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Virtual Reality (VR) can greatly benefit Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) as a tool to effectively iterate across robot designs. However, possible system limitations of VR could influence the results such that they do not fully reflect real-life encounters with robots. In order to better deploy VR in HRI, we need to establish a basic understanding of what the differences are between HRI studies in the real world and in VR. This paper investigates the differences between the real life and VR with a focus on proxemic preferences, in combination with exploring the effects of visual familiarity and spatial sound within the VR experience. Results suggested that people prefer closer interaction distances with a real, physical robot than with a virtual robot in VR. Additionally, the virtual robot was perceived as more discomforting than the real robot, which could result in the differences in proxemics. Overall, these results indicate that the perception of the robot has to be evaluated before the interaction can be studied. However, the results also suggested that VR settings with different visual familiarities are consistent with each other in how they affect HRI proxemics and virtual robot perceptions, indicating the freedom to study HRI in various scenarios in VR. The effect of spatial sound in VR drew a more complex picture and thus calls for more in-depth research to understand its influence on HRI in VR.

Product quality has become one of the most important factors for consideration by manufacturing environments due to the increasingly competitive global market. This is especially true for organizations manufacturing a non-repairable product as the cost of warranty claims can be financially considerable and cause rapid loss of market share due to loss of customer satisfaction and confidence. This study has therefore set out to identify the factors affecting product quality in a manufacturing environment. Two distinct sets of factors were identified in literature: "Hard" factors are Systems and Processes, Efficiency, Product and Process Complexity and Discipline, whereas "Soft" factors are Long Term Planning, Organizational Culture, Workforce Management and Leadership Support. The study found that Long Term Planning and Organizational Culture had a very significant impact on product quality within an organization manufacturing a non-repairable product whereas the hard factors only had marginal impacts on product quality.

Knowledge transfers across projects in Project-Based Organizations (PBOs) are more complex and challenging than in the permanent organizational context due to the temporary nature of project teams in which team members do not see capturing and transferring across projects as important for long term benefits to the organization. Although knowledge transfer is well researched, few empirical studies have covered the implementation of knowledge transfer across projects in project-based organizations. To gain an overview of the knowledge transfer process in PBOs, a systematic literature review is conducted to the three theoretical concepts of interest in this study, namely knowledge type, transfer mechanisms and transfer success. The literature review identified several dimensions under each theoretical concept. Subsequently a conceptual model with two propositions is proposed for future empirical study in the relationships amongst the three theoretical concepts.

There were numerous complaints regarding the quality of building projects ran by the Department of Building and Engineering Services (DBES) in Botswana. The aim of this study is to evaluate participants involving DBES projects by using 16 factors in the project design phase which may influence the quality of building projects. Empirical results show that DBES lacks commitment to continuous quality improvement and poor use of lessons learned to improve quality. The key focus area is adherence to project management principles and poor level in this area may contribute towards DBES's poor project quality. Moreover, this study identified 3 types of groups based from the respondents' attributes and explored the differences in group means.

Infrastructure assets are aging, therefore ongoing maintenance and renewal of that infrastructure has become much more significant. Sound asset management decisions that are based on a thorough understanding of the modern business context are needed. When it comes to the decision to dispose of assets, managers tend to avoid making the final decision, sometimes mothballing the asset and leaving it to self-destruct. This could cause either safety hazards at a plant or environmental neglect. In many organisations there is a clear divide between the project teams and operations teams. The project team's responsibility ends when the asset reaches beneficial operation. The operations team then becomes the “owner” of the asset. During the operational phase of an asset, decisions typically include cost, risk and performance as tradeoffs in the decision criteria. This happens in an ever changing business and technological environment. Decisions regarding the use of assets can be made at any stage of the asset life-cycle and at various levels of an organisation. The renewal or decommissioning phase of the asset life-cycle is perhaps just as important as an initial establishment decision as it is another stage that large capital amounts are committed, given the risk that a poor decision can carry a heavy penalty for many years to come. To assess whether decision-making models and tools are effectively used in industry to make asset disposal decisions, a survey was conducted within a large petro-chemical organisation in South Africa. A survey was chosen to conduct this research as the maximum feedback could then be obtained within a limited timeframe. A number of conclusions could be reached from the study with regards to the use of decision making models and tools at different departments and different levels of the organisation.

