Kym Fraser

Facilities management: the strategic selection of a maintenance system

Purpose – A major role of facilities management is ensuring the useability, reliability, and safety of the asset being managed. To achieve this management must use a system to control the maintenance function. The purpose of the paper is to identify and describe the various maintenance management models and systems available for facilities managers to consider. Design/methodology/approach – Two comprehensive reviews of the literature were undertaken to categorise the various maintenance management models and identify popular models in practice. Findings – The review identified 37 maintenance management models. From these, four were found to be popular: total productive maintenance (TPM), condition-based maintenance (CBM), reliability-centred maintenance (RCM), and condition monitoring (CM). While many thousands of papers can be found of these four models, the support in the literature for the remaining 33 models is very limited. Research limitations/implications – While providing a sound foundation for fu...

Improving the implementation effectiveness of cellular manufacturing: a comprehensive framework for practitioners

In todays competitive environment cellular manufacturing (CM) is a well-known strategy in improving manufacturing performance. To obtain the full benefits that CM has to offer successful implementation is a critical factor. Evidence indicates that firms converting to CM often struggle with implementation and achieve results that are less than anticipated. A comprehensive review of implementation literature was undertaken and a multi-phase model developed and evaluated through a case study. The framework recognizes the importance of both technical and human aspects of CM and provides practitioners with a better understanding of the various phases in the implementation process, including the many activities and issues which need to be considered for each step. In the case study company, implementation of CM not only provided many of the benefits associated with this form of manufacturing but also allowed operators to become a value-adding link in respect to process and product improvement and new product development.

Team‐based cellular manufacturing

Purpose – Social factors are an under‐researched but important aspect in the success of manufacturing cells. This paper sets out to investigate the impact and importance of various human factors within a socio‐technical system such as team‐based cellular manufacturing (TBCM).Design/methodology/approach – A questionnaire survey was designed to provide information about human factors in TBCM. The survey was conducted at four medium‐to‐large size organisations in Australia and Switzerland where participants were required to be working within a TBCM environment and included managers, team leaders, and operators. A set of research questions and hypotheses was developed and tested.Findings – It was found that human issues account for a significant proportion of problems within team‐based manufacturing cells. Of the eight human factors tested in this survey, communication, teamwork and training were ranked the most important, while reward/compensation was ranked the least important. Testing showed significant re...

Effective teamworking: can functional flexibility act as an enhancing factor?: An Australian case study

– Two of the most sought after properties in todays dynamic and competitive manufacturing environment are labour flexibility and effective teamworking. This is due in no small part to the growth of modern manufacturing philosophies which strongly advocate the need for both teamwork and flexibility. This paper aims to explore the impact of two labour flexibility strategies (functional flexibility and intra‐cell flexibility) on teamwork in a cellular manufacturing environment., – Using a revised input/process/output (IPO) team effectiveness model a questionnaire was designed and a case study undertaken at a large Australian manufacturer. The knowledge, skills, and ability (KSAs) gained from job rotation (flexibility) was quantitatively tested against team processes and team performance., – It was found that functional flexibility had an overall stronger, significant effect on the five team processes tested (communication, conflict resolution, problem solving, goals and performance, tasks and planning) than did intra‐cell flexibility. In regards to output (team performance) functional flexibility performed better in areas such as customer delivery, inventory holdings and quality, while intra‐cell flexibility performed better in the area of absenteeism. An inconclusive result was obtained for the fifth output measure, efficiency rate., – The study was conducted at a single organisation, which limits the generalisation of the outcomes, therefore broader research on the area is recommended., – The study provides evidence that the individual benefits of both functional flexibility and teamworking may be enhanced while being practised concurrently. With labour flexibility and teamwork being key factors in most modern organisations, the practical implications are much wider than the field of manufacturing., – Individually, the literature offers much on teamworking and flexibility but studies exploring the combined effects of these two important elements are rare, especially in the field of manufacturing. The present paper fills some of the gaps

