Perspectives and competitiveness of Bosnian industry: Competitiveness enhancement through innovative solutions

On global level there is a large supply-demand imbalance for the worker with the right set of skills. Similarly, it is observed in Bosnia as well. Even though the unemployment rate is high in the country, the industry is struggling to get talents they need from the local market. On the other hand, the job seekers are rather preferring to look for job opportunities in EU countries since the packages of benefits are more attractive there. Bosnian industry is mainly based on labor intensive business and it is focused on lower cost as competitive advantage. Using this competitive advantage, the industry generates insufficient added value to offer competitive package of benefit to demanded talents from the global labor market. They have to switch to a new competitive advantage on differentiated unique solutions to target groups that will provide them with increased added value

Types of journal articles: Purpose, structure and length

In 2013, the Journal “Periodical of Engineering and Natural Sciences” was launched. By now, the journal achieved a global spread of authorship and Editorial Board. In this period, we have been publishing mainly original research articles, reviews, and case studies. In addition to the current article types, we are going to start publishing Book reviews, Minireviews, Short Communication, Commentaries, Methodology/Method starting from the next Issue. To familiarize authorship with the different types of articles we publish, here below each of them is particularly described, including the paper structure and length

Analysis of student performances in online and face-to-face learning: A case study from a Bosnian public university

In the past three years, the COVID-19 became a global health issue and had huge impact on education. This study investigates and compares the student performances after transition from face-to-face learning environment to online learning environments as a result of the spread of the pandemic. Data is collected from a large Bosnian public university and analyzed using statistical tools. In this study student success is defined as passing the course. The results showed that there is significant difference in the performances of students, and it is dependent on learning environment. Particularly, students who attended online classes have significantly higher-grade point averages

Performance analysis of B2B and B2C companies: A case study of selected Balkan countries

The purpose of this paper is to analyze and compare two different business models called business to business and business to consumer in Western Balkan countries and Bulgaria. The first, model - business to business (B2B) is defined as the transfer of goods and services between businesses or firms without interference of consumer. The second model, business to consumer (B2C) is customer oriented in which the goods and services are sold immediately to customers in the market. This study focuses on the performance of these two business models in regional countries which are: Albania, Bulgaria, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia. Our analysis intends to provide information regarding the countries’ development on different sectors within B2B and B2C models that are affected by specific indicators such as net salaries, total employment level, investment and exports, and research & innovation. Using statistical methods such as t-test, z-test, F-test or ANOVA and regression, the data were analyzed and the results were compared among the listed developing countries. Finally, this dissection represents the relationship between two independent variables, Net Salaries and Employment where specific dependent variables significantly contribute in North Macedonia and Serbia

Impact of quality and innovation strategies on business performance of Bosnian B2B and B2C companies

The aim of this paper was to compare two business models, namely business to business and business to customer. The first model is oriented towards the delivery of intermediate goods ordered by an immense foreign market leader that is outsourcing a part of its business. The second model is consumers oriented and is more about innovation and the creation of goods ready to be immediately sold on the market. Bosnia is a developing country, and often a place for establishing B2B businesses. However, we are lacking in innovation, our own know-how, and the creation of challenging business opportunities. It also faces the problem of brain drain; therefore, it is in a need of a plan for retaining the youth within the country. The analysis aimed to show how the boosting jobs and living standards in Bosnia, are affected by the investments, exports, and salaries within the B2B and B2C companies. The results showed that Bosnia has a significant potential for raising living standards, employment and salary, if investments are directed towards innovations, knowledge-intensive and B2C businesses instead of labor-intensive investments

Design for additive manufacturing: Benefits, trends and challenges

In past five years, there has been a rapid increase in the publication on additive manufacturing (AM). Many technologies have been introduced in a rapidly growing market. The designers are confronted with many challenges in designing products for additive manufacturing. AM offers significant advantages, but there are also many constraints for AM to be used in its full potential. This paper explores trends, issues and challenges in design for AM, including associated costs, design options, quality considerations. It has been found that AM is in its infancy, there is insufficient understanding of the process, method, strategies, tools applied in design for additive manufacturing process, while process quality and capabilities are continuously improvin

Design of experiments application, concepts, examples: State of the art

Design of Experiments (DOE) is statistical tool deployed in various types of system, process and product design, development and optimization. It is multipurpose tool that can be used in various situations such as design for comparisons, variable screening, transfer function identification, optimization and robust design. This paper explores historical aspects of DOE and provides state of the art of its application, guides researchers how to conceptualize, plan and conduct experiments, and how to analyze and interpret data including examples. Also this paper reveals that in past 20 years application of DOE have been growing rapidly in manufacturing as well as non-manufacturing industries. It was most popular tool in scientific areas of medicine, engineering, biochemistry, physics, computer science and counts about 50% of its applications compared to all other scientific areas

Effect of heat flow via glazing on the productivity of a solar still

In many parts of the world, particularly in the Greater Maghreb, desalination of water by solar energy is practiced with incredible abundance. Drinking water shortage has become a major problem. Improving the efficiency of solar distillers in several laboratories around the world is still one of the major concerns of research topics. In this work we want to show that the heat flow through the glazing can also be considered as an index on the productivity of pure water from a conventional solar still

Modelling the effect of feed rate on residual stresses induced due to milling using experimental and numerical methods

The surface integrity of any manufactured product produced in machining process has proved to have a significant impact on the performance of the product. Many parameters influence the integrity of the surface, few of which are microstructure of the material, surface roughness, residual stresses etc. Out of which the present work focuses on the residual stress of the machining, which majorly effects the fatigue strength of the product. Understanding the significance of residual stresses in machining, and influencing it using three basic parameters: feed, cutting speed and depth of cut to increase the products performance and life by optimizing these measures to best possible combination. It is done using both experimental and numerical methods and authors have compared the numerical and experimental values. For experimental purposes AISI 1045 steel was used and the residual stresses measurement was done using X-ray diffraction method

Comparative Performance Evaluation of Conventional and Renewable Thermal Insulation Materials Used in Building Envelops

In the past decades, insulation materials such as petrochemical and inorganic have been used for building insulation. The production of these insulation materials consumes a large amount of energy, which has a significant effect on the environment throughout the life cycle. Comparative performance analyses of renewable (natural) insulation materials for building application in terms of their impact on the environment, the useful lifetime, cost, insulation performance, thermal diffusivity water vapor resistance and flammability were analyzed using statistical tools. It was found that renewable insulating materials have competitive performances with traditional non-renewable materials in terms of heat insulation performances, fire resistance and cost. Also it was found that renewable materials have significantly better performances such as less impact to the global warming, longer useful lifetime, and lower thermal diffusivity