ESTIMATION OF ATTRIBUTE IMPORTANCE BY CHOICE TIME IN A RANKING TASK

The evaluation of the quality of products and services as a function of their attributes has been broadly implemented in marketing research. The current methods for identifying important attributes and prioritize them suffer from theoretical and practical limitations. The former are related to the choice of the most appropriate model for the specific experimental context, the latter are due to the large amount of variables (cognitive, context and survey variables) affecting the chosen model. This work aims at presenting a new method for capturing consumer attribute preferences and estimating the relative importance weights by using the choice time in a ranking task. All is made through an e…

Statistical issues in the development of an automotive on-board diagnostics

The automotive on-board diagnostics (OBD) is a complex system whose aim is to monitor the state-of-health of another complex system, i.e. the vehicle engine. OBD aimed at the containment of polluting exhaust emissions is nowadays compulsory on every vehicle model introduced into the market. Increasingly stringent regulations and ever more demanding customers push from opposite sides towards a perfect working of OBD systems. Therefore manufacturers are globally interested in the high robustness and reliability of such critical systems. The aim of this presentation is to give an insight into the main statistical problems arisen during an extensive research project carried out in collaboration…

A heuristic method for estimating attribute importance by measuring choice time in a ranking task

The evaluation of a product or service in terms of its attributes has been broadly studied in marketing, management and decision sciences. However, methods for finding important attributes have theoretical and practical limitations. The former are related to the selection of the most appropriate model; the latter are due to large number of variables that affect the specific experimental context. This study aims to present a new methodology that captures attribute preferences from a respondent and in particular, by using the choice time in a ranking task, it allows to indirectly obtain the importance weights for several tested attributes through a simple, fast and inexpensive procedure. More…

Can Mating Disruption Be a Possible Route to Control Plum Fruit Moth in Mediterranean Environments?

Simple Summary Grapholita funebrana is a main pest of plum throughout the Palearctic region. The management of this pest is generally carried out with chemical insecticides. In this study we investigated the suitability of the mating disruption as alternative method of control of this pest. Experiments were carried out in organic plum orchards during 2012 and 2014. Trap catches and fruit sampling were carried out to estimate the efficacy of this technique in reducing males catch and fruit infestation. The results indicated that the males caught in traps placed in the treatment plots was always significantly lower than untreated plots. The chemical analysis of the pheromone emission from the…

Construction and optimality of a special class of balanced designs

The use of balanced designs is generally advisable in experimental practice. In technological experiments, balanced designs optimize the exploitation of experimental resources, whereas in marketing research experiments they avoid erroneous conclusions caused by the misinterpretation of interviewed customers. In general, the balancing property assures the minimum variance of first-order effect estimates. In this work the authors consider situations in which all factors are categorical and minimum run size is required. In a symmetrical case, it is often possible to find an economical balanced design by means of algebraic methods. Conversely, in an asymmetrical case algebraic methods lead to e…

Rethinking the risk matrix

So far risk has been mostly defined as the expected value of a loss, mathematically PL (being P the probability of an adverse event and L the loss incurred as a consequence of the adverse event). The so called risk matrix follows from such definition. This definition of risk is justified in a long term “managerial” perspective, in which it is conceivable to distribute the effects of an adverse event on a large number of subjects or a large number of recurrences. In other words, this definition is mostly justified on frequentist terms. Moreover, according to this definition, in two extreme situations (high-probability/low-consequence and low-probability/high-consequence), the estimated risk…

Tomato Brown Rugose Fruit Virus: Seed Transmission Rate and Efficacy of Different Seed Disinfection Treatments

Tomato brown rugose fruit virus (ToBRFV) is a highly infectious virus, that is becoming a threat to tomato production worldwide. In this work we evaluated the localization of ToBRFV particles in tomato seeds, its seed transmission rate and efficacy of disinfection, and the effects of different thermal- and chemical-based treatments on ToBRFV-infected seeds&rsquo

A robust calibration methodology for an On-Board Diagnostic car system

New car models are now by law equipped with on-board diagnostic (OBD) systems aimed at monitoring the state of health of strategic components that ensure low levels of polluting exhaust emissions. During development phases, for each new car model, the OBD system must be finely calibrated. This article presents a robust calibration methodology taking into account sources of variability mainly due to production process, operating, and environmental conditions. The methodology enables us to evaluate the false alarm and failure to detect risks intrinsically related to the adopted calibration. An application concerning an upstream oxygen sensor monitored by the OBD is presented.

