Lean methodologies have been implemented in various sectors, helping to improve the overall efficiency and performance of organisations. The aim of this research is to investigate the relationship between Lean and occupational safety and its impact on people’s behaviour. To this end, a survey was developed and a statistical study carried out. The survey was sent to 4381 companies, from which 289 responses were received from 12 different countries. The Cronbach’s alpha value obtained was greater than 0.86, which indicates that the internal reliability/consistency of the results is very good. Through the statistical study it was possible to conclude that the approaches with the greatest contribution to cultural change in terms of occupational safety are 5S, Standard Work and TPM. It was also concluded that the implementation of Lean practices has a positive impact on people’s behaviour, and that these results differ depending on whether the company is located in Portugal or not. Furthermore, Lean proved to have a very positive impact on performance indicators, especially in companies located in Portugal, regardless of the sector of activity. The results also show that the contribution of Lean management to occupational safety system is very important in different sectors and is influenced by the sector of activity and by the company’s location, and that the impact of the occupational safety system on people’s behaviour was considered very important, with little influence from the company’s location and no influence from the sector of activity. This comprehensive research provides a body of knowledge that is expected to provide positive insights for Lean practitioners, managers and academics.

ADAS (Advanced Driver Assistance Systems) are becoming increasingly popular in on-road vehicles due to their safety, productivity, and cost savings. In the same way, off-road vehicles can benefit from ADAS systems to improve the security of drivers and workers in industrial settings. In this work, we study, design, and develop a novel security system to be integrated into industrial vehicles. This system is built to provide one-way Human Computer Interaction, from the computer to the human, so providing, through the interaction with the ADAS system, feedback to drivers about their surroundings, such as nearby workers, and thus helping to avoid collisions and prevent incidents. The study evaluates the quality of different feedback mechanisms, with the goal of designing the ADAS that produces the best User eXperience (UX). These feedback mechanisms are generated by LEDs in different display formats and colors, as well as with haptic feedback. We created a hybrid testbed using a realistic ADAS and a forklift simulator, integrating the system into a physical structure that resembles an industrial vehicle (a forklift) and used a computer-based simulation of a warehouse to gather the information from users. We performed a study with 36 people for the evaluation of the different feedback mechanisms tested, evaluating the results both from an objective point of view based on the results of the simulation, and a subjective point of view through a questionnaire and the stress of the users in each test.

Mortality rates are considered one of the most important indicators for assessing the performance of neonatal care. Increasingly, newborns with very low birth weight (<; 1500g at birth) or less than 37 weeks of gestation, contribute significantly to the neonatal mortality and morbidity. However, the mortality rates have to be adjusted in accordance to the severity of illness and, therefore, several severity indexes have been developed. The ROC (Receiver Operating Characteristic) analysis is often used to evaluate the accuracy of the performance measures in medical diagnosis. This technique allows the study of the variation of sensitivity and specificity for different cutoff values. One major advantage of using ROC curves is the possibility to compare different severity indexes, as is the case in medical diagnosis. This study aims to analyze the performance of neonatal clinical severity scale, CRIB (Clinical Risk Index for Babies) in two intensive care units of neonatology in Portugal, to evaluate its power to discriminate between infants ”dead” and ”survivors.” At the same time, we intend to compare the performance of two units, considering as relevant hypothesis that the two neonatal units have the same AUCs (Area Under Curve). To carry out this analysis, we used the software ROCNPA (Nonparametric Receiver Operating Characteristic Analysis), developed by Braga et al. [1] and which can be downloaded in a beta version http://pessoais.dps.uminho.pt/acb/englacb/.

In this study, the relationship between service quality, customer satisfaction, and behavioural intention is investigated within a specialised nautical sports centre that offers kitesurfing in Portugal. Using a path analysis model, this study aims to evaluate the effect of the dimensions of service quality on satisfaction and behavioural intention, as well as the effect of satisfaction on the customer’s behavioural intention. According to the results, customer satisfaction is influenced directly by service quality dimensions such as responsiveness, assurance, empathy, and tangibility. This, in turn, positively impacts their behavioural intention to make future purchases. The responsiveness dimension directly affects behavioural intention, while empathy contributes to it indirectly through customer satisfaction. This study addresses a gap in current water sports research by examining the antecedents of customers’ behavioural intention, for the first time, to a nautical sports centre, deriving important managerial implications. Thus, to increase customer satisfaction and increase the likelihood of repeating their experience, it is advised that the sports centre implement clear work procedures, offer training to staff on responsiveness and empathy, and regularly gather feedback from customers to facilitate continuous improvement of their service design.