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Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are fundamental to the socioeconomic development of a country or region. They directly contribute to increasing employment generation and improving income distribution. Despite the importance of SMEs, there are still opportunities for developing works that support and guide SMEs to use digital technologies, especially to digitalize their customer service. Therefore, this work aims to propose drivers containing recommendations for developing and improving the digitalization of customer service in SMEs.

This work uses a qualitative approach to systematize the main SMEs' characteristics and identify the boosting elements of the digitalization of customer service in the scientific literature. To this end, the authors conducted a content analysis of the most influential empirical and theoretical articles on the theme published from 2016 to 2021 in the Scopus database.

This work identified 38 boosting elements of the digitalization of customer service based on the scientific literature. These elements were grouped into six drivers for developing and improving the digitalization of customer service. The drivers contain recommendations that were adapted for SMEs according to their characteristics and based on the experience of the authors of this work.

This work contributes to promoting socioeconomic development, providing important solutions for managers and owners of SMEs to improve their customer service. The proposed drivers support and encourage the use of digital technologies for developing and improving customer service, overcoming the challenges of digitalization in these companies. Thus, SMEs will be able to increase the satisfaction of their customers and improve their competitiveness.

This work aims to propose guidelines for small industrial businesses to take their first steps toward implementing systems, programs and tools (SPTs) for environmental management in a structured way.

The authors conducted case studies in large companies certificated ISO 14001. They ran tests for construct validity, external validity and reliability. Cross-analysis of the information collected led to identifying patterns and strategies adopted by these companies to implement environmental management. Based on the literature on environmental management in small businesses and the author's experience, the practices learned from large companies were adapted to the reality of small ones, thus resulting in the proposed guidelines.

These guidelines enable small companies to develop their environmental management following the logical evolution of SPTs: ISO 14001, green supply chain management (GSCM), cleaner production (CP) and green design (GD). The implementation should happen gradually, through the PDCA cycle, according to three specific levels of environmental evolution.

Since the guidelines focused on small industrial companies, future studies should consider other sectors, such as services, to benefit from the solutions presented. As for the implications, besides improving the small company's performance and enhancing its image, implementing the guidelines creates a green synergy along the supply chain, thus benefiting society beyond the company's borders.

The main theoretical-scientific contribution of this work is to deepen a block of knowledge that articulates environmental management and small businesses, creating a basis for further research and a reference for analyzing and discussing empirical studies in small companies. As an applied-management contribution, the guidelines allow small companies to effectively develop SPTs to move toward environmental sustainability.

This study used a qualitative approach on five case studies in Brazilian industrial companies. The research used interviews, document analysis and on-site visits to collect and analyze data. The companies were selected based on the following criteria: operating in the industrial sector, updating their quality management system (QMS) process to ISO 9001: 2015 and agreeing to participate in this study.

This article aims to investigate the strategies of industrial companies adopted for ISO-9001:2015 certification in light of the six major advances concerning the previous version. Thus, QMS of other organizations can incorporate identified lessons learned, whether certified or not.

The main finding of the research is the systematization of a set of lessons learned in the experiences of implementing the six significant advances of ISO 9001 concerning the previous version by industrial companies in the State of São Paulo in Brazil. These lessons can and should be used by other organizations to improve their QMSs.

The practices identified in this empirical research can serve as benchmarking to assist quality managers from other companies in QMS certification based on ISO 9001: 2015 or even those not certified but interested in updating their QMSs. Therefore, lessons learned can significantly minimize efforts to improve your projects, processes, products and services. These findings can also help industrial companies improve their production efficiency and effectiveness through quality improvement.

The main novelty of the research is the consolidation of theoretical and practical analysis of the main changes in the latest version of the ISO 9001 standards. The efforts to fulfill those changes result in lessons learned. The “lessons learned” will form a new block of knowledge that will subsidize theoretical (new research) and practical (formulation of a new ISO 9001 standard and helps quality managers improve their systems).

The purpose of this paper is to present relationship between operation and management practices analyzing the results achieved by both public organizations prone to deploy Lean Six Sigma (LSS) and public organizations that have already implemented the method. The goal is to support the start of method deployment by public managers and the creation of more efficient and effective processes in public organizations.

An analysis of synergies between findings in the multiple case study carried out in Brazilian public organizations from health and education sectors and successful implementations found in the LSS literature is made.

The fact that this research comprised organizations from different segments allowed good practices and difficulties to be identified in a unique way, adding more value to the research carried out and increasing the potential of support to the public manager. In addition, it was possible to map the most mentioned benefits of LSS deployment in both health and education sectors and link them to systematized LSS practices.

The presenting research should initiate a scientific discussion on public sector areas more prone to LSS and guide researchers in the development of case studies aimed at the application of this method in public organizations in general.

