Interactions and Cooperation in Local Production Systems: An Analysis of Inhibiting Factors Related to Specificities of Small Enterprises

The purpose of this article is to present some organizational and environmental factors that inhibit interactions and cooperation among several types of actors in a local production system (LPS) of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). To this end an exploratory study was carried out in an embryonic LPS of farming machinery and equipment factories located in West Paraná State, Brazil. The assessment of cooperation and interaction relations in the LPS led to the identification of inhibiting factors, which were correlated to specificities of the participating enterprises. Empirical evidence demonstrated that the inhibiting factors that impacted joint interactions and actions the most are of an organizational nature and strongly related to characteristics intrinsic to the size of the enterprises under consideration.The purpose of this article is to present some organizational and environmental factors that inhibit interactions and cooperation among several types of actors in a local production system (LPS) of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). To this end an exploratory study was carried out in an embryonic LPS of farming machinery and equipment factories located in West Paraná State, Brazil. The assessment of cooperation and interaction relations in the LPS led to the identification of inhibiting factors, which were correlated to specificities of the participating enterprises. Empirical evidence demonstrated that the inhibiting factors that impacted joint interactions and actions the most are of an organizational nature and strongly related to characteristics intrinsic to the size of the enterprises under consideration.The purpose of this article is to present some organizational and environmental factors that inhibit interactions and cooperation among several types of actors in a local production system (LPS) of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). To this end an exploratory study was carried out in an embryonic LPS of farming machinery and equipment factories located in West Paraná State, Brazil. The assessment of cooperation and interaction relations in the LPS led to the identification of inhibiting factors, which were correlated to specificities of the participating enterprises. Empirical evidence demonstrated that the inhibiting factors that impacted joint interactions and actions the most are of an organizational nature and strongly related to characteristics intrinsic to the size of the enterprises under consideration

Integration, uncertainty and information: how do they affect planning performance?

Purpose – Effective planning requires the participation of different functions and may be hampered by lack ofintegration and information quality (IQ). This paper aims to investigate the relationships among integration,uncertainty, IQ and performance, in the context of the production planning and control function. The literaturelacks in-depth studies that consider these factors altogether, showing how they interact and how theycontribute to improve business performance.Design/methodology/approach – The authors introduce the variable of planning performance, whichrepresents the quality of the production plans/planning process and is related to the frequency and causes ofmodifications to these plans. The relationships among the mentioned constructs are investigated by means ofmultiple case studies.Findings – The results illustrate that integration is positively related to planning performance, and thisrelationship is mediated by IQ and moderated by uncertainty.Originality/value – The presented analysis may help practitioners to foster interfunctional integration,better cope with uncertainty and improve information management, aiming to achieve better planningperformance. The managers can choose integration and IQ improvement mechanisms that better fit to theirenvironment/reality, using the four different cases as a benchmark. Moreover, this research contributes to theliterature exploring this contingency perspective by means of in-depth case studies, considering that most ofthe existing research adopting this perspective is survey-based

Cash management policies by evolutionary models: a comparison using the Miller-Orr model

This work aims to apply genetic algorithms (GA) and particle swarm optimization (PSO) to managing cash balance, comparing performance results between computational models and the Miller-Orr model. Thus, the paper proposes the application of computational evolutionary models to minimize the total cost of cash balance maintenance, obtaining the parameters for a cash management policy, using assumptions presented in the literature, considering the cost of maintenance and opportunity for cost of cash. For such, we developed computational experiments from cash flows simulated to implement the algorithms. For a control purpose, an algorithm has been developed that uses the Miller-Orr model defining the lower bound parameter, which is not obtained by the original model. The results indicate that evolutionary algorithms present better results than the Miller-Orr model, with prevalence for PSO algorithm in results

Main dimensions that impact knowledge management and university-business-government collaboration in the Brazilian scenario

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate how certain characteristics of the university–industry– government collaboration facilitate knowledge creation and management, hence innovation focusing on particularities of the Brazilian scenario. Design/methodology/approach – As a conceptual basis, there are correlations between theories of knowledge management and the Triple Helix, a model referenced to university–industry–government cooperation. The research was conducted through a multiple case study at two National Institutes of Science and Technology (INCTs in Portuguese). Findings – The main results show the importance of participation in the INCT program, as it enables the creation of an organizational structure with the coordinator’s leadership, who directs the flow of knowledge among organizations and stimulates innovation. Originality/value – The choice of the topic is justified by the lack of studies on the identification and analyses of the main aspects of this type of collaboration in an integrated way

Heuristic for flow shop sequencing with separated and sequence independent setup times

This paper deals with the permutation flow shop scheduling problem with separated and sequence-independent machine setup times. A heuristic method with the objective of minimizing the total time to complete the schedule is introduced. The proposed heuristic is based on a structural property of this scheduling problem, which provides an upper bound on the idle time of the machines between the completion of the setup task and the beginning of job processing. Experimental results show that the new heuristic outperforms two existing ones.(CNPq) National Council for Scientific and Technological Developmen

