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This paper builds on the debate regarding the application of Lean strategy principles and tools in modern organizations, specifically focusing on the healthcare (HC) sector. The purpose of this paper is threefold: first, to highlight the potential role played by Lean strategy tools for strategic planning and management, particularly in reference to the Hoshin Kanri policy deployment system and the “focus, alignment, integration, and review” (FAIR) method; second, to discuss how Lean strategy can be operationalized, specifically relying on the X-Matrix reporting tool; and third, to explore how simulation techniques, in the form of role-playing (RP), may support the aforementioned operationalization of Lean strategy while at the same time promoting policymaking and knowledge sharing.

This research adopts a case study approach. Specifically, the paper relies on the use of a RP Lean strategy project developed in a HC setting.

The paper highlights the potential for the Hoshin Kanri policy deployment process in HC, also emphasizing the main strengths of X-Matrix reporting and the usefulness of the RP technique to support learning acquisition and decision making.

The paper demonstrates how a Lean strategy simulation project may be effectively used for strategic planning/management and to train professionals in HC. To achieve these aims, a methodology to design and implement simulation-based Lean strategy projects in HC is presented and discussed.

A review of the academic literature indicates that Lean strategy is still an emerging research topic addressed by only a limited number of articles. The paper contributes to a deeper understanding of the fundamentals of Lean strategy (particularly Hoshin Kanri and X-Matrix) with particular reference to the HC sector.

This study aims to propose, as the first time, the interval type-2 adaptive network-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) structure, which is given better results compared to previously presented in the open literature. So, the ANFIS can be used effectively for training of interval type-2 fuzzy logic system (IT2FLS) parameters.

Karnik–Mendel algorithm (KMA) is modified to use in interval type-2 ANFIS. The modified Karnik–Mendel algorithm (M-KMA) is implemented to change the uncertain ANFIS parameters into known ones. In this way, the interval type-2 ANFIS removes uncertainties of IT2FLS. Therefore, the interval type-2 ANFIS is reduced to a simple one, i.e. less mathematical operation required. Only consequent parameters are trained, and the consequent parameters are chosen in the form of crisp.

By applying the mentioned procedure, it can be shown that interval type-2 ANFIS has generally better results compared to type-1 ANFIS. However, it was noticed that the worst results obtained in the case of interval type-2 ANFIS are equal to the best result obtained in the case of type-1 ANFIS. Therefore, users in this field can use this approach in solving nonlinear problems.

The interval type-2 ANFIS can be used as controller for highly nonlinear systems such as air vehicles.

As stated in the open literature, it is ineffective to use ANFIS for IT2FLS. In this study, the KMA is modified for IT2FLS, and it is seen that the ANFIS can be used effectively for IT2FLS.

Customer satisfaction refers to the extent to which customers are happy and satisfied with the products and services provided by a business. The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to integrate lean tools in the analysis of customer satisfaction and, second, to examine its implications for research and practice.

The author proposes the combination of three lean tools in order to design a service quality system that has customer expectations (CEs) as the first input. These tools are quality function deployment (QFD), Hoshin Kanri planning process (HKPP) and benchmarking. The author uses a case study to show the functionality of these tools and the final design of a service quality system for a medical center.

Interaction between the service provider and the customer is the primary core activity for service-oriented businesses of different natures. A key relationship between trust in service quality and customer satisfaction cannot be ignored in interpersonal-based service encounters. However, there is a gap in the literature in terms of standardized lean-based procedures or methodologies that lead to improved customer satisfaction that are based directly on CEs.

Given the variety of the population, the authors developed several methodologies to standardize the customer responses. Using several total quality management tools, the standardization allows the authors to separate the different CEs. The gathering of customers’ expectations (voice of the customers) allows the companies to focus on the real problems expressed by the users of the service, increasing their loyalty and, most importantly in the field under study, the customer’s satisfaction with the service received.

