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Browsing ISEL - Eng. Mecan. - Artigos by Author "Abreu, António"
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- Application of lean methodologies in the reduction of setup times in the pharmaceutical industryPublication . Curado, André Gil; Abreu, AntónioIntrodução: A competitividade internacional acentuada motivada pela globalização com o objetivo de alcançar um público que cada vez se nota mais exigente, faz da diminuição de custo e aumento da qualidade uma necessidade primária transversal a qualquer setor. A indústria de medicamentos genéricos onde o preço é a arma principal no alcance do consumidor não é exceção e cria uma forte necessidade na aplicação das metodologias Lean com o intuito de otimizar a produção. Objetivos: Reduzir os tempos de setup mediante a aplicação de metodologias Lean estruturado por um modelo proposto. Métodos: No decorrer deste estudo foi revista a bibliografia referente à origem e várias metodologias Lean, sendo proposto um modelo de aplicação. A implementação teve por base um estudo detalhado das mudanças resultando num conjunto de propostas de solução dedicados aos principais problemas aplicando diversas ferramentas Lean. Resultados: Redução dos tempos de mudança na ordem dos 20% e número de espera na ordem dos 24,5% no espaço de 3 meses. Conclusões: A aplicação das metodologias Lean revelou uma grande utilidade na identificação das causas e na criação de soluções. A implementação de este modelo, ainda que numa fase inicial, permitiu não só redução dos tempos de mudanças, mas como outras melhorias como a diminuição do número de esperas. Contudo, esta aplicação, por estar inserido numa indústria farmacêutica contempla alguns procedimentos que não podem ser alterados limitando os tempos de mudanças. Introduction: The strong international competitiveness motivated by globalization with the purpose of reaching an increasingly demanding public, makes cost reduction and quality increase a primary need across all sectors. The generic drug industry where price is the primary weapon in consumer reach is no exception and creates a strong need in the application of Lean methodologies to optimize the production. Objectives: Reduce of changeover times by the application of lean methodologies structured by a proposed model. Methods: This study started with a review of the bibliography of the Lean’s origin and the several methodologies ending with the application of a proposed application model. The implementation was based on a detailed study of the setups resulting in a set of solution proposals dedicated to the main problems applying several lean tools. Results: Reduction of change times by 20% and waiting times by 24.5% within 3 months. Conclusions: The application of Lean methodologies revealed a great utility in the identification of causes and in the creation of solutions. The implementation of this model, although in an initial phase, allowed not only reduction of the times of changes, but also other improvements such as the reduction of the number of waits. However, this application, due to being inserted in the pharmaceutical industry, is limited by some procedures that cannot be changed.
- Applying social network analysis to identify project critical success factorsPublication . Nunes, Marco; Abreu, AntónioA key challenge in project management is to understand to which extent the dynamic interactions between the different project people—through formal and informal networks of collaboration that temporarily emerge across a project´s lifecycle—throughout all the phases of a project lifecycle, influence a project’s outcome. This challenge has been a growing concern to organizations that deliver projects, due their huge impact in economic, environmental, and social sustainability. Inthiswork,aheuristictwo-partmodel,supportedwiththreescientificfields—project management, risk management, and social network analysis—is proposed, to uncover and measure the extent to which the dynamic interactions of project people—as they work through networks of collaboration—across all the phases of a project lifecycle, influence a project‘s outcome, by first identifying critical success factos regarding five general project collaboration types ((1) communication and insight, (2) internal and cross collaboration, (3) know-how and power sharing, (4) clustering, and (5) team work efficiency) by analyzing delivered projects, and second, using those identified critical success factos to provide guidance in upcoming projects regarding the five project collaboration types.
