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Higher education institutions (HEIs) are currently under pressure, driven by the knowledge society and the internationalization of institutions. Therefore, a positive attitude toward knowledge sharing is required. Considering that the knowledge-sharing attitude is motivated and executed mainly at the individual level, this study aims to examine the relationship between individual factors and the attitude toward knowledge sharing among professors and researchers.

Data was obtained from 176 completed questionnaires collected through LimeSurvey system. The analysis is based on quantitative methods where descriptive and inferential statistics were used. This study investigated the individual factors that affect attitude toward knowledge sharing among professors and researchers of a HEI.

The results identified that intrinsic motivation was the factor that most positively affects knowledge-sharing attitude. Given that intrinsic motivation is an activity moved by self-determination, and is free of external pressures or rewards, the finding may be related to the inviolable values, such as freedom and autonomy, existing in this context. Consistent with the concept of extrinsic motivation as a controlled motivation, this factor was not identified as affecting attitude toward knowledge sharing. Networking was the other factor that positively affects attitude on this institution.

In practice, this work can help the institution in defining strategies and developing future actions to promote a knowledge-sharing culture supported through an empirical study. In a theoretical perspective, this study contributes to the knowledge increase in the area, as little is known about the attitudes regarding knowledge sharing in HEIs.

Quality 4.0 is being presented as the new stage of quality development. However, its overlying concept and rationale are still hard to define. To better understand what different authors and studies advocate being Quality 4.0, a systematic literature review was undertaken on the topic. This paper presents the results of such review, providing some avenues for further research on quality management.

The documents for the systematic literature review have been searched on the Scopus database, using the search equation: [TITLE-ABS-KEY (“Quality 4.0”) OR TITLE-ABS-KEY (Quality Management” AND (“Industry 4.0” OR “Fourth Industr*” OR i4.0))]. Documents were filtered by language and by type. Of the 367 documents identified, 146 were submitted to exploratory content analysis.

The analyzed documents essentially provide theoretical discussions on what Quality 4.0 is or should be. Five categories have emerged from the content analysis undertaken: Industry 4.0 and the Rise of a New Approach to Quality; Motivations, Readiness Factors and Barriers to a Quality 4.0 Approach; Digital Quality Management Systems; Combination of Quality Tools and Lean Methodologies and Quality 4.0 Professionals.

It was hard to find studies reporting how quality is actually being managed in organizations that already operate in the Industry 4.0 paradigm. Answers could not be found to questions regarding actual practices, methodologies and tools being used in Quality 4.0 approaches. However, the research undertaken allowed to identify in the literature different ways of conceptualizing and analyzing Quality 4.0, opening up avenues for further research on quality management in the Industry 4.0 era.

This paper offers a broad look at how quality management is changing in response to the affirmation of the Industry 4.0 paradigm.

The paper aims to define a dashboard of indicators to assess the quality performance of higher education institutions (HEI). The instrument is termed SMART-QUAL.

Two sources were used in order to explore potential indicators. In the first step, information disclosed in official websites or institutional documentation of 36 selected HEIs was analyzed. This first step also included in depth structured high managers’ interviews. A total of 223 indicators emerged. In a second step, recent specialized literature was revised searching for indicators, capturing additional 302 indicators.

Each one of the 525 total indicators was classified according to some attributes and distributed into 94 intermediate groups. These groups feed a debugging, prioritization and selection process, which ended up in the SMART-QUAL instrument: a set of 56 key performance indicators, which are grouped in 15 standards, and, in turn, classified into the 3 HEI missions. A basic model and an extended model are also proposed.

The paper provides a useful measure of quality performance of HEIs, showing a holistic view to monitor HEI quality from three fundamental missions. This instrument might assist HEI managers for both assessing and benchmarking purposes. The paper ends with recommendations for university managers and public administration authorities.

Lean manufacturing (LM) plays a major role in eliminating wastes (activities/resources) in a manufacturing organization. Value stream mapping (VSM) is one of the critical tools in LM which will help in identifying wastes in materials and information flow in a specific product family. The purpose of this paper is to illustrate the significance of VSM in the auto-ancillary industry in enhancing the productivity and the quality.

A case study approach is followed to demonstrate the significance of VSM in identifying various wastes in the auto-ancillary industry. The study has been performed by implementing seven critical steps. A product family is identified based on the customer demand and a cross functional team with specialized experts was formed. The overall processes with sequence are mapped using process flowchart. A cross functional team has been formed to develop the current state of VSM and perform a critical analysis to identify shortcomings. An investigation was performed to overcome the existing shortcomings by identifying opportunities. The relevant kaizens to improve the current state have been proposed. The cross functional team of experts have performed a feasibility study on implementation of proposed kaizens. Finally, a future state of VSM after implementation of feasible kaizens has been reported.

The results show that future state of VSM brings out the positive impact with respect to process ratio, TAKT time, process inventory level, total lead time and bottleneck time. The proposed improvement also helped to achieve higher customer satisfaction in terms of increased quality, reduced cost and on time delivery.

Present study is focussed on a single product family cell in one of the auto-component organization.

Helps practitioners in the auto-component industry to implement the VSM effectively in their organization.