• International Journal of Quality Innovation
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.159-173
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• 2002

Any organization's Six Sigma program may be at high risk without heeding the lessons learned from the past and that tries to operate without a robust business foundation. A foundation that preferably should consist of stepping-stones such as a 5-S house-keeping program, an effective Integrated Management System (IMS), which includes a strong focus on planning for quality to fully capture the Voice of the Customer (VOC), and an organization-wide training scheme, as well as a reliable Cost of Poor Quality (COPQ) system. That's the best advise I can give to any organization that wishes to embark on a Six Sigma improvement program and hope to be successful. The paper will elaborate on the above issues and provide suggested solutions based on the review of published historical information and the experiences encountered over the last four decades by the author, as a quality practitioner and consultant, in industries that produced safety-critical product. This author maintains that few fundamentally new or useful things have been created in the field of Quality during the last couple of decades. Nevertheless, this paper deliberates on a number of relatively “newer” issues including the concept of “three types of customers”, the CTC, “Critical To Customer” term, the eight Quality Management Principles of the new ISO 9000 family, the growth of industry-specific standards, the adoption of Integrated Management Systems, the rebirth of AS2561 COQ standard, the spread of Six Sigma as well as related ASQ certification and the need for a robust business foundation to ensure Six Sigma survival.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.147-168
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• 2006

Technological innovation has been regarded as the core competence for the economic growth of individual, as well as organization and country. Pharmaceutical innovation, what we call new medicines, influence people's longevity and productivity by increasing output per hour worked. Therefore, using claims data on virtually all the drugs and diseases of over 550,000 people enrolled in National Health Insurance Program in Korea, we examined the impact of the vintage (original FDA and KFDA approval year) of drugs used to treat a patients from July 1st to December 31st in 2002 on the patient's mortality at the end of 2004, controlling for demographic characteristics(age and sex), utilization of medical services, and the nature and complexity of illness. We found that people using newer drugs are less likely to die at the end of 2004, conditional on covariates. The estimated mortality rates were declining with respect to drug vintage for 1970s, 1980s and 1990s and highly significant. In addition to estimating the model for the entire sample, we estimated the model separately for several disease categories classified by Korean Classification of Disease. Estimates of three drug vintage variables for subgroups of people with (1)neoplasms, (2)endocrine, nutritional and metabolic diseases, and (3)the diseases of circulatory system displayed similar patterns.

• Journal of Information Technology Services
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• v.11 no.sup
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• pp.1-16
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• 2012

Information technology is a useful strategic weapon that can create competitive advantage and new business opportunity by applying it in the organization' value chain. IT convergence can be understood as an attempt of industrial level IT adoption to facilitate the innovation of the industry and the birth of a new industry. This study provides the comprehensive review of the Korean government' three IT assimilation programs, ubiquitous technology diffusion program of the Ministry of Knowledge Economy, u-service program of the Ministry of Public Administration and Security, and u-Defence cooperation program of the Department of Defense. The analysis is done through the interpretation of the existing literature and the logic model. The result proposes inter-agency cooperation and building of new technology road-map in the planning stage, flexible management in the execution phase, and failure tolerant evaluation system. The proposal for developing competencies and institutional foundations for IT convergence also presented.

• Asian Journal of Innovation and Policy
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.35-54
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• 2016

This study starts from the perspective that preparing students for employment is the most important role of undergraduate degree programs. Therefore, we examine the determinants of undergraduate employment, especially highlighting the differences by disciplines. We classify 28 factors into five categories such as personal attributes, entrance attributes, students’ employment-related activities, regular curriculum and employability programs provided by universities. This study is based on data from 7,616 students from a Korean university over four and half years. Findings reveal that university efforts are crucial in engineering. Only exchange programs and employment programs have an impact on science. There are no specific factors in humanities and social science. Grade point average and students’ efforts are important in business. Face-to-face coaching in employability support programs is effective for securing employment except in science disciplines. The study results do not point to the absence of a role of university even in the low employment disciplines. Rather, the issue is that of an over-supply of graduates exceeding job offers that results from the worldwide expansion of higher education services.

• Fashion & Textile Research Journal
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.37-47
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• 2012

The purpose of this study was to explore an intrinsic concept of 'company innovativeness' based on qualitative data obtained from 54 practitioners with at least 5 year-experience in the industry. Data were analyzed based on the grounded theory and Nvivo 2.0 program. Based on results, seven theme were generated. Seven intrinsic theme include 5 intrinsic concepts such as learning orientation, excellence of human resource, treatment for employees, market orientation and work efficiency, and 2 performance concepts such as business performance and innovation performance. These diverse concepts were considered as an important guideline in judging whether a company is innovative or not. In addition, diverse programs were provided by companies for a purpose of enhancing company innovativeness. Based on results, a research model was suggested to be elaborated in future studies. Implications and suggestions were generated based on results.