For practitioners, this study helps with the use of lean tools such as QFD, benchmarking and HKPP and attempts to bridge such a gap with an evidence-based real case.

With the incorporation of all the customer needs, additional elements must be considered in the design of new services. Availability for all and sustainability play an important part of the CEs.

This paper presents a real application of QFD and Hoshin Kanri and how they may help the service organizations with future development.

This paper aims to elaborate a set of characteristics that conceptualize and qualify a disruptive business model.

The literature on disruptive business models will be analyzed using the latent semantic analysis (LSA) technique, complemented by content analysis, to obtain a more precise qualification and conceptualization regarding disruptive business models.

The results found described concepts already described in the theory. However, such findings, highlighted by the LSA, bring new perspectives to the analysis of the disruptive business models, little discussed in the literature and which reveal important considerations to be made on this subject.

It should be noted, about the technique used, a limitation on the choice of the number of singular values. For this to be a problem in the open literature, the authors tried to work not just with the cost-benefit ratio given the addition of each new dimension in the analysis, as well as a criterion of saturation of the terms presented.

The presentation of this set of characteristics can be used as a validation tool to identify if a business is or is not a disruptive business model by managers.

The originality of this paper is the achievement of a consolidated set of characteristics that conceptualize and qualify the disruptive business models by conducting an in-depth analysis of the literature on disruptive business models through the LSA technique, considering the difficulty of obtaining precise concepts on this subject in the literature.

This paper aims to define the class of fragment constructive heuristics used to compute feasible solutions for the traveling salesman problem (TSP) into edge-greedy and vertex-greedy subclasses. As these subclasses of heuristics can create subtours, two known methodologies for subtour elimination on symmetric instances are reviewed and are expanded to cover asymmetric problem instances. This paper introduces a third novel subtour elimination methodology, the greedy tracker (GT), and compares it to both known methodologies.

Computational results for all three subtour elimination methodologies are generated across 17 symmetric instances ranging in size from 29 vertices to 5,934 vertices, as well as 9 asymmetric instances ranging in size from 17 to 443 vertices.

The results demonstrate the GT is the fastest method for preventing subtours for instances below 400 vertices. Additionally, a distinction between fragment constructive heuristics and the subtour elimination methodology used to ensure the feasibility of resulting solutions enables the introduction of a new vertex-greedy fragment heuristic called ordered greedy.

This research has two main contributions: first, it introduces a novel subtour elimination methodology. Second, the research introduces the concept of ordered lists which remaps the TSP into a new space with promising initial computational results.

The reciprocal method for allocating support department costs is preferred over the direct and step-down methods because it captures all support services provided to other departments. However, even as business organizations increase the number of support departments and their costs, the adoption of the reciprocal method has been hindered by mathematical difficulties in solving simultaneous equations. This paper illustrates spreadsheet matrix functions that remove the difficulties associated with the reciprocal method. The algebraic expressions for reciprocated costs commonly presented in accounting textbooks are used to form an equivalent matrix relationship. Then spreadsheet matrix functions easily compute reciprocated costs for support departments from the matrix relationship, and also allocate the reciprocated costs to other departments.

This study investigates the relation of executive cash compensation and gender characteristics of senior executives of Thai listed companies using 1,660 firm-years observations from 2009 to 2013. The findings show that male executives earn more cash compensation than do their female counterparts and that compensation is higher for male CEOs whose educational qualifications were Master’s degree or above. Companies with a higher proportion of male executives and with better firm performance (measured by ROA, ROE, and Tobin’s q) pay higher cash compensation. The results conform with the Expectancy theory that male executives receive more compensation than do female executives because of their (expected) abilities to make higher returns to the firm’s assets. Other significant determinants are that older and larger firms pay more cash compensation to the executives (Life cycle theory) and that companies with a higher proportion of independent directors (Agency Theory) and higher ownership concentrations (Stewardship theory) offer less compensation.