An integration of QFD and Fuzzy-AHP approach in hospital services, case study: a hospital in Iran

Purpose This paper shows a development of an integrated model to identify the customer needs and select the best solution to optimize the quality of healthcare systems, namely at hospitals. Design/methodology/approach After determining the patient's requirements by data gathering from experts and patients, a questionnaire was prepared to implement the Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process (FAHP) method. Afterward, the requirement's weight has determined by the patients. Finally, the most important technical requirements were achieved applying the 3-phases Quality Function Deployment (QFD) model. Findings The results show that by adapting the FAHP on ideas of the patients and hospital's experts to determine the weights of patients' requirements, led to have more flotation in FAHP questionnaires in the hospital services. In this domain, adopting the decision-making tools help more precise ranking of patients' requirements. Originality/value Since high-quality urgent services are vital to the protection of human life, it is significant to precisely rank the patient’s requirements by novel methodologies. By the implementation of an integrated model using FAHP and QFD, we were able to show the improvement of the quality of an hospital in Iran. After precisely ranking the patient requirements, "increasing human resource" and "establishing requirements and instructions in initial measures and reducing medication errors", are obtained as the most important technical requirements.This work was supported by National Funds through FCT (Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology), and the first author acknowledges the grant PD/BDE/143092/2018 provided by FCT. Also, this work has been supported by FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia within the R&D Units Project Scope: UIDB/00319/202

Applying refined kano model to classify and rank customer requirements, case study: automotive industry in Portugal

Companies aim to increase the quality of products and competitiveness to gain and retain more customers. This study proposes a novel approach to identifying and prioritizing customer requirements (CRs) to improve black uniformity as a characteristic that refers to luminance differences on the surface of a display by evaluating the CRs. The refined Kano model was applied to find the significant CRs to develop the product. Firstly, 112 CRs were identified in 5 main categories (1) technical, (2) quality, (3) delivery, (4) sustainability, and (5) cost. Then, the refined Kano questionnaire was designed to categorize the CRs. An example is performed to validate the method on the automotive display' CRs. The findings showed that mechanical and delivery needs are critical CRs. Today, climate change is a significant challenge and a severe customer concern. Although sustainability's CRs not classed as essential items in the production process, suppliers must be diligent in providing them. The results help to improve the automotive industry and other production systems.This work was supported by National Funds through FCT (Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology), and the first author acknowledges the grant PD/BDE/143092/2018 provided by FCT. Also, this work has been supported by FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia within the R&D Units Project Scope: UIDB/00319/202

Quality scoreboard: a proposal

Purpose: The assessment of “macroquality” or the assessment of the degree to which the quality practices are implemented in a country or a region should not be only based on “tangible” indicators such as the number of certified companies according to the ISO 9001 or ISO 14001 standards, or others. By adopting only these two indicators (or similar ones) a large amount of companies, those ones that are not certified, are not considered when assessing the “macroquality”. Less tangible features, such as the number of persons trained in quality management or the number of members of quality management associations among other features, contribute themselves and seem appropriate to assess the level of “macroquality”. This paper intends to report a “macroquality” index that is composed by tangible and less tangible features, concerning the quality practices implementation concept- The Quality Scoreboard. Design/methodology/approach: An expert’s panel was conducted with the aim of evaluating a set of several indicators that could be used to assess and to monitor the “macroquality” level of a country. Nine tangible indicators were proposed and been analysed by the experts’ panel according to an importance scale (1 to 5). Additionally, the experts were encouraged to propose other indicators that could reflect the quality state-of-the-art of a country or region. Findings: Experts find that tangible indicators are not enough to express the level of “macroquality”. According to the results, less tangible features should be considered too. A total of 43 indicators were suggested by the experts. Among them, the following suggested indicators should be highlighted: the number of persons trained in quality management, the number of members of quality management associations, the number of quality related courses at the universities and the number of certified auditors. Based on the survey results a Quality Scoreboard was developed. Originality/value: As far as we were able to find out this is the first attempt to develop a Quality Scoreboard, as it had been already done to innovation. This new approach allows one to characterize the quality state-of-the-art of a region, based on a set of potential “quality indicators”. Furthermore, the results provide an additional important contribution to the worldwide study of quality approaches diffusion and evolution

Universidade-Indústria: transferência de tecnologia em engenharia mecânica

A inovação nas pequenas e médias empresas industriais do ramo da Engenharia Mecânica é muitas vezes inexistenteou incipiente, podendo ser facilmente incrementada através de um estreito relacionamento e cooperação com asUniversidades e/ou os seus Institutos de Interface. Neste contexto, a Universidade do Porto, através do Departamentode Engenharia Mecânica e Gestão Industrial da Faculdade de Engenharia, fundou em 1986 o INEGI - Instituto deEngenharia Mecânica e Gestão Industrial, com a missão de reforçar a cooperação entre esta Universidade e o meioempresarial. O INEGI participa activamente, há 21 anos, no desenvolvimento da indústria nacional contribuindo comconhecimento e competências distintas na área da Engenharia Mecânica e Gestão Industrial, assumindo a missão de:Contribuir para o aumento da competitividade da indústria nacional através da investigação e desenvolvimento,demonstração, transferência de tecnologia e formação nas áreas de concepção e projecto, materiais, produção,energia, manutenção, gestão industrial e ambiente. Desde a sua criação, o INEGI tem tido um crescimentosustentado, tendo desenvolvido mais de 1300 projectos para organizações públicas e privadas, estando nestemomento numa fase de internacionalização, através do estabelecimento de protocolos e projectos conjuntos cominstituições internacionais.Esta comunicação pretende demonstrar as vantagens que as empresas podem obter, através de uma ligação ásUniversidades e Institutos de Interface, no desenvolvimento de materiais, produtos e processos tecnológicos,permitindo assim aumentar a sua competitividade. As áreas de intervenção dos projectos inovadores aqui focadosabrangem uma grande variedade de temas multidisciplinares, desde as energias renováveis, desenvolvimento deprocessos tecnológicos e sistemas mecânicos, materiais compósitos, prototipagem rápida e tecnologias avançadas deprodução e gestão industrial

