Buying an apartment or a house is an important step in everyone’s life worldwide, to reach a settled and stable life. Several criteria are considered when buying an apartment or a house. In Jordan, apartments are customers’ preferred choices because of financial circumstances. It is not easy for a person to decide on the apartment’s specifications such as location, design, building design and finances. This study assists people in selecting an appropriate apartment using the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP), which is considered an important multi-criteria decision-making approach. Data used in this study were collected in Jordan; however, people worldwide can benefit from this study. The methodology used is twofold. First, feedback was considered from five investors in the real estate sector in Jordan about specifications that customers consider when buying an apartment. Second, several customers were asked about their preferences in a dream apartment using a pairwise comparison questionnaire, which was collected from 305 participants to obtain the priorities of 10 different apartment alternatives found in the Jordanian real estate market. The AHP technique is used to analyse the collected data to assist customers in reaching the best purchase decision.

This study provides an overview of the influence of applying two human resource management (HRM) practices on workers’ occupational health and safety (OHS). These practices are selection and recruitment, and development and training. Furthermore, this study highlights the observed activities to define hazards, processes, and OHS measures in the manufacturing industries. It also assesses the importance of workers’ knowledge and awareness of OHS programs. A structured questionnaire was administered to those working in the manufacturing sector in several countries. The responses were analyzed statistically. The results showed that the demographic variables had a significant impact on workers’ knowledge and awareness of OHS programs. In addition, HRM practices played a major role in OHS. Therefore, it is recommended to top management to highly consider OHS practices by integrating them into the workplace, starting from worker selection, all the way to production, operations, and management, by establishing a strong HRM system.

Traffic crashes are one of the most severe problems that affect communities worldwide. Despite that only 25% of all motor vehicle miles occur at night, about 50% of all traffic fatalities occur during night. In Jordan, traffic crashes were responsible for 4.5% of fatalities in 2007 and ranked as the third cause of death in 2010. The effect of lighting on crash reduction was evaluated in many countries around the world but none of these was in Jordan. This paper evaluates the effectiveness of roadway lighting on night-time crash reduction in Jordan before and after continuous lighting system installation. Crash data collected from the Jordanian Central Traffic Department were analysed statistically. Several variables were considered, out of them, five were statistically significant: Crash year, road surface, whether the crash occurred during the day or the night, number of vehicles involved and lighting condition. Results confirmed that lighting reduces expected crashes.

A driver’s field of view is an essential requirement for decreasing traffic crashes and increasing safety. This paper improves driver safety by analyzing factors that affect the invisibility angles formed by a vehicle’s A and B-pillars. An experiment was conducted with 117 participants. Two models were developed, each associated with one invisibility angle. In the A-pillar invisibility model, the age, weight, waist circumference, torso angle, and distance between eyes and windshield were significant. For the B-pillar model, the age, gender, stature, waist depth, waist breadth, torso angle, and distance between the steering wheel and abdomen were significant. Some of these factors increase the invisibility angle(s), including the age, stature, torso angle, distance between the windshield and driver eyes, and the distance between the steering wheel and abdomen. Other factors decrease the invisibility angle(s), including weight, waist circumference, waist depth, and waist breadth. In addition, gender affects significantly the invisibility angle.

Driving distraction is an important cause of traffic crashes, as it diverts the driver’s attention away from the primary driving task. This paper studies the engagement frequency of drivers in distracting activities due to modern devices used in vehicle dashboards, to improve roadway safety. Data were collected from Jordanian drivers through two questionnaires. In the first, a wide range of distracting activities and their influence on crashes were considered. The focus of the second questionnaire was on factors affecting the driver’s distraction by the Human-Machine Interface (HMI) screens in vehicles. The collected data were analyzed statistically. Several significant factors were found that distract drivers, including but not limited to the use of HMI screens, the driver’s age, experience and occupation. This paper raises public awareness of the risks of distracted driving due to modern devices, in order to boost traffic safety.

The principle of lean manufacturing has been successfully implemented in a number of industries, including electronics and automotive. This is not the case for other industries, such as the sewing industry, and this research focuses on implementation of lean manufacturing techniques in the sewing industry. One specific sewing line in a sewing plant was selected as a case study, and sewing process characteristics are identified. Five types of waste are identified and analyzed in the sewing line with the aid of value stream mapping: defects, inventory, overproduction, transportation, and waiting time. Applied lean manufacturing techniques include line balancing, layout redesign, and quality at the source. Impacts of implemented lean techniques on production are analyzed, and an improved future-state value stream map is developed. Results show approximately 96% reduction in production wastes in addition to 43% reduction in lead time.