After the Spread of COVID-19: A Study of Board Game Design Factor for Game-Based Learning

This research had the objective to study the design factors of board games for game-based learning by being classified into two parts: 1) Studying the design factors for board games for learning through a systematic review. 2) Studying the design factors for board games of the customers' needs from the quality function deployment technique based on the data gathered from structured questionnaires. The population group comprised 100 board game customers, and the results found that there were two significant factors in designing the board game for promoting learning with the customers' needs that were related to the playing patterns or the mechanisms. Thus, both factors enabled the players to gain the motivation for participation in learning through the board games, including the design factors of the board games for promoting learning until they could respond to customer satisfaction at the same level as existing board games that are appropriately sold in the markets. © 2023, North American Business Press. All rights reserved.

Resilient sustainable investment in digital education technology: A stakeholder-centric decision support model under uncertainty

Investment in education technology (EdTech) is a complex decision problem for universities during the post-Covid era. With the objective to assess the quality and adoptability of education supply chain, a novel analytical evaluation model approach is proposed, based on quality function deployment and combinative distance-based assessment. To deal with uncertainty in the evaluation process, fuzzy theory is integrated into the model. To establish the house of quality matrix, technology-based stakeholders' requirements were identified and classified in four dimensions: economic and financial, technology adoption, sustainability, competencies. Moreover, nine supplier criteria were assumed. Based on expert evaluations, the results suggest that financial credit and supplier collaboration are the most prominent attributes to evaluate suppliers, while environmental commitment is sorted as the least important criterion. The results reveal that the three dominant suppliers, which provide the best response to the identified criteria, are providers of cloud service technology. © 2022

Design for Six Sigma: Material Design for 3D Printing of the New Product

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.

Synthesis of strategies in post-COVID-19 public sector supply chains under an intuitionistic fuzzy environment.

Entities in public sector supply chains (SCs) often operate independently despite having interdependent objectives. Such a fragmented operational design poses several problems magnified by the presence of necessary public health measures fueled by COVID-19. This work contributes to the domain literature by introducing an overarching framework for synthesizing strategies in public sector SCs. The underlying component is the translation of information from the upstream to the downstream entities of the SCs, which is carried out by a Kano-enhanced quality function deployment. The proposed framework introduces intuitionistic fuzzy (IF) decision maps with the aid of the full consistency method to incorporate inherent interrelationships among strategies in the translation agenda. Under an IF environment that better captures judgment uncertainties, an actual case study of a multi-level public sector SC motivated by a government-funded project under the COVID-19 pandemic is demonstrated in this work. Findings of the case suggest that the government prioritizes meeting all project objectives. This requirement is reflected in the downstream SC. The project planning entity focuses on creating an overarching plan of operations, material request entity on complying with government procurement protocols, and maintaining public health and safety in operations for the procurement entity. Results show the effective synthesis of strategies across the SC, ensuring SC integration and collaboration. The case study demonstrates that maintaining public health and safety is a significant component of post-COVID-19 public sector SCs. Several practical insights on the synthesis of public sector SC strategies are also provided in this work.

AI Chatbot for Educational Service Improvement in the Post-Pandemic Era: A Case Study Prototype for Supporting Digital Reading List

This paper describes the development of an educational artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot prototype to support teachers in developing digital reading lists for their students. The chatbot aims to teach users how to use an educational system-Talis Aspire-effectively by giving them quick answers to questions, offering demonstrations and instructions on how to complete essential tasks on Talis Aspire, advising them how to solve problems and providing solutions for common issues. We have presented the prototype, together with the approach we used to design and develop it by considering the concepts of Recontextualisation' and Quality Function Deployment'. We argue that the use of chatbot technology can not only help tutors develop online education and teaching materials but may also improve the quality of educational services during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. A number of recommendations and further work suggested by domain experts have also been highlighted in this paper in order to improve our prototype further. © 2022 ACM.

