Demand For Quality Products Research Articles

FORMATION AND TYPES OF ENTERPRISE DEVELOPMENT STRATEGIES IN THE CONDITIONS OF GLOBALIZATION

Nowadays, interest from enterprises in the development strategy is growing rapidly every year. Development of a development strategy and its effective implementation are the basis of the strategic management of each enterprise. Article tasks: define main approaches to business development strategy formation. Methodology: methodological basis includes systemic, replication and dialectic general scientific approaches. Today we live in the century of globalization, in the century of development of high technologies, science and other areas, which affects on conditions of a market economy. The market economy becomes unstable, competition is tightening, consumer demand for product quality is increasing, and therefore an important place in the management of any enterprise who wants to maintain their competitiveness should take the time to develop and implement a competitive strategy focused on the formation of competitive advantages, methods and benefits of competition, which would allow the company to operate in the market for a long time and steadily.

КОНКУРЕНТНИЙ АНАЛІЗ ІНФОРМАЦІЙНОГО БІЗНЕС-СЕРЕДОВИЩА У ЦИФРОВОМУ МАРКЕТИНГУ

КОНКУРЕНТНИЙ АНАЛІЗ ІНФОРМАЦІЙНОГО БІЗНЕС-СЕРЕДОВИЩА У ЦИФРОВОМУ МАРКЕТИНГУ

Assessment of the Korean-Chinese Exports Competition in Sophisticated Markets

Purpose - This paper empirically investigates the competition effect of exports between Korea and China in their common-export markets considering market sophistication. Modern market sophistication includes an importing country’s aggregate demand for products of high quality, design, novelty, eco-friendliness, and even IPR protection. Using an empirical analysis to identify the demand for product quality across countries, this paper estimates the effects of market sophistication on the competition between Korean exports and Chinese products. Design/Methodology - Our empirical model considers the relationship between an importing country’s consumer sophistication and the export competition between Korea and China. This study employs the existing theoretical framework to identify the aggregate demand for product quality across countries. Using a quite direct measurement (the consumer sophistication index, our analysis investigates the differential effects of Korea’s export market sophistication, particularly in markets where Korean exports are in competition with similar Chinese products. Findings - Our main findings can be summarized as follows: the negative effects of the export competition between Korea and China on Korea’s exports are stronger in third markets where consumers are less sophisticated while the effects are not as pronounced in markets where consumers are more sophisticated. This result, however, best applies to differentiated goods which significantly vary in product quality. Originality/value - Existing studies focus on the supply side of production and make the assumption that the market preference for export quality is identical across countries. This paper attempts to evaluate the export competition between Korea and China from the demand-side perspective. This area of trade studies is underexplored both empirically and in theory, although the issue has long been important to Korean and world trade.

Estudio en el Ecuador de la curva de calibración para el conteo total de bacterias por citometría de flujo de leche cruda bovina

La industria láctea en el Ecuador, en respuesta a la demanda social por productos de calidad, implementa programas de control que exigen una mayor aplicación de análisis de laboratorios. Entre ellos, el conteo total de bacterias (CBT), como parámetro de la calidad higiénica en leche cruda es uno de los más requeridos. Sin embargo, el método de referencia por conteo en placas presenta algunas limitaciones, principalmente en cuanto tiempo de entrega de resultados. La citometría de flujo es un método analítico rápido que permite el conteo de poblaciones bacterianas a través del Conteo Individual de Bacterias (IBC/ml). El objetivo del presente estudio fue determinar la ecuación de regresión lineal entre el método de referencia y el método alternativo por citometría de flujo. Fueron utilizadas 357 muestras de leche con rangos entre 100.000 a 1,5 millones de UFC/ml provenientes de dos pisos altitudinales: Zona 1 (Z1) (>3000 msnm) y Zona 2 (Z2) (1050 msnm). Los resultados mostraron una alta correlación entre los métodos (r = 0,91). Fue definida la ecuación lineal para la curva de calibración del Bactoscan FC para el conteo total de bacterias con expresión de resultados en UFC/ml. Al no encontrar diferencias estadísticas significativas, el efecto por zonas (Z1 y Z2) no fue considerado, sugiriendo el uso de una única ecuación.

