Management systems: integration or addition?

Purpose – In the past few years, management systems implementation and certification has become a common practice among different types of organizations. In this context, quality management systems certification, according to the ISO 9001 standard is in the spotlight, due to over than 1.000.000 certified organizations by the end of 2009. Quality management systems can be integrated with an increasing variety of other subsystems implemented according to other standards, including environmental systems, health and safety, social responsibility, R&D, risk, or human resources, and subsystems raised from specific standards designed for specific activity sectors (HACCP, automotive or aeronautics, medical devices, pharmaceuticals and software). Due to this evolution, careful attention should be taken on how these different subsystems have been and should be articulated, harmonized and integrated. Thus, this paper intends to approach different strategies to achieve integration, with several levels of intensity, depth and authenticity between the different subsystems, and report some final recommendations related with good practices assuring the efficiency and effectiveness of the integration process. Design/methodology/approach – A case study methodology has supported this research. Three case studies were conducted on Portuguese companies that have an integrated quality, environmental and safety management system. Findings – If the companies’ strategy is to implement more than one management system, there is a clear advantage of doing it supported on an integrated approach, avoiding the development of organizational “islands” related to each subsystem. This organizational “archipelago” structure is completely far way from any global optimized solution, based on a holistic perspective. Originality/value – Based on the conclusions that we were able to find out, this paper is an important contribution to the integrated management systems research area, because it states different integration approaches and levels

A new ISO 9001 diffusion index

Purpose – ISO 9001 certification is nowadays considered to be one of the most effective tools that can be adopted for guiding the management of Quality Systems. The stunning growth observed by these standards all over the world confirms a strong polarization of enterprises’ interest in this practice. Owing to the wide incidence of this phenomenon, a deep investigation of ISO 9001 diffusion over time is of mandatory importance. In the line of our previous publications, this paper derives from a research project that we are conducting in Portugal in order to develop the “ISO 9001 European Scoreboard”, aimed at studying and ranking European Union countries based on quality management systems diffusion. Methodology/Approach – In order to achieve such a goal, the authors have performed a set of statistical analyses over public data sets. Findings – Based on the model developed and in the analyses performed we were able to find out clusters of countries with different ISO 9001 evolution stages, derived from the ISO 9001 per 1000 inhabitants’ scores and countries growth indexes. Originality – With this scoreboard we are able to categorize and rank countries based on the quality management systems evolution (growth rates) over the past few years. In the end, such an “ISO 9001 European Scoreboard” will be an instrument to provide a comparative assessment of quality management practices over the European Union states, leading to the dynamic evaluation of their “macroquality” levels achieved, according to such a standard. We believe that such results provide an additional important contribution to the study of management systems diffusion/evolution, aimed at providing more fact-based insights and understandings

Management systems: a path to organizational sustainability

According to the last available ISO survey, in December 2009 there were 1.065.785 issued ISO 9001 certificates, thus reflecting the importance of ISO 9001 certification worldwide, and approximately 223.149 ISO 14001 issued certificates. In the line of my previous publications, this paper presents a further set of statistical analyses conducted over ISO 9000 and ISO 14000 available data, providing some key results, which try to answer important questions regarding quality and environmental management systems certification in several countries. Such results provide an additional important contribution to the study of management systems diffusion/evolution, aimed at providing fact-based insights into, among other, the following issues. Which are the countries leading quality and environmental management system certification? Which are the countries that present highest growth rates between 2008 and 2009? What has been the evolution of ISO 9000 and ISO 14000 certification in the different countries in the past few years? What are market future perspectives regarding certification