Total Tardiness Minimization in a Single-Machine with Periodical Resource Constraints

In this paper we introduce a variant of the single machine considering resource restriction per period. The objective function to be minimized is the total tardiness.  We proposed an integer linear programming modeling based on a bin packing formulation. In view of the NP-hardness of the introduced variant, heuristic algorithms are required to find high-quality solutions within an admissible computation times. In this sense, we present a new hybrid matheuristic called Relax-and-Fix with Variable Fixing Search (RFVFS).  This innovative solution approach combines the relax-and-fix algorithm and a strategy for the fixation of decision variables based on the concept of the variable neighborhood search metaheuristic. As statistical indicators to evaluate the solution procedures under comparison, we employ the Average Relative Deviation Index (ARDI) and the Success Rate (SR). We performed extensive computational experimentation with a testbed composed by 450 proposed test problems. Considering the results for the number of jobs, the RFVFS returned ARDI and SR values of 35.6% and 41.3%, respectively. Our proposal outperformed the best solution approach available for a closely-related problem with statistical significance

NEW HEURISTICS FOR THE NO-WAIT FLOWSHOP WITH SEQUENCE-DEPENDENT SETUP TIMES PROBLEM

In this paper, we address the problem of scheduling jobs in a no-wait flowshop with sequence-dependent setup times with the objective of minimizing the makespan and the total flowtime. As this problem is well-known for being NP-hard, we present two new constructive heuristics in order to obtain good approximate solutions for the problem in a short CPU time, named GAPH and QUARTS. GAPH is based on a structural property for minimizing makespan and QUARTS breaks the problem in quartets in order to minimize the total flowtime. Experimental results demonstrate the superiority of the proposed approachs over three of the best-know methods in the literature: BAH and BIH, from Bianco, Dell´Olmo and Giordani (1999) and TRIPS, by Brown, McGarvey and Ventura (2004)

Knowledge management in environmental education

Information and knowledge are resources of environmental education (EE) that can be performed through knowledge management (KM). The aim of this paper is to propose measures of knowledge creation (KC) to improve performance of EE. This study is based on the research literature without empirical findings; therefore, the results are limited by the methodological resources of the theoretical essay. However, this limitation is the greatest motivation for future research which could investigate the proximity of EE with KM and KC in empirical investigations. Some suggestions for developing the requirements of KC programs to EE are presented as the results: possibility of the SECI process to better perform various aspects of environmental education such as social learning, interaction activities, dialogue, experience exchanging, information and knowledge, and of different ideas and ways of acting, done by EE and, finally, the possibility of Ba to develop a proper space for creation of new environmental knowledge. This article contains academic contributions to KM by providing greater discussion and understanding of KC; to EE when it allows a different view based on the work of information and knowledge about the processes of teaching, when contributing to social programs for EE, improving their practices and, consequently, contributing to an environmentally sustainable economic development

Cooperación, interacción y aprendizaje en el sistema local de producción de equipamientos y implementos agricolas de Paraná

O presente artigo tem como propósito apresentar uma análise sobre as relações de cooperação, interação e aprendizagem entre os diversos tipos de atores conformados em um Arranjo Produtivo Local. Para tal, são investigados os fatores inibidores e motivacionais dessas relações e as principais fontes internas e externas de conhecimento para o aprendizado. As evidências empíricas demonstram que as relações de cooperação e as interações para o aprendizado são afetadas por fatores organizacionais fortemente relacionados às questões de infraestrutura e gestão das empresas.The purpose of this article is presenting an analysis about the cooperation, interaction and learning relationships among the several types of players in a Cluster. For that, the inhibiting and motivating factors of those relationships and the main internal and external sources of learning-oriented knowledge have been investigated. Empirical evidences have demonstrated that the cooperation relationships and the interactions for the learning are influenced by organizational factors strongly related to the infrastructure and enterprises management issues.Cet article vise à présenter une analyse sur les relations de coopération, d'interaction et d'apprentissage entre les différents types d'acteurs composés dans un Arrangement Productif Local. À cette fin, sont étudiés les facteurs de motivation et ceux qui inhibent ces relations et les principales sources internes et externes de connaissances pour l'apprentissage. L'expérience montre que les relations de coopération et d'interaction pour l'apprentissage sont affectés par des facteurs organisationnels, fortement liées aux questions d'infrastructures et de gestion des entreprises.El presente artigo tiene como objetivo presentar una análisis acerca de las relaciones de cooperación, interacción y aprendizaje entre los diversos tipos de integrantes ubicados en un Sistema Local de Producción. Para esto, son investigados los factores inhibidores y motivacionales de esas relaciones y las principales fuentes internas y externas de conocimiento para el aprendizaje. Las evidencias empíricas demostran que las relaciones de cooperación y las interacciones para el aprendizaje son influenciadas por factores organizacionales, fuertemente relacionados a los temas de infraestructura y gestión de las empresas