Design of a Continuous Improvement Model in a Portuguese Food Industry Company – A Case Study

The search for perfection forces organizations to adopt new techniques and approaches, focused on the systematic creation of innovative solutions that facilitate the processes of continuous improvement. In view of this context, there was an opportunity to study the implementation of the Lean philosophy in the production line, at a processed food organization. A continuous improvement model was designed for an organizational system, combining tools used in both TRIZ methodology and Lean philosophy. Several Lean tools are used in the model in order to support problem formulation, e.g. Brainstorming, 5 Whys, Pareto Diagram, Ishikawa Diagram, Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) Cycle. And the Kano Model integrated in the proposed model allows assessing employee satisfaction at a later stage than the implementation of previously found solutions. In case the problems identified are not very complex, were resorted to the use of both TRIZ and Lean techniques, such as cause/effect databases, the 40 problem solving TRIZ principles, visual management, 5S's or line balancing. But if the problems identified are more complex, which means with an inventive issue to be solved, Matrix of Contradictions and S-Field Analysis TRIZ tools proved to be more appropriate to find the proper solution. With the case study carried out, it was noted that the proposed model proved to be very useful as a roadmap for the implementation of Lean and TRIZ tools in the continuous improvement of industrial products, services and processes should be the ways to continually minimize them in a company.authorsversionpublishe

Organizational and Methodological Influence of Risk Management in Projects

Project risk management is essential to managers' decision making and business success, because it allows the manager to identify, analyse and decide on the most appropriate way to respond to different adversities that may arise during the development of new products, services, processes, projects, continuous improvement, etc. This requires a mind-set that risks have a major influence on the bottom line and use analytical methods or risk management software. It is essential to integrate the entire organizational structure into risk mitigation intervention. The purpose of this paper is to address some of the important topics to consider for well implemented and successful risk management. An approach is taken at both organizational and methodological levels.authorsversionpublishe

TRIZ and lean philosophies applied together in management activities

Purpose: In the current market, the Portuguese industry faces strong competition from countries with substantially lower operating costs. The agri-food industry is also subject to increasing competition, both nationally and internationally. The utilization of methodologies that, in addition to continuous improvement, provide the development of creative and innovative solutions may be relevant for highlighting and differentiating between organizations. In this work, Teoriya Resheniya Izobretatelskikh Zadach and Lean Philosophies have been implemented together. Methodologies as Matrix of Ideality Matrix of Contradiction, Single Minute Exchange of Die, 5S and the Substance-Field analyses were used as complementary tools to improve the production management activities of agri-food sector. Strongly focused on the issues of time wastage and the organization and management of the filling line, the implementation of these methodologies led to a reduction of setup times, of the operators’ movement and an improvement in the line’s management and organization, and improve the results of 5S audits, depending on the work station. The aims of this study is the implementation of diferent methodologies, philosophies and tools to improve management activities. Methodology/Approach: The methodology presented in this work involves using Lean and TRIZ methodologies together. Namely Matrix of Ideality, the Matrix of Contradictions, SMED, 5S and the Substance-Field Analysis, were used to optimize the management activities, in agro-food industrial sector. The methodology strongly focused on the issues of time wastage, organization and management of an filling line. Findings: The implementation of methodologies led to a reduction of setup times by 60% to 70%, a reduction of the operators’ movement during format changes by 26.2%, and an improvement in the line’s management and organization by 9% to 12%, depending on the work station. Research Limitation/implication: In the management activities, the results are not universal. Therefore, the same methodology applied in another industrial sector will present differents results. Nevertheless, the application of this methodology and the tools choosen only make sense if it facilitates the management of improvements. Originality/Value of paper: There is a need and demand for innovative solutions that lead to continuous improvement, production processes optimization and resource saving. The combination of different validated methologies, with new concrete studies, is always in scientific and technical interest and continuously sought-after (demanded, welcome) by academic and industrial sectors.publishersversionpublishe

Aplicação da Filosofia Lean na Gestão da Manutenção de uma Empresa de Reparação Naval

The radical changes that have been felt in the Global Market emphasized the need to upgrade the existing management systems. It was within this scope that a study has started in a Portuguese ship repair company, with the objective of applying lean philosophy in the production and maintenance management. This article presents not only the proposed model to implement the philosophy of continuous improvement in the current maintenance management systems, but also which tools are more appropriate in this market sector. The model presumes a global approach to the activities problems, in order to identify the most critical ones, bearing in mind the seven key principles to apply the Lean. The first conclusions of its application are presented, as well as the role the personnel need to have for the success of the project.publishersversionpublishe

Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Systematic Innovation - ICSI 2016

It is our pleasure to welcome you at the 7th International Conference on Systematic Innovation. It is our objective to provide a forum for the discussion and dissemination of recent advances in the field of TRIZ Methodology, Knowledge-Based and Systematic Innovation. The goal is to enable practitioners, researchers and scientists to exchange ideas on the these topics and to provide an international forum for exchanging new ideas and recent achievements by the TRIZ community and enabling further advances and collaboration with the industrial community. We wish to express our sincere gratitude to the members of the organizing, scientific and technical committees. The reviewers of the papers had a very important job, contributing significantly to the success of the conference. We also wish to express our thanks to our invited speakers. Very special thanks to our students, sponsors and to all who helped us with logistics, conference website, and publications. Welcome to Portugal and Lisbon. We hope you all have a very happy and rewarding meeting.publishersversionpublishe

Integrating business, social, and environmental goals in open innovation through partner selection

Although collaborative networks (CN) are widespread in academia and have come to be even more used in corporations all over the world, they still face several challenges on behalf of the new product development (NPD) context, especially in regard to the selection of the CN’s right partner. This becomes even more evident when it comes to promoting sustainable development goals within a CN’s activities, by selecting the right partners with a wide consensus from a CN’s management board, avoiding, therefore, the subjectivity around managers’ perception of a CN’s partner selection. Therefore, this work attempts to answer this problem, by presenting a soft-com-puting-based framework, to support the managers’ board on partner search and selection. The method presented here is further assessed by using a case study, based on the development of a green product, where, according to the obtained results, it is demonstrated that the proposed approach is extremely effective for partner selection, by assessing and prioritizing each candidate involved. The most suitable candidate that fulfills the CN’s requirements is then selected to be integrated as a future partner.publishersversionpublishe

Modelo para geração de inovação sustentável: Utilização conjunta da metodologia TRIZ e da ferramenta Eco-Compass

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Aspetos metrológicos na manutenção de equipamentos médicos

A introdução de novos equipamentos médicos revelou a necessidade de determinar o risco associado à falta de avaliação metrológica. Por outro lado é igualmente importante identificar o universo de equipamentos afetados pela incipiente abordagem metrológica em Portugal.publishersversionpublishe

Measurement of prompt open-charm production cross sections in proton-proton collisions at root s=13 TeV

The production cross sections for prompt open-charm mesons in proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 13TeV are reported. The measurement is performed using a data sample collected by the CMS experiment corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 29 nb(-1). The differential production cross sections of the D*(+/-), D-+/-, and D-0 ((D) over bar (0)) mesons are presented in ranges of transverse momentum and pseudorapidity 4 < p(T) < 100 GeV and vertical bar eta vertical bar < 2.1, respectively. The results are compared to several theoretical calculations and to previous measurements.Peer reviewe