Intervenções em estruturas antigas

O presente relatório de estágio, definido como Trabalho Final de Mestrado, surge como resultado de um estágio profissional realizado no âmbito do Mestrado em Engenharia Civil do Instituto Superior de Engenharia de Lisboa, e tem como objectivos primordiais, expor as actividades realizadas e reflectir os conhecimentos adquiridos durante o período de estágio. Após uma formação académica maioritariamente vocacionada para os aspectos teóricos e de natureza científica, tornou-se fundamental ao estagiário garantir um contacto real com a profissão de Engenheiro Civil antes do ingresso no mercado de trabalho. Foi com base nesse pressuposto que a opção do Trabalho Final de Mestrado incidiu sobre a realização de um estágio curricular em detrimento das restantes possibilidades. O período de estágio iniciou-se a 14 de Março de 2011 e incidiu sobre a área de Conservação, Restauro e Reabilitação de edifícios com valor patrimonial, sendo feito referência no capítulo 2 aos princípios importantes da intervenção neste tipo de edifícios. O capítulo 3 faz uma abordagem geral do que são as coberturas servindo de complemento ao capítulo 4, onde são abordados e analisados os processos e métodos construtivos envolvidos, contemplando a evolução construtiva da cobertura do Cruzeiro, no Convento de Cristo em Tomar. Nos restantes capítulos, 5 e 6, é feita a caracterização e constituição da estrutura de um edifício da segunda metade do século XVIII, e a análise estrutural feita ao edifício no Antigo Convento do Santíssimo Sacramento, em Lisboa, respectivamente. O capítulo 4 é complementado pelo Anexo A, sendo utilizado como referência ao esquema da estrutura artesanal encontrada na cobertura do Cruzeiro.This internship report, defined as Master's degree final work, arises as a result of an internship carried out within the framework of the master of civil engineering of the Instituto Superior de Engenharia de Lisboa and has as its primary objectives, exposing the activities carried out and reflect the knowledge acquired during the probationary pe riod. After an academic education mainly devoted to the theoretical aspects and of scientific nature, it became crucial to the trainee to ensure a real contact with the profession of civil engineering before joining the labour market. It was on that basis that the option of the final work of master's degree focused on conducting an internship at the expense of other possibilities. The probationary period began March 14, 2011 and focused on the area of conservation, restoration and rehabilitation of buildings with heritage value, being made reference in Chapter 2, to important principles of intervention in this type of buildings.Chapter 3 provides a general approach of the coverages that are serving as a complement to Chapter 4, which are discussed and analyzed the processes and construction methods involved, considering the constructive evolution of the coverage of the cruise, the convent of Christ to take. In the remaining chapters 5 and 6, is made the characterization and Constitution of the structure of a building of the second half of the 18th century, and the structural analysis made to the building in the old convent of the Blessed Sacrament, in Lisbon, respectively. Chapter 4 is supplemented by Annex A, being used as a reference to the schema of the smallscale structure found in the coverage of the cruise

Students’ motivation, concentration and learning skills using Augmented Reality

[EN] The use of new technology in the process of teaching learning, as is the case of devices with the use of Augmented Reality, captures student and teacher's attention, creating the expectation that its use can provide the participants with new ways of interacting, new possibilities for collaboration and potentially an increase in motivation in learning. This research promoted the use of Augmented Reality using four prototypes created by the teacher during the teaching-learning process and had as main objectives: to evaluate the impact on motivation and learning competencies; identify, explore and evaluate different strategies for the integration of Augmented Reality devices and resources and define a set of guidelines for the integration of augmented reality systems. With the results of the questionnaires completed online by the students, it was concluded that they had a great interest in the possibility of interacting with the programmatic contents, the use of the prototypes added a greater motivation to solve the tasks proposed by the teacher and during the use of the prototypes the students have shown high levels of concentration for their achievement.http://ocs.editorial.upv.es/index.php/HEAD/HEAD18Sampaio, D.; Almeida, P. (2018). Students’ motivation, concentration and learning skills using Augmented Reality. Editorial Universitat Politècnica de València. 1559-1566. https://doi.org/10.4995/HEAD18.2018.8249OCS1559156

How to solve it by knowledge mining

Frequently we become amazed with the increasing number of problems to be solved that fiourish while facing daily activities. Often, related to these problems we llave also an incredible amount oí data. Since we cannot allways afford time and resources to sol ve them, we keep on gathering and storing data in large databases, widening the gap between raw and interpreted data. At this point we should refiect about Polya's maxima "A great discovery solves a great problem" and realize that databases encompass the knowledge necessary for guiding the decision making process. The question that remains is how to organize and explore this knowledge. This paper presents sorne approaches to knowledge discovery in databases íound in the literature, analyzing issues in classifying and clustering large data sets.Eje: 2do. Workshop sobre aspectos teóricos de la inteligencia artificialRed de Universidades con Carreras en Informática (RedUNCI

Interactive project planning in construction based on virtual reality technology

This paper describes a didactic application that is part of a research project whose main aim is to develop a computer-aided system which will assist design and construction processes. It is based on the visual simulation of construction activities. Geometric modeling and virtual reality techniques are used in the visualization of the design process and to define user-friendly interfaces in order to access construction information, which could prove useful to Civil Engineering professionals. As a first step, was developed a prototype that serves as a didactic tool for Civil Engineering students of disciplines concerned with building construction. The construction of a double brick wall is the case studied. The wall is defined as a three dimensional model formed with the several components needed to edify it. Using the wall's virtual model it is possible to show, in an interactive way, the sequence of the construction process and observe from any point of view the configurations in detail of the building components. This is then a didactic tool application in construction processes domain of great interest to Civil Engineering students

Barómetro da Certificação 2014

info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio