Application of hybrid framework to facilitate lean six sigma implementation: a manufacturing company case experience

This study aims to propose a hybrid framework for lean six sigma (LSS) based on the prioritisation of barriers and solution approaches, to facilitate hassles free applications for handling the challenges of wastes reduction and quality improvement. The study identifies 27 LSS barriers and 22 solution approaches through literature review and utilises feedback from industry experts. For framework, study uses fuzzy AHP-PROMETHEE to prioritise LSS barriers and solution approaches. Incorporating fuzzy sets in analytical hierarchy process (AHP) ensures the optimality of barrier weights. Whereas, preference ranking organisation method for enrichment of evaluations (PROMETHEE) helps in pairwise comparisons of solution approaches with respect to each LSS barrier, facilitating fair judgements. This research guides regarding the development of framework and checks its suitability and robustness through case application of an Indian manufacturing organisation. Authors expect that researchers and practitioners will find study useful for LSS and multi criteria decision making(MCDM) domains.     

Deliberative democracy in the real world,the contribution of the capability approach

ABSTRACT

Drawing on Amartya Sen’s writings, this article presents the capability approach to democracy and shows its relevance for the sociological reflection and research on democratic processes conceived as ways to convert individual preferences into collective norms or decisions. Two moments are key in this respect: the formation of individual preferences and their translation into collective norms in the course of public debates. The initial sections present Sen’s conception of democracy, particularly emphasizing its articulation with the notions of ‘positional objectivity’ and ‘conversion’. Then, this conception is compared with two other mechanisms that may be used to coordinate individual decisions or preferences, namely the market and idealistic views on deliberative democracy. The article emphasizes how the capability approach departs from these two conceptions with regard to the two key concepts of capacity to aspire and capability for voice. The final section shows how Sen’s notion of democracy may open up a new field for research, namely the sociological investigation of the informational (or knowledge) basis of democracy.     

Alternative estimation methods for identifying contagion effects in dynamic social networks: A latent-space adjusted approach

Contagion effects, also known as peer effects or social influence process, have become more and more central to social science, especially with the availability of longitudinal social network data. However, contagion effects are usually difficult to identify, as they are often entangled with other factors, such as homophily in the selection process, the individual’s preference for the same social settings, etc. Methods currently available either do not solve these problems or require strong assumptions. Following Shalizi and Thomas (2011), I frame this difficulty as an omitted variable bias problem, and I propose several alternative estimation methods that have potentials to correctly identify contagion effects when there is an unobserved trait that co-determines the influence and the selection. The Monte-Carlo simulation results suggest that a latent-space adjusted estimator is especially promising. It outperforms other estimators that are traditionally used to deal with the unobserved variables, including a structural equation based estimator and an instrumental variable estimator.     

Focusing on Focusing Events: Event Selection,Media Coverage,and the Dynamics of Contentious Meaning‐Making

Despite the prevalent assumption among scholars of social movements and contentious politics that transformative contentious events are also the focus of public attention and discussion, there has been little attempt to substantiate this. After making a case for why to focus on focusing events and suggesting that these events should be thought of as products of a dialogical contentious meaning‐making process, we develop a coverage attribute‐based method for identifying focusing events. For illustrative purposes, we apply our method to the coverage of contentious events during the “first” intifada by Israeli‐Jewish, Jewish settler, and Palestinian newspapers. Findings from analyses of 11,868 news items reveal that newspapers are likely to strategically quiet contentious events that are strategically amplified by newspapers affiliated with opposing or targeted parties, and vice versa, depending on their interpretation of these events as political opportunities or threats. Analyses of variations across and within contending parties reveal the role of structure and agency in the dialogical seesaw‐like dynamics of contentious meaning‐making.     

