Research demonstrates that highly self-critical individuals can respond negatively to the initial introduction of a range of therapeutic interventions. Yet touch as a form of therapeutic intervention in self-critical individuals has received limited prior investigation, despite documentation of its beneficial effects for well-being. Using the Forms of Self-Criticism/Self-Reassuring Scale, 15 high- and 14 low- self-critical individuals (from a sample of 139 females) were recruited to assess how self-criticism impacts upon a single instance of focused touch. All participants took part in a hand massage- and haptic control- intervention. Salivary cortisol and alpha amylase, as well as questionnaire measures of emotional responding were taken before and after the interventions. Following hand massage, analyses revealed cortisol decreased significantly across all participants; and that significant changes in emotional responding reflected well-being improvements across all participants. Supplementary analyses further revealed decreased alpha amylase responding to hand massage as compared to a compassion-focused intervention in the same (highly self-critical) individuals. Taken together, the physiological and emotional data indicate high self-critical individuals responded in a comparable manner to low self-critical individuals to a single instance of hand massage. This highlights that focused touch may be beneficial when first engaging highly self-critical individuals with specific interventions.

Background Across the USA and UK schemes now exist to aid the successful integration of adults with mild to moderate intellectual disabilities into general society. One factor that may prove important to the success of such schemes is social competence. Here, understanding the facial expressions of others is critical, as emotion recognition is a prerequisite to empathetic responding and an essential factor in social functioning. Yet research in this area is lacking, especially in community-based samples. Method We investigated the performance of 13 adults with mild to moderate intellectual disability (ID), relative to 13 age-matched controls, on three tasks of emotion recognition (emotion categorisation; recognition of valence; recognition of arousal), using a number of ‘basic’ (angry, happy) and more ‘subtle’ (compassionate, critical) emotional expressions, as well as the posers face in a default relaxed (i.e. ‘neutral’) state. Importantly, the sample was drawn from a community-based initiative, and was therefore representative of populations’ government schemes target. Results Across emotion recognition tasks the ID adults, as compared to controls, were significantly impaired when labelling the emotions displayed by the poser as well as recognising the associated ‘feelings’ conveyed by these faces. This was especially true for the neutral, compassionate and angry facial expressions. For example, ID adults demonstrated deficits in categorising neutral and subtle emotional expressions, as well as assessing the valence of such facial expressions. In addition, ID adults also struggled to assess arousal levels; especially those associated with compassionate and angry faces. Conclusion Given both basic and subtle emotions are conveyed in a range of daily situations, errors in interpreting such facial expressions and, relatedly, understanding what potential behaviours such expressions signify could contributing to the social difficulties ID adults face. This is important since current initiatives such as ‘personalisation’ do not appear to have schemes supporting training in this area and understanding the facial expressions of others is, after all, one of our most important non-verbal social communication tools.

Much supply chain integration literature tends to be biased towards its positive impact on operational performance. However, inconclusive results demand investigation of the mechanisms through which supply chain integration can lead to superior operational performance. The purpose of this study is to identify empirically the mediating role of information quality on the relationship between customer integration and operational performance, and the direct relationship between customer integration and operational performance. The study is based on a questionnaire sent to 228 manufacturing companies in the Republic of Ireland, and the relationships between the constructs are analyzed through regression analysis. The results indicate that information quality partially mediates the relationship between customer integration and quality, delivery and flexibility. Further, information quality was found to fully mediate the relationship between customer integration and cost.