Elaboration of distilled beverage from spent coffee ground

Spent coffee ground (SCG) is the solid residue obtained from the treatment of coffee powder with hot water to prepare instant coffee, and constitutes the main coffee industry residue. Finding alternatives for the reuse of this residue is of great interest from economical and environmental viewpoints. The goal of the present study was to use this residue as raw material for the production of a new distilled beverage. The process for elaboration of this beverage consisted in an initial extraction of the aromatic compounds from SCG with water, followed by the fermentation of this extract in a bench bioreactor and subsequently distillation of the fermented broth. The produced drink contained 40% v/v ethanol, and presented mild coffee flavor. Several volatile compounds were identified in this distillate among of which, higher alcohols were quantitatively the most abundant group. Isoamyl alcohol (3-methyl-1-butanol), isobutanol (2-methyl-1-propanol), and 2-methyl-1- butanol were the higher alcohols found in major quantities (810, 269, and 185 mg/l, respectively), contributing thus for the greatest proportion of the total aroma and essential character. Ethyl acetate and acetaldehyde, which are also volatile compounds of large influence on the flavor of alcoholic beverages, were found in SCG distillate in concentrations of 38 mg/l and 80 mg/l, respectively. On the other hand, methanol that is a compound harmful to the health was found at low level (11 mg/l). Considering the flavor, the volatile compounds present, and the ratio between isoamyl alcohol/2- methyl-1-propanol and 2-methyl-1-propanol/1-propanol, which are indicative of the quality of alcoholic beverages and have to be higher than unity, it was concluded that a novel spirit of acceptable organoleptic character can be produced by fermentation using SCG as raw material.(undefined)info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

A hybrid MPPT algorithm based on DE-IC for photovoltaic systems under partial shading conditions

This paper presents a hybrid maximum power point tracking (MPPT), which combines a metaheuristic algorithm and a traditional MPPT method applied in a photovoltaic system operating under partial shading conditions. The MPPTs based on traditional methods are not able to track the global maxi-mum power point (GMPP) when partial shadings occur. Thus, MPPT algorithms based on metaheuristic algorithms, which are used for global optimization, have presented efficiency to extract the maximum power from photovoltaic arrays. However, these methods are random, resulting in large power oscillations in transients of small variations in solar irradiance. Therefore, this paper proposes the metaheuristic algorithm called Differential Evolution (DE) to seek and track the GMPP. After the DE convergence, the MPPT algorithm is switched to Incremental Conductance (IC) in order to refine the tracking. The effectiveness of the algorithm is proved through simulation results. Furthermore, comparative analyses are provided for each algorithm (DE and IC) to evaluate their performances in the PV system

Coupling an environmental database to a geographical information system

The Ria Arosa is a coastal zone located in the north-western region of Galicia-Spain. An information system was developed as a decision support tool for environment management and protection of that coastal zone. Geographical Information System (GIS) in an integrated database-model system has greatly increased the overall performance of the decision support tool. The tool developed for environmental assessment has the following elements: simulation models for detailed analysis of the hydrodynamics and water quality status of the Ria Arosa and a GIS for linking model input and output data to geographical entities, and for the visualisation and analysis of data and simulations results. This work deals with the general framework used to organise the large amount of data resulting from the continuous monitoring program and from models output

Sustainability indicators of subsurface flow constructed wetlands in Portuguese small communities

The discharge of untreated domestic wastewater in the receiving waters creates a negative and environmental impact, inversely proportional to its autodepuration ability. Conventional wastewater treatment plants involve large capital investments and operating costs, and could be economically unsustainable for small-medium communities. So, constructed wetlands as natural low-cost systems can be an appropriate alternative, because they require low maintenance, give rise to good performances and provide a natural appearance. This work presents a synthesis of data obtained through an extensive survey performed in twenty Portuguese constructed wetlands utilities. Based on this information, some sustainable indicators and removal pollutant efficiencies were calculated. Besides identifying the main operational problems observed, it was also possible to detect inadequate monitoring procedures, aiming, with some proposed corrections, to improve the performance of these low-cost wastewater treatment utilities. The results obtained in this work encourage the development of future studies to increase the performance of these wastewater systems based on a better knowledge of the influence of hydraulic parameters, like flow, retention time and hydraulic application rate, in the pollutants removal efficiencies.(undefined

Performance evaluation of Portuguese constructed wetlands for municipal wastewater treatment

Constructed wetlands have been used as a technology appropriate for the treatment of municipal or domestic wastewater in some villages in Portugal. Most of constructed wetlands present a low cost (installation and maintenance), low energy requirements and technical skills of operators, environment friendly landscape, and good efficiency and reduced production of sludge. In a situation where is a need of appropriate wastewater treatment from a large number of rural villages, it is appropriate to evaluate the performance of some constructed wetlands systems operate in Portugal, in order to validate them as a credible alternative to conventional methods of wastewater treatment. This work presents a characterization of twenty constructed wetlands, an analysis of unit costs of treatment and the unit areas, and proceeds to the evaluation of their efficiency on the main wastewaters quality parameters. Moreover, the analysis identifies the major operational problems of these systems, suggesting a few mitigating measures and/or corrective to both the improvement of its operation, and the streamlining of its procedures for an accurate monitoring.(undefined