- Applying social network analysis to identify project critical success factorsPublication . Nunes, Marco; Abreu, AntónioA key challenge in project management is to understand to which extent the dynamic interactions between the different project people—through formal and informal networks of collaboration that temporarily emerge across a project´s lifecycle—throughout all the phases of a project lifecycle, influence a project’s outcome. This challenge has been a growing concern to organizations that deliver projects, due their huge impact in economic, environmental, and social sustainability. In this work, a heuristic two-part model, supported with three scientific fields—project management, risk management, and social network analysis—is proposed, to uncover and measure the extent to which the dynamic interactions of project people—as they work through networks of collaboration—across all the phases of a project lifecycle, influence a project‘s outcome, by first identifying critical success factos regarding five general project collaboration types((1) communication and insight, (2) internal and cross collaboration, (3) know-how and power sharing, (4) clustering, and (5) team work efficiency) by analyzing delivered projects, and second, using those identified critical success factos to provide guidance in upcoming projects regarding the five project collaboration types.
- Applying social network analysis to support the management of cooperative project's behavioral risksPublication . Nunes, Marco; Abreu, AntónioAccording to several literature sources and bodies of practices, effective cooperation between organizations in the deliver of projects is a critical success factor for project successful outcome. Nevertheless, it seems that organizations are still reluctant to engage in cooperative networks more than it would be expected. The major reason for this - according to several literature sources - is due to a lack of efficient models to support organizational cooperative networks. This work introduces a model that contributes to the management of organizational cooperative networks, by adressing behavioral risks that usually emerge as organizations engage in cooperative networks to deliver projects. The proposed model was developed based on four key pillars ((1) project management, (2) risk management, (3) cooperative networks, and (4) social network analysis centrality metrics), and will analyze how four critical organizational cooperative informal networks ((1) trust, (2) problem-solving, (3) advice, and (4) communication), emerge and evolve throughout the different phases of a generic project lifecycle. The development and implementation of the proposed model is supported by a case study.
- Buildings lean maintenance implementation modelPublication . Abreu, António; Calado, João Manuel Ferreira; Requeijo, JoséNowadays, companies in global markets have to achieve high levels of performance and competitiveness to stay "alive".Within this assumption, the building maintenance cannot be done in a casual and improvised way due to the costs related. Starting with some discussion about lean management and building maintenance, this paper introduces a model to support the Lean Building Maintenance (LBM) approach. Finally based on a real case study from a Portuguese company, the benefits, challenges and difficulties are presented and discussed.
- A decision support approach to provide sustainable solutions to the consumer, by using electrical appliancesPublication . Matias, João Carlos de Oliveira; Santos, Ricardo; Abreu, AntónioThe diversity of energy efficiency appliances existent on the market, with all its different issues, contributes to the existence of several tradeoffs (e.g., energy and water consumption vs.initial investment), which make the consumer’s choices in the market difficult. This becomes even more relevant, by knowing that nowadays a consumer tries to get a solution from the market, with a good compromise between the economic, social and environmental dimensions, and according to its priorities and specific needs, which can be different from other consumers. By adopting a multicriteria approach, combined with an optimization technique, based on evolutionary algorithms (EA), it will be possible to provide a set of sustainable solutions from the market to the consumer, that respects the compromise referred before. In this work, it will be presented an approach to support a decision-agent (DA) (consumer), by performing a set of sustainable choices based on electrical appliances, from the market and suitable to its needs. The method will be applied to a case study, to demonstrate its application. Regarding the obtained solutions, several savings are achieved (electrical and water consumption, CO2 emissions) by taking into account the consumer’s relative importance, regarding each dimension considered.
- EFQM model implementation in a Portuguese Higher Education InstitutionPublication . Santos, Ricardo; Abreu, AntónioEducation sector, and particularly, Higher Education Institutions (HEI), is nowadays an increasingly competitive sector, where the HEI’s success, relies on stakeholder’s recognition, along with their capacity to attract funding, to achieve sustainability. To attends such demands, HEI tends to incorporate into their strategy, Internal Quality Assurance Systems (IQAS). Additionally, and according to some works, existed on literature, HEI should follows a logic of continuous improvement, through the services provided to their stakeholders, where EFQM (European Foundation for Quality Management) model, arises as an alternative solution to be considered. However, and although the success achieved with this model on private sector, there are no certainties about the results of their implementation in HEI, since some of the adopted models have a set of techniques based on theories, sometimes incompatible within HEI nature. Therefore, and by using the case study methodology, it is intended to analyze the feasibility of an IQAS implementation, based on the EFQM model, in an Engineering School in Portugal. For this purpose, they are identified some advantages and difficulties found within its implementation, as well as ways to overcome them, contributing therefore with some answers for a better EFQM implementation into a HEI in general.