Urbanization as a challenge for the food safety of a country

Actuality of the research topic. A number of global trends affects food supply and consumption, as well as food security in the world. The main one is the growth of the world population primarily in emerging countries and urbanization of the population. Accordingly, the topic of food security in the context of urbanization becomes highly relevant. Problem statement. It should be noted, that urbanization changes the quantity and structure of food products, increases the demand for quality products, impacts on food security and economic security of the country in general. Review of recent research and publications. Urbanization is a very complex subject; so many well-known foreign and domestic scientists from different fields of science have studied various aspects of urbanization. At the same time, the vast majority of publications are mostly theoretical and cover the demographic and geographical aspects of urban processes, while the issues of economic analysis and the impact of urbanization on food security remain inadequately studied. Task statement, research methods. The article aims to study the process of urbanization in the world and in Ukraine, as well as to identify the impact of urban processes on the economic development of countries and food security in order to develop recommendations on prospects and opportunities for Ukraine. Presentation of the main material (results of work). The paper describes the main processes of urbanization, which take place in different countries and in the world as a whole, as well as in Ukraine. The influence of urbanization processes on the economic development of the countries is determined, namely, that the countries with high level of urbanization have high economic development and accordingly the high Gross National Product per capita. It has been discovered, that urbanization also affects the food security of countries, as the number of urban population increases, the structure of consumer products changes, and the demand for food increases as well. Summary. Urbanization represents both a challenge and an opportunity for the development of agriculture, as well as food security. Urbanization provides opportunities for Ukraine in the face of growing demand for food, to improve its export potential.

Guest Satisfaction and Revisit Intention of Muslim Friendly Hotels in Malaysia

The hotel industry has remained one of the most competitive industries in the 21st century, and there is a great deal of study being done on guest satisfaction and the consequent effects it has on guest loyalty and financial performance. Many studies have demonstrated that hoteliers that have more satisfied guests experience higher guest loyalty and perform better financially compared to their competitors, ensuring continuity of their business in the long term. The overwhelming demand for quality products and services among Muslim travelers in recent years has led to the establishment of Muslim Friendly Hotels (MFH) in Malaysia and other Muslim countries. It is widely believed that Muslims perceive Islam as something more than just a religion - it is a way of life. Hence, the religion shapes their consumption behavior even during travel. Currently, very little research has examined the influence of satisfaction on revisit intention among guests staying at MFH, specifically in Malaysia. Preliminary findings from a survey of hotel guests indicate that there is a significant relationship between guest satisfaction and revisit intention, which further explains the importance of desirable hotel attributes in influencing hotel selection and a guest’s experience.

A Quality Function Deployment-Based Expert System for Cotton Fibre Selection

The textile industries have seen resurgence in customers’ demand for quality products during the preceding few years. This product range is extremely varied, with hand-spun and hand-woven products at one end of the spectrum, while products manufactured from the capital intensive sophisticated machineries at the other end. Since, cotton fibres are predominantly employed as the raw material for manufacturing these products, their proper selection is crucial for sustainable development of the textile/spinning industries. However, availability of numerous cotton fibre alternatives with various physical properties makes this selection process unwieldy and time consuming. Thus, there is need for a structured approach that can incorporate customers’ demand into the selection process. This paper demonstrates the application of a structured and logical procedure of selecting the best cotton fibre type to fulfill a set of specified end product requirements through design and development of a quality function deployment (QFD)-based expert system. The QFD technique is employed here to provide due importance to the customers’ spoken and unspoken needs, and subsequently calculate the priority weights of the considered cotton fibre properties. Two real time illustrative examples are presented to explicate the applicability and potentiality of the developed expert system to resolve cotton fibre selection problems.

State of the Art Technology in Slab Continuous Casting:

Over the last 50 years, numerous slab continuous casters have been widely installed all over the world to take advantage of the enhanced productivity, yield, energy efficiency, and cost efficiency. To meet a variety of product quality demands from the steel market, the slab continuous casting process has been diversified into several types. In the 1960s, 200–300 mm thickness slab casters opened the continuous casting era by substituting the ingot process widely applied at that time, and now the major part of slab production is for the hot strip rolling. The thick slab of 400–600 mm thickness casting process with a casting speed range of 0.2–0.6 m/min was introduced to guarantee the internal quality of heavy gauge plates for the energy industry and shipbuilding applications. For the ultra-thick, over 600 mm, the semi-continuous casting technology with a casting speed of 0.05–0.2 m/min has been developed as an alternative way to replace the ingot process, with higher yield and productivity compared to the case of the ingot process.

