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- B Corp versus ISO 9001 and 14001 certifications: Aligned, or alternative paths, towards sustainable development?Publication . Fonseca, Luís; Silva, Vitor; Sá, José Carlos; Lima, Vanda; Santos, Gilberto; Silva, RuiCorporate social responsibility (CSR) emerged to deliver sustainable economic, environmental, and social value to organization's extended stakeholders and society in general. This study investigates the similarities, differences, and relationships between B Corp, ISO 9001, and ISO 14001 certifications and is supported by a mixed research methodology and a sample of 701 B Corp companies certified between January 2020 and March 2021. The results indicate that ISO 14001 and ISO 9001 certified B Corp companies have statistically higher scores for the Environment dimension but are inconclusive, or even contradictory, for the other BIA (B Impact Assessment) dimensions. Differences in size, activity sector and geographical location are discussed. It is shown that both B Corp, ISO 9001 and 14001 certified companies, guided by different missions and business models, contribute, at different levels, towards CSR and sustainable development goals.
- B Impact Assessment as a Sustainable Tool: Analysis of the Certification ModelPublication . Silva, Vítor; Lima, Vanda; Sá, José Carlos; Fonseca, Luís; Santos, GilbertoCurrently, certification is an essential tool for a company’s sustainability and a seal of trust for the stakeholders. The B Corporation (B Corp) certification system is in line with the leading indicators of sustainable development and social responsibility published by the general assembly of the United Nations, namely: environment, community, workers, customers, and governance. Nevertheless, it is essential that academic research should empirically assess the B Corp model’s reliability for its validation and legitimization. In this study, we address the results of the B Impact Assessment of 2262 companies certified by B Corp from the beginning of 2017 to March 2021. The main objective is to analyze the B Impact Assessment, verifying the robustness and consistency of the model to measure and improve the economic, social, and environmental impact of companies. We analyzed the construct’s validity through a confirmatory factorial analysis using AMOS statistical software. The results allowed us to identify some weaknesses and limitations of the B Impact Assessment. This certification system reflects an unadjusted model where the main assessment indicators have problems with regard to the measurement scale. The governance and customer indicators are the most vulnerable. The findings also allow us to state that there are apparently no minimum values established for each of the parameters evaluated, which may cause imbalances in the sustainable development process of B Corp companies. This research contributes to enhancing B Impact Assessment as a sustainability tool, highlighting areas for improvement concerning the indicators’ measurement scales and the assessment process, including the monitoring of evaluators.
- Development of a conceptual model integrating management systems and the Shingo Model towards operational excellencePublication . Carvalho, Mariana; Sá, José Carlos; Marques, Pedro Alexandre; Santos, Gilberto; Pereira, António MárioTo remain competitive in the marketplace, organizations are seeking the adoption of management models and tools that will allow them to find better and more effective practices to reinvent themselves, and continuously improve their business processes and product’s quality in a sustainable way, hence pursuing the ultimate goal of reaching enterprise excellence. The purpose of this paper is to present a conceptual model that relates the requirements of the ISO Management System Standards with the dimensions and guiding principles of the Shingo Model for Operational Excellence. The proposed approach allows an organization with and existing management system based on one or more ISO Management System Standards to adopt and perform an assessment tool to evaluate its level of maturity regarding the adoption of the best practices and behaviours prescribed by the Shingo Model, which is a novelty contribution of this research. The validation of the proposed assessment tool took place in a Portuguese organization from the automotive sector, having comprised two moments: in the first one, an external assessor performed a set of behavioural observations that acted as a base to assign a score, while in the second moment such score was internally obtained through a survey that was filled by the organization’s employees. The results reveal that these two methods converge to similar conclusions, hence confirming that the proposed model has the potential to enable an organization to assess the maturity level of its management system regarding the adoption of the guiding principles of the Shingo Model for Operational Excellence. A limitation of this research is that the model was only validated in a single company.
