Describes a cross‐functional project team set up to address the standardization of fasteners used in the assembly of construction machinery. Identifies low priority given to fastener selection in the design department and a lack of effective inventory control as the causes of the excessive...

Utilizes approaches from systems analysis, quality management and previous empirical results to formulate the framework for the study. Took selected engineering consulting firms in Taiwan as research subjects for the empirical portion of the studies. The scope is restricted to the design phase...

Continuous improvement is a cyclic process of product and process optimization over a product life cycle. Optimization is beyond quality and reliability management – meaning, an organization is keeping in constant touch with new technological advances and frequently employs the applicable...

Expert systems (ES) are designed to support and replicate management tasks and decision making characterized by experience and expertise. These commodities are becoming increasingly limited as organizations flatten their management structure. Effective identification and evaluation of domains...

Shows that the new ISO 9000‐4 has covered the dependability aspects of IEC 300‐1. Dependability is defined as a collective term used to describe availability performance and its influencing factors, such as reliability performance, maintainability performance and maintenance support...

Looks at how the construction industry’s demand for better management of quality in construction projects is becoming increasingly important for every project participant. Says that one important aspect of a quality improvement programme is the cost of quality which is relatively new to...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to understand and measure the impact of goal clarity, goal difficulty, and management support on five social and technical outcomes for quality circles (QCs) in a Chinese company. Design/methodology/approach – Survey scales were developed based on...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to employ an integrated approach of interpretive ranking process (IRP) and system dynamics (SD) for modelling the key risk factors for a typical construction project. Design/methodology/approach The risk parameters and performance measures applicable in the...

Although specific opportunities for improvement in organizations are easily identified through a variety of assessment techniques, the successful development and execution of action plans to address these opportunities is where most organizations falter. This article provides a simplified, yet...

New product development (NPD) project studies have attempted to identify a common set of factors that will indicate whether a NPD project will succeed or fail. A recent study has shown that there is no universal set of factors; also some factors have contradictory effects on a project’s...