• Journal of the Korea Safety Management & Science
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• v.8 no.5
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• pp.27-56
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• 2006

Prior to Six Sigma, many companies had adopted a policy management method designed to manage business performances through the top-down deployment of management policies. This policy management method and the Six Sigma CTQ Flow Down will make a good combination when their merits are developed and systemized as the management innovation program which enables to set up innovation targets along with management targets in the stage of strategic planning and to participate all the personnel from top management down in achieving th targets. This paper will help the companies implementing Six Sigma improve their management constitutions and achieve better management performances through the integration of policy management and Six Sigma.

• Korean small business review
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• v.43 no.3
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• pp.21-42
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• 2021

Since R&D (Research and Development) of small companies is becoming more and more important, and government R&D grants are still increasing. This study aims to investigate the factors influencing R&D performance of small companies and necessary capabilities of them. Based on empirical study of 3,636 small companies which participated and completed government R&D grant project, technology innovation capability and technology commercializing capability of small companies are positively related with organizational competences, with moderating effects of entrepreneurship. In addition, their R&D capabilities are not significantly related with R&D commercializing performance directly, but mediated with organizational competences. The results of study suggest implications of measuring the R&D performance of small companies and government support policy with the importance of organizational competences as an intermediate variable of R&D performances.

• Journal of the Korea Safety Management & Science
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.83-92
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• 2021

The construction of smart factories for government SMEs is not easy due to the lack of professional manpower. The use of retired professionals is a way to solve the problem to some extent and to solve the job problem of seniors by effectively utilizing social assets. This study examines the effectiveness of using Meister based on a survey of 195 companies participating in the Smart Meister Support Program. As a result, the better pre-participation readiness and the better management and coordination of change during the participation, the more significant influence was on Meister's ability development and corporate performance. In particular, it was confirmed that Meister's competence plays a role in both 'pre-participation readiness and business performance' and 'between change management during participation and business performance'. In order to improve the performance of the smart meister business in the future, it is necessary to proactively promote the purpose and purpose of the business targeting companies that wish to participate in the business. In addition, it was found that it is necessary to support the development of change management in order to minimize the resistance to innovation during the project. It will be possible to enhance social competitiveness by resolving senior jobs and strengthening the competitiveness of SMEs by discovering and utilizing Meister, who is an expert among retirees.

• Food Science of Animal Resources
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• v.44 no.2
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• pp.372-389
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• 2024

This study investigated the efficacy of ultraviolet-C (UV-C) irradiation in enhancing the quality of raw bovine milk by targeting microbial populations and lipid peroxidation, both of which are key factors in milk spoilage. We categorized the raw milk samples into three groups based on initial bacterial load: low (<3 Log 10 CFU/mL), medium (3-4 Log 10 CFU/mL), and high (>4 Log 10 CFU/mL). Using a 144 W thin-film UV-C reactor, we treated the milk with a flow rate of 3 L/min. We measured the bacterial count including standard plate count, coliform count, coagulase-negative staphylococci count, and lactic acid bacteria count and lipid peroxidation (via thiobarbituric acid reactive substances assay) pre- and post-treatment. Our results show that UV-C treatment significantly reduced bacterial counts, with the most notable reductions observed in high and medium initial load samples (>4 and 3-4 Log 10 CFU/mL, respectively). The treatment was particularly effective against coliforms, showing higher reduction efficiency compared to coagulase-negative staphylococci and lactic acid bacteria. Notably, lipid peroxidation in UV-C treated milk was significantly lower than in pasteurized or untreated milk, even after 72 hours. These findings demonstrate the potential of UV-C irradiation as a pre-treatment method for raw milk, offering substantial reduction in microbial content and prevention of lipid peroxidation, thereby enhancing milk quality.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.14 no.9
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• pp.5-13
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• 2016

Purpose - This study proposes a framework for service innovation strategy to cope with the emergence of electric vehicles. Research design, data, and methodology - This study designs an electric-vehicle lease program and collects the resulting data to analyze. By analyzing the previous studies on the electric-vehicle market with cases, a theoretical framework based on existing theories is to be set. Results - This study proposes a strategy for the rapid diffusion of electric vehicles. First, a partitioned-pricing system is proposed to create an advantage for electric vehicles in terms of initial purchasing cost relative to traditional internal combustion vehicles. Second, focusing on reducing switching costs is important because electric vehicles have relatively low resale values due to the uncertainty of battery life. Third, a battery-leasing strategy is supposed to reduce the cost of switching from a traditional internal combustion vehicle to an electric vehicle. Conclusions - This paper can provide strategic guidance for decision makers in firms that have already entered the electric-vehicle leasing market by making a recommendation such as a service innovation strategy. The proposed strategy can be considered as an electric vehicle market in the future and can contribute to the wider diffusion of electric vehicles.