ABSTRACT
Digital technologies enable apparel manufacturers to unlock solutions for new product development (NPD) challenges faced during the Covid-19 pandemic. A Product Configurator (PC) is the key to Mass Customization (MC) as it can employ to elicit customer requirements, which is essential in successful NPD. Even though some online PCs exist in apparel retail and product development, no one could gather customer requirements and deploy them in the NPD. This paper conceptualizes a Natural Language Processing (NLP)-based PC on eliciting customer requirements based on a systematic literature review and a basic concept of Design Space Analysis. Finally, it is contended that this knowledge can apply in relevant software development to modernize apparel design, development and online retail. © 2023 The authors and IOS Press.
ABSTRACT
The globalization of the economy, the major disruptions due to the COVID-19 crisis, customer requirements as well as the current context of war, are straining global supply chains, which must demonstrate resilience and constantly seek to improve their performance. Performance. Among the essential approaches to achieve these objectives, collaboration between logistics partners through methods and tools that have proven themselves but also have shown limits, particularly in terms of trust. Blockchain technology, which appeared in 2008, now offers an opportunity to improve collaboration by providing answers to concerns about trust. However, its application is not generalized, indeed a large part of the companies do not apply the technology because of its shared database character because the companies have sensitive and confidential data. After an analysis of the literature to highlight the obstacles to the generalization of the use of the blockchain in the supply chain, a methodology of adoption and application of the Blockchain following eight steps is proposed with an emphasis on the smart contract. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.
ABSTRACT
Meeting customers' requirements and needs is con-sidered a cornerstone of the success of any type of business, regardless of its size. Therefore, engineering the products and services provided by those organizations should be made based on a clear understanding of such requirements. This in turn would increase their market penetration, competitiveness, and of course their profitability. Nowadays, with the emergence of COVID-19 pandemic, a big shift in the people's behavior towards using various electronic means, has been witnessed. Consequently, this had forced the business models to be shifted as well to cope with such changes in the behavior. In this research, we focused on exploring the main drivers of people's willingness to adopt mobile commerce services during times of pandemic. The research was conducted based on feedback collected from users of mobile commerce services in Jordan. The results showed that performance expectancy, personal innovativeness, and habit, had a positively significant impact on Jordanian customers' behavioral intention to adopt such services during the COVID-19 pandemic. © 2022 IEEE.
ABSTRACT
The quality of the provided services is vital to the existence and to the profitability of any organization, regardless its business type or size. In general, providing and maintaining high levels of quality would increase the organizations' ability to meet, and sometimes to exceed, the customers' needs and requirements, and hence obtaining their satisfaction. This in turn would boost the reputation, revenue, and sales. Currently, at the times of COVID-19 crisis, a significant surge in the usage of different electronic means has been witnessed. One of the industries, which its customers' has shifted to utilizing e-channels, is the banking sector. Therefore, it became challenging for all banks across the world to keep a pace with the rapid technological development and to deliver banking services through various digital channels, while at the same time ensuring the delivery of high quality services. In this research, we examined the quality of the e-banking services during the pandemic and how it affected customers' satisfaction. The study was performed and carried out based on the feedback got from Jordanian banks' customers. The results showed that reliability, efficiency, security, privacy, website/app design, and usability of the provided e-banking services, have a significantly positive influence on the overall customers' satisfaction. © 2022 IEEE.
ABSTRACT
The starting point of the research was the demand of customers for 3D printing of face shield frames. In this context, but also due to the possibilities of relatively cheap 3D printing of various products, a large amount of waste has started to be generated, which needs to be disposed of. The goal of the research was to contribute to the development of new 3D printed products while balancing their level of quality, and cost and minimizing their environmental footprint. For this purpose, based on customer requirements, the research team printed samples of PLA (polylactic acid) material and recycled PLA using Fused Filament Fabrication (FFM) technology, thus significantly helping especially during the Covid-19 pandemic. The research used a design method known as Design for Six Sigma (DFSS) and its framework of successive steps of defining, measuring, analyzing, designing, and validating DMADV (Define, Measure, Analyze, Design, and Validate). The research concerns the development of Quality Function Deployment (QFD) functions that respect the requirement of a minimum environmental footprint of 3D printing. The result is an original QFD methodology, taking into account the choice of material in terms of minimizing the impact on the environment. © 2022 IEEE.