Rui M Sousa

• Doctor of Engineering
• Professor (Associate) at University of Minho

Purpose This study aims to identify the perception of people in a Portuguese company regarding the main barriers to the effectiveness of the existing performance measurement system (PMS) and whether those perceptions are dependent of people’s hierarchical levels, education levels, work shifts, gender and department. Design/methodology/approach Pri...

This paper aims to identify the main performance measurement systems (PMSs) documented in the literature and assess their ability to overcome/mitigate a set of 19 specific barriers (identified in a previous paper) to their effectiveness. It also aims to understand what makes each PMS capable of or not capable of dealing with these barriers (i.e., w...

The fourth industrial revolution brings many opportunities for the exploration of new business models, based on increasing digitalization that ultimately enables the prediction of the behavior of systems. Several challenges may be identified in the Industrial Management (IM) field. One of the most relevant is the opportunity to deal with real-time...

The main purpose of this paper is to show that if three specific contextual factors are present in a company, it is possible to achieve great performance improvements with a lean and industry 4.0 implementation. In terms of research methods, a case study was carried out of a project to implement digitalization and Lean practices in a cutlery compan...

In many organizations, it is common to find performance measurement systems (PMS) whose practical utility turns out to be very limited due to several factors/barriers. The purpose of this paper is to identify and categorize the main barriers to the effectiveness of PMS, and to explore how they can be eliminated or, at least, how their impact can be...

The implementation of an effective performance measurement system (PMS) is essential in organizations seeking continuous improvement and sustainability, especially in the context of Industry 4.0. However, a number of barriers/obstacles hampers this effectiveness. For example, the inclusion of performance indicators without practical use, or present...

Over the years several Virtual Reality- (VR) and Augmented Reality- (AR) based learning environments have been proposed. However, they are usually built for a specified scenario and possess a very limited set of configurations. Moreover, the proposed solutions are designed solely to VR- or AR-based learning environments and only a few propose solut...

Purpose: This article aims to present successful practices in the management of training processes based on virtual reality and augmented reality, namely a strategy for evaluating the process with the principle of continuous improvement in mind, and monitoring its performance in terms of productivity and waste levels. It is proposed to apply Statis...

The era of Industry 4.0 (I4.0) requires technology and engineering higher education institutions to provide their students with the competences inherent to this evolution. This requires teaching staff training, but first, naturally, teachers' level of competences must be assessed. The objective of this work is to assess the current level of teachin...

Since 1990, attempts to implement lean, especially by production companies, have grown in number and depth. With the publication of the book Lean Thinking, lean projects quickly spread to other activity sectors, but achieving success in such implementations is not something that can be easily accomplished. Research is in progress to identify why so...

Training operators in industrial contexts is a demand that most of the industrial organizations must deal with, and engineers are the trainers in many cases. Thus, engineers may be required to deal with the development of a training environment and a competences assessment system in training settings. This paper aims to characterize strategies for...

It is usual that companies must develop their own training processes, adaptable to their own production systems. In fact, the evaluation of the training process is a function of significant importance and must guarantee means for the identification of demands for corrective actions and for a procedure that ensures the continuous evolution of the pr...

In many areas, there is a multitude of terms/designations and definitions for the same concept, leading thus to misunderstanding. This also occurs with the designated Lean Production, which started to be known as a “thing” from the shop floor. However, it was quickly realized that it is much more than that (and should be understood as much more), o...

The number of publications on improving office and knowledge work processes is quite low compared to the vast body of published work regarding the improvement of production processes. In fact, the very definition of the office and knowledge work concept is not consensual. Besides a discussion on this concept, this paper aims to present a straightfo...

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the relevance of Lean Thinking principles implementation around the world, both in industry and services, based on the growing number of published case studies and surveys. A comprehensive review has been conducted on case studies and surveys published between 1990 and 2018 describing Lean Production/Thinking...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to compare the well-known value stream mapping (VSM) with a recent tool named waste identification diagram (WID), regarding the capacity of information representation and easiness of interpretation. Design/methodology/approach The work begins with a brief literature review comparing the main tools for represent...

An ongoing study about what motivates/demotivates students of an Industrial Engineering and Management (IEM) program will be introduced. The reasons behind students’ choice and the main factors that motivate/demotivate them, throughout the different years, will be explored. This study is part of a longitudinal one based on information from IEM stud...