Model-based description of arc length as a synergetic system parameter in pulsed GMAW

Gas metal arc welding demonstrates a dynamic and inherently stochastic process behavior. Interdependencies of machine setup and process boundary conditions and the resulting process and weld product qualities are complex in nature, as the optimization of GMAW processes with regard to product quality demands expert knowledge. This work introduces a practical approach of mapping the arc length as a physical key process variable to the most influential pulsed GMAW setup parameters by means of generation and application of statistical process models. It further describes the necessary steps, including the determination of certain investigated variables, generating a statistical reasonable design of experiment and the actual model calculation and evaluation. Furthermore, field test evaluations of derived statistical models have been discussed, proving a successful statistical model generation process.

A new project management approach for R&D software projects in the automotive industry - continuous V-model

Most current work activities in R&D centres are innovative and dynamic, with project management acting as the discipline that governs them. The improvement of PM methods has become a necessity due to the following main factors: classical methodologies are increasingly difficult to apply, cutbacks in project duration are requested by organisations and customers, demands for product quality are continuously expanding. The paper examines how PM concepts are used in developed R&D projects, based on the V-model approach. It also introduces an enhanced new approach called Continuous V-model - CVM, based on agile concepts. The model has been applied on a real automotive R&D project and the resulted KPIs have been benchmarked to the standard approach on a similar project. The main result of this research is an incremental PM concept that may easily include changes requested by the customer, reducing development time and number of errors in the final delivered package.

State regulation of organic products market in Russia

The organic products market and the demand for quality products in the world are growing rapidly. In Russia it is only being formed. The European Union has an efficiently functioning system for regulating the production and use of organic products. The purpose of the study was to compare the current European and domestic legislation in the field of organic agriculture to develop proposals for the further improvement of domestic legislation, which will contribute to the development of the organic products market. The author used methods: abstract-logical, analysis, comparison, induction, deduction, monographic. As a result of the research, the author came to the following conclusions: at present, the regulatory and legal system for regulating the organic products market in Russia is a set of laws, standards, requirements not only Russian but also international. It includes both special legal acts and general economic ones, as well as federal as well as regional ones. Formation of the legal field in this area occurs during the economic crisis, sanctions and unsanctions, the country's membership in the WTO, etc. On how quickly its completion will depend on the position of Russia in the international organic market. In Russia there is still no law coordinating organic production. Adoption of the law on the production and circulation of organic products will ensure the development of ecological farming, as well as the production of quality and safe food. The development of forms and methods of state regulation of the organic products market will create conditions for the evolution of organic farming and farming in Russia, which will ensure that not only citizens of the country will be provided with environmentally friendly products, but will also provide an opportunity for domestic organizations to become full-fledged players on the international organic market. The results obtained by the author, in the future can be used by market participants of organic products in practice and the government in the development of special laws and by-laws.

Investigation of the Effects of Smart Ultrasound Wave on Surface Roughness during Turning Operation of Mild Steel

Turning is one of the most widely accepted metal cutting processes in manufacturing industry. Due to global competitiveness, there is an increasing demand for product quality. Surface roughness represents the dimensional accuracy of the finished product and is one of the most important quality requirements of the finished product. Surface roughness is generally detrimental to the efficient performance of machined parts, especially where relative motion between parts is concerned. In this paper, a new novel technique has been proposed and adopted with an aim to reduce surface roughness of the machined surface. External ultrasonic sound waves were applied during the turning process of mild steel and its effect on surface quality was studied. Detailed experimentations were carried out under different ultrasonic frequencies to determine the effective frequency range which optimizes surface roughness to the best degree possible. The experimental results showed significant improvements in surface roughness in machined products. In addition to these, the effect of orientation of the application of the ultrasonic sound waves and the amplitude of the waves were studied in detail.