Basic Statistical Techniques

TESF Methodology for Statistics Education Improvement

The need for universities to achieve excellence in the services they provide has been the subject of research for several decades. The idea of involving students and recognizing the importance of their opinions has led to the creation of various models and tools. This paper focuses on teaching, a central service from which improvement actions of an academic institution should always begin. The article reviews and updates the previously developed Teaching Experiments and Student Feedback methodology. The methodology, which is primarily addressed to statistics teachers, allows practical aspects to be organized and decisions to be made based on data that has been collected from students and sc…

Robust dynamic comfort modelling for motorcycle riding

Comfort modeling is considered a prerequisite in motorcycle design, primarily to address safety concerns and to position the product on themarket. However, a comprehensive methodology for comfort modeling during the earliest development phases of a motorcycle model is still missing. Anthropometrical variation is the main noise factor to consider in comfort modeling in relation to the unavoidable variability of body segments. However, comfort is a subjective concept influencing riders’ choice of motorcycle model. This work is a generalization of the robust ergonomic design methodology aimed at designing products whose ergonomic performance is insensitive to anthropometrical variation. This w…

Design and analysis of discrete choice experiments for models with response time

Building a statistical surveillance dashboard for COVID-19 infection worldwide

When a pandemic like the current novel coronavirus (COVID-19) breaks out, it is important that authorities, healthcare organizations and official decision makers, have in place an effective monitoring system to promptly analyze data, create new insights into problematic areas and generate actionable knowledge for fact-based decision making. The aim of this article is to describe an initial work focused on building a comprehensive statistical surveillance dashboard for the epidemic of COVID-19, which can be exploited also for future needs. We propose novel ways of exploring, analyzing and presenting data, using metrics that have not been used previously. We also show the steps necessary to b…

Robust Product Development Using Variation Mode and Effect Analysis

This is a book chapter. No abstract is present.

Hybrid descriptive-inferential method for key feature selection in prostate cancer radiomics

In healthcare industry 4.0, a big role is played by radiomics. Radiomics concerns the extraction and analysis of quantitative information not visible to the naked eye, even by expert operators, from biomedical images. Radiomics involves the management of digital images as data matrices, with the aim of extracting a number of morphological and predictive variables, named features, using automatic or semi-automatic methods. Multidisciplinary methods as machine learning and deep learning are fully involved in this field. However, the large number of features requires efficient and effective core methods for their selection, in order to avoid bias or misinterpretations problems. In this work, t…

A Robustness Approach to Reliability

Reliability of products is here regarded with respect to failure avoidance rather than probability of failure. To avoid failures, we emphasize variation and suggest some powerful tools for handling failures due to variation. Thus, instead of technical calculation of probabilities from data that usually are too weak for correct results, we emphasize the statistical thinking that puts the designers focus on the critical product functions. Making the design insensitive to unavoidable variation is called robust design and is handled by (i) identification and classification of variation, (ii) design of experiments to find robust solutions, and (iii) statistically based estimations of proper safe…

Statistics-driven Development of OBD Systems: An Overview

Automotive on-board diagnostic (OBD) systems are designed to keep critical components under control during vehicle functioning, and to alert the driver in case of severe malfunctions. OBD systems aimed at reducing polluting emissions are mandatory on new motor vehicles. Some research projects conducted in cooperation between universities and the automotive industry have been quite successful in terms of knowledge advancement and industrial gain. An updated overview of the adopted methodologies and results obtained are given in this article. Such results can be valuable for both theorists and practitioners, since they witness the use of statistics as a powerful catalyst of technical progress…

