability (such as reconfigurable manufacturing systems (RMSs)) which can enhance a company’s technological ability to respond to market requirements by reconfiguring its products and processes. This paper analyses how current production programmes can be a prior step to achieving reconfigurability. The analysis uses a holistic framework that considers a number of linkages or combinations of practices (technology, JIT, TQ, HR, TPM and production strategy) and how these enhance performance in terms of cost, quality and responsiveness. The framework is tested with data collected from a survey of 314 plants worldwide using a series of canonical correlation analyses. The results confirm not only the importance of practice linkages that do not only include technology as the launch pad for reconfigurability, but also that in their pursuit of responsiveness it is vital for plants to implement practices in the technology programme as well as to link them to organisational programmes. The framework presents a contribution to both theory and practice. It offers novel insights into the programme and production practices involved in transitioning from flexibility to reconfigurability in the pursuit of responsiveness and provides a basis for future research.Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación DPI-2009-11148Junta de Andalucía P08-SEJ-0384

Mejora de la herramienta educativa “más allá del español” con trabajos de investigación de los estudiantes del máster de español como lengua extranjera

El proyecto Más allá del español, financiado con Fondos de Cooperación Social por la Fundación Complutense (ref.77/11), había dejado uno de sus tres objetivos sin cumplir: aquel proyecto de enseñanza de español a extranjeros se había diseñado para que los estudiantes del máster de Español como Lengua Extranjera. Durante este curso nos propusimos lograr que la herramienta fuera útil para los masterandos: se trataba de invitarles a realizar trabajos que pudieran compartir con la comunidad de profesores de ELE, de modo que el aprendizaje de su etapa de Máster revirtiera en la sociedad. La propuesta se hizo en el marco de la asignatura “Español para fines específicos e Inmigrantes”. El primer día de clase tuvimos una conferencia plenaria de inauguración a cargo de María José Alonso, profesora de la Fundación “La Merced inmigrantes”. Durante su exposición subrayó la utilidad de los mapas conceptuales en la enseñanza del español a inmigrantes, particularmente en el aprendizaje del léxico relacionado con la profesión que aspiraban a tener cada uno de los estudiantes. De ahí nació la idea de crear recursos para el aprendizaje del léxico relacionado con oficios y trabajos. De los veintitrés trabajos realizados, catorce han logrado suficiente calidad como para su publicación en: http://masalladelespanol.com/mapas-conceptuales

Towards an integrated proposal for performance measurement indicators in Advanced Production Practices

Starting with an analysis of the financial and operational indicators that can be found in the specialised literature, this study aims to contribute to improvements in the performance measurement systems used when the unit of analysis is the manufacturing plant. For this a search was done in the highest impact Journals of Production and Operations Management and Management Accounting , with the aim of determining the financial and operational indicators used to evaluate performance when Advanced Production Practices have been implemented, more specifically when the practices implemented are Total Quality Management, JIT/Lean Manufacturing and Total Productive Maintenance. This has enabled us to obtain a classification of the two types of indicators based on how much each is used. For the financial indicators we have also prepared a proposal that can be adapted to manufacturing plants- accounting features. In the near future we will propose a model that links practices implementation with financial and operational indicators and these two last with each other. We aim to will test this model empirically with the data obtained in the High Performance Manufacturing Project.Junta de Andalucía (PAIDI Investigación, Desarrollo e Innovación de Andalucía Plan Proyectos de excelenciaP08-SEJ-03841Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia DPI 2009-1114

La comunicación didáctica en la tutoría virtual

La comunicación didáctica en la tutoría virtual es la base para el desarrollo de contenidos formativos en el diseño de los nuevos planes de estudio. La comunicación virtual se ha convertido en el eje de la formación a distancia y en la herramienta clave del proceso de aprendizaje de los estudiantes. La flexibilidad de los procesos de enseñanza-aprendizaje en los medios virtuales incide en el diseño e implementación de los contenidos didácticos de las asignaturas en escenarios educativos, destacando la influencia de la función tutorial en los procesos formativos. La capacidad de adaptación de los estudiantes, docentes y docentes-tutores a éste medio ha de partir de la adquisición de las siguientes competencias claves para el desarrollo de la tarea educativa: la competencia didáctico-formativa y la competencia tecnológica-digital. A continuación presentamos una investigación de innovación docente en el que la comunicación didáctica virtual es la clave para el desarrollo de los procesos formativos.Didactic communication in virtual mentoring is the basis for the development of training content in the design of new curricula. Virtual communication has become the hub of distance learning and the key tool of the process d of student learning. The flexibility on the teaching and learning in virtual media affects the design and implementation of educational content of the educational course, emphasizing the influence of the tutorial role in the formative process. The resilience of students, teachers and teacher-tutors to this medium has to start from the acquisition of the following key competencies for the development of educational work, teaching-training competition and competition-digital technology. Here is an investigation of educational innovation in which the virtual didactic communication is the key to the development of educational processes.Didático de comunicação em tutoria virtual é a base para o desenvolvimento de conteúdos de formação na concepção de novos currículos. comunicação virtual se tornou o centro de ensino à distância e instrumento fundamental do processo d aprendizagem dos alunos. A flexibilidade do ensino e aprendizagem em meio virtual afeta a concepção e implementação de conteúdos pedagógicos dos cursos em ambientes educacionais, enfatizando a influência do papel tutorial no processo formativo. A resistência dos alunos, professores e professores-tutores para este meio tem que começar a partir da aquisição das seguintes competências essenciais para o desenvolvimento do trabalho educativo, a concorrência de formação docente e tecnologia concorrência digital. Aqui está uma investigação da inovação educacional na qual a comunicação didática virtual é a chave para o desenvolvimento dos processos educativos