Denise Dumke de Medeiros

Environmental management in Brazilian companies

The survival of an organisation today depends directly on its capacity to be efficient and competitive. Growing transformations in the world economy impose new variables on the productive process. Environmental management is one of these variants, which brings in itself a series of opportunities and risks. An environmental management system (EMS) allows an organisation to permanently control the effects of the productive process on the environment. In Brazil, the adoption of this new approach still finds certain resistance by companies, which have seen it more as an additional cost than an improvement opportunity. This study aims to identify the environmental actions of some Brazilian companies, seeking to obtain important information about the process and the operations accomplished in the adoption of EMS by companies which seek to improve the quality of life for the population.

A model for analyzing the competitive strategy of health plan insurers using a system of competitive intelligence

Purpose – The purpose of this research is to present a formulation of the System of Competitive Intelligence that is up‐to‐date and responsive to an area of study which enables the constant upgrading and improvement of business management practices, so that a competitive edge may be maintained and a market differentiation established.Design/methodology/approach – This comprises a study of the existing literature and a review of articles of criticism related to the particularities of competitive strategy, systems of competitive intelligence, and the quality of service rendered by health insurance companies of health services, with a view to identifying the main elements needed to attain competitive advantage. From the results gathered, the construction of the model will be started and its strong and weak points commented upon.Findings – It was observed that the Model of System of Competitive Intelligence can guarantee the survival of a company, through analyzing information quickly and in an integrated way...

Um modelo de integração de sistemas de gestão

It can be observed that there is a gap between the moment of the decision to adopt an Integrated Management System and its effective implementation. To address this problem, the present work proposes a systemic approach to the stage prior to the implementation of the integration, that is, when of the study of viability and project elaboration is being carried out. Mathematics can give support to the decision making as it is not emotional in the sense of the company using the Integrated Management Systems search just to be up-to-date with its competitors; mathematics makes the decision of why, when, how much, how and which systems to be integrated rational. When the decision to integrate certain management systems has been made, it will be clear that some activities may be pared and others not, thus reducing the competition for resources. Mathematical programming is proposed to reduce the conflict and to search for the optimum solution.

METODOLOGIA DE CHECKLAND APLICADA À IMPLEMENTAÇÃO DA PRODUÇÃO MAIS LIMPA EM SERVIÇOS

The Cleaner Production program has been applied successfully in the manufacturing industry. However, this instrument is far from service companys adoption. The main contribution of this thesis is to characterize the development and application of the Cleaner Production program in Services using Checkland Methodology for structuring problems. The main objective of this methodology is make a comparison between the real system (the way the company is today) and the conceptual system (the way the company would work if it adopted the Cleaner Production) as it traces the changing pictures and help managers to decide on adopting this program or not. The aim of the presented Case Studies is to show how the model is applied in service companies.

Modelo de diagnóstico e implementação de um sistema de gestão da qualidade: estudo de um caso

It is known that due to the increase of the national and international competition, companies are implementing management quality systems based on the requirements of the international standard ISO 9001:2000 to become more competitive. In this work is proposed a diagnosis model to different types of quality system, according to the companys need, combining the in-line, on-line and off-line environment for quality management. In this way, it is presented a utilization of the model to implementation of the standard ISO 9001:2000 in a company of the metallurgical sector, as well as its results.

Measuring quality service

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to propose a model to guide organizations according to the relative importance of customers satisfaction about six quality service dimensions: reliability, empathy, assurance, tangibility, responsiveness (Parasuraman et al., 1985) and price. Design/methodology/approach – The present study uses SERVPERF customer requirements and weights of ELECTRE TRI multicriteria method to provide guidance on an appropriated action plan. Subsequently, it was demonstrated how the proposed model applied to the Inn. Findings – SERVPERF is based on the subjective and cognitive perception of customers service analyses. ELECTRE TRI decreases the deviation of subjectivity and develops managers energy flow, focussed on enterprise resources. Research limitations/implications – Measuring quality is hard work and usually the customer perceptions are not well understood, because it changes many times. In addition SERVPERF and ELECTRE TRI weights do not order the quality importance. Practical...