Radiomics: A New Biomedical Workflow to Create a Predictive Model

‘Radiomics’ is utilized to improve the prediction of patient overall survival and/or outcome. Target segmentation, feature extraction, feature selection, and classification model are the fundamental blocks of a radiomics workflow. Nevertheless, these blocks can be affected by several issues, i.e. high inter- and intra-observer variability. To overcome these issues obtaining reproducible results, we propose a novel radiomics workflow to identify a relevant prognostic model concerning a real clinical problem. In the specific, we propose an operator-independent segmentation system with the consequent automatic extraction of radiomics features, and a novel feature selection approach to create a…

Basic Managerial Techniques

Design and analysis of teaching experiments for course quality in the academic setting

Statistical and managerial techniques for Six Sigma methodology. Theory and Application

Beyond robust design: an example of synergy between statistics and advanced engineering design

Higher efficiency and effectiveness of Research & Development phases can be attained using advanced statistical methodologies. In this work statistical methodologies are combined with a deterministic approach to engineering design. In order to show the potentiality of such integration, a simple but effective example is presented. It concerns the problem of optimising the performance of a paper helicopter. The desgin of this simple device is not new in quality engineering literature and has been mainly used for educational purposes. Taking full advantage of fundamental engineering knowledge, an aerodynamic model is originally formulated in order to describe the fligh of the helicopter. S…

Advanced Statistical Techniques

Robust Dynamic Comfort Modeling for Motorcycle Riding

Comfort modeling is considered a prerequisite in motorcycle design, primarily to address safety concerns and to position the product on the market. However, a comprehensive methodology for comfort modeling during the earliest development phases of a motorcycle model is still missing. Anthropometrical variation is the main noise factor to consider in comfort modeling in relation to the unavoidable variability of body segments. However, comfort is a subjective concept influencing riders' choice of motorcycle model. This work is a generalization of the robust ergonomic design methodology aimed at designing products whose ergonomic performance is insensitive to anthropometrical variation. This …

Teaching Experiments and Student Feedback

Radiomics analysis of 18F-Choline PET/CT in the prediction of disease outcome in high-risk prostate cancer: an explorative study on machine learning feature classification in 94 patients

Objective: The aim of this study was (1) to investigate the application of texture analysis of choline PET/CT images in prostate cancer (PCa) patients and (2) to propose a machine-learning radiomics model able to select PET features predictive of disease progression in PCa patients with a same high-risk class at restaging. Material and methods: Ninety-four high-risk PCa patients who underwent restaging Cho-PET/CT were analyzed. Follow-up data were recorded for a minimum of 13 months after the PET/CT scan. PET images were imported in LIFEx toolbox to extract 51 features from each lesion. A statistical system based on correlation matrix and point-biserial-correlation coefficient has been impl…

Focus on failure avoidance and risk reduction through Variation Mode and Effect Analysis

Variation Mode and Effect Analysis (VMEA) is a quality improvement tool initially thought to help product development engineers focusing on variation. The method was inspired by the wide use of Failure Mode and Effect Analysis (FMEA) in business and industry and the increased attention on robust design. However, FMEA is based on the concept of failure while VMEA is developed on the concept of variation, i.e. it implies a step further toward the awareness of variation and its implications in terms of risk and failures. VMEA helps identifying, scrutinizing and measuring the sources of variation and the way they channel through and impact on important characteristics of the system under study.…

Robust dynamic comfort modeling for motorcycle riding

Comfort modeling is considered a prerequisite in motorcycle design, primarily to address safety concerns and to position the product on the market. However, a comprehensive methodology for comfort modeling during the earliest development phases of a motorcycle model is still missing. Anthropometrical variation is the main noise factor to consider in comfort modeling in relation to the unavoidable variability of body segments. However, comfort is a subjective concept influencing riders' choice of motorcycle model. This work is a generalization of the robust ergonomic design methodology aimed at designing products whose ergonomic performance is insensitive to anthropometrical variation. This …

