Tsuang Kuo

A quantitative evaluation of gloves used with non-powered hand tools in routine maintenance tasks

Non-powered hand tools are a major means of carrying out routine maintenance and repair activities. The use of gloves in such situations is essential in order to protect the hands from potential injuries. Together, the gloves and hand tools accomplish the task by transmitting the muscle force on to the workpiece. Several studies have reported that the capability of hands to exert force/torque is severely influenced by the use of gloves. The use of gloves could also lead to a cumulative trauma disorder, rapid onset of muscular fatigue, etc. Most previous studies have focused on determining the influence of gloves on grip strength or push/pull forces one would exert while using devices such as knives. The purpose of this study was to determine the influence of a variety of commercially available gloves on the force/torque exertion capability of workers with wrenches and screwdrivers that are commonly used in performing routine maintenance and repairs. Nineteen males participated in the study and, using seven different hand tools and nine varieties of commercial gloves, exerted peak volitional torques on a simulated workpiece. The peak torque and electromyogram of flexor and extensor muscles were recorded. The results indicated that muscle activity did not differ significantly between the glove and no-glove conditions and the peak torque exertion capability of individuals generally increased with gloves. The magnitude of torque exerted on the workpiece was different for different gloves. The results also contradict some of the previously reported findings.

Quality control expert systems: a review of pertinent literature

Statistical quality control (SQC) is an effective tool that ensures quality products and services by means of control charts, the essence of SQC, and sampling plans. While the computation of sample statistics and the development of control charts are routine exercises, the interpretation of chart patterns, trends and the associated diagnosis of assignable causes requires expert knowledge. The present trend is to develop a quality control system and apply it throughout the company (company-wide quality control CWQC or total quality control - TQC). This frequently means involvement of non-quality personnel in QC teams. Additionally, many companies are faced with a shortage of experienced quality controllers and individuals who can train and educate others on statistical quality control techniques. Quality control expert systems (QCESs) are considered as one way to alleviate these difficulties. In recent years, quality control expert systems have attracted the attention of both quality researchers and practitioners. This paper reviews existing quality control expert systems and recommends a set of quality engineering techniques that should be used to form a knowledge base, the heart of an expert system.

An Overview of Management Education for Sustainability in Asia.

Purpose – This paper aims to explore the holistic picture of sustainability curricula in Asian higher education. Design/methodology/approach – Content analysis was conducted based on Asian management education for sustainability in higher education. Online courses arrangement, teaching methods, instructors’ educational background and cross-referencing data between triple bottom line and sustainability courses have been investigated. Findings – The paper provides empirical insights about the current state of sustainability education in Asia. The results show that there is an opportunity for interdisciplinary integration, as there are imbalanced sustainability courses offered by business, science and engineering schools. It also suggests that Asian universities should add an international connection and active promotion of sustainability education on their Web sites. Research limitations/implications – Findings are based on web-based sustainability -related courses. Future research could apply method of cas...

Exploring social entrepreneurship education from a Web-based pedagogical perspective

As Internet has evolved itself as a powerful media for communication, and with the proliferation of Internet contents and survey methodologies, Internet-based researches such as Web-based surveys are common today. The World-Wide Web presents researchers with a powerful tool for the collection of data and the Web-based survey provided us with an efficient and valid method to code the data compared with costs associated with conventional surveying methods. Whereas many research studies use quantitative methodology for Web-based survey; this study employed a Web-based content analysis method to the theme how social entrepreneurship was taught in business school. On the basis of the Beyond Grey Pinstripes (BGP) Global 100 List: 2009-2010 of business schools, with an emphasis on environmental, social, and ethical complexities, we analyzed the contents of social entrepreneurship education, teaching methods, professional specialties of the teachers, and grading of the curricula. The results show that the courses offered by most of these business schools had the required social entrepreneurship characteristics. The arrangement of their programs and their teaching methods, which followed the principle of learning by doing, not only enabled the students to balance theory and practice, but also supported the students in creating social enterprises.

From sociability to creditability for academics

Social networking for academic exchanges, such as through sites like Researchgate.net, is gaining popularity among academics. This site offers many metrics (e.g. RG score and RG impact points) which have the potential to become universal research performance metrics. This paper presents an empirical survey of the top 150 researchers grants and their RG scores among 126 colleges of management in Taiwan. Our results show a strong correlation between the research grants and RG scores if the analysis is based on the college as a whole. However, the relationship becomes insignificant for individual researchers. In addition, colleges with the AACSB accreditation outperform AACSB member schools and non-member schools in terms of their research grants and sharing research outputs on ResearchGate. The authors conclude that metrics used on ResearchGate have the potential to become formal research performance evaluation tools. However, this time has not come yet, at least based on the experience of Taiwan. A strong correlation exists between the grants and RG scores at the college level.The relationship becomes insignificant for individual researchers.The AACSB-accredited group outperforms non-AACSB-accredited group.