- Improvement in external logistics of an automotive component manufacturing company towards costs reductionPublication . Machado, Ana Beatriz; Silva, Francisco J. G.; Sá, José Carlos; Barreiras, Alcinda; Pinto Ferreira, Luís; Pereira, Maria Teresa; Santos, GilbertoThis work was developed in a company that produces components, such as, Bowden cables and comfort systems for the automobile industry. The company's external logistics department was the place where the work was carried out. The constant need of urgent shippings in the company in order to comply with the delivery scheduled with its customers, leads the organization to have an unnecessary cost. This case study is no exception, and this type of costs represents about 33% of total transport costs, revealing a major negative economic impact for the company. For the analysis of urgent transport some quality tools were used to determine the root causes of the identified problem (high cost with urgent transport). The use of these quality tools, namely brainstorming, Ishikawa's diagram and Five Whys, allowed for greater involvement by employees from different areas. Thus, it was possible to share knowledge and, consequently, a more reliable analysis and identification of possible root-causes of the problem, as well as, the implementation of actions to eliminate them. With the implementation of the improvement actions, the urgent shipping costs were reduced by about 68%.
- The Importance of Subcontracting and Its Relationship With Lean Philosophy in Automotive IndustryPublication . Sá, Sara; Pinto Ferreira, Luís; Silva, Francisco J. G.; Sá, José Carlos; Pereira, Maria Teresa Ribeiro; Santos, GilbertoThe automotive industry represents one of the largest economic sectors in the world and most companies in this industry involve subcontracting in their strategy. However, subcontracting is one of the possible processes that can lead to inefficiencies for companies. Since lean arises as a response to the most varied problems of companies, the main goal of this work is to understand the importance of subcontracting in the automotive sector and to understand how lean and subcontracting are related. For this, an empirical study of papers and books related to these topics was performed, concluding that subcontracting is frequently used in the automotive sector, to obtain strategic advantages, and that it supports the foundations of the lean concept, as well as the lean can help manage subcontracting. The trade-off of the transfer of activities enables organizations to be flexible, lean and agile; they can then focus on their core activities, which generate more value, while the option to subcontract generates a significant reduction in costs by transferring non-core activities. In short, these two concepts are related to each other in the context of the automotive industry.
- A Rapid Improvement Process through “Quick-Win” Lean Tools: A Case StudyPublication . Rodrigues, Jorge; Sá, José Carlos; Silva, Francisco; Pinto Ferreira, Luís; Jimenez, Genett; Santos, GilbertoThe main purpose of this paper was to introduce procedural changes based on a type of human resources management tool using Lean Leadership (LL). We sought to determine which Lean Tools (LTs) are able to promote a rapid impact on a company; namely, we aimed to determine which LTs are able to facilitate fast and positive results for companies after their implementation, thus allowing for quick wins. This study was conducted at a medium-sized Portuguese company in the metalworking sector. Results were assessed from two surveys (involving 17 people) regarding perceptions of employee awareness in the machining area for Quality, Maintenance/Equipment, Process/Products, Leadership/Management by Objectives, and Trust and Training. The surveys were conducted at the beginning of the study and at the end of a quarterly period. LTs were used over a period of three months, thus enabling changes to the company’s manufacturing processes which could lead to improved organization, orientation, consistency and viability. Three months were considered an adequate time period to measure whether the tools were effective in the production of quick wins or not. LL allowed for greater awareness of the importance of LTs, the most important feature of which is the aggregation of all of the employees’ energies, which culminates in better operational efficiency and an increase in the employees’ overall positive perceptions of their company’s principles and mindset. The introduction of LL, as well as the implementation of 10 LTs, which are considered to be Quick-Win Tools, enabled employees to improve their perceptions of their company by 6.1%. Lean tools can be implemented quickly and are easily understood by their intended users. These benefits provide additional motivation for their use and for the achievement of highly satisfactory operating results across production areas. This study aims to identify which lean tools allow companies to obtain benefits/gains quickly. This outcome is the main contribution of this study to the scientific community and to companies. A Quick Win means a rapid improvement in a short period of time. As such, lean tools that provide Quick Wins also contribute to economic development. Due to the restricted time period imposed by the main purpose of this study, statistical analysis of the results was unfeasible