Phase-I statistical control of key indicators in health care

Computer experiments combined with physical Experiments: two experiences in product development

Physical experiments in industrial product development are often very expensive but also necessary sometimes even for safety reasons (think about the crash tests in the automotive industry conducted with new and completely equipped vehicles). Therefore there is a pressing need to reduce this cost as much as possible. Computer experiments may be a viable solution provided that their results are reliable as much as the physical ones. In most of the cases, computer experiments are opportunely combined with physical experiments and the recipe of such mix is interesting itself. In this presentation we will show two cases of combination of physical and computer experiments in product development.…

Enhanced TESF methodology for course excellence

The need to achieve the excellence in services provided by a University has been object of study and research for several decades. Often, the focus is not only on the education service, but on several satellite services provided by a university. This article focuses on teaching, considered as a central service, believing (the authors) that the improvement actions of an academic institution should always start from this service. The work proposes the implementation of a tool able to measure student perceptions on certain selected aspects of the course. This tool is part of the Teaching Experiment and Student Feedback (TESF) methodology previously developed by the authors. Here, the steps to …

A Comparison of Two Classes of Nearly Orthogonal Designs

A Robustness Approach to Reliability

Reliability of products is here regarded with respect to failure avoidance rather than probability of failure. To avoid failures, we emphasize variation and suggest some powerful tools for handling failures due to variation. Thus, instead of technical calculation of probabilities from data that usually are too weak for correct results, we emphasize the statistical thinking that puts the designers focus on the critical product functions. Making the design insensitive to unavoidable variation is called robust design and is handled by (i) identification and classification of variation, (ii) design of experiments to find robust solutions, and (iii) statistically based estimations of proper safe…

Prioritization of the balancing property and full estimability in mixed-level designs

In a recently published work, a new class of Balanced Asymmetrical Nearly Orthogonal Designs (BANOD2) was proposed, which can simultaneously estimate both first and second order effects of all factors, with a limited run size. The motivation for the new class lies in using the balancing property as a necessary precondition for several practical concerns arising in the experimentation field. A balanced design optimizes the use of experimental resources in technological experiments, may avoid misinterpretations in choice experiments of marketing research, and can relieve the experimenter from the arbitrariness in assigning the levels to factors. Furthermore the balancing property assures the …

Un metodo per la misurazione della qualità percepita di una attività didattica

Active contour algorithm with discriminant analysis for delineating tumors in positron emission tomography.

Abstract In the context of cancer delineation using positron emission tomography datasets, we present an innovative approach which purpose is to tackle the real-time, three-dimensional segmentation task in a full, or at least nearly full automatized way. The approach comprises a preliminary initialization phase where the user highlights a region of interest around the cancer on just one slice of the tomographic dataset. The algorithm takes care of identifying an optimal and user-independent region of interest around the anomalous tissue and located on the slice containing the highest standardized uptake value so to start the successive segmentation task. The three-dimensional volume is then…

Statistical-based tolerance setting by eliciting the loss function reasoining

An issue still open in the statistical-engineering literature concerns the tolerance allocation, i.e. the setting of admitted limits for critical characteristics or performances of interest of the system under study. A common approach to tolerance allocation is based on the idea of Loss function initially developed by Taguchi. Unfortunately, some obstacles prevent from a full exploitation of the Taguchi approach, since despite its clarity and elegance, it is poorly operational. Based on Taguchi’s proposal, researchers have been more concerned on developing different analytical models of loss function than clarifying the reasoning behind the loss function idea. So there is a missing link for…

Variation Mode and Effect Analysis: a Practical Tool for Quality Improvement

This paper describes a statistically based engineering method, variation mode and effect analysis (VMEA), that facilitates an understanding of variation and highlights the product/process areas in which improvement efforts should be targeted. An industrial application is also described to illustrate how the VMEA can be used for quality improvement purposes. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