Synthesis of mass exchange networks for single and multiple periods of operations considering detailed cost functions and column performance

Mass exchange network synthesis (MENS) can be used to reduce pollutant emissions into the environment as well as reduce the need for mass separating agents (MSAs). Designing an efficient network using mathematical programming is not a trivial task, due to the fact that the design equations involved are highly non-linear. Chemical plant process parameters also change from time to time due to issues such as changes in environmental conditions, plant start-up/shut-downs, changes in process feed quality, change in product quality demand, and some other disturbance in the system. Such changes in process parameters result in what is known as multi-period operations; hence the synthesised network has to be flexible to handle these changes. In order to circumvent the issues associated with solving non-linear equations in mathematical programming environment, most methods have simplified the cost functions for MENS. Solutions obtained from these methods may not be realistic because the simplified cost functions are based on the assumption that the diameter of a column is 1m or 2m and that the capital cost of packed columns are dependent only on the height of the column. The simplified models do not make provision to check whether the resulting designs are prone to flooding, operate at optimal pressure drops or even whether the ratio of column diameter to size of packing materials would enhance efficient operations. Furthermore the models assumed single period operations for mass exchange network systems. This paper presents a new synthesis method for single and multi-period MENS using detailed cost functions and correlations which check whether selected columns are prone to flooding or not and whether they have optimal pressure drops that ensure efficient separations as well as optimal use of MSAs. The solutions obtained are compared with an existing method that used pinch technology.

Simultaneous synthesis of flexible heat exchanger networks for unequal multi-period operations

The synthesis of heat exchanger networks has received significant attention in the last four decades due to the rising cost of fossil based energy sources and their attendant greenhouse gas emissions potential. However, most of the methods presented in the literature for heat exchanger network synthesis (HENS) have assumed that plants’ process stream parameters, such as supply/target temperatures and stream flowrates, are fixed, hence having a single period of operation. In reality, process parameters vary within certain ranges due to changes in environmental conditions, changes in product quality demand, plant start-ups/shut-downs, and other disturbances which may upset the system. This implies that plants need to be designed to accommodate the aforementioned potential variations in operating parameters. This paper presents a new 3-step approach for the synthesis of flexible heat exchanger networks for multi-period operations with unequal period durations. The first step entails optimising a representative single period network of the multi-period problem. The solution to the representative network is then used to initialise the multi-period network in the second step. In the third step, the resulting network from the second step is redesigned/evaluated to handle unforeseen changes in lengths of periods. The solutions obtained from the newly presented method compare favourably with those in the literature.

Competitive Intelligence and Performance of Selected Aluminium Manufacturing Firms in Anambra State, Nigeria

The seemingly decreased competitive intelligence awareness among Aluminium firms in Anambra State appear to have caused some companies’ management uninformed of a real-time view of what their competitors are doing, product’ pricing and slow response to customers’ demand for quality products and services offered in the market. Consequently, this study determined the relationship between competitive intelligence and performance of selected manufacturing firms in Anambra State. Specifically, it ascertained the type of relationship between competitor pricing and customer retention. Correlation survey design was used in the study. Data were analyzed using Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient which established the type of relationship between the dependent and independent variables. The findings of the study revealed that competitor pricing has significant positive relationship with customer retention. It is therefore recommended that firms should strive for competitive advantage over their rivals by applying an appropriate pricing strategy which enhances fair pricing dimensions of their products.

Reduction of energy consumption in batch fluidized bed layering granulation processes by temporal separation

Nowadays demands for product quality and energy efficiency are increasing due to ongoing industrial development and rising costs of resources. In case of fluidized bed layering granulation profitability mainly depends on the total energy input required for fluidization, evaporation of the sprayed liquid and drying, in balance with product quality and process efficiency. This paper is focuses on temporal separation of process steps like growth and liquid evaporation as one way of intensification of batch processing. In order to optimize both sub-processes, granulation and particle drying, are operated alternating by switching the spraying rate and other process parameters.In order to obtain the required data, experimental and model based investigations for different parameter configurations are performed. The analysis of results is carried out in comparison to a benchmark case, for batch operation this comparison is based either on equal process time or product quality. The results show significant advantages of temporal separation in batch processes with respect to energy consumption while conserving product quality.