Silicon substrate as a novel cell culture device for myoblast cells

BackgroundTissue and organ regeneration via transplantation of cell bodies in-situ has become an interesting strategy in regenerative medicine. Developments of cell carriers to systematically deliver cell bodies in the damage site have fall shorten on effectively meet this purpose due to inappropriate release control. Thus, there is still need of novel substrate to achieve targeted cell delivery with appropriate vehicles. In the present study, silicon based photovoltaic (PV) devices are used as a cell culturing substrate for the expansion of myoblast mouse cell (C2C12 cells) that offers an atmosphere for regular cell growth in vitro. The adherence, viability and proliferation of the cells on the silicon surface were examined by direct cell counting and fluorescence microscopy.ResultsIt was found that on the silicon surface, cells proliferated over 7 days showing normal morphology, and expressed their biological activities. Cell culture on silicon substrate reveals their attachment and proliferation over the surface of the PV device. After first day of culture, cell viability was 88% and cell survival remained above 86% as compared to the seeding day after the seventh day. Furthermore, the DAPI staining revealed that the initially scattered cells were able to eventually build a cellular monolayer on top of the silicon substrate.ConclusionsThis study explored the biological applications of silicon based PV devices, demonstrating its biocompatibility properties and found useful for culture of cells on porous 2-D surface. The incorporation of silicon substrate has been efficaciously revealed as a potential cell carrier or vehicle in cell growth technology, allowing for their use in cell based gene therapy, tissue engineering, and therapeutic angiogenesis.

TQM in new car dealerships: a study from the firms’ perspective

Purpose – New car dealerships play an integral role in the initial and on‐going relationship between the purchaser and vehicle manufacturer. Evidence, mostly anecdotal, suggests that the buying and servicing experience of the paying public in regards to new car dealerships is far from ideal. With continuous improvement systems such as total quality management (TQM) firmly embedded into the manufacturing and supply side of the car industry, questions still exist surrounding the level of quality being adopted by automotive dealerships. The purpose of this paper is to empirically investigate if a quality culture is being developed within the dealership network in South Australia by testing a number of key principles of TQM such as: the support and commitment from top management, customer focus and satisfaction, process management, and employee involvement.Design/methodology/approach – A questionnaire survey was designed and all 105 new car dealerships in the greater Adelaide region were targeted. The service...

Using Lean Principles to Drive Operational Improvements in Intermodal Container Facilities: A Conceptual Framework

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the use of lean principles to drive operational improvements in intermodal container facilities. Intermodal terminals have an important role in today’s globally complex supply networks. In the case of bottleneck-derived terminalization, operational issues such as achieving effective material flow remains a significant and common challenge. To assist with such challenges, the paper develops a conceptual framework built on the principles of lean. Design/methodology/approach – In this paper, a theory-building approach is adopted and a lean terminalization framework developed by combining aspects of lean- and intermodal transport theory with practical insights. The framework was developed in conjunction with two intermodal container facilities within the Scandinavian region. Findings – The conceptual framework demonstrates how lean approaches can be used to identify improvement areas, as well as to develop solutions for improved material flow in the context of...

Maintenance management models: a study of the published literature to identify empirical evidence: A greater practical focus is needed

Purpose – Maintenance and its management has moved from being considered a “necessary evil” to being of strategic importance for most competitive organisations around the world. In terms of the identification and use of organisational-wide maintenance management models the picture is not clears from both a literature and practical perspective. The purpose of this paper is to shed light on the various models and their use in real-world applications, and in doing so, explores the gap between academic research and practice. Design/methodology/approach – For this paper two comprehensive reviews of the literature were undertaken, first, to identify and categorise the various maintenance management models, and second, to determine the depth of empirical evidence for the popular models in real-world applications. Descriptive analysis of both the practical examples and empirical evidence rates (EER) for maintenance related journals is provided. Findings – Within the literature 37 maintenance management models wer...

Rough set based rule induction in decision making using credible classification and preference from medical application perspective

This paper presents a new heuristic algorithm for reduct selection based on credible index in the rough set theory (RST) applications. This algorithm is efficient and effective in selecting the decision rules particularly the problem to be solved in a large scale. This algorithm is capable to derive the rules with multi-outcomes and identify the most significant features simultaneously, which is unique and useful in solving predictive medical problems. The end results of the proposed approach are a set of decision rules that illustrates the causes for solitary pulmonary nodule and results of the long term treatment.

Facility management teams: Identifying important human factors from a manufacturing environment

Purpose – Teams and teamworking has now become a common form of work structure in most organisations, including facilities management. The human interactions which occur when people work together in groups is still problematic. In this study human factors are identified and the purpose of this paper is to establish the level of importance of each factor involving specialised teams within a manufacturing environment.Design/methodology/approach – A quantitative study was undertaken at a number of manufacturing plants which were using the process: team‐based cellular manufacturing. Managers, team leaders, and operators involved with manufacturing cells were targeted to evaluate the various human related factors associated with these teams.Findings – From the nine human factors evaluated, three factors: “communication”, “teamwork”, and “training” were identified as being key to the day‐to‐day success of team‐based cellular manufacturing. Some notable differences were observed when comparing the data between c...