THE PERCEIVED VALUE OF DESIGN FOR NEW PRODUCTS AT MICRO AND SMALL COMPANIES

The research aims to identify and promote improvements in the planning and development processes of new products with the insertion of the design. The study was developed in three micro and small furniture companies, which are located in the city of Santa Maria-RS. This market segment was chosen because it has changes in the execution of its productive processes and by the constant search of new products in order to meet the requirements of its customers. Based on the evaluations of the final consumers and the control of the information provided by the managers of the planning and production sectors, it was sought to qualify the products based on the design. A multiple case study was used in order to identify the main differences between visions in the generation of new products. Based on this, the quality evaluation matrix, Quality Function Deployment (QFD) was used to identify and quantify procedures that have a greater impact between the planning and execution of new tailored furniture. It was possible to detect difficulties in the insertion of the design in the Furniture Industries. It is necessary to overcome some obstacles to change the company’s culture regarding the management of new product

Gerenciamento e integração das pessoas com as tecnologias: relações entre a Indústria 4.0 e Lean Kata

Vincular a Indústria 4.0 com Lean pode promover resultados econômicos, sociais e ambientais em muitos setores industriais. Mas para que isto ocorra, há necessidade de promover a colaboração entre empresas e entre pessoas. O pensamento lean engloba: qualidade, cooperação e comunicação, ou seja, está diretamente relacionado às pessoas que atuam no processo produtivo e kata de melhoria promove, através da mudança comportamental, cooperação e o envolvimento das pessoas para atingir os objetivos organizacionais. Assim, o objetivo deste estudo foi desenvolver um estudo teórico a fim de encontrar e quantificar os documentos existentes, denominados trabalhos relacionados ao tema em estudo e que evidenciam as relações entre Indústria 4.0 e lean kata. Para esta revisão foi realizada uma busca na base de dados Scopus a partir dos termos de busca “Industry 4.0”, “lean” e “kata”. Dos principais resultados encontrados destacam-se os 10 documentos. A pesquisa também indicou um campo de pesquisa ainda não explorado, abrindo oportunidades para novos estudos, assim como destaca a importância da integração entre as diversas áreas da organização quanto a implementação de ambos os programas

Transmission Characteristics of Primate Vocalizations: Implications for Acoustic Analyses

Acoustic analyses have become a staple method in field studies of animal vocal communication, with nearly all investigations using computer-based approaches to extract specific features from sounds. Various algorithms can be used to extract acoustic variables that may then be related to variables such as individual identity, context or reproductive state. Habitat structure and recording conditions, however, have strong effects on the acoustic structure of sound signals. The purpose of this study was to identify which acoustic parameters reliably describe features of propagated sounds. We conducted broadcast experiments and examined the influence of habitat type, transmission height, and re-recording distance on the validity (deviation from the original sound) and reliability (variation within identical recording conditions) of acoustic features of different primate call types. Validity and reliability varied independently of each other in relation to habitat, transmission height, and re-recording distance, and depended strongly on the call type. The smallest deviations from the original sounds were obtained by a visually-controlled calculation of the fundamental frequency. Start- and end parameters of a sound were most susceptible to degradation in the environment. Because the recording conditions can have appreciable effects on acoustic parameters, it is advisable to validate the extraction method of acoustic variables from recordings over longer distances before using them in acoustic analyses

O impacto das práticas do Desenvolvimento Enxuto de Produtos no desempenho das grandes empresas do setor automotivo

Esse artigo tem como objetivo avaliar o impacto das práticas do Desenvolvimento Enxuto de Produtos no setor automotivo brasileiro. Foi enviado um questionário com 23 questões aos envolvidos no processo de 48 grandes empresas do setor, sendo que 22 responderam (taxa de retorno 46%). Identificou-se que embora o setor automotivo seja visto como referência na adoção de práticas enxutas, ainda há potencial de melhorias em estabelecer relações de parceria com os fornecedores, assim como a outra ponta da cadeia: identificar o valor do cliente. A Engenharia Simultânea Baseada em Conjuntos (SBCE) também é uma prática que precisa ser melhor desenvolvida, assim como o uso da ferramenta Mapeamento do Fluxo de Valor (MFV) para identificar os desperdícios e atividades que agregam valor no Processo de Desenvolvimento de Produtos. A partir do diagnóstico, é possível replicar as questões para outros setores. O valor do trabalho está nos resultados que permitem diagnosticar quais as práticas do Desenvolvimento Enxuto que são mais utilizadas no setor automotivo. Ainda, as questões da survey podem ser aplicadas em outros setores da economia e tamanhos de empresas. O tratamento estatístico afirmou a coerência interna do instrumento de pesquisa através do Alfa de Cronbach. O estudo contribui para uma visão sistêmica do Processo de Desenvolvimento de Produtos, sob a ótica de Pessoas, Processo e Tecnologia, além de auxiliar as empresas e a academia na gestão das mudanças

Determining the architectures of macromolecular assemblies

To understand the workings of a living cell, we need to know the architectures of its macromolecular assemblies. Here we show how proteomic data can be used to determine such structures. The process involves the collection of sufficient and diverse high-quality data, translation of these data into spatial restraints, and an optimization that uses the restraints to generate an ensemble of structures consistent with the data. Analysis of the ensemble produces a detailed architectural map of the assembly. We developed our approach on a challenging model system, the nuclear pore complex (NPC). The NPC acts as a dynamic barrier, controlling access to and from the nucleus, and in yeast is a 50 MDa assembly of 456 proteins. The resulting structure, presented in an accompanying paper, reveals the configuration of the proteins in the NPC, providing insights into its evolution and architectural principles. The present approach should be applicable to many other macromolecular assemblies.

The molecular architecture of the nuclear pore complex

Nuclear pore complexes (NPCs) are proteinaceous assemblies of approximately 50 MDa that selectively transport cargoes across the nuclear envelope. To determine the molecular architecture of the yeast NPC, we collected a diverse set of biophysical and proteomic data, and developed a method for using these data to localize the NPC’s 456 constituent proteins (see the accompanying paper). Our structure reveals that half of the NPC is made up of a core scaffold, which is structurally analogous to vesicle-coating complexes. This scaffold forms an interlaced network that coats the entire curved surface of the nuclear envelope membrane within which the NPC is embedded. The selective barrier for transport is formed by large numbers of proteins with disordered regions that line the inner face of the scaffold. The NPC consists of only a few structural modules that resemble each other in terms of the configuration of their homologous constituents, the most striking of these being a 16-fold repetition of ‘columns’. These findings provide clues to the evolutionary origins of the NPC.