Work Organization Practices for Lean Production: A Study in Spanish and Brazilian Manufacturers

This work aims to discuss particular work organization practices in human resources reported as successful by companies adopting lean production principles, and investigate them through real examples observed on manufacturing plants in Spain and Brazil. A set of work organization practices was previously established by one of the authors, through interviews with practitioners of lean production and review of the literature. A series of visits and informal interviews at Spanish and Brazilian automotive parts manufacturers that follow lean production were conducted to verify that the set of policies are indeed practiced.

Using MILP to plan holidays and working hours under an annualised hours agreement

Annualising work hours (AH) is a means of achievement flexibility in the use of human resources to face the seasonal nature of demand. In Corominas et al. (1) two MILP models are used to solve the problem of planning staff working hours with annual horizon. The costs due to overtime and to the employment of temporary workers are minimised, and the distribution of working time over the course of the year for each worker and the distribution of working time provided by temporary workers are regularised.In the aforementioned paper, the following is assumed: (i) the holiday weeks are fixed a priori and (ii) the workers are from different categories who are able to perform specific type of task have se same efficiency; moreover, the values of the binary variables (and others) in the second model are fixed to those in the first model (thus, in the second model these will intervene as constants and not as variables, resulting in an LP model).In the present paper, these assumptions are relaxed and a more general problem is solved. The computational experiment leads to the conclusion that MILP is a technique suited to dealing with the problem.

Genetic algorithm for sequencing in midex model non-permutation flowshops using constrained buffers

Este trabajo presenta un Algoritmo Genético (GA) del problema de secuenciar unidades en una línea de producción. Se tiene en cuenta la posibilidad de cambiar la secuencia de piezas mediante estaciones con acceso a un almacén intermedio o centralizado. El acceso al almacén además está restringido, debido al tamaño de las piezas.AbstractThis paper presents a Genetic Algorithm (GA) for the problem of sequencing in a mixed model non-permutation flowshop. Resequencingis permitted where stations have access to intermittent or centralized resequencing buffers. The access to a buffer is restricted by the number of available buffer places and the physical size of the products.

Heuristic procedures for solving the General Assembly Line Balancing Problem with Setups (GALBPS)

The General Assembly Line Balancing Problem with Setups (GALBPS) was recently defined in the literature. It adds sequence-dependent setup time considerations to the classical Simple Assembly Line Balancing Problem (SALBP) as follows: whenever a task is assigned next to another at the same workstation, a setup time must be added to compute the global workstation time, thereby providing the task sequence inside each workstation. This paper proposes over 50 priority-rule-based heuristic procedures to solve GALBPS, many of which are an improvement upon heuristic procedures published to date.

Estudi bibliomètric primer trimestre 2014. ESAB

El present document recull les publicacions indexades a la base de dades Scopus durant el període comprès entre el mesos de gener a abril de l’any 2014, escrits per autors pertanyents a l’ESAB. Es presenten les dades recollides segons la font on s’ha publicat, els autors que han publicat, i el tipus de document publicat. S’hi inclou un annex amb la llista de totes les referències bibliogràfiques publicades.

Estudi bibliomètric primer trimestre 2014. EETAC

El present document recull les publicacions indexades a la base de dades Scopus durant el període comprès entre el mesos de gener a abril de l’any 2014, escrits per autors pertanyents a l’EETAC. Es presenten les dades recollides segons la font on s’ha publicat, els autors que han publicat, i el tipus de document publicat. S’hi inclou un annex amb la llista de totes les referències bibliogràfiques publicades.

Integració del Racó de l'estudiant a l'entorn Android

El projecte consisteix en integrar les principals funcionalitats del Racó de l'estudiant als dispositius mòbils Android. Concretament, la consulta d'avisos de les assignatures, el correu, l'ocupació de les aules, l'horari personal i l'agenda. Addicionalment, les notícies de la FIB i la localització.

Integració del Racó de l'estudiant a l'entorn Android

El projecte consisteix en integrar les principals funcionalitats del Racó de l'estudiant als dispositius mòbils Android. Concretament, la consulta d'avisos de les assignatures, el correu, l'ocupació de les aules, l'horari personal i l'agenda. Addicionalment, les notícies de la FIB i la localització.

Estudi bibliomètric segon trimestre 2014. ESAB

El present document recull les publicacions indexades a la base de dades Scopus durant el període comprès entre el mesos de maig a setembre de l’any 2014, escrits per autors pertanyents a l’ESAB. Es presenten les dades recollides segons la font on s’ha publicat, els autors que han publicat, i el tipus de document publicat. S’hi inclou un annex amb la llista de totes les referències bibliogràfiques publicades.

Estudi bibliomètric segon trimestre 2014. EETAC

El present document recull les publicacions indexades a la base de dades Scopus durant el període comprès entre el mesos de maig a setembre de l’any 2014, escrits per autors pertanyents a l’EETAC. Es presenten les dades recollides segons la font on s’ha publicat, els autors que han publicat, i el tipus de document publicat. S’hi inclou un annex amb la llista de totes les referències bibliogràfiques publicades.

8 raons per publicar a UPCommons

Infografia que destaca els motius més destacats per publicar els treballs de recerca al dipòsit institucional de la UPC, UPCommons

What is the meaning of ‘talent’ in the world of work?

The ongoing confusion about the meaning of ‘talent’ within the world of work is hindering the establishment of widely accepted talent management theories and practices. The aim of this paper is to contribute to the literature on talent management by offering an in-depth review of the talent concept within the specific context of the world of work, and proposing a framework for its conceptualization. We group different theoretical approaches to talent into ‘object’ (i.e., talent as natural ability; talent as mastery; talent as commitment; talent as fit) versus ‘subject’ approaches (i.e., talent as all people; talent as some people) and identify dynamics existing within and between them, as well as implications for talent management theory and practice. Finally, we discuss different avenues for further research aimed at developing the talent—and consequently, the talent management—construct further.

ORCID

Infografia sobre ORCID.

Setmana d'accés obert 2014

Postprint (published version)

International journal of engineering education

This work presents an analysis of the assessment tools used by professors at the Universitat Politécnica de Catalunya to assess the generic competencies introduced in the Bachelor’s Degrees in Engineering. In order to conduct this study, a survey was designed and administered anonymously to a sample of the professors most receptive to educational innovation at their own university. All total, 80 professors responded to this survey, of whom 26% turned out to be members of the university’s own evaluation innovation group (https://www.upc.edu/rima/grups/grapa), GRAPA. This percentage represents 47% of the total GRAPA membership, meaning that nearly half of the professors most concerned about evaluation at the university chose to participate. The analysis of the variables carried out using the statistical program SPSS v19 shows that for practically 49% of those surveyed, rubrics are the tools most commonly used to assess generic competencies integrated in more specific ones. Of those surveyed, 60% use them either frequently or always. The most frequently evaluated generic competencies were teamwork (28%), problem solving (26%), effective oral and written communication (24%) and autonomous learning (13%), all of which constitute commonly recognized competencies in the engineering profession. A two-dimensional crosstabs analysis with SPSS v19 shows a significant correlation (Asymp. Sig. 0.001) between the type of tool used and the competencies assessed. However, no significant correlation was found between the type of assessment tool used and the type of subject, type of evaluation (formative or summative), frequency of feedback given to the students or the degree of student satisfaction, and thus none of these variables can be considered to have an influence on the kind of assessment tool used. In addition, the results also indicate that there are no significant differences between the instructors belonging to GRAPA and the rest of those surveyed