Globalization and client demands result in the need for investments for the survival of the companies. Forest harvest represents the highest costs and losses of wood production. Quality function ...deployment (QFD) is recommended to achieve quality by detecting customer needs. Thus, this study aimed to determine the variables that influence quality costs in the mechanized harvest to reach the quality control of forest activity. The research was developed in a company located in the State of Santa Catarina, Brazil. The variables that influence quality costs in four categories (evaluation, prevention, internal and external flaws) were identified. The QFD method was used to translate the needs of internal and external customers (critical success factors) of mechanized harvesting activities into measurable technical characteristics (variables that influence quality costs), determining the weight for each relationship and, consequently, the balance of the categories, besides the correlations of the variables evaluated as strong, medium, weak, and non-existent. Among the 29 variables identified, 18 consisted of evaluation and prevention, representing the relative weights of 37.17% and 26.49%, respectively, and 11 represented internal and external flaws, with values of 26.57% and 9.73%, respectively. The correlation matrix found 334 correlation of the 406 cells: 195 (58%) strong, 86 (26%) medium, and 53 (16%) weak. In conclusion, the company must improve process quality by investing in evaluation and prevention aimed at reducing non-conformities and expansion of revenues.
Purpose
The focus of this research is to investigate if user-generated content (UGC) generated in the Booking platform can support quality management improvement within the hospitality industry by ...increasing customer satisfaction and eliminating defects more efficiently. Hence, it contributes to understanding how data-driven companies can rely on customer data to focus on innovation and performance improvement to meet customer requirements, eliminate defects and increase customer satisfaction.
Design/methodology/approach
Following the literature review, information was collected from the digital platform Booking, encompassing 15 hotel industry companies in Portugal Porto and Braga regions, selected due to their high number of customer reviews. This data was organized and categorized, eliminating all unnecessary information for the research and building an Excel database. The database was subsequently analysed with SPSS and Voyant software, performing statistical analysis, hypothesis testing and text-mining techniques to analyse the comments. After these analyses, applying quality tools allowed for more in-depth conclusions.
Findings
The research results highlight that customers' most relevant requirements in the Portuguese hospitality industry are breakfast, parking and a swimming pool. It was also possible to realize that the location is an attractive requirement, the bathroom is a must-be requirement and breakfast is a performance requirement. The results also allowed us to answer the most critical research question: “Is user-generated content a valuable aid to quality?” the answer is yes since it was possible to use the data to find improvements and faults/failures in the services.
Originality/value
The results of this study represent an essential step towards a complete understanding of how to take advantage of UGC within the hospitality industry by establishing a solid base of techniques, methods and quality tools for UGC analysis that can be applied in future research on different industry sectors.
There are many possible quality tools available for RCA and this research seeks to identify which quality tools are used by quality professionals specifically when performing an RCA. An anonymous ...survey was emailed to an organization’s quality leaders at locations around the world. The survey asked the respondents to list the quality tools that they use when performing an RCA as well as the quality tools that they think everybody should know for RCA. The results were then statistically analyzed. The Ishikawa diagram is both the most commonly used quality tool and the most recommended quality tool for RCA. Five whys and is/is-not were also commonly used quality tools. This research identifies which quality tools are actually used by quality professionals in industry when performing an RCA. This information can be useful for organizations when selecting a limited tool set for RCA.
The education sector is continuously seeking new approaches to improve the existing educational process while reducing instances of failure. Recently, the use of Six Sigma quality tools as a ...continuous improvement tool has proven to be a promising solution. To investigate the effectiveness of this method, a systematic literature review was conducted to summarize relevant empirical data on Six Sigma quality tools in education. This systematic review follows the PRISMA criteria (preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analysis) and utilizes three major databases: Web of Science (WoS), Scopus, and Dimensions. Eleven articles met the given criteria, and the empirical results revealed that Six Sigma quality tools – including Suppliers, Inputs, Process, Outputs and Customers (SIPOC), Pareto analysis, Fish Bone technique, Failure Mode and Effect Analysis (FMEA), and Statistical Process Control (SPC) – could be used in institutions to meet practitioners’ requirements and achieve the desired quality standards. This study will provide a more comprehensive understanding of the benefits of Six Sigma quality tools in education as well as the ways in which they can be used to improve educational quality for students. Six Sigma quality tools are an innovative and promising approach to improving education. As indicated by the findings, further research is recommended to assess the use of the Six Sigma quality tools in evaluating educational interventions in various educational settings, especially at the school level, in order to verify significant improvements in educational quality and, ultimately, better student outcomes.
The article presents the results of the analysis of cardboard packaging complaints based on selected quality tools and statistical tools for the purpose of a rough assessment of the effectiveness of ...corrective and preventive actions taken by the surveyed company and for predictive purposes. The analysis was performed in terms of two research periods - 1 year and quarters, and from the point of view of total complaints and external - customer complaints. Data on the number of products complained of as well as financial losses incurred by the company on this account were analysed. The article presents the potential of both classic quality tools and statistical tools for the purposes of in-depth analysis of complaints data and for predictive purposes and subsequent risk analysis. The critical complaint was indicated - complaint code 403 - overprint. The number of complained products to be expected in the next quarter of the new year was determined. The article shows that the corrective and preventive actions taken by the company have not yet brought the expected result in the form of reducing the number of products complained by customers during the quarters surveyed.