An introduction to expert systems in production and manufacturing engineering: the structure, development process and applications

Due to the global competition, manufacturing is facing several challenges: short product life cycle, frequent design changes and small in-process inventory. The performance of a manufacturing system is affected by numerous needs, such as material requirement planning (MRP), capacity planning, facility and material handling device planning, inventory control, tool management, scheduling, quality control, and manufacturing information system management (Chang et al, 1991). These necessities have led to the implementation of computer technologies, such as automated test facilities; MRP; computer-aided design (CAD); computer-aided manufacturing (CAM); computer-aided process planning (CAPP); computer-aided quality control (CAQ); digital computers simulation; and data collection, storage and analysis. While these operations and primarily digital manipulations that take advantage of speedy data storage, retrieval and computational capabilities of computers, other kinds of expertise, such as knowledge that is based on past experience and cannot easily be cast into mathematical formulae for conventional algorithmic programs, have yet to be fully exploited (Grimson and Patil, 1987). Expert systems, a technology falling into this last category, improve the quality of information provided to the responsible experts and users for operating modern automated and integrated systems, and assist them in reliable operation of their systems (Christie, 1990; Braun, 1990).

Service quality evaluation: moderating influences of first-time and revisiting customers

Providing customised services is one of the major approaches the service industry employs to maintain its customer base. Accordingly, this research investigates whether the effects of service quality attributes on customer satisfaction differ between first-time and revisiting customers in the restaurant industry. This research adopts the five gaps model between service quality performance and customer expectations. Based on the expectations-disconfirmation theory, we analysed the DINESERV framework to compare revisiting customers with first-time customers. Our results show no significant difference in the service constructs of empathy, assurance, and reliability. However, the satisfaction of first-time customers is influenced more by the responsiveness of front-line service staff, whereas revisiting customers care more about the dining atmosphere. Our findings could serve as a guideline for restaurants to serve their customers more effectively, as well as to differentiate and fine-tune their marketing strategies.

When and how managerial ties matter in international competitive strategy, export financial and strategic performance framework: A standardized or customized approach?

Purpose This study aims to present two new contingent frameworks that hypothesize the moderation role of managerial ties (MTs) in the international competitive strategy-export financial and strategic performance framework. The purposes of this study are to explore whether a common standardized or individual customized conceptualization consisting of MTs, international competitive strategy and performance can be used to achieve export financial and strategic performance; to offer contingent factors for the current international competitive strategy-export performance framework; and to generalize the roles of MTs in the developed vis-a-vis developing region. Design/methodology/approach This study uses the experience of 114 exporting firms operating in the European Union region to test its theoretical frameworks. MTs include both business and political ties. Findings Business and political ties have completely different moderation effects on the relation between international differentiation/low-cost strategy and export financial/strategic performance. Business ties have a positive influence on the international differentiation strategy-export strategic performance and international low-cost strategy-export financial performance dyads, but a negative effect in the international low-cost strategy-export strategic performance framework. In contrast, political ties are revealed to have a negative effect on the international differentiation/low-cost strategy-export financial performance framework. Originality/value This research advances extant international competitive strategy-export performance literature by revealing the bright and dark sides of business ties and the down side of political ties in the framework. Performance should be investigated in terms of financial and strategic performance. The moderation effect of business ties is more complex than that reported in the developing region; thus, a cross-regional generalization on these ties’ effects is more difficult to establish. In contrast, the dark side effect of political ties is consistent across developed and developing regions; a cross-regional generalization on these ties is more viable. Collectively, the results show that a standardized process for achieving both export financial and export strategic performances is not feasible, while a customized process for each export performance is needed.

The effects of employee perceived organisational culture on performance: the moderating effects of management maturity

This study explores the effects of management maturity on the relationship between organisational culture and organisational performance from the perspective of employees. Many companies experience unsuccessful management initiatives (e.g. lean or six sigma) and find that such failures are a result of emulating management tools without learning the underlying philosophy. Therefore, this study built a moderating model for management maturity (as expressed in standards such as ISO 9004) to explore bureaucratic, innovative, supportive cultures’ effects on organisational performance. We collected data via survey questionnaires distributed through the website of a large steel company and received 324 valid responses. Our results show that management maturity moderates the relationship between innovative culture and organisational performance; that is, employees who perceived a higher level of management maturity from their management team also felt more positive about their organisation’s performance. However, this is not found for bureaucratic culture or supportive culture. Management maturity is vital, albeit long neglected, as it exerts a medium, positive moderating effect on innovative culture, and a medium, negative moderating effect on bureaucratic culture and supportive culture.

The moderating effect of management maturity on the implementation of an information platform system

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the satisfaction level of government employees toward the e-government information platform system in Taiwan to better understand the effectiveness of such systems. Furthermore, this paper aimed to investigate the moderating effects of management maturity on quality management and user satisfaction. Design/methodology/approach This study examined the questionnaire via a pretest, and then 174 formal questionnaires were obtained from people who had used the focal information platform system. Findings The results show that management maturity has a high, positive moderating effect on service quality (SQ), a medium moderating effect on system quality (SysQ), and a low, negative moderating effect on information quality (IQ). Research limitations/implications One limitation of this study is that the survey was conducted at one public agency in Taiwan. Therefore, a suggestion for further research is to focus on both public and private corporations, as well as government agencies. Practical implications This study built a moderating model for 3Q and management maturity, in order to provide quality management directions, especially with regard to information management, system establishment, and service management. Originality/value Management maturity is a vital, albeit long neglected, determinant for the success of the adoption of e-government information systems (ISs). Such ISs serve only as a tool, and it is those who operate the systems that put their functions into full play. Given this, management maturity is likely to be the key to the successful operation of ISs.