Search results

The problems and drawbacks of the Physical Distribution System (PDS) of a production company are described. A simulation model which takes into consideration the activities of the PDS and some part of the production system of the company are presented. Using this simulation model, experiments have been performed to find the effect of certain critical variables like service level, lead times and production rate on the total cost. The limitations of this study and potential areas of future work are assessed.

There has been a dramatic increase in hypertension in developing countries along with changes in food consumption patterns contributing to higher levels of sodium. Evidence shows that a high level of sodium intake is a major cause of high blood pressure and other heart diseases along with other associated diseases. Therefore, it is important to determine current consumption levels of sodium in a population to facilitate the development and implementation of any specific salt reduction program.

The study was conducted among 60 subjects (25-45 years) residing in Jaipur City. Subjects’ sodium consumption levels were assessed via assessment of 24-h urinary sodium excretion levels, the “gold standard” method advocated by WHO/PAHO (2010) and 24-h dietary recall for three days including one holiday.

The findings of the study indicated that the subjects were found to be consuming higher levels of sodium (males, 5,792 mg/d; females, 5,911 mg/d) than recommended by WHO, i.e. less than 2,300 mg/d. Completeness of urine was confirmed by fat-free mass determined by electrical bio-impedance (47.6 ± 7.6 kg) and determined by using 24-h urinary excretion of creatinine (33.7 ± 10.1 kg). Two variables were found to be significantly correlated (r = 0.52, p = 0.00). Assuming that the sodium eliminated in the urine comes from the salt only, this excretion would correspond with a dietary salt intake of 14.71 and 15.01 g/d in males and females, respectively. Dietary sodium intake was reported to be 4,133 ± 1,111 mg/day and 3,953 ± 945 mg/d in males and females, respectively. A non-significant difference was found between the two variables. Urinary sodium excretion correlated non-significantly with systolic and diastolic blood pressure figures (r = 0.09 and r = −0.02, respectively).

The limitations of this study included the small sample size. Purposive sampling was adopted due to difficulty in obtaining urine sample and required willingness of the respondent. This may give fair robust estimate.

The present results will help provide new data about the baseline salt intake in young and middle-aged population of Jaipur City and will further help the concerned agencies to plan meaningful strategies to reduce salt intake, and it must involve public education and awareness to change the consumption pattern.

The initiation phase of capital projects is critical as this is where the highest number of options exist for modifying the project with minimal expenditure. Government and large organisations frequently involved in major capital projects have extensive procedures for this phase, yet organisations having an operational focus (like major container terminal stevedores), that only occasionally undertake capital projects face the dilemma of the trade-off between project planning and the management of operations. This research reported in this paper investigated the impact of industry operational considerations on the initiation of capital projects.

In addition to an extensive literature review, a living research investigation of real projects initiated by a stevedoring company operating in Australia has been observed; the primary author of this paper spent six months as a participant/observer and witnessed the initiation of 12 capital projects. The collected data was qualitatively analysed using a four-step coding method.

The findings confirm that project initiation is a challenge for organisations who only spasmodically undertake capital projects and available project management frameworks do not necessarily consider the impact of such an organisation's culture. Issues identified that may have a negative impact on the initiation phase include lack of workplace trust, high individualism, ineffective interdepartmental communication, lack of resources and engineering and safety complexity.

The study investigated an underexplored industry within the context of project initiation, using the Australian stevedoring as a case study. This initial investigation suggests that a tailored project management framework is needed for the initiation phase of projects to reflect the unique nature of the stevedoring industry and by inference other industries that have a strong operational focus.

As a kind of knowledge-intensive team coordinated across physical distance, it is necessary to construct a meta-knowledge driven transactive memory system (TMS) for the knowledge management of distributed agile team (DAT). This study aims to explore the comprehensive antecedents of TMS establishment in DATs and considers how TMS establishment is affected by herding behavior under the artificial intelligence (AI)-related knowledge work environment that emerges with technology penetration.

The data derived from 177 students of 52 DATs in a well-known Chinese business school, which were divided into 26 traditional knowledge work groups and 26 AI-related task groups to conduct a random comparative experiment. The ordinary least squares method was used to analyze the conceptual model and ANOVA was used to examine the differences in herding behavior between the control groups (traditional knowledge work DATs) and treatment groups (DATs engaged in AI-related knowledge work).