A produção orgânica de hortifrútis vem conquistando espaço no contexto mundial. Neste trabalho aplicaram-se as ferramentas da qualidade na produção das hortifrútis orgânicas na comunidade do ...Gramorezinho, localizada na zona Norte do município de Natal (RN), tendo em vista a relevância para minimização da degradação ambiental. As coletas de dados ocorreram por meio de entrevistas, visitas e observação direta e foram realizadas nos meses de janeiro a abril de 2018, com a participação dos associados do Centro Comunitário. Utilizou-se como instrumento um formulário semiestruturado abordando os dados pessoais e socioeconômicos e perguntas relacionadas a hortifrútis desde a estrutura organizacional à forma de produção e comercialização, finalizando com dados socioeconômicos. Foram aplicadas duas ferramentas da qualidade: o Diagrama de Ishikawa (espinha de peixe) para identificar as não conformidades e, posteriormente, o Ciclo PDCA (do inglês Plan, Do, Check e Action), conhecido como Ciclo de Deming que se constitui como uma estratégia para melhoria contínua da qualidade em quatro passos. Diante disso, essa pesquisa tem como objetivo geral analisar o processo de produção das hortifrútis orgânicas cultivadas na Associação dos Amigos Produtores de Hortaliças e Moradores do Sítio Gramoré. De acordo com os resultados obtidos, constatou-se que os agricultores têm uma grande perda da produtividade do manejo das hortifrútis, e que a solução corretiva para o aumento significativo na produção com melhor qualidade do produto é a utilização correta do processo do PDCA, pois o ciclo é uma abordagem eficaz para a resolução de problemas.
High-quality data is key to interpretable and trustworthy data analytics and the basis for meaningful data-driven decisions. In practical scenarios, data quality is typically associated with data ...preprocessing, profiling, and cleansing for subsequent tasks like data integration or data analytics. However, from a scientific perspective, a lot of research has been published about the measurement (i.e., the detection) of data quality issues and different generally applicable data quality dimensions and metrics have been discussed. In this work, we close the gap between data quality research and practical implementations with a detailed investigation on
. For the first time and in contrast to all existing data quality tool surveys, we conducted a systematic search, in which we identified 667 software tools dedicated to "data quality." To evaluate the tools, we compiled a requirements catalog with three functionality areas: (1) data profiling, (2) data quality measurement in terms of metrics, and (3) automated data quality monitoring. Using a set of predefined exclusion criteria, we selected 13 tools (8 commercial and 5 open-source tools) that provide the investigated features and are not limited to a specific domain for detailed investigation. On the one hand, this survey allows a critical discussion of concepts that are widely accepted in research, but hardly implemented in any tool observed, for example, generally applicable data quality metrics. On the other hand, it reveals potential for functional enhancement of data quality tools and supports practitioners in the selection of appropriate tools for a given use case.
Every company tries to minimize the cost of production to get the product with the price of flocking. A Chemical Company in Cilegon has a production cost reduction program. However, in the process of ...creation, still found some factors that cause high production costs, especially the cost of electricity in pumping equipment. This study aims to determine the causes of high electricity consumption in the drainage pump unit, provide suggestions for improvement and evaluate the results of revision. This research uses some new quality tools consisting of affinity diagrams, interrelationship diagrams, matrix diagrams, tree diagrams, and Process Decision Program Chart (PDPC). Based on the results of the research, the factors causing high electricity consumption in the drainage pump unit are DCS-Man forgot to stop at the G-1875 pump, the C-1851 sealing output goes to the slimy pit, and the G-1871 sealing output goes into the dirty hole. The remedial step is to move the C-1851 sealing output from the muddy ditch to the clean trench, moving the G-1871 sealing output from the filthy ditch to the clean ditch, fixing the leak in the sample product box, and the G-1875 pump made auto start-stop. These drainage improvements resulted in drainage units operating two times per week from the previous 18 times per week or decreased by 89% and can save as much as Rp 1,677,205 per year.
The purpose of this article is to investigate the impact of total quality management (TQM) practices adopted by small and medium enterprises (SMEs) on their financial performance in a period where ...economic and social crisis conditions are recognised. A questionnaire was distributed to 400 recipients and a total of 392 questionnaires have been fully and accurately completed resulting in a response rate equal to 98%. Those primary data collected were statistically processed conducting a scoring analysis and a multivariate (MANOVA) analysis. The scoring analysis showed the level of quality elements implemented and the MANOVA analysis presented the effect they had on the financial performance of the quality-oriented SMEs. The analysis revealed that all quality-oriented SMEs presented an improved performance in the two financial measures such as solvency and efficiency compared to the profitability and liquidity measures. The TQM SMEs (the quality-oriented SMEs that have continued their quality journey reaching the TQM level) were the ones that have shown further improvement in their financial performance and of those, the micro-SMEs were the most financially sustainable companies. In addition, the quality-oriented SMEs have continued their quality journey towards TQM, presenting an increased rate of transition to higher quality levels, using their Altman Z-score as the criterion.
The purpose of this study is to determine which of the classic seven quality tools are used by quality professionals during a Root Cause Analysis (RCA). The literature was assessed to determine which ...quality tools are considered to be part of the seven classic quality tools. The identified tools were then used in a survey of quality professionals in a manufacturing organization, who were asked to select the classic seven quality tools they use during an RCA. An email distribution list was used to send the survey to quality professionals at various locations around the world. The results were then analyzed statistically. The cause and effect diagram was the most commonly used quality tool during an RCA. This was distantly followed by the Pareto chart and then the control chart, followed by the Pareto chart, flow chart, histogram, scatter plot, and run chart. The classic seven quality tools have long been discussed in the literature; however, much of the literature consist of descriptions of their use and not an assessment of which tools are frequently used by quality professionals specifically for RCA. This study identified the seven main classic quality tools used by quality professionals during an RCA.
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