- The three pillars of sustainability and agile project management: How do they influence each otherPublication . Silva, Francisco J. G.; Kirytopoulos, Konstantinos; Pinto Ferreira, Luís; Sá, José Carlos; Santos, Gilberto; Cancela Nogueira, Maria CarolinaCompanies face new challenges needing to find ways to stand out from the competitors. All companies face new projects, which need to be managed assertively and faster, launching new products on the market ahead of competitors. This strategy requires enormous dexterity and agility within teams, which are increasingly multifaceted, multidisciplinary, and multifunctional. However, teams need to conciliate apparent freedom for creation with the sustainability rules, which are increasingly demanding, such as legislation and image that companies want to pass on to the market in terms of corporate social responsibility, ensuring a sustainable development of the companies. The goal of this work is to investigate and correlate agile project management and sustainability, taking into account that there are strong relationships, as well as to learn how agile project management affects organization's social, environmental, and economical dynamics from the triple bottom line standpoint. The research examines how agile project management ideas are connected to the triple bottom line concepts based on the literature. The framework was based on the theoretical assumptions underpinning the present research. The basic structure of the developed framework is based on the framework of a matrix-based method for ordering and synthesizing data. Thus, network diagrams have been developed reproducing the links existing in the literature, both explicitly and implicitly. However, they were deeply expanded considering links not previously referred in the literature. An explanation about these new links is also provided, justifying their inclusion. Hence, the new diagrams offer a more complete landscape about how the adoption of agile practices in project management can improve sustainability in its different aspects, and vice-versa. The findings reveal that implementing agile project management induces direct effects on an organization's social, economic, and environmental dynamics of the companies, as well as in their teams, with a favorable effect on all of them
- Combining lean and green practices to achieve a superior performance: The contribution for a sustainable development and competitiveness—An empirical study on the Portuguese contextPublication . Teixeira, Pedro; Coelho, Arnaldo; Fontoura, Pedro; Sá, José Carlos; Silva, Francisco J. G.; Santos, Gilberto; Pinto Ferreira, LuísThis research assesses the lean and green (LG) practices' impact on the competitive advantage (CA) of organizations, through sustainable performance, considering lean maturity as the moderator. A structured questionnaire was used to collect data from a cross-sectional sample of 261 companies operating in Portugal. Hypotheses are tested through structural equation modeling and multigroup analysis to examine the lean maturity moderating role. Results demonstrate a positive impact of LG practices on sustainable development and that their three dimensions of CA, with lean maturity boosting most relationships. This research highlights the impact of LG practices on organization's competitiveness and helps them underpin the importance these practices when comes to enhance their sustainable performance and their CA with help of environmental policy and also stakeholder engagement. Future studies should address these relationships upon a specific dimension, namely the correlation between environmental performance and CA, as it was not dealt in this study.
- B Corp versus ISO 9001 and 14001 certifications: Aligned, or alternative paths, towards sustainable development?Publication . Fonseca, Luís; Silva, Vitor; Sá, José Carlos; Lima, Vanda; Santos, Gilberto; Silva, RuiCorporate social responsibility (CSR) emerged to deliver sustainable economic, environmental, and social value to organization's extended stakeholders and society in general. This study investigates the similarities, differences, and relationships between B Corp, ISO 9001, and ISO 14001 certifications and is supported by a mixed research methodology and a sample of 701 B Corp companies certified between January 2020 and March 2021. The results indicate that ISO 14001 and ISO 9001 certified B Corp companies have statistically higher scores for the Environment dimension but are inconclusive, or even contradictory, for the other BIA (B Impact Assessment) dimensions. Differences in size, activity sector and geographical location are discussed. It is shown that both B Corp, ISO 9001 and 14001 certified companies, guided by different missions and business models, contribute, at different levels, towards CSR and sustainable development goals.
- A model of integration ISO 9001 with Lean six sigma and main benefits achievedPublication . Sá, José Carlos; Vaz, Sílvia; Carvalho, Orlancina; Lima, Vanda; Morgado, Luísa; Fonseca, Luís; Doiro, Manuel; Santos, GilbertoThe main purpose of this article is to depict the integration of Lean tools with requirements of ISO 9001:2015 standard as an operationalisation and support tool for a Quality Management System (QMS). The research was carried out through a questionnaire, which was sent to 2040 Portuguese companies. From the two hundred responses, 77 of them were validated (companies certified by at least one quality management system and which simultaneously have lean six sigma (LSS) tools and/or techniques implemented) corresponding to the sample of this study. Additionally, the research was also based on a case study in a footwear company where the model was applied. This research proposes a model for integrating Lean tools and requirements of ISO 9001:2015. This integration allows the QMS to become more practical and dynamic, reinforcing the creation of value for the organisation. As main benefits, we can highlight, among others: improvement of problem solving, waste reduction, improvement in internal communication, and increase in productivity. Thisarticle aims at becoming a relevant contribution to business management as it displays the main tools and methodologies to implement and sustain a QMS.