It is expected that engineering students develop both technical and transversal competences for the professional practice during their initial training period. The development of such competences can benefit from the interaction with real industrial contexts. Since project-based learning is an educational approach in which teams of students can tac...

Active learning strategies have gained relevance in the context of Higher Education Institutions. This growing relevance is due to the fact that there is evidence that these strategies, in addition to being more appealing, are also more effective, resulting in deeper learning. In the context of active learning, one of the most used approaches in En...

Modern day engineering practitioners are required to be skilful and knowledgeable in Lean Manufacturing, so that a mindset of perfection and efficiency is effectively established to foster competitive and mature industries. The alignment of what the universities teach and what the industries need, should be ceaselessly pursued so that the right pro...

The development of projects in industrial context constitutes an exceptional opportunity for engineering students to develop competences expected by the labour market. Therefore, the adoption of this type of interaction within engineering curricula is highly recommended, not only at the end of the degree, but also in the previous years. The main pu...

Higher education institutions have been responding to challenges that have led to a transformation of educational practices, particularly towards the implementation of active learning strategies, in order to create meaningful teaching and learning experiences, with increasingly more autonomous, cooperative and motivated students. In the particular...

Purpose: Project-Based Learning (PBL) is considered to be an active learning methodology which can be used to develop both technical and transversal competences in engineering programs. This methodology demands a great deal of work effort from the students and also from the teachers and it requires a meticulous plan and a well-managed project as we...

Value Stream Mapping (VSM) is a very popular tool in lean environments to represent production flows, mapping value stream of a product or family of products, and helps to identify some types of waste. Although very popular, this tool has some limitations as already described in many publications, especially in terms of restrictions in showing most...

Project-Based Learning (PBL) has been implemented in the first year of the Industrial Engineering and Management programme at the University of Minho, Portugal, since 2004/2005. The purpose of this paper is to analyse and discuss teachers’ experiences in PBL in this programme and to explore its implications for student learning and for teaching pra...

Production systems are often kept unchanged for long periods of time despite changes on both the marketplace and on the management model. Over relevant timeframes, this stagnation causes an accumulation of inefficiencies and wastes that leads to unproductive production systems. This paper presents a number of case studies on the redesign of product...

Value Stream Mapping (VSM) is likely the most common tool to represent and analyse the value stream of product families. However, it has several limitations, recognized by professionals and academics, namely in terms of identification of certain types of waste (activities without added value). The purpose of this paper is to present a VSM extension...

Cellular production is usually seen as a hybrid approach between job-shop and flow-line paradigms, reducing the major disadvantages of these two paradigms: the low productivity of job-shops and the low flexibility (in terms of products’ variety) of the flow-lines. This paper describes the implementation of a production cell in a production unit of...

The Integrated Master Degree on Industrial Engineering and Management, from the Department of Production and Systems of University of Minho – Portugal, requires the development of an individual final project which is almost exclusively developed in an industrial context. The degree is awarded upon the successful development of an individual masters...

This paper presents a five months Action-Research project developed in the context of a lean production implementation initiative in an elevators company. The project consisted in (i) analysis and diagnosis of two productive areas of the company’s production system and (ii) development and implementation of improvement proposals based on lean produ...

Training Engineering students has been evolving towards the development of professional competences, both technical and transversal. These competences will enable new engineers to apply learning resources in professional contexts with greater efficacy. Thus, these engineers will be closer to the needs of industry. A methodology that has been used i...

This paper presents an application of the Single-Minute Exchange of Die (SMED) methodology to a turret punching machine in an elevators company, in Portugal. The work was developed during five months, in the ambit of a master thesis in Industrial Engineering and Management. The Lean Production tool SMED was applied to reduce setup times in order to...

This paper presents a project developed in an elevators company, in the framework of a master thesis at University of Minho. The main objective of this work was to analyse the production system of one assembly section of the company and to implement some proposals that would improve its performance. This objective was achieved by applying Lean Prod...

This paper describes the improvement of the setup process of a mechanical press machine in the metal-mechanic area of an elevators company. The work results from a master thesis project conducted during a period of five months. The Single-Minute Exchange of Die (SMED) methodology and other Lean Production tools (5S, Visual Management and Standard W...