New Product Design Using Chebyshev's Inequality Based Interval-Valued Intuitionistic Z-Fuzzy QFD Method

In Quality function deployment (QFD) approach, customers tend to express their needs in linguistic terms rather than exact numerical values and these needs generally contain vague and imprecise information. To overcome this challenge and to use the method more effectively for complex customer-oriented design problems, this paper introduces a novel intuitionistic Z-fuzzy QFD method based on Chebyshev's inequality (CI) and applies it for a new product design. CI provides the assignment of a more objective reliability function. The reliability value is based on the maximum probability obtained from CI. Then, the expected values of lower and upper bounds of interval-valued intuitionistic fuzzy (IVIF) numbers are determined. A competitive analysis among our firm and competitor firms and an integrative analysis for the different functions of QFD is presented. The proposed Z-fuzzy QFD method is applied to the design and development of a hand sanitizer for struggling with COVID-19. © 2022 Vilnius University.

Impact of Covid-19 on the Sierra Leone Brewery Limited Supply Chain

After the outbreak of the novel coronavirus disease (Covid-19) in late December 2019, many supply chains (SCs) and industries around the world have been greatly affected by the impacts of the virus. Measures such as closure of international airports, seaports, land borders, nationwide lockdown, social distancing, quarantine measures, and work-from-home have impacted many production firms and consumers around the globe. The overall objective of the research is aimed at assessing the impact of the covid-19 lockdowns and social distancing measures on the SC of the Sierra Leone Brewery Limited (SLBL) located in Sierra Leone, West Africa. The study gives insights into the understanding of SC in relation to the covid-19 pandemic by uncovering key issues of the covid-19 measures to the normal operations of the company that provides a baseline for the company in decision making should there be such an unforeseen disruption to its SC. The research adopted a case study qualitative research method, administering open-ended questionnaires to identify the key problems caused by the covid-19 measures. The research identified six (6) key problems from the responses of participants and proposes improvement initiatives by the use of the quality function deployment (QFD) framework. © IEOM Society International.

Metodología para la priorización de la entrega de ayudas humanitarias en el contexto de la pandemia covid-19, utilizando la herramienta QFD Fuzzy

El impacto de la disrupción causada por el covid-19 ha generado en los gobiernos locales múltiples retos relacionados con la toma de decisiones, tales como la priorización de familias afectadas de acuerdo con su nivel de vulnerabilidad, para garantizar una asignación equitativa de ayudas humanitarias. Este artículo propone un marco metodológico basado en el método de despliegue de función de calidad difuso (QFD Fuzzy) para priorizar familias afectadas por el covid-19, considerando variables como cobertura de poblaciones afectadas, tiempos de privación, eficiencia en costos y seguridad en la entrega. La metodología propuesta es probada utilizando datos sintéticos obtenidos de una muestra de 1000 familias, con el propósito de establecer el orden de atención de la población en una ciudad del centro del Valle del Cauca. Este documento establece una estrategia que ofrece a un gobierno mayor efectividad en la toma de decisiones para atender una emergencia sanitaria como la del covid-19, que apoya la intención humanitaria envuelta en esta gestión. Es necesario insistir, en todo caso, que no se trata de una metodología que pueda ser estática, por lo que se deben considerar de manera pertinente las variables que puedan surgir como indicadores de vulnerabilidad. Esto se presenta como una investigación futura complementaria.Alternate :The impact of the disruption caused by Covid-19 has generated in local governments, multiple challenges related to decision-making, such as prioritizing affected families according to their level of vulnerability to guarantee an equitable allocation of humanitarian aid. This article proposes a methodological framework based on the fuzzy quality function deployment method (QFD Fuzzy) to prioritize families affected by Covid-19 considering variables such as coverage of affected populations, deprivation times, cost efficiency and delivery security. The proposed methodology is tested using synthetic data obtained from a sample of 1000 families in order to establish the order of care of the population in a city in the Center of Valle del Cauca. This document establishes a strategy that offers a government greater effectiveness in making decisions to attend a health emergency such as COVID-19, which supports the humanitarian intention involved in this management. In any case, it is necessary to insist that it is not a methodology that can be static, for which it is necessary to force it to read in a pertinent way the new variables that may arise as indicators of vulnerability. This is presented as supplementary future research.Alternate :O impacto da interrupção causada pela Covid-19 gerou vários desafios relacionados à tomada de decisões nos governos locais, como priorizar as famílias afetadas de acordo com seu nível de vulnerabilidade, para garantir uma alocação equitativa da ajuda humanitária. Esse artículo propõe um marco metodológico baseado no método de desdobramento de função de qualidade difusa (QFD Fuzzy) para priorizar famílias afetadas pela Covid-19, considerando variáveis como cobertura de populações afetadas, tempos de privação, eficiência em custos e segurança na entrega. A metodologia proposta é testada a partir de dados sintéticos obtidos de uma amostra de 1000 famílias, a fim de estabelecer a ordem de atendimento à população de um município do centro do Vale do Cauca. Este documento estabelece uma estratégia que oferece a um governo maior eficácia na tomada de decisões para atender uma emergência de saúde como a Covid-19, que apoia a intenção humanitária envolvida nesta gestão. É necessário insistir, em qualquer caso, que não se trata de uma metodologia que possa ser estática, motivo pelo qual as variáveis que podem surgir como indicadores de vulnerabilidade devem ser consideradas de forma pertinente. Isso é apresentado como pesquisa complementar futura.

