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Statistical process control (SPC) is widely applied for control and improve processes in manufacturing, but very few studies have reported on the successful application of SPC in the food industry, in particular. The purpose of this paper is to critically assess the status of SPC in the UK food manufacturing industry and to suggest future research avenues.

A research project was carried out in the UK food manufacturing sector through questionnaires. The results of the study were analysed using descriptive statistics and statistical tests to be applied in the hypothesis testing.

Findings revealed that 45 per cent of the respondents are SPC users and x ¯ -R and x ¯ -S charts are the most commonly applied SPC charts in this industry. It was determined that top management commitment is the most critical factor, while lack of SPC training is the most alarming challenge, and lack of awareness of SPC and its benefits are the main reasons for the food companies not implementing SPC.

The study considered only the food manufacturing companies. Future research could be addressed toward the food service and food supply chain.

The paper provides information to food companies in the UK on most common practiced and important quality tools, SPC charts and critical success factors in the food industry. Moreover, the most challenging factors of SPC implementation in the food industry are presented.

This study depicted the current state of SPC practices in the food industry and the process performance in SPC and non-SPC companies is compared.

Fully automatic operation (FAO) metro system is the trend of urban rail in modern cities. This study aims to develop a service quality scale for measuring passenger service perception in the context of FAO metro system.

Based on the interviews and the dimensions proposed in the previous service quality scales of the public transport sector, this study develops a multidimension service quality scale. Face-to-face interviews and surveys are conducted to obtain the riding experience and satisfaction of passengers in the metro stations of Beijing Subway Yanfang Line and Beijing Daxing International Airport Express that are FAO metro lines. Reliability, validity and nomological validity of our scale are demonstrated.

Six dimensions (i.e. tangibles, information, safety, efficiency, empathy and innovation) and 22 items are included in the scale through quantitative analysis. It is found that all of the six dimensions have a significant relationship with passenger satisfaction. Especially information and innovation are the more important dimensions of FAO metro system service quality.

This study contributes to the service quality literature in the public transport sector taking the FAO metro system as the object. The findings may provide a guide for the FAO metro operators to evaluate and improve their service quality.

The purpose of this paper is to construct a frequency-domain framework to study the asymmetric spillover effects of international economic policy uncertainty on China’s stock market industry indexes.

This paper follows the time domain spillover model, asymmetric spillover model and frequency domain spillover model, which not only studies the degree of spillover in time domain but also studies the persistence of spillover effect in frequency domain.

It is found that China’s economic policy uncertainty plays a dominant role in the spillover effect on the stock market, while the global and US economic policy uncertainty is relatively weak. By decomposing realized volatility into quantified asymmetric risks of “good” volatility and “bad” volatility, it is concluded that economic policy uncertainty has a greater impact on stock downside risk than upside risk. For different time periods, the sensitivity of long-term and short-term spillover economic policy impact is different. Among them, asymmetric high-frequency spillover in the stock market is more easily observed, which provides certain reference significance for the stability of the financial market.

The originality aims at extending the traditional research paradigm of “time domain” to the research perspective of “frequency domain.” This study uses the more advanced models to analyze various factors from the static and dynamic levels, with a view to obtain reliable and robust research conclusions.

The purpose of this paper, builds on previous studies that explored the research patterns over 15 years, is to consider the current status of the integration of Lean and Six Sigma. More specifically, this research addresses whether Lean and Six Sigma are stronger together and explores the reasons why Lean researchers and practitioners may be less likely to integrate Six Sigma in their work.

The research utilises a survey of 25 established and respected academics and practitioners from 16 countries. The questionnaire is analysed using a direct content approach and coded in NVivo.

The findings suggest that challenges may lie in the perception and understanding of statistics as well as short-term rather than long-term focus on improvement. The findings also suggest that academics and practitioners believe that Lean Six Sigma has developed over time and will continue to develop and improve as a methodology rather than being replaced with a new methodology.

The survey has a sample size of 25, albeit all respondents are established and very experienced practitioners and academics.

For organisations that are introducing or refreshing their continuous improvement initiatives, this research identifies some of the challenges and provides the opportunity to address them to maximise the opportunities for success and sustainability.

The value of this paper is that it further addresses the debate over the integration of Lean and Six Sigma for many organisations which still employ Lean alone, but beyond this it explores how they will continue to develop and whether they are a permanent edition to the quality management landscape or a transition to something else.

The high specific strength makes magnesium alloys have a wide range of applications in aerospace, military, automotive, marine and construction industries. However, its poor corrosion resistance and weldability have limited its development and application. Friction stir welding (FSW) can effectively avoid the defects of fusion welding. However, the microstructure, mechanical properties and corrosion behavior of FSW joints in magnesium alloys vary among different regions. The purpose of this paper is to review the corrosion of magnesium alloy FSW joints, and to summarize the protection technology of welded joints.

The corrosion of magnesium alloy FSW joints includes electrochemical corrosion and stress corrosion. This paper summarizes corrosion protection techniques for magnesium alloys FSW joints, focusing on composition, microstructure changes and surface treatment methods.