- Elements of a methodology to assess the alignment of core-values in collaborative networksPublication . Abreu, António; Macedo, Patrícia; Camarinha-Matos, LuisCollaborative networks are typically formed by heterogeneous and autonomous entities, and thus it is natural that each member has its own set of core-values. Since these values somehow drive the behaviour of the involved entities, the ability to quickly identify partners with compatible or common core-values represents an important element for the success of collaborative networks. However, tools to assess or measure the level of alignment of core-values are lacking. Since the concept of 'alignment' in this context is still ill-defined and shows a multifaceted nature, three perspectives are discussed. The first one uses a causal maps approach in order to capture, structure, and represent the influence relationships among core-values. This representation provides the basis to measure the alignment in terms of the structural similarity and influence among value systems. The second perspective considers the compatibility and incompatibility among core-values in order to define the alignment level. Under this perspective we propose a fuzzy inference system to estimate the alignment level, since this approach allows dealing with variables that are vaguely defined, and whose inter-relationships are difficult to define. Another advantage provided by this method is the possibility to incorporate expert human judgment in the definition of the alignment level. The last perspective uses a belief Bayesian network method, and was selected in order to assess the alignment level based on members' past behaviour. An example of application is presented where the details of each method are discussed.
- Evolutionary algorithms on reducing energy consumption in buildings: An approach to provide smart and efficiency choices, considering the rebound effectPublication . Santos, Ricardo; Matias, João; Abreu, António; Reis, FranciscoThis paper presents a model to promote energy efficiency among household appliances, by supporting the consumer decisions through the maximization of his savings, associated to a set of electrical appliances from the market to be acquired. Not always an efficient equipment from the market, is more expensive than a less efficient one, which can lead the consumer to compromise the expected savings on future. Given the several models/brands available on market and its possible combinations, the problem can be defined as a combinatorial problem, whose complexity can compromise the efficiency of using deterministic algorithms. Genetic algorithms (GM) were therefore included in the model, whose results were compared later with Simplex to verify the quality of the obtained solutions, as well as their performance. In addition, it was performed a statistical analysis of the obtained results, as well as a sensitivity analysis of GAs parameters, to validate their robustness. we conclude that the proposed method can provide several efficient solutions to the problem, as well as sensitize the consumer to their choices made on future, by estimating their corresponding rebound effect.
- Exploring the relationship between communication and success of construction projects: the mediating role of conflictPublication . Malik, Summaira; Taqi, Muhammad; Moleiro Martins, José; Mata, Mário Nuno; Pereira, J.M; Abreu, AntónioThe success of a construction project is a widely discussed topic, even today, and there exists a difference of opinion. The impact of communication and conflict on project success is an important, but least addressed, issue in literature, especially in the case of underdeveloped countries. Miscommunication and conflict not only hinder the success of a project but also may lead to conflicts. The focus of this paper was to examine the impact of communication on project success with the mediating role of conflict. By using SPSS, demographics, descriptive statistics and correlation were determined. Smart PLS version 3.0 was used for confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), internal accuracy and validity estimates, hypothesis checking and mediation testing. The results showed that formal communication has a negative impact on the success of a construction project, resulting in conflicts among project team members, whereas informal communication and communication willingness have a positive impact on project success because people tend to know each other, and trust is developed. Task, process and relationship conflicts were used as mediating variables. It was found that task conflict effects the relations positively because project team members suggest different ways to do a certain task, and, hence, project success is achieved. On the contrary, process conflict and relationship conflict have a negative impact on communication and project success. Both of these conflicts lead to miscommunication, and project success is compromised. Hence, it is the responsibility of the project manager to enhance communication among project team members and to reduce the detrimental effects of process and relationship conflict on project success.