A statistical monitoring approach for automotive on-board diagnostic systems

The current generation of vehicle models are increasingly being equipped with on-board diagnostic (OBD) systems aimed at assessing the ‘state of health’ of important anti-pollution subsystems and components. In order to promptly diagnose and fix quality and reliability problems that may potentially affect such complex diagnostic systems, even during advanced development prior to mass production, some vehicle prototypes undergo a testing phase under realistic conditions of use (a mileage accumulation campaign). The aim of this work is to set up a statistical tool for improving the reliability of the OBD system by monitoring its operation during the mileage accumulation campaign of a new vehi…

Pandemetrics: systematically assessing, monitoring, and controlling the evolution of a pandemic

AbstractThe still ongoing pandemic of SARS-CoV-2 virus and COVID-19 disease, affecting the population worldwide, has demonstrated the need of more accurate methodologies for assessing, monitoring, and controlling an outbreak of such devastating proportions. Authoritative attempts have been made in traditional fields of medicine (epidemiology, virology, infectiology) to address these shortcomings, mainly by relying on mathematical and statistical modeling. However, here, we propose approaching the methodological work from a different, and to some extent alternative, standpoint. Applied systematically, the concepts and tools of statistical engineering and quality management, developed not onl…

Prioritization of Alternatives with AHP Plus Response Latency and Web Surveys

Purpose: Overcome some drawbacks of the widely applied Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) related to the use of a rating scale for respondent’s judgments and propose a new method to prioritize alternatives based on web surveys. Methodology/Approach: We use the response latency, i.e. the time taken to make a decision, to replace the rating scale in the pairwise comparisons which is a fundamental part of the AHP procedure. A method combining the AHP with a mathematical model for the response latency is proposed in the paper. Findings: Eliminating the rating scale and leaving only the “take the best” task alleviates the respondent and makes the survey much faster and intuitive. Moreover the re…

Implementation of Six Sigma in SMEs. A Case Study in Swedish Industry

Many big companies today have already solid Six Sigma infrastructures. However, all over the world SMEs are only now approaching the methodology. In this presentation we expose an industrial application of a Six Sigma Black Belt project. It shows how Six Sigma was introduced and successfully implemented in a Swedish small-medium sized company. The project was carried out within the Six Sigma Black Belt course run at Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg. This case study is included in the book “Statistical and Managerial Techniques for Six Sigma Methodology, Theory and Application” (Wiley, 2012). The company is Structo Hydraulics AB, a manufacturing firm, located in Storfors, whic…

A statistical framework for teaching improvement in higher education

A tool for generating new optimal designs in conjoint analysis experiments

Six Sigma Methodology in Action: Selected Black Belt Projects in Swedish Organisations

A weighted logistic regression for conjoint analysis and Kansei engineering

Customer needs for emotional satisfaction are increasingly being considered by product and service designers. While several existing methods such as conjoint analysis (CA), Kano model and quality function deployment support the translation of customer requirements into technical specifications, researchers are now working to develop methods aimed at integrating affective aspects into product design. Kansei engineering (KE) is a design philosophy that considers customer perceptions and emotions by adopting a multi-disciplinary approach. CA is a useful tool within a KE project. This article presents a methodology for conducting a KE project in early development phases. This methodology is bas…

Balanced Asymmetrical Nearly Orthogonal Designs for first and second order effect estimation

Abstract A method for constructing asymmetrical (mixed-level) designs, satisfying the balancing and interaction estimability requirements with a number of runs as small as possible, is proposed in this paper. The method, based on a heuristic procedure, uses a new optimality criterion formulated here. The proposed method demonstrates efficiency in terms of searching time and optimality of the attained designs. A complete collection of such asymmetrical designs with two- and three-level factors is available. A technological application is also presented.

