Tom 31 (2023): Zeszyt 1 (March 2023)

The objective of this article is to show that project management practices present key success factors for implemented a Quality Management System (QMS) in Moroccan companies. In general, the organizations seem to look at the implementation of a quality management system as a project and they employ standard project management tools, albeit to a different extent and in different ways. Following a qualitative study in Morocco, the companies, whatever their sector of activity and size, use different practices in the framework of the project QMS. Information was collected from practicing managers. The data analysis shows that project management practices present a great opportunity for the successful implementation of QMS within Moroccan companies.

Over the last decades, thanks to the increased pressure to reduce cost and to be more responsive to customer demands as well as improving continuously to the value provided to them, the business has been motivated for managing their operation responsibly in regards to the economical, environmental and social aspects as well. In order to fulfill this mission, encouraged companies and researchers have been finding ways to meet customer demands and sustainable requirements. Lean is one of the systematic approaches to achieving higher value for organizations by eliminating non-value-added activities. Through a case study, the research aims is to present the effectiveness of sustainable improvement on economic, social, and environmental improvement from the perspective of Lean practices. The analysis of the day-to-day Lean practices experience in a case study a good experience for enterprises in desiring applies Lean for sustainable development, can be extremely effective at developing management techniques to achieving sustainable improvement.

Currently, the development of information technology in all fields is very rapid, including in the manufacturing sector, thus making the social environment of manufacturing change a lot. Traditional manufacturing research focuses on applying technology, such as production models, supplier arrangements, automation, advanced machines in the manufacturing industry, etc. Global competition and increasingly diverse customer demands are a phenomenon that occurs today. Social manufacturing is a new distributed, collaborative, and intelligent manufacturing, that every consumer can participate in the entire process of product design, manufacture, and even marketing. This study aims to examine the development of social manufacturing systems and the latest research in social manufacturing. The method used is to review the latest papers related to social manufacturing that provide a new paradigm for the manufacturing industry, then map based on the concepts, frameworks, and technologies used. The results of this review paper are in the form of mapping research papers taken from the database of a reputable international journal, Scopus. The mapping includes data on the author, co-author, terms on social manufacturing paper, year of publication, type of document and publisher. This systematic literature review can be one of the references for basic research on social manufacturing.

In the Fourth Industrial Revolution, 4IR, manufacturing firms face more competitive environments, rapidly changing information and communication technologies (ICTs), and customers’ preferences than ever before. This paper analyzes relevant literature and proposes a systemic customer-centric knowledge-based production value chain (KPVC) to leverage distinctive core competencies (DCCs) and create sustainable competitive advantage (SCA) in manufacturing contexts. The paper introduces an integrative customer-centric KPVC model that enables companies to respond to environmental drivers, leverage DCCs, and create SCA. It adopts an exploratory approach to developing a unified and inherently interdisciplinary model based on a review of relevant scholarly literature. The KPVC integrated model comprises production value chain (PVC), knowledge management (KM) processes, and business process re-engineering (BPR) enabling activities. A successful move to KPVC requires a fully integrated and automated system allowing firms to define, track, and manage their work processes. Effective KPVC is a principal approach for leveraging DCCs in the quest for achieving SCA in today’s competitive business world and generating better values for customers and companies.

Based on social network theory, the study explained the digital transformation process of startups in Vietnam during the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. The study examined the relationship between social capital, human capital, access to resources, and digital transformation of startups in Vietnam. The study used Partial Least Squares - Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) with a sample size of 230 startups managers. The results show that there are positive and statistically significant relationships between social capital, human capital, access to resources, and digital transformation. The results also reveal the partial mediating roles of access to resources and human capital in the relationship between social capital and digital transformation. The results proposed some managerial implications for startups managers in building relationship networks with stakeholders such as government agencies and business partners (customers, competitors, suppliers, and providers of digital platform services). Through managers' social capital, accessible resources and the improvement of human capital have accelerated digital transformation for startups to escape the crisis of the COVID-19 pandemic. Finally, the study presented some limitations and directions for further research.

The authors main idea is to build energy plus buildings by means of architectural processes to design passive houses according to the Darmstadt Standard with additional equipment powered by renewable energy. The article presents a comparative financial analysis of passive house buildings with an additional source of power to charge electric cars in Poland and the United States. The analysis is based on market data while also taking into consideration inflation and increases in energy costs. The methodology is based on the calculations required by USA banks for obtaining credit. The emphasis is also on the distinction between commonly used term passive house and the term passive house in accordance with the Darmstadt Standard. The authors are introducing a new terminology to define buildings wrongly named as “passive”. Now Authors will name them Pseudo-Passive Buildings. The research shows that it is profitable to construct nearly zero-energy buildings with photovoltaic installation and the discounted rate on return of investment does not exceed the mortgage length.

The issue of ensuring work safety during the use of machines plays a key role due to the recorded accident events, the source of which are the machines in use. In the scope of reducing the risk associated with machines, particular attention should be paid to the threats, as well as solutions allowing to limit their negative impact on the operator. The study presents the possibility of using visual management (VM) as a form of information transfer that allows to meet the requirements set out in legal regulations, as well as reduce the risk of accidents. The machines in question were assessed for the possibility of using various forms of visual management to reduce the risk of accidents. The investigations were also supplemented with an analysis of accident statistics to present the importance of using visual management in improving the safety of machine operators' work. The conducted analyzes allowed to determine the direction of activities in the use of various forms of visual management aimed at improving the safety of machine operators.

