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In order to maintain the quality of the potatoes over time, it is necessary to store them under certain storage conditions, which minimize losses both of quality and product, preferably without using chemical treatments. Conservation chambers consume a considerable amount of energy. Between 60% and 70% of the electricity consumed is used in refrigeration. Good insulation reduces the need for cooling the potato since its optimum storage temperature for consumption is around 4–7 C and relative humidity is 85%–90%. This research studies potatoes’ cold storage process to minimize the cost in the product value chain and to ensure its competitiveness in the market. A model is developed to assess energy consumption and propose measures to reduce energy, environmental, and economic costs. All this to reduce their impact within the value chain of potato consumption. Practical Applications: In this case study, different energy efficiency measures applied to the cold storage of potatoes have been implemented: replacement or improvement of the performance of refrigeration equipment, insulation and infiltrations in the refrigeration chamber, control of the product entry temperature, thermal conditioning through free-cooling, improvements in lighting equipment, technical management, and supervision of facilities, and thermographic control. The set of actions implemented has allowed to obtain a reduction in energy demand, standardized through the developed reference line, by 16.41% compared to previous years.

Nowadays, an average of 2 kg of waste per person are generated in Spain. Furthermore, the household consumption is rising and, as a consequence, the waste production is also increasing. This trend presents a direct impact in the environment. Moreover, after two years of COVID-19 pandemic, it has been detected a stronger rise in consumption per person, while consumption through professional commercial channels for hospitality industry has been lower. This paper analizes the waste generation and product shrinkage in a potato bagging plant, which addresses its production to both final consumers and retailers. The raw materials washing line, as well as the production line, are taken into consideration in the analysis, while new uses to the produced waste are proposed, aiming at providing new useful life, such as the production of bioplastics or the production of biodiesel. As a consequence, the environment impact is minimized and new products are obtained.

La memoria de esta tesis se presenta en la modalidad de compendio de trabajos publicados en revistas científicas internacionales con revisión por pares e indexadas en Journal Citations Reports (JCR). Los trabajos publicados se indican a continuación:Artículo 1. García-Alcaraz, J. L., Montalvo, F. J. F., Avelar-Sosa, L., Pérez de la Parte, M. M., Blanco-Fernández, J., & Jiménez-Macías, E. (2020). The importance of access