Progettazione del posto guida di una minicar basata su esperienza del designer e sperimentazione virtuale

A preliminary PET radiomics study of brain metastases using a fully automatic segmentation method

AbstractBackgroundPositron Emission Tomography (PET) is increasingly utilized in radiomics studies for treatment evaluation purposes. Nevertheless, lesion volume identification in PET images is a critical and still challenging step in the process of radiomics, due to the low spatial resolution and high noise level of PET images. Currently, the biological target volume (BTV) is manually contoured by nuclear physicians, with a time expensive and operator-dependent procedure.This study aims to obtain BTVs from cerebral metastases in patients who underwent L-[11C]methionine (11C-MET) PET, using a fully automatic procedure and to use these BTVs to extract radiomics features to stratify between p…

Service Quality design through a smart use of Conjoint Analysis

Una riflessione pedagogica sulla qualità nel fare scuola-ricerca (Riferimenti bibliografici), in Gaetano Venza(a cura di), La qualità dell'Università. Un approccio psicosociale, Milano, Franco Angeli, 2008 Codice ISBN 13: 9788856802160

Analysis of User Needs for the Redesign of a Postural Seat System

The identification and translation of customer needs early in the design process is a major challenge for product design researchers. Some needs are explicit and customers can state them very clearly. Other needs are implicit, so customers cannot express them, e.g., those pertaining to the affective and emotional sphere. In this work, we describe the methods most commonly used to capture explicit and emotional customer needs, and the traditional ways in which they are used. Moreover, an integration of QFD and Kansei engineering, a simplification of Kano methodology, and a new attribute weighing methodology based on the “choice time” are discussed for the design of an innovative postural sea…

Analysis of user needs for the re-design of a wheelchair

The identification and translation of customer needs early in the design process is a major challenge for product design researchers. Some needs are explicit and customers can state them very clearly. Other needs are implicit, so customers cannot express them, e.g., those pertaining to the affective and emotional sphere. In this work, we describe the methods most commonly used to capture explicit and emotional customer needs, and the traditional ways in which they are used. Moreover, an integration of QFD and Kansei engineering, a simplification of Kano methodology, and a new attribute weighing methodology based on the “choice time” are discussed for the design of an innovative postural sea…

How to keep patient case sheet flows under control? A subset of ad hoc indicators and its statistical control in a healthcare organization.

Enhanced multinomial logit model for the analysis of choice experiments

A sector of conjoint analysis (experimental design in marketing research) is made of the so called choice experiments. In choice experiments respondents undergo a questionnaire which is nowadays mostly submitted through the internet. The questionnaire proposes to the respondent a sequence of choice sets each one including two or more profiles, being a profile a specific combination of attribute levels. The respondent selects the preferred profile for each choice set. Responses given by a sample of respondents are analysed through suitable methods aimed to eventually find the best combination of attribute levels. One method of analysis adopts the Multinomial Logit (MLN) model. In this articl…

Balanced Asymmetrical Nearly Orthogonal Designs for first and second order effect estimation. A collection for two- and three-level factors

Six Sigma in small- and medium-sized enterprises: a Black Belt project in the Swedish steel industry

Many big companies around the world have solid Six Sigma infrastructures and it is easy to find in literature successful case studies. Conversely, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) generally suffer lower attention in the literature. This happens because SMEs have only recently approached the methodology; they have weaker connection with the academia; or they do not rigorously pursue the frameworks. This paper is based on a Six Sigma project in a Swedish medium-sized company that produces steel tubes mainly for hydraulic applications. The project focused on the improvement of warehouse activities related to cutting processes. This Black Belt project was part of a Six Sigma education …

Statistical properties of a new student satisfaction index

Quality of Higher Education is increasingly important in all developed countries. In fact quality and reputation are key elements to control the flow of students at national and international level. The authors have shown that quality of education can be improved through a process of self-assessment of the teaching services and a well studied analysis of the student feedback. In particular a new student satisfaction index was formulated which allows student feedback being summarised and interpreted for a continuous course improvement. In this paper some statistical properties of the student satisfaction index are illustrated, and comparisons with other measures based on Likert scales are ma…

Spread of tomato brown rugose fruit virus in sicily and evaluation of the spatiotemporal dispersion in experimental conditions