This paper can assist public managers to become aware of the potential of the organization they manage in the adoption of LSS principles and practices enabling a better quality of services provided to citizens.

The finding that public health organizations are more likely to implement LSS principles and practices when compared to public organizations from other segments can guide more in-depth studies that justify why some organizations would be better able to implement the LSS method and others would face more difficulties in a hypothetical deployment.

In 2016, the ISO/TS 16949 quality management standard for the automotive industry evolved to IATF 16949. The update brought new requirements that need to be analyzed before being implemented in organizations. Therefore, the purpose of this article is to propose guidelines to assist organizations in the automotive sector in the implementation of the elements added in the update to the IATF 16949 standard.

To fulfill this objective, the identification and analysis of the elements added in the evolution from ISO/TS 16949 to IATF 16949 was carried out, and four case studies were conducted in Brazilian automotive companies.

The main elements added to IATF 16949 with the update of the standard are the use of process failure mode effects analysis (PFMEA) for risk analysis; the development of a communication channel for employees to report cases of misconduct and non-conformities; procedures for controlling repaired/reworked products and temporary changes; and the inclusion of autonomous maintenance for the full implementation of total productive maintenance (TPM).

The main practical implication/contribution of the research is the proposed guidelines, which can support managers and automotive companies that want to implement, or will go through, the IATF certification process. The article's originality lies in the combination of a theoretical framework and case study analyses to develop the guidelines.

Lean Six Sigma (LSS) is a continuous improvement methodology used to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of processes. Although there are several articles published, only two have analyzed the literature from a bibliometrics perspective. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the LSS literature by bibliometrics, identifying its state of the art, scientific gaps and research trends.

Articles published up to 2016 in the database Scopus were investigated to identify the most significant articles, authors, journals, institutions and countries based on citation counting as well as the most frequent keywords and subject areas on LSS. Articles published in 2014, 2015 and 2016 were analyzed to point out scientific gaps and to identify eight main research trends on LSS.

The research trends are: “LSS implementation”, “Healthcare”, “LSS tools”, “Human factors”, “Expansion of results”, “SME”, “LSS combined with other methodologies” and “Education”. The research outcomes also point out the most significant articles, authors, journals, institutions and countries in LSS literature.

This research contributes to develop the state of the art of LSS and helps professionals as well as researchers to identify which issues new studies should address.

The performance of the literature is measured based on the number of citations and not on the number of published papers, and the bibliometric analysis covers the highest number of articles so far (319 articles). Besides, the identification of the main research trends on LSS is exclusively based on the most recent studies.

Considering the characteristics and barriers faced by small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and the need to be competitive in the current scenario of high demand for sustainability, this paper aims to propose drivers for developing corporate sustainability in SMEs based on the most influential theoretical and empirical studies and the authors' experience.

The scientific method used in this study was content analysis of recent literature (2015–2021), specifically the 30 most cited articles on sustainability in SMEs from the Scopus database. This methodological approach has already been tested and validity by other scientific studies. From this content analysis, elements for the development of sustainability in SMEs were identified. Subsequently, in light of the authors' experience, these elements were grouped by affinity, giving rise to the drivers that aim to guide owners and managers of SMEs in the transition to sustainability.

The major finding of this paper is the proposition of drivers for the development of sustainability in SMEs. They were proposed considering the reality of these companies to be adequate to their resources and structure and to be simple to apply. Thus, these drivers guide the owners and managers of SMEs in actions that make them more prosperous, fair and green and, consequently, more competitive.

This work contributes theoretically to deepening the recent body of knowledge on sustainability in SMEs and fills the gap that indicates the need for accessible and flexible management solutions oriented to the development of sustainability in SMEs.

The purpose of this paper is to develop an integrated management system that addresses the shortcoming revealed in the previous approaches of the IMS in literature.

This paper is based on the methodology of literature review analysis, proposition of an approach based on theory by the standards’ cross-references and on practice by the analysis of the real work and the use of the System Modeling Language (SYSML), the computer tool for the engineering system modeling.

An integration approach based on theory and practice in the automotive sector, integrating IATF 16949:2016, ISO 14001:2015, ISO 45001:DIS and some aspects of ISO 26000 is proposed. The proposed approach initiates the use of the SYSML in the IMS development. The model is intended to societies that seek to be sustainable and responsible toward environment and community. The link of the IMS model created with the European Foundation for Quality Management excellence model highlights the fact that the factors of excellence, especially the enablers, are covered by the requirements of the IMS.

This paper is the first approach of IMS that includes ISO 45001 (draft), uses the SYSML and sheds light on the link of excellence and IMS. The paper is the first detailed approach of IMS that addressed car manufacturer.