Advanced models of quality function deployment: a literature review

In this paper, a literature review conducted to study the characteristics of advanced models of quality function deployment (QFD) that have appeared in the literature arena is reported. QFD technique emerged in Japan in the 1970s. QFD has been proving to be a powerful tool that can be used for translating the voice of customers into technical languages. Yet from the beginning of this century, researchers began to point out the need to refine, modify and improve the features of QFD technique. In order to fulfil this need, few researchers brought out several advanced models of QFD. While conducting the literature review reported in this paper, six types of such advanced models of QFD were identified in the literature arena and their characteristics were studied. The result of this study revealed that the procedural and computational complexities are least in the case of an advanced model called total quality function deployment (TQFD). TQFD technique replaces the complex computations involved in applying conventional QFD technique with simple ratings. Besides the formation of teams to translate the voice of customers into work instructions ensures the quick reactions to the customers’ desires in the actual field of implementation. In this background, at end of this paper, it is suggested to adopt TQFD for implementation in traditional organizations in which the prevalence of adequate education for adopting complex procedures is found to be least.     

Nowcasting the French index of industrial production: A comparison from bridge and factor models

Governments and central banks need to have an accurate and timely assessment of indicators for the current month, as this is essential for providing a reliable and early analysis of the current economic situation. The index of industrial production (IIP) is probably the most important and widely analyzed monthly indicator, given the relevance of the manufacturing activity as a driver of the whole business cycle. This paper presents a series of models conceived to forecast the current French monthly IIP, based on regression models and dynamic factor models. The combination of these two approaches allows selecting economically relevant explanatory variables among a large data set. In addition, a rolling forecast study is carried out to assess the forecasting performance of the estimated models, using predictive ability and model confidence set tests. This latter allows getting several models displaying equivalent forecasting performance and therefore gives robustness to the forecasting exercise rather than to base the forecasting analysis only on one model.     

Economic efficiency of synthetic motor fuels from natural gas

In this paper we study alternative ways to meet the demand for motor fuels growing in connection with the inevitable rise in oil prices over the next decade or two. One of these is to use natural gas as a motor fuel and as a raw material for synthetic motor oils. Calculation results of the comparative effectiveness of the gas-to-liquids (GTL) technology of motor fuel production from natural gas are presented. It is shown that these technologies look economically promising in countries, which have their own sources of natural gas, especially in small and remote gas fields.     

ACCI Memorial Paper: The Scholarly Legacy of E. Scott Maynes

This paper honors E. Scott Maynes, who died on June 24, 2007 and had been a professor emeritus in the Department of Policy Analysis and Management at Cornell University. The paper describes Scott's scholarly legacy in research, highlighting four areas: survey research methods, research using data from Surveys of Consumer Finances, Scott's studies of local consumer markets, and two significant books Scott Maynes authored. The author of this memorial paper concludes that Scott's scholarly legacy is neither a new theory nor a new statistical technique but the importance of vision, passion, perseverance, commitment, and creativity for the applied social science researcher.     

Perceived justice of service recovery strategies: Impact on customer satisfaction and quality relationship

This article aims to build on previous research analyzing the effects of perceived justice on customers' satisfaction with service recovery and the attitudinal consequences of the recovery strategies firms adopt after service failures occur. The results obtained from a conceptual model developed for the mobile‐phone sector support the idea that justice perceptions positively influence satisfaction with service recovery. Other findings are that satisfaction with service recovery positively affects trust and commitment, and that these two variables, in turn, positively affect overall customer satisfaction. Finally, the results also suggest that positive past experiences mitigate the effects of inadequate service recovery strategies on the quality of the relationship with the customers. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Downsizing in the German chemical manufacturing industry during the 1990s. Why is small beautiful?

The German chemical manufacturing industry experienced major downsizing between 1992 and 2004, with the average size of firms shrinking by nearly half during this period. This study uses modern frontier efficiency analysis to investigate the determinants of this downsizing. Based on reliable census data, the results of this analysis suggest that firms were not primarily concerned with improving technical efficiency, but with establishing an optimal scale of production. The proportion of scale-efficient firms has been persistently increasing, and downsizing is found to be a rational conduct because all scale-inefficient firms have continually operated under the decreasing returns portion of technology.     

Interrelations between the dynamics of oil prices and demand: Contemporary characteristics

The article shows that the unprecedented rise in oil prices was in recent years accompanied by an increase in oil consumption. The author considers the growth that was seen in the magnitude of oil sales despite multiple increases in price to be, along with the buying up of oil as a high liquidity asset, a phenomenon that indicates an approaching crisis and allows us to create new approaches to its forecasting.     

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Schlafst?rungen vorbeugen - Oft sind Schlafst?rungen Bestandteil psychischer, organischer oder neurologisch degenerativer Erkrankungen. Sie k?nnen aber auch die Folge falschen Verhaltens oder ungemessener Schlafbedingungen sein. Also: Was f?rdert gesunden Schlaf, was behindert ihn?     

Housing sector as an important factor of economic recovery and formation of medium-term economic dynamics

Motives of reduction of credit financing sources for housing construction under conditions of financial and economic crisis are analyzed in the paper, and a set of centralized measures for attracting investments to this sphere for restoration of volumes of housing starts is proposed.