Tomato brown rugose fruit virus (ToBRFV) is an emerging pathogen that causes severe disease in tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) crops. The first ToBRFV outbreak in Italy occurred in 2018 in several Sicilian provinces, representing a serious threat for tomato production. In the present work, the spatiotemporal displacement of ToBRFV in Sicily was evaluated, analyzing a total of 590 lots of tomato seed, 982 lots of plantlets from nurseries and 100 commercial greenhouses. Furthermore, we investigated the ToBRFV spreading dynamic in a greenhouse under experimental conditions. Results showed several aspects related to ToBRFV dispersion in protected tomato crops. In detail, an important decrease …

Six Sigma Methodology

Monitoring based burn-in for reliability improvement of on-board diagnostic systems

Prioritisation of alternatives with analytical hierarchy process plus response latency and web surveys

This paper introduces a new method that combines the well-known analytical hierarchy process (AHP) with a response latency metric. The response latency is the time taken by respondents to make choices over pairwise comparisons. The analytical calculation of relative importance weights of the alternatives is made by using a response latency model previously validated in several case studies. This combination aims to overcome some drawbacks of the traditional AHP related to the use of a rating scale (the so-called Saaty scale), and it is a natural way to involve response latency in established decisionmaking methods. This new method can be profitably adopted in web surveys where it is easy to…

On the treatment of anthropometrical noise factors in Robust Ergonomic Design

Robust calibration of automotive OBD systems combining physical and simulated experiments

Progettazione emozionale statistica

In questo lavoro si propone l’utilizzo di particolari metodologie statistiche nell’ambito del Kansei Engineering, con un esempio applicativo a motoveicoli di media cilindrata appartenenti al segmento delle turistiche di medio raggio. Seguendo la procedura proposta, il “prodotto moto” è stato analizzato dal punto di vista delle emozioni che esso suscita nel potenziale acquirente, all’interno del cosiddetto spazio semantico. Al contempo nello spazio delle proprietà, le specifiche di mercato sono state selezionate e raggruppate attraverso l’utilizzo di un software che stima l’importanza degli attributi o caratteristiche di prodotto. Successivamente sono state condotte delle interviste che mira…

Robust Ergonomic Virtual Design

Since early development phases of a new industrial product, realistic simulations can be performed in virtual environment to study the human-machine interaction. In a virtual lab it is possible to make experiments to assess the ergonomics of the new product with manikins simulating the human body, and dealing with the problem of anthropometrical variation. Although such sophisticated tools are available, there is still need of a methodo-logical framework aimed at efficiently organizing the experiments in virtual lab. This paper provides an overview of the Robust Ergonomic Virtual Design (REVD), a methodology developed by the authors in the course of the last years. It allows obtaining produ…

Design of a university course quality by Teaching Experiments and Student Feedback (TESF)

Quality of the academic system must be constantly monitored, especially under conditions of growing competition and limited resources. Those who are interested in quality, doing research and teaching on it, should ensure quality of the processes for which they are responsible. Teaching is one of the primary services offered by a university. For it, all fundamental principles of Total Quality Management (TQM) must be valid. In this article the authors propose a methodology for designing the quality of a university course, considered as a basic service of a complex educational system. The methodology is based on the concurrent use of teaching experiments performed by a teacher, and the SERVQU…

Manager’s and citizen’s perspective of positive and negative risks for small probabilities

So far „risk‟ has been mostly defined as the expected value of a loss, mathematically PL, being P the probability of an adverse event and L the loss incurred as a consequence of the event. The so called risk matrix is based on this definition. Also for favorable events one usually refers to the expected gain PG, being G the gain incurred as a consequence of the positive event. These “measures” are generally violated in practice. The case of insurances (on the side of losses, negative risk) and the case of lotteries (on the side of gains, positive risk) are the most obvious. In these cases a single person is available to pay a higher price than that stated by the mathematical expected valu…

Advanced Managerial Techniques