Prior research has shown that operational intellectual capital (OIC) and investments in lean practices (ILP) lead to better operational performance. However, there has been no empirical studies on the synergetic effects between OIC components and ILP. More specifically, the question: can the efficacy of ILP be increased through OIC has not been studied. Accordingly, the purpose of this study is to report the empirical results of potential synergetic effects between operational intellectual capital (OIC), as a knowledge-based resource, and ILP. The empirical data used for this study was drawn from the fifth round of the Global Manufacturing Research Group (GMRG) survey project (with data collected from 528 manufacturing plants). The hypotheses are empirically tested using three ordinary least square (OLS) models. Our findings highlight the importance of leveraging a system of complementary knowledge based resources (OIC dimensions) and addresses the need for the reformulation of lean theory in terms of the emergent knowledge-based view (KBV) of the firm. The results facilitate greater understanding of the complex relationship between ILP and operational performance. Building on the contribution of Menor et al. (2007), we argue that OIC represents a strategic knowledge based resource that is valuable, hard to imitate or substitute and when leveraged effectively, generates superior operational and competitive advantage.From a managerial standpoint, this study provides guidelines for managers on how to leverage OIC to enhance the efficacy of ILP. We argue that firms consider investing in OIC to increase the return from ILP, which in turn will enhance their operational performance and provide competitive advantage. Our findings provide strong evidence of the importance of human, social and structural capital to enhance the efficacy of ILP. This is the first research paper that extends the application of intellectual capital theory in lean literature, and argues that the operational intellectual capital contributes to the efficacy of ILP. The analysis facilitates greater understanding of the complex relationship between OIC dimensions, ILP and operational performance.

In 2011, the international organisations launched the Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment Framework for experts from different disciplinary fields to discuss and develop a holistic and integrated approach that supports effective sustainable development and sustainability decision-making. In response, various authors have used combinations of sustainable manufacturing methodologies and approaches to support this goal. This paper used a structured approach to a literature review to systematically examine sustainable manufacturing approaches between 2006 and 2015, and the move from segmented assessment methods to the holistic and integrated Life Cycle Sustainability Analysis. The analysis of the identified 54 relevant contributions indicated 68.5% of the articles focused on sustainable product development techniques, whereas 31.5% on sustainability assessment techniques. From the second, 70.4% of these were segmented approaches while only 29.6% incorporated the three sustainability dimensions. Further, the analysis showed that the energy aspect was incorporated into all the approaches, and there is a dearth of holistic approaches to sustainable manufacturing. Additionally, the paper initiates a theoretical framework that will underpin the development of a holistic simulation-based analytical framework that integrates goals that support progressive sustainable product development with methods that focus on the holistic quantitative analysis of the three sustainability dimensions.

A constant evolution in the efficiency of production systems and government policies has enabled the control of the environmental impact of production activities and encouraged companies to develop strategies to achieve more sustainable operations. Despite this, more needs to be done to reduce the risks of globalised production activities. In this context, evidence suggests that Lean Manufacturing (LM) and Cleaner Production (CP) make a positive contribution to the environmental performance of organizations. However, very little has been reported in the scholarly literature regarding the convergence and divergence of these two approaches. This work therefore attempts to take advantage of the synergies of LM and CP by proposing a Lean Cleaner Production Benchmarking (LCPB) method to assess the practices and culture regarding the application of CP in companies. The method considers the management aspects of people, information, products, suppliers and customers, management and processes, as well as the LM practices that contribute to a more eco-efficient production. LCPB uses a methodology based on benchmarking that was applied to 16 Brazilian manufacturing companies in order to assess their practices and performances regarding CP. The method seeks to provide a diagnosis to verify whether CP is effectively carried out by the companies, and what their performances are regarding actions beneficial to the environment. The application of LM practices that contribute to CP was also evaluated through the proposed LCPB method. The paper contributes to the theory by proving further evidence of the compatibility and synergies of LM and CP. In addition, it proposes a novel method that enables the analysis of companies' practices and performances related to CP, assesses their actions associated with sustainability, and contributes to identifying points where there is a lack and difficulty regarding CP. The proposed method helps to relate LM and CP activities, indicating that companies that seek to apply LM concepts are those that present high CP practices and performance.