Contributions to the Analysis and the Supervision of a Thermal Power Plant

Supervision systems play an important role in industry mainly due to the increasing demand for product quality and high efficiency, and to the growing integration of automatic control systems in technical processes. In fact, the supervision system has a great number of components and interconnections, and it is difficult to describe and understand its behavior. Furthermore, the supervision system in industrial plants, implemented in supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) software, must undertake, at least, the following three main tasks: monitoring, control and fault tolerance. So it can be classified as a complex system. The objective of this paper is to show interests of the use of functional analysis techniques such as SADT (Structured Analysis and Design Technique) and SA-RT (Structured Analysis Real Time) for the design of supervisory systems. This is why we present a general model of analysis and supervision of production systems. This model was based on the one hand on the functional analysis (FA) and on the other hand on the SCADA system.

Investigations of Flow Pattern in the SEN Regarding Different Stopper Rod Geometries

Due to an ever-increasing demand for product quality, a comprehensive understanding of the flow behavior of molten steel inside the continuous casting process is necessary. To investigate flow phenomena in a CSP-mold, a 1:1 water model corresponding to a continuous casting plant with tundish, stopper rod, SEN, and mold is used. In the present study the flow at the SEN entry section was investigated regarding different stopper rod tips and volume flows as well as the connected influences to the mold flow. To identify the influence of the stopper tip designs to the flow inside the SEN, the industrial used elliptical stopper tip was compared with two different tip geometries which are conical and spherical. For the investigations the Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) has been applied. The average velocity, the turbulent kinetic energy, and the pressure distribution inside the SEN are highly influenced by the stopper tip geometry. For different configurations of stopper tips as well as different volume flows absolutely different flow patterns are measured. Furthermore the obtained velocity fields inside the mold potentially give the information that the flow arising there is influenced by the shape of the stopper tip.

The joint influence that service cost and product architecture exert on sequential innovation decisions

Different product architecture requires different methods of sequential innovation. Hence, firms make sequential innovation decisions based on both pricing and product architecture. As consumers become familiar with product development paths and with an increasing demand for product quality, some customers (quality-concerned strategic customers) prefer to wait for product quality improvement before purchase. In some industries, service cost, the cost of providing product and service support, is extremely high, but is frequently ignored. Therefore, based on extant research, we investigate the innovator's sequential innovation decisions, and investigate the effect service costs exerted on sequential innovation through mathematic modelling and numerical analysis.

Weld Quality Prediction Using Artificial Intelligence Technique

Decision-making process in manufacturing environment is increasingly difficult due to the rapid changes in design and demand of quality products. To make decision making process online, effective and efficient artificial intelligent tools like neural networks are being attempted. Usually, the desired welding parameters are determined using traditional methods like welder’s experiences, charts and handbooks (preferred values) which are simple and inexpensive. But this does not ensure that the selected welding parameters result in satisfactory welding and this method is not applicable to new welding process. To overcome this problem, various methods of obtaining the desired output variables through models to correlate input variables with output variables have been developed. Fractional factorial techniques, Mathematical modeling, curvilinear regression equations, linear regression equations, response surface methodology, finite element modeling, grey-based Taguchi method and sensitivity analysis were used to model SAW process. These methods are limited in application due to difficulties in modeling, time consuming and cumbersome. Due to the inadequacy and inefficiency of the mathematical models to explain the nonlinear properties existing between the input and output parameters of welding lead to the development of intelligent modeling techniques. Precise simulation and analysis of the process needs attention which helps to predict the wide variety of process parameters to set the factory floor in real time. The type of artificial intelligence capable of responding to changes in the automated manufacturing environment, and having the ability to capture vast manufacturing knowledge isAdaptive Neuro Fuzzy Inference System (ANFIS). It is becoming widely used in all aspects of manufacturing process to assist humans. Realizing that matter, ANFIS a state of the art artificial intelligent method, has the possibility to enhance the prediction of weld quality to find the best combination of independent variables which is welding current (I), speed (S) and welding voltage (V) as the input variables in order to achieve desired weld quality. Thus, the main objectives of this project is to develop ANFIS model to predict weld quality.