Why do Asian Americans academically outperform Whites? – The cultural explanation revisited

We advocate an interactive approach to examining the role of culture and SES in explaining Asian Americans' achievement. We use Education Longitudinal Study (ELS) 2002 baseline data to test our proposition that the cultural orientation of Asian American families is different from that of white American families in ways that mediate the effects of family SES on children's academic achievement. The results support our hypothesis, indicating that: (1) SES's positive effects on achievement are stronger among white students than among Asian-Americans; (2) the association between a family's SES and behaviors and attitudes is weaker among Asian-Americans than among Whites; (3) a fraction of the Asian-White achievement gap can be accounted for by ethnic differences in behaviors and attitudes, particularly ethnic differences in family SES's effects on behaviors and attitudes. We find that Asian Americans’ behaviors and attitudes are less influenced by family SES than those of Whites are and that this difference helps generate Asians’ premium in achievement. This is especially evident at lower levels of family SES.     

Link-tracing sampling with an initial sequential sample of sites: Estimating the size of a hidden human population

We proposed a modification to the variant of link-tracing sampling suggested by Félix-Medina and Thompson [M.H. Félix-Medina, S.K. Thompson, Combining cluster sampling and link-tracing sampling to estimate the size of hidden populations, Journal of Official Statistics 20 (2004) 19–38] that allows the researcher to have certain control of the final sample size, precision of the estimates or other characteristics of the sample that the researcher is interested in controlling. We achieve this goal by selecting an initial sequential sample of sites instead of an initial simple random sample of sites as those authors suggested. We estimate the population size by means of the maximum likelihood estimators suggested by the above-mentioned authors or by the Bayesian estimators proposed by Félix-Medina and Monjardin [M.H. Félix-Medina, P.E. Monjardin, Combining link-tracing sampling and cluster sampling to estimate the size of hidden populations: A Bayesian-assisted approach, Survey Methodology 32 (2006) 187–195]. Variances are estimated by means of jackknife and bootstrap estimators as well as by the delta estimators proposed in the two above-mentioned papers. Interval estimates of the population size are obtained by means of Wald and bootstrap confidence intervals. The results of an exploratory simulation study indicate good performance of the proposed sampling strategy.     

超越“范式”：国际问题研究的路径探微

当代国际政治理论的发展演变表现出一种对国际政治现象进行多重视角、多种层次研究的趋势,它给予人们的一个重要启示就是,没有一种能够解释一切的理论。但反过来说,不同的理论针对不同的对象也具有各不相同的解释力。我们必须认识到任何单一的理论都不可能解释国家对外行为的全部复杂性,必须提出一种综合的分析框架,结合现实主义、自由主义和建构主义各自精到的阐述,从历史、经济、政治、文化的视角来进行阐述和分析。     

高中阶段普通教育与职业教育协调发展的对策

随着我国生产力发展水平的提高,高中阶段的教育规模也在不断扩大,但只有合理的教育结构才能与劳动力市场需求相适应。为此,通过对高中阶段普通教育与职业教育的结构分析,在职业教育普通化和普通教育职业化的发展趋势下,提出新时期职业教育与普通教育在价值观念层面上要保持一致,适当发展一定比例的综合高中,构建职、普沟通的立交桥,从而促进职、酱教育的协调发展。     

解读“80后”大学生道德认识矛盾性提高德育效益

为了探索新形势下实施德育的有效途径,提高德育效益,笔者针对“80后”大学生的道德认识进行了问卷抽查。在对调查结果进行综合分析的基础上,认识到：“80后”大学生的道德认识具有矛盾性,并分析了道德认识矛盾性的原因,重点从三个层面提出提高德育效益的途径：第一,社会层面,重构社会高层价值体系;第二,学校层面,要树立全员育人的大德育观念,内容要具有可接受性,方法上要加强情境性教育、体验性教育;第三,大学生要注重自我教育。     

农业院校学生提高实践技能的途径研究

为适应社会就业形势的需要,拓展就业空间,大学生不但要有扎实的理论基础,还必须具有过硬的实践技能,能为社会或相关行业解决生产中的实际问题。提高学生实践技能的途径可通过改进实践教学体系、加强科研能力的训练、注重科技创新能力的培养、实施综合性教学实习、进行社会实践等途径来实现。