The South African motor industry has flourished over the past two decades. During these years, many Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) have chosen South Africa as one of the countries to establish their plants. Local vehicle sales are not the driving factor of this large investment in South Africa, as many vehicles are exported to other countries. South African assembled vehicles are now competing on a global market. A study was conducted in the automotive industry of South Africa, utilising the National Association of Automotive Component and Allied Manufacturers (NAACAM) database in South Africa, to investigate the differences in first tier and second tier suppliers in terms of the organisational profiles of these companies, the implementation of Total Quality Management (TQM) principles in their plants and how the companies missions and goals are structured around the customer's needs. The research methodology comprised a literature review, and an empirical study based on a questionnaire forwarded to automotive companies in South Africa. A number of conclusions could be reached from the study as differences between first and second tier supplier in general irrespective of whether the suppliers uses TQM or not.

Implementing a successful quality management system demands a paradigm shift from the traditional management practices (planning, organising, leading and controlling) to a focus on continual improvement. A specific challenge for organisations is to adapt their organisational culture to a quality culture. However, it would appear that cultural issues are vaguely defined, if at all, and that little attention is afforded by organisations when implementing a quality system. A literature review provided only one quality culture model consisting of five critical success factors. This study explored the concept of culture, organisational culture and quality culture. Forty-two elements of a quality culture were identified and incorporated into a modified model. The model developed as a result of this study can be used to identify opportunities for management intervention, ultimately building a stronger culture supporting the never-ending goal of continual improvement. Future research could focus on validating the model through comparative studies in organisations in the form of survey questionnaires or structured (or semi-structured) interviews and expanding the model to include a focus on specific organisational values.

This article evaluates the influence that quality concepts and tools in a manufacturing environment may have on parameters possibly affecting the future design and development of products in the same company. It attempts to establish how quality results can be utilised to determine the level of quality control tools used, such as Quality Function Deployment and Concurrent Engineering, in a company that designs for manufacture. By establishing links from quality results and customer requirements, the research determines what critical quality tools are necessary to determine the capability to manufacture an item without the use of excessive planning resources. Hierdie artikel evalueer die invloed van kwaliteitskonsepte en kwaliteitsgereedskap in 'n vervaardigingsomgewing ten einde die effek daarvan op toekomstige ontwerp en ontwikkeiling te bepaal. Die doel is om kwaliteitsresultate te gebruik om die gebruiksvlak van kwaliteitsbeheergereedskap soos bv "Quality Function Deployment" en "Concurrent Engineering" te bepaal in 'n maatskappy wat 'n ontwerpsfunksie vervul vir vervaardigingsdoeleindes. Deur hierdie verwantskap tussen kwaliteitsresultate en kliëntvereistes te ondersoek, word bepaal welke kritiese gereedskap benodig word om die kapasiteit van vervaardiging van 'n komponent te bepaal sonder die gebruik van 'n uitgebreide beplanningshulpbron.

The quality objective of many software organisations is to deliver software products that meet and or exceed customer expectations. The key to achieving this is to capture these expectations at the beginning of the project by clearly defining all quality requirements. The characteristics particularly defined in ISO/IEC 9126-1 (2001) provide the framework for specifying quality requirements. The ISO/IEC 9126-1 quality model is intended to be applicable to any type of software product or intermediate product. Before application this model needs to be tailored to a specific software and specific need. Since these characteristics cannot be directly measured this makes it difficult to directly prioritise and choose the most relevant characteristics and sub-characteristics. Hence a process framework that will link these characteristics and sub- characteristics to user needs is required. This will in turn help customise software quality models like ISO/IEC 9126-1 (2001) and other general software quality models. A process framework for customising software quality models is proposed in the text and it is further shown how this framework was applied in a real working environment in an attempt to quantitatively validate it. The results collected in the study showed that the framework could be used reliably in customising a generic software quality model at characteristic level only. The deviations at sub-characteristic level were due to unclear questions in the generated Generic Quality Questionnaire that resulted in misunderstandings. And the metrics used to create these questions were not fully tested for validity and reliability due to time constraints. Enhancements are discussed in the study and it is further shown how reliability can also be achieved at sub-characteristic level.

An academic department at a higher educational institution that wishes to provide a customer focused product or service in a consistent way has to put a more prominent and official management system in place. Such a system will bring about synergy between academic and supporting functions, and will also link the different academic and support processes to customer and stakeholder requirements through a set of management system requirements. Currently, tertiary education institutions throughout South Africa, as well as in the rest of the world, focus their quality efforts on the quality assurance of academic programs, but not necessarily on the effective and efficient implementation and utilization of all processes that deliver those educational programs. Since the first introduction of the concept of total quality management, as well as the latest international ISO9000:2000 quality management system standard, quality has moved away from the traditional focus of assurance to that of ensuring quality, through the effective and efficient management of all business processes. As a step to move from quality assurance to ensuring quality, a holistic implementation framework for a quality management system, based on the ISO9000:2000 series of quality management system standards, is proposed that will enable an academic department at a higher education institution to provide a customer focused product or service in a consistent way, by focusing on the core business processes that deliver the service.