Mass Customization increases products' diversity exponentially and may increase sales. Yet, it can also create major productivity problems. The ability to convert sales potential into competitive advantages depends significantly on the product data model used in the software for production planning and control. This paper presents an overview of Ge...

The innovative learning methodology Project-based learning (PBL) has been functioning in the first semester of the first year of the Master Degree in Industrial Engineering and Management (IEM) at University of Minho, Portugal, since 2004_2005. This methodology was implemented by a team of teachers from the Department of Production and Systems of t...

Purpose This paper aims to explore the lean production paradigm as promoter of workers' creativity and thinking potential, and recognize this human potential as a fundamental asset for companies' growth and success, being a major factor to face the disturbing and unpredictable needs of current markets, providing companies with the necessary agility...

Traditional teaching methods being adopted in higher education across European Universities are not contributing effectively to the real needs of today's world. The current challenges that the world is facing, concerning the new economic paradigms, centred on eco-sustainability along with global and unbalanced competitiveness, demand new answers fr...

The most popular and perhaps the most effective way to represent the material flow in production units is the diagram known as Value Stream Map (VSM). Moreover these maps are also used to help in the identification of waste as well as a tool to support continuous improvement. Nevertheless, many of VSM limitations are known and thus there is room fo...

This paper documents a set of Industrial Lean projects over a decade timespan in the North of Portugal, which were conducted by final year students of the Integrated Master Course on Industrial Management and Engineering (IME) in partnership with the Department of Production and Systems of University of Minho. The study analyses a total of forty on...

Lean production is a strategy for high competiveness in manufacturing. The capability for economical manufacture in small batch sizes is an essential requirement for achieving lean production. This facilitates mixed production of several kinds of products to match varying product demand and can have a major impact in reducing inventories. An obviou...

Lean Production has proved itself a worthwhile production strategy in many distinct industries across all regions of the planet by achieving higher levels of production efficiency. Several authors identified that Lean inadvertently has had significant environmental gains. Such achievements are considered of special relevance in a global and highly...

This paper describes the improvement of the quick changeover process of a painting line in a wooden frames factory. The well-known SMED technique (single minute exchange of die) was applied. However the characteristics of the setup operations (those characteristics also occur in other industrial changeover scenarios) have revealed the possibility o...

This paper analyzes the rounding errors that occur in the assessment of an interdisciplinary Project-Led Education (PLE) process implemented in the Integrated Master degree on Industrial Management and Engineering (IME) at University of Minho. PLE is an innovative educational methodology which makes use of active learning, promoting higher levels o...

This paper analyzes the rounding errors that occur in the assessment of an interdisciplinary Project-Led Education (PLE) process implemented in the Integrated Master degree on Industrial Management and Engineering (IME) at University of Minho. PLE is an innovative educational methodology which makes use of active learning, promoting higher levels o...

This work shows how formal grammars with attributes can be advantageously used to deal with two fundamental aspects of product data management - product diversity management and generation of specific product data based on clients’ specification – in the context of distributed manufacturing systems, while networks of geographically distant collabor...

This paper describes project management processes of coordination teams, in the implementation of interdisciplinary project approaches in Engineering Education. These interdisciplinary projects are based on the Project-Led Education (PLE) concept and are being implemented since 2004/2005 in the Industrial Management and Engineering (IME) master deg...

SYNOPSIS This paper presents an analysis of the assessment model used in an interdisciplinary Project-Led Education (PLE) process implemented in the Integrated Master Course on Industrial Management and Engineering (IME) at University of Minho. PLE is an innovative educational methodology which makes use of active learning, promoting higher levels...

The importance of transversal competencies (also known as generic skills or graduate attributes) inengineering curricula is recognized by all stakeholders: faculty staff, who expect to see in theirstudents the development of a set of skills and abilities; students, who expect to be able tosuccessfully join in the industries; employers, who expect f...

This paper aims to give an overview of an ongoing and broader piece of research on the impact assessment of the Project-Led Education. For this, the CIPP Evaluation Model was used as a framework for evaluating the impact of the programme. This evaluation model stresses the importance of linking evaluation with decision-making. The context of the ca...

This work describes a model for distributed dynamic Production Planning and Control (PPC) agent based system, which includes interoperation with manufacturing automation. It is presented a demonstration prototype involving distributed software agents and industrial equipment integration, which implements part of the developed model functionalities....