Packaging development of dehydrated strawberry using quality function deployment for e-commerce

Dehydrated strawberry is product development from strawberry fresh fruit to improve, increase the shelf-life and value of the product. During the Covid-19 pandemic, shopping lifestyle has changed gradually into online buying through e-commerce that was growth significantly, it must be followed by producer to adapt and adopt the situation especially for purchasing decisions, while customers tend to choose products based on the packaging appearance. This study aimed to determine attributes of the packaging and technical needs for producer selling preparation of dehydrated strawberry in e-commerce based on customer needs. The method in this study that has proven effective in fulfilling customer needs is Quality Function Deployment (QFD) in product planning phase. QFD analysis begins with filtering Voice of Customer (VoC) using open questionnaire then at the stage of customer importance level and product performance using closed questionnaire, then compiled into attributes of customer needs. Technical requirements were brainstormed using discussion with local sellers on e-commerce. Two attributes with the highest priority to be realized is product information on the packaging is easy to read and understand and product-related information fully listed on the outer product packaging and the highest priority for the technical needs is addition of secondary packaging.

R.Graph: A new risk-based causal reasoning and its application to COVID-19 risk analysis.

Various unexpected, low-probability events can have short or long-term effects on organizations and the global economy. Hence there is a need for appropriate risk management practices within organizations to increase their readiness and resiliency, especially if an event may lead to a series of irreversible consequences. One of the main aspects of risk management is to analyze the levels of change and risk in critical variables which the organization's survival depends on. In these cases, an awareness of risks provides a practical plan for organizational managers to reduce/avoid them. Various risk analysis methods aim at analyzing the interactions of multiple risk factors within a specific problem. This paper develops a new method of variability and risk analysis, termed R.Graph, to examine the effects of a chain of possible risk factors on multiple variables. Additionally, different configurations of risk analysis are modeled, including acceptable risk, analysis of maximum and minimum risks, factor importance, and sensitivity analysis. This new method's effectiveness is evaluated via a practical analysis of the economic consequences of new Coronavirus in the electricity industry.

Developing Pandemic Prevention and Control by ANP-QFD Approach: A Case Study on Urban Furniture Design in China Communities.

BACKGROUND: An infectious disease can affect human beings at an alarming speed in modern society, where Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) has led to a worldwide pandemic, posing grave threats to public security and the social economies. However, as one of the closest attachments of urban dwellers, urban furniture hardly contributes to pandemic prevention and control. METHODS: Given this critical challenge, this article aims to propose a feasible solution to coping with pandemic situations through urban furniture design, using an integrated method of Quality Function Deployment (QFD) and Analytic Network Process (ANP). Eight communities in China are selected as the research sites, since people working and living in these places have successful experience preventing and containing pandemics. RESULTS: Three user requirements (URs), namely, usability and easy access, sanitation, and health and emotional pleasure, are determined. Meanwhile, seven design requirements (DRs) are identified, including contact reduction, effective disinfection, good appearance, social and cultural symbols, ergonomics, smart system and technology and sustainability. The overall priorities of URs and DRs and their inner dependencies are subsequently determined through the ANP-QFD method, comprising the House of Quality (HQQ). According to the theoretical results, we propose five design strategies for pandemic prevention and control. CONCLUSION: It is demonstrated that the incorporated method of ANP-QFD has applicability and effectiveness in the conceptual product design process. This article can also provide a new perspective for pandemic prevention and control in densely populated communities in terms of product design and development.