Marcelo Seido Nagano

Contributions of HRM throughout the stages of environmental management: methodological triangulation applied to companies in Brazil

The purpose of this research is to analyze the contribution of human resources management throughout the evolutionary stages of environmental management in Brazilian companies. A theoretical framework concerning environmental management and its evolution and the ‘greening’ of the functional and competitive dimensions of human resource management were developed. A methodological triangulation was developed in two complimentary phases. In the first phase, data were collected from 94 Brazilian companies with ISO 14001 certification. The data collected were analyzed and processed using statistical techniques. The conclusions of the first phase supported the second phase of this empirical research. The second phase consisted of a study of multiple cases in four Brazilian companies. The results show evidence of the first known empirical study of contributions of human resource dimensions throughout the stages of environmental management in Brazilian manufacturing companies.

A Constructive Genetic Algorithm for permutation flowshop scheduling

The general flowshop scheduling problem is a production problem where a set of n jobs have to be processed with identical flow pattern on m machines. In permutation flowshops the sequence of jobs is the same on all machines. A significant research effort has been devoted for sequencing jobs in a flowshop minimizing the makespan. This paper describes the application of a Constructive Genetic Algorithm (CGA) to makespan minimization on flowshop scheduling. The CGA was proposed recently as an alternative to traditional GA approaches, particularly, for evaluating schemata directly. The population initially formed only by schemata, evolves controlled by recombination to a population of well-adapted structures (schemata instantiation). The CGA implemented is based on the NEH classic heuristic and a local search heuristic used to define the fitness functions. The parameters of the CGA are calibrated using a Design of Experiments (DOE) approach. The computational results are compared against some other successful algorithms from the literature on Taillards well-known standard benchmark. The computational experience shows that this innovative CGA approach provides competitive results for flowshop scheduling problems.

A new evolutionary clustering search for a no-wait flow shop problem with set-up times

This paper addresses the m-machine no-wait flow shop problem where the set-up time of a job is separated from its processing time. The performance measure considered is the total flowtime. A new hybrid metaheuristic Genetic Algorithm-Cluster Search is proposed to solve the scheduling problem. The performance of the proposed method is evaluated and the results are compared with the best method reported in the literature. Experimental tests show superiority of the new method for the test problems set, regarding the solution quality.

An evolutionary clustering search for the no-wait flow shop problem with sequence dependent setup times

This paper examines the m machine no-wait flow shop problem with setup times of a job separated from its processing time. The performance measure considered is the makespan. The hybrid metaheuristic Evolutionary Cluster Search (ECS_NSL) proposed in Nagano et al. (2012) is extended to solve the scheduling problem. The ECS_NSL performance is evaluated and the results are compared with the best method reported in the literature. Experimental tests show superiority of the ECS_NSL regarding the solution quality.

A review and evaluation on constructive heuristics to optimise product mix based on the Theory of Constraints

In this paper, we address the problem of defining the product mix in order to maximise a systems throughput. This problem is well known for being NP-Complete and therefore, most contributions to the topic focus on developing heuristics that are able to obtain good solutions for the problem in a short CPU time. In particular, constructive heuristics are available for the problem such as that by Fredendall and Lea, and by Aryanezhad and Komijan. We propose a new constructive heuristic based on the Theory of Constraints and the Knapsack Problem. The computational results indicate that the proposed heuristic yields better results than the existing heuristic.

Modeling the dynamics of a multi-product manufacturing system: A real case application

In this paper, a continuous multi-product model is developed to represent the shop floor dynamics of a job shop, based on dynamic modeling and on analogies to electrical components. This approach allows the mathematical formulation of the model (state representation) and the analysis of its dynamic response via simulation. A real case application in the textile industry is presented. Thus, this research contributes in the following ways: first, proposing a model that is suitable for multi-product systems with intricate job shop configuration and that is generalizable to various manufacturing systems; second, presenting a real case application of the proposed model. As practical implications, it provides production managers and practitioners with a prescriptive decision model that considers the dynamics of the production systems and the interdependencies of the decisions made in the shop floor. From the academic perspective, it contributes to the existing literature by presenting the application of an alternative modeling methodology, and by extending this methodology to manufacturing systems with multiple products, instead of single-product systems. Continuous models such as the one proposed can benefit from a wide range of tools for system analysis and control design, come from control theory. Although these tools have been extensively applied to model the supply chain, applications devoted to the plant level seem to be neglected over the past years. This model also aims to contribute in this direction.

Information culture and its influences in knowledge creation

We confirmed the existence of two dominant information culture profiles, as hypothesized by Choo (2013).The rule-following culture is represented by most of the teams studied. This result indicates that the information culture of the teams is influenced by the information culture of the organizations in which these teams are connected.Teams with a higher number of members - as well as multidisciplinary teams - were identified with a relationship-based culture.Results also showed plausible relationships between the risk-taking culture and externalization of knowledge; the rule-following culture and the combination of knowledge; result-oriented culture and internalization of knowledge; and the relationship-based culture and socialization of knowledge. This paper empirically analyzes the typology of information cultures (TICs) developed by Choo ((2013). International Journal of Information Management, 33, 775). The primary objective is to identify information behaviors and values that could describe the information culture in the context of project team work while knowledge creation occurs, resulting in technological innovation. The secondary aim is to find resulting relationships between the TICs and the modes of knowledge conversion. Twelve university project teams were selected to participate in the study. The teams are part of the Partnership for Technological Innovation Research Program (PITE) from the Sao Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP), Brazil. The qualitative technique of categorical content analysis was used. The data analysis is based on a set of five attributes: (i) the primary goal of information management; (ii) information values and norms; (iii) information behaviors in terms of information needs, (iv) information seeking, and (v) information use. The main results are twofold. First, we confirmed the existence of two dominant culture profiles, as hypothesized by Choo ((2013). International Journal of Information Management, 33, 775). Second, results also showed plausible relationships between the risk-taking culture and externalization of knowledge; the rule-following culture and the combination of knowledge; result-oriented culture and internalization of knowledge; and the relationship-based culture and socialization of knowledge.

Hybrid evolutionary algorithm for flowtime minimisation in no-wait flowshop scheduling

This research presents a novel approach to solve m-machine no-wait flowshop scheduling problem. A continuous flowshop problem with total flowtime as criterion is considered applying a hybrid evolutionary algorithm. The performance of the proposed method is evaluated and the results are compared with the best known in the literature. Experimental tests show the superiority of the evolutionary hybrid regarding the solution quality.

Evolutionary clustering search for flowtime minimization in permutation flow shop

This paper deals with the Permutation Flow Shop scheduling problem with the objective of minimizing total flow time, and therefore reducing in-process inventory. A new hybrid metaheuristic Genetic Algorithm - Cluster Search is proposed for the scheduling problem solution. The performance of the proposed method is evaluated and results are compared with the best reported in the literature. Experimental tests show the new method superiority for the test problems set, regarding the solution quality.

Product mix: the approach of throughput per day

Defining product mix is very important for organisations because it determines how productive resources are allocated among various operations. However, it is often defined subjectively. The methods commonly used for this definition are Integer Linear Programming and heuristics based in Theory of Constraints, which use maximum throughput as a performance measure. Although this measure provides maximum throughput to specific problem, it does not consider aspects of time, as days, utilised to make the throughput. Taking this into account, the aim of this paper is to present a throughput per day approach to define product mix, as well as to propose a constructive heuristic to help in this process. The results show that the proposed heuristic obtained satisfactory approximation when compared to the optimum values obtained by enumeration.