Attributes and circumstances that induce inappropriate health services demand: a study of the health sector in Brazil

BackgroundThe current economic and social context has required health systems to provide top quality services and to be efficient in controlling costs. An obstacle to achieve these goals is the inappropriate health services demand. This study aims to present these inappropriate health service demand determinants from data on telephone calls made to a medical advice call centre.MethodsThis study used a Brazilian medical advice call centre data sample in the period of November and December 2012 (n = 19690), which supplied data on the user’s initial request, the physician’s recommendation, information on the patient and circumstances (the day and time of the day of the telephone call). The convergence between user intent and medical recommendation consists in adequate demand; otherwise the divergence consists in an inadequate one. In this way, using a logistic regression model, the critical factors that determine inappropriate health services request could be estimated.ResultsIn general, the user’s initial intent is the most critical for the inappropriate health system demand occurrence: the greater the complexity of the patient’s initial intent, the greater the chance the intent is wrong: (OR: 1.160; 95% CI: 1.113-1.210). With regard to the social characteristics, men are more likely to make inappropriate requests (OR: 1.102; 95% CI: 1038-1169); as well as youngsters are more likely to use the system incorrectly (OR = .993; 95% CI: .992 - .994). Regarding the circumstances (day and time of the call), requests in the final hours of the day and on days close to the weekend are more likely to be the inappropriate ones (OR: 1.082 for each six hour increase; 95% CI: 1.049-1.116) and weekday (OR: 1.017 for each day increase; 95% CI: 1.002-1.032).ConclusionsThe critical profile for the inappropriate use occurrence consists of males and youngsters, who use the health service in the final hours of the day and at weekends, and mainly want to use more complex services. A practical implication of this research is to provide health systems managers, supporting information to the most critical users in order to assist them in making a decision when asking for health care.

A multicriteria model for ranking of improvement approaches in construction companies based on the PROMETHÉE II method

The quality of the construction production process may be improved using several different methods such as Lean Construction, ISO 9001, ISO 14001 or ISO 18001. Construction companies need a preliminary study and systematic implementation of changes to become more competitive and efficient. This paper presents a multicriteria decision model for the selection and ranking of such alternatives for improvement approaches regarding the aspects of quality, sustainability and safety, based on the PROMETHEE II method. The adoption of this model provides more confidence and visibility for decision makers. One of the differentiators of this model is the use of a fragmented set of improvement alternatives. These alternatives were combined with some restrictions to create a global set of alternatives. An application to three scenarios, considering realistic data, was developed. The results of the application show that the model should be incorporated into the strategic planning process of organizations.

ADIÇÃO DE UMA NOVA PERSPECTIVA AO BSC PARA AVALIAR O SGQ EM EMPRESAS DE SERVIÇOS CERTIFICADAS COM A NORMA ISO 9001:2000

Este artigo apresenta um modelo de medicao e avaliacao de desempenho para Sistema de Gestao da Qualidade (SGQ) para empresas de servicos certificadas com a norma ISO 9001:2000, atraves de um conjunto de medidas essenciais de resultado, conforme exigencia desta norma, para comprovacao da melhoria continua desse sistema. Para isso, foram analisadas algumas especificidades das empresas de servicos quanto ao seu tipo de processo, identificadas as exigencias de medicao da norma ISO 9001:2000 e os passos necessarios a elaboracao de um sistema de medicao de desempenho, que pudesse atender o requisito de medicao, analise e melhoria da norma ISO 9001:2000. A estrutura para definicao dos indicadores foi baseada na metodologia do Balanced Scorecard, por permiti a integracao e relacao de causa e efeito das medidas de desempenho pelos processos operacionais, refletidas pelos objetivos gerais de um SGQ, e ate mesmo alinhado as estrategias do SGQ com as estrategias da empresa. Uma nova perspectiva para o BSC foi criada, qualidade, para atender melhor os requisitos de medicao da norma ISO 9001:2000. O conjunto de medidas definido e generico, podendo outras medidas importantes de acompanhamento serem definidas.

Um estudo sobre o desempenho da agroindústria canavieira no Estado de Pernambuco no período de 1987 a 1996

This work seeks to evaluate the acting of the section sugar agrobusiness in Pernambuco state during the period between 1987 and 1996, after the retreat of the incentives granted by Proalcool. Aspects of the section, the current context and important concepts linked to the theme are presented. Soon after, makes a brief evaluation of Proalcool effects in the expansion of the section. The adopted and accomplished theoretical referencial is presented a study of the competitive acting. It is concluded with its behavior in the considered period, with relationship to the market, efficiency and training.