Currently, this research is mainly focused on enhancing the corrosion resistance of magnesium alloy FSW joints by changing compositions, structural modifications and surface coating technologies. Refinement of the grains can be achieved by adjusting welding process parameters, which in turn minimizes the effects of the second phase on the alloy’s corrosion resistance.

This paper presents a comprehensive review on the corrosion and protection of magnesium alloys FSW joints, covering the latest research advancements and practical applications. It aims to equip researchers with a better insight into the field and inspire new studies on this topic.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate and explain thermal oxide effect on electrochemical corrosion resistance anodized stainless steel (SS).

Electrochemical corrosion resistance of thermal oxides produced on anodized 304 SS in air at 350°C, 550°C, 750°C and 950°C in 3.5 wt.% NaCl solution have been investigated by dynamic potential polarization, EIS and double-loop dynamic polarization. Anodized 304 SS were obtained by anodization at the constant density of 1.4 mA.cm^-2 in the solution containing 28.0 g.L^-1H₃PO₄, 20.0 g.L-1C₆H₈O₇, 200.0 g.L^-1H₂O₂ at 70°C for 50 min. SEM and EDS had been also used to characterize the thermal oxides and passive oxide.

Interestingly, anodized 304SS with thermal oxide produced at 350°C displayed more electrochemical corrosion and pitting resistance than anodized 304 SS only with passive oxide, as related to the formation of oxide film with higher chromium to iron ratio. Whereas, anodized 304SS with thermal oxide formed at 950°C shows the worse electrochemical corrosion and pitting resistance among those formed at the high temperatures due to thermal oxide with least compact.

When thermally oxidized in the range of 350°C–950°C, electrochemical corrosion and pitting corrosion resistance of anodized 304 SS decrease with the increase of temperature due to less compactness, more defects of thermal oxide.

To face profound changes from decreasing funding, growing patient expectations and increasing competition in the health-care market, public hospitals began to implement effective quality management (QM) practices following manufacturing and other service industries. However, there was little knowledge relevant to the impact of QM practices on the performance of public hospitals. The study aims to shed some further light on this issue.

The paper extends the previous empirical research to the health-care sectors and suggests the research framework of QM practice-performance relationships in public hospitals. For validation purposes, a cross-sectional survey involving 204 quality managers and directors of large public hospitals was carried out between April and October 2013 in Zhejiang Province, China. Structural equation modeling was used to test the hypothesized relationship between QM practices and hospital performance.

Empirical results support that the implementation of QM practices can bring many benefits to sample hospitals. The dimensions of employee relations and process management are directly related to the health-care and non-health-care performance of public hospitals.

It explores the relationship between QM practices and hospital performance based on empirical results from Chinese public hospitals, whereas few studies have been conducted within the context of public health-care sectors in developing countries. The empirical results could enhance hospital managers’ understanding of the nature of QM practice-performance relationship and help mangers re-allocate more resources to those elements of the QM systems that have the most significant impact on hospital performance.

What distinguishes digital transformation from other traditional IT transformations is its involvement of the entire organization, rather than merely the IT department. Thus, instead of taking a perspective that is confined to the IT department, this paper studies the ambidextrous nature of digital transformation (DT) from the standpoint of the whole firm. The authors define DT ambidexterity as the capability to utilize digital technology to simultaneously improve the efficiency of existing businesses (DT exploitation) and to promote business growth (DT exploration).

Using annual reports of Chinese firms as a mining material, this paper deploys text mining and word frequency analysis to develop a data set of digital transformation to construct DT exploitation, DT exploration and DT ambidexterity, so that the authors can examine and compare their impact on business performance.

This study's statistics show that observations in this research sample mainly manifest DT ambidexterity and DT exploitation, while DT exploration makes up the smallest proportion. The authors find that DT exploitation, DT exploration, and DT ambidexterity have positive, yet heterogeneous effects on business performance.

This study expands the existing literature of IT-related ambidexterity by examining the ambidextrous nature of DT from the angle of company-wide strategy instead of the perspective from IT-department and expands the extant literature of digital transformation by examining the heterogeneous effects of its different components on business performance. The authors also add to the digital strategizing literature by showing that different business strategy goals can be attained through different stages of DT.

This study expands the existing literature of IT-related ambidexterity by examining the ambidexterity nature of DT from the angle of company-wide strategy instead of the perspective from IT department and expands the extant literature of digital transformation by examining the heterogeneous effects of its different components on business performance. The authors also add to the digital strategizing literature by showing that different business strategy goals can be attained through different stages of DT.

Product liability refers to the liability of producers, distributors and suppliers for consumers’ property losses or personal injury caused by that product. This paper conducted a survey related to product liability issues in Shenzhen City, and did an in‐depth analysis of current problems. Finally, the paper puts forward corresponding suggestions for improvement of Shenzhen City product liability status.

Continuous quality improvement is now the focus of research and application in quality engineering. To achieve continuous improvement, it’s necessary to integrate quality tools and to plan, design and control the whole process of creating quality. Based on the extensive literature review and the philosophy of concurrent quality engineering, the paper analyzes the relationships among major quality tools such as QFD, FMEA, DOE and SPC and presents a basic model and structure for the integration of quality tools.