Manufacturing companies are striving hard to remain competitive hence, they rely on a number of resources to meet customers’ expectations, among which cutting tools are included. This paper addresses the problems faced in the management of cutting tools activities. Production managers have highlighted the lack of procedures containing metrics and targets that would show them whether their company is able to perform an efficient management, and if it is capable of supporting the deployment process. In this context, this paper presents a novel Lean Environmental Benchmarking (LEB) method for performing a diagnosis of practices and performances to support the implementation of a cutting tool management strategy and/or the effective management of these assets. Strategic, technical and logistical aspects are addressed, particularly, with regard to management focused on lean manufacturing and environmental aspects. Field studies were performed in nine Brazilian companies in the metal-mechanical sector to validate the LEB method proposed. The LEB method helped the participant organisations clarify the various activities that involved the management of their cutting tools, while the field studies indicated that all nine organisations had a great concern regarding the preservations of the environment, and also an effective utilisation of resources spent for machining components.

The move towards greener operations and products has forced companies to seek alternatives to balance efficiency gains and environmental friendliness in their operations and products. The exploration of the sequential or simultaneous deployment of lean and green initiatives is the results of this balancing action. However, the lean-green topic is relatively new, and it lacks of a clear and structured research definition. Thus, this paper’s main contribution is the offering of a systematic review of the existing literature on lean and green, aimed at providing guidance on the topic, uncovering gaps and inconsistencies in the literature, and finding new paths for research. The paper identifies and structures, through a concept map, six main research streams that comprise both conceptual and empirical research conducted within the context of various organisational functions and industrial sectors. Important issues for future research are then suggested in the form of research questions. The paper’s aim is to also contribute by stimulating scholars to further study this area in depth, which will lead to a better understanding of the compatibility and impact on organisational performance of lean and green initiatives. It also holds important implications for industrialists, who can develop a deeper and richer knowledge on lean and green to help them formulate more effective strategies for their deployment.

Evidence suggests that lean methods and tools have helped manufacturing organisations to achieve operational excellence, and in this way meet both traditional and contemporary organisational objectives such as profitability, efficiency, responsiveness, quality, and customer satisfaction. However, the effect of these methods and tools on environmental performance is still unclear, as limited empirical research has been conducted in this field. This paper therefore investigates the impact of five essential lean methods, i.e. JIT, autonomation, kaizen/continuous improvement, total productive maintenance (TPM) and value stream mapping (VSM), on four commonly utilised measures for the compliance of environmental performance, i.e. material use, energy consumption, non-product output, and pollutant releases. A correlation analysis modelled the relationship and effect of these lean methods on the environmental performance of 250 manufacturing organisations around the world. Structural equation modelling (SEM) was used as a second pronged verification approach to ensure the validity of the results. The results indicate that TMP and JIT have the strongest significance on environmental performance, whereas kaizen/continuous improvement only showed an effect on the use of materials and release of pollutants. Autonomation and VSM did not show any impact on environmental performance. The research holds important implications for industrialists, who can develop a richer knowledge on the relationship between lean and green. This will help them formulate more effective strategies for their simultaneous or sequential implementation. The paper extends our knowledge in the lean and green field by helping us to establish and explain the given relationships between five of the most important and commonly used lean methods and the environmental performance of manufacturing organisations. No previous research had considered the studied lean methods and environmental measures of performance.

Despite the relatively extensive literature on VSM, limited reflection has been reported regarding how managerial proceedings actually put VSM into practice. This research therefore investigates these issues as part of the overall lean philosophy and in correlation with some of its main tools. Five hypotheses and three complementary research questions were formulated and tested using a combination of descriptive statistics and Pearson correlation, 2-Sample proportion, One-way ANOVA, 1-Sample t-tests and Tukey-Pairwise comparison tests. Data were collected through a survey questionnaire responded by 168 manufacturing organisations worldwide. The results establish, among other ‘soft’ aspects; (1) whether organisations that have adopted lean have also employed VSM as an essential tool to identify waste, (2) the position that VSM normally takes in the timeframe hierarchy of lean implementation, (3) the complexity of VSM implementation in terms of easiness and time taken for training when compared to other lean tools such as TPM, JIT and Jidoka, and the (4) critical success factors and barriers for the VSM implementation. A conceptual framework to support the implementation and management of VSM is developed through the unification of the results obtained. This study supports the very limited empirical research on the implementation and management of VSM.