One of the issues in development and implementation of Virtual Enterprise (VE) is a formal theory, or formal theories, Of VE. There are serious problems concerning VE, formal theory(ies) development, Besides the ones which are commonly known and easily perceived, one of the biggest problems is a general misunderstanding about formalisms and formal...

In order to achieve and to manage the VE dynamic reconfiguration, it is necessary to minimize the VE reconfiguration time, as one of the dynamic reconfiguration factors. The paper presents the concept of the two user-interface architectures, based on the BM_Virtual Enterprise Architecture Reference Model (BM-VEARM), and their role in VE operations:...

A model of an Agent based Production Planning and Control (PPC) system able to be dynamically adaptable to local and distributed utilization of production resources and materials is presented. The PPC system is based on the selection of resources to deal with one order of different quantities of one product each time. In this way it is build one sc...

BM_virtual enterprise (BM_VE) is a virtual enterprise (VE) in a total or partial conformance with the BM_virtual enterprise architecture reference model (BM_VEARM). BM_VE is a kind of VE characterized as a dynamically reconfigurable network integrated over the global domain, satisfying the requirements for integrability, distributivity, agility, an...

Virtual enterprise integration (VEI) is virtually the most critical success factor for making virtual enterprise (VE) a real, competitive, and widely implemented organizational and management concept. However, according to many authors, the present solutions for VEI are either insufficient or inexistent. One of the reasons for the situation is the...

Virtual enterprise integration (VEI) is virtually the most critical success factor for making virtual enterprise (VE) a real, competitive, and widely implemented organizational and management concept. However, according to many authors, the present solutions for VEI are either insufficient or inexistent. One of the reasons for the situation is the...

BM_virtual enterprise (BM_VE) is a virtual enterprise (VE) in a total or partial conformance with the BM_virtual enterprise architecture reference model (BM_VEARM). BM_VE is a kind of VE characterized as a dynamically reconfigurable network integrated over the global domain, satisfying the requirements for integrability, distributivity, agility, an...

BM_virtual enterprise (BM_VE) is a virtual enterprise (VE) in a total or partial conformance with the BM_virtual enterprise architecture reference model (BM_VEARM). BM_VE is a kind of VE characterized as a dynamically reconfigurable network integrated over the global domain, satisfying the requirements for integrability, distributivity, agility, an...

Formalisms are a tool commonly used in many engineering areas and, as expected, are also being used on virtual enterprises research. However the use of formalisms is not enough to ensure correctness and ambiguities absence on the developed projects. Only with a background formal theory is possible to achieve that goal. This paper presents a formal...

This paper addresses the formal specification and description of manufacturing systems. It is considered the use of SDL (Specification and Description Language), a standard FDT (Formal Description Technique), to model the behaviour, data and structure aspects of a manufacturing system. SDL was originally developed for telecommunication systems (pro...

This paper presents an example of Man-Machine Interface for remote programming and control of NC machine tools. The system is based on a computer virtual panel which substitutes the machine control panel and in telematics interfaces which establishes the basis for geographical independence between the physical equipment and human operator.

2ª Jornadas de Engenharia de Produção Maio de 1997, Guimarães, Portugal

We demonstrate how to build and execute models of production systems using some of the Unix system tools, in particular for text processing (awk) and process management (bash). We use text files to represent the state of the system, implement production operations as fully automated text transformations and compose such operations into a process fo...

We show how to build and execute models of concurrent and distributed production systems using some of the Unix tools for text processing (awk), process management (bash) and information exchange (mail). We use plain text files to represent the state of the production cell, implement production operations as text-transformations, compose such opera...

Usually the description of a system is given in natural language or in diagrams. It is very hard to make this kind of informal description clear, concise and unambiguous. Implementations based on informal specifications are usually prone to errors, omissions and incompatibilities. This paper presents an attempt to introduce Formal Description Techn...

RESUMO Este artigo apresenta alguns resultados de um projecto de implementação da metodologia Quick Changeover (QCO) nas linhas de montagem final de uma empresa de auto-rádios. Esta implementação incluiu a aplicação de Single Minute Exchange Die (SMED) e o desenvolvimento de sistemáticas de trabalho normalizado, tanto numa linha de montagem final c...