Peru has a diversity of exotic fruits and plants with recognized yields for food and health protection. Nectars are highly consumed food products, made from fruits or vegetables. The objective for the present work was to carry out the technical study of the installation of a watercress nectar processor to reduce anemia in adults; identify the demand, technical requirements for the operation and profitability of the processing facilities. Methodology. The analytical-synthetic method was used; The population of the target market was analyzed, the size of the sample was determined with the coefficient of variation method, (n = 384), the instrument used was the survey; the technical, economic-financial study was carried out. The results were the growth in the demand for nectars of 59.82%, with respect to the economic-financial evaluation, it has been shown that the results are satisfactory for the installation of the plant, with the economic and financial IRR, both rates proving to be attractive. for the project. From the projected income statement for the 2021-2025 period, it can be deduced that for 2025 there was a net profit of S/316,971.39. Other indicators such as the economic and financial NPV, the B/C ratio and the PRI that were satisfactory for the Project, making its execution viable. The conclusion this study was the technical study for the installation of a nectar processing plant to reduce anemia in adults in Lima, which was viable in terms of operation and profitability, taking advantage of its healing and nutritional properties.

In connection with the increase in the price of fuel based on hydrocarbons, the search and use of alternative types of fuel for machines in the mining and oil production industry is quite relevant today. Most of the existing alternative fuels by themselves cannot be considered as ready-to-use motor fuels. One of the ways to solve this problem is to use their mixtures with commercial fuels in certain ratios. This work deals with the development and research of the main characteristics of the mixer for obtaining mixed fuels based on diesel fuel and soybean oil, as well as the results of the study of the physical and operational properties of the obtained mixtures of different volume ratios of diesel fuel and soybean oil. The process of obtaining a mixed alternative fuel based on diesel fuel and soybean oil was implemented on a developed installation consisting of a mixer, the design of which is protected by a patent of Ukraine, and a gear pump. The study of the characteristics of the mixer as part of the installation showed that at a temperature of the components of the alternative fuel of 20°С, with a loss of full pressure on the mixer Δр ≈ (60-65) kPa, the volume consumption of soybean oil reached 10.7.10-6 m3/s. The time of preparation of the fuel mixture in the amount of 195 liters with a content of soybean oil of 10% ranged from 30 to 33 minutes. As research has shown, mixing soybean oil with diesel fuel in the amount of 5-50% vol. provides an improvement in viscosity-temperature properties and makes it possible to use such mixtures in diesel engines without changes in the design of the power supply system and regulation of fuel equipment, which characterizes soybean oil as a promising additive to diesel fuels to improve their technical and operational performance.

The material fatigue phenomenon consists of progressive material damage through the appearance and development of fractures under the influence of variable, periodically recurring stresses. Engineers designing machinery and structures to be fatigue resistant can gain useful insights about design and material properties by reviewing the literature. In this way, we can avoid costly research, but in the case of complex loading phenomena and the interaction of components, we must carry out such research. Fatigue strength calculations are less accurate than simple static calculations. The wear of link chains is concentrated in three areas, depending on the installation location and function of the individual links, namely: in the joints (the points of contact between two links), on the outer surfaces of the arches and on the outer surfaces of the straight sections of the links. During operation, chains are particularly vulnerable to wear through abrasion, corrosion and fatigue. These ageing factors, which act with varying intensity depending on the properties of the deposit, determine the service life of the chain, unless other unforeseen damage occurs, e.g. "hard" blockage of the chain. In many cases, users are guided by their own subjective criteria for assessing the technical condition of chains, which does not always lead to fully rational decisions regarding the continued use of used chains. To date, there have been no attempts to transfer the results of chain fatigue tests to behaviour of real objects. This paper presents issues related to mining chain fatigue testing. The test results presented are for both new and used chains. The experimental tests conducted at GIG made it possible to solve the problem of applying fatigue test results in industrial practice.

The presented article deals with the use and evaluation of individual risks of work in the environment of Slovak mining company. The mining company is also a manufacturing company. The company mines the raw material and the final product (clinker). The main goal of the article is to monitor the incidence of accidents over the last 10 years, to analyse the group of risks that have a significant impact on accidents in mining companies and to evaluate them. The Risk Matrix, shows the relationship between estimated consequences and probability of risks formation. The next step is to use the workplace Risk Assessment Method to define acceptable risks and minimize the impact on workers. Another method we used is the Fault Tree Analysis (FTA) model. The output of the FTA model is the creation of a faulty tree, which resulted in the individual traumatized accidents that resulted in the definition of the resulting risk - namely a load injury.

Recent months have highlighted the progressing energy crisis across Europe in connection with the severe sanctions imposed on the import of hydrocarbons and coal from Russia. This is particularly visible in Poland, where over 40% of electricity is generated from coal, while in individual households it is the primary source of heat. This situation puts the already enigmatic plans of shutting down coal mining in Poland into question. Therefore, work aimed at increasing the extraction capacity of existing shafts while maintaining the highest level of operational safety is still valid. This article concerns the issues of the fatigue life of compacted ropes used as hoist ropes in mine shafts. The discussion regarding the use of these ropes among shaft hoist users has been going on for several years. This paper presents the unique results of compacted rope fatigue tests carried out at the Central Mining Institute in Katowice. In the authors’ view, these results and their interpretation should serve to clarify several important aspects that arouse the interest of users.