The results showed that knowledge diversity, professional knowledge, self-efficacy and social system use had significantly positive effects on the establishment of TMS. Interestingly, the authors also find that herding behavior may promote the process of establishing TMS of the new team, and this effect will be more significant when AI tasks are involved in team knowledge work.

By exploring the comprehensive antecedents of the establishment of TMS, this study provided a theoretical basis for knowledge management of DATs, especially in AI knowledge work teams. From a practical perspective, when the DAT is involved in AI-related knowledge works, managers should appropriately guide the convergence of employees’ behaviors and use the herding effects to accelerate the establishment of TMS, which will improve team knowledge sharing and innovation.

The purpose of this study is to present an empirical framework for changes, communication and team restructuring developed through a substantive theory that defines the relationships between Agile adoption and organizational strategies in the Brazilian marketplace, providing assertive propositions.

The research analysed five case studies of private companies in the Brazilian market, adopting the grounded theory (GT) method to examine the relationships between the categories. There was consistency in the reality of 22 participatory interviews with experts in Agile in the five case studies. The excellent integration between the chosen methodological approach and the organizations' characteristics reinforces a strategy focused on mixed methods.

As a result, the authors deploy an empirical framework, displaying new strategies that generate structural changes, obtaining Agile information technology (IT) project portfolio management (PPM) practices and strategies with superior performance. The necessary responses through organizational structural changes are observed, making it possible to notice changes in routines and contingencies.

Some limitations should be pointed out for this study. The case studies were carried out in private companies in Brazil, and cultural aspects must be considered if one wants to generalize. Furthermore, to underline the effects of time, a longitudinal study would have to be employed to improve the interpretation of the results. Another limitation applies to the framework proposed in our study and its reality-simplifying nature. Models and theories with these visible generic characteristics compromise understanding specific situations.

The authors strongly recommend that teams focus on communication among stakeholders to increase the ability to adopt Agile and create valuable knowledge inside the organizations, architecting process innovation.

The forged strategic Agile substantive theory contributes to the competitive Brazilian IT company departments. The need for velocity in organizing teams, accomplishing changes and efficient communication challenges connecting value creation with project results.

Agile principles have been widely used in software development team practice since the creation of the Agile Manifesto. Studies have examined variables related to agile principles without systematically considering the relationships among key team, agile methodology, and process variables underlying the agile principles and how these variables jointly influence the achievement of software development agility. In this study, the authors tested a team/methodology–process–agility model that links team variables (team autonomy and team competence) and methodological variable (iterative development) to process variables (communication and collaborative decision-making), which are in turn linked to software development agility (ability to sense, respond and learn).

Survey data from one hundred and sixty software development professionals were analyzed using structural equation modeling methods.

The results support the team/methodology–process–agility model. Process variables (communication and collaborative decision-making) mediated the effects of team (autonomy and competence) and methodological (iterative development) variables on software development agility. In addition, team, methodology and process variables had different effects on the three dimensions of software development agility.

The results contribute to the literature on organizational IT management by establishing a team/methodology–process–agility model that can serve as a basis for developing a core theoretical foundation underlying agile principles and practices. The results also have practical implications for organizations in understanding and managing holistically the different roles that agile methodological, team and process factors play in achieving software development agility.

This study aims to create a better understanding of how practitioners implement and work Agile while balancing the tensions arising between stability and change.

A grounded theory approach was used to explore what happens in practice when software development teams implement and work Agile. The empirical data consists of twenty semi-structured interviews with practitioners working in fourteen different organizations and in six different Agile roles.

As a result, a substantive theory was presented of continuously balancing between stability and change in Agile teams. In addition, the study also proposes three guidelines that can help organizations about to change their way of working to Agile.

The inherent limitation of a grounded theory study is that a substantial theory can only explain the specific contexts explored in that study. Thus, this study's contribution is a substantial theory that needs to be further developed and improved.

The proposed guidelines can help organizations about to change their way of working to Agile. They can also assist organizations in switching from “doing Agile” to “being Agile”, thus becoming more successful.

The new perspective that this study contributes is the fact that our discovered categories show that several inherent processes are ongoing at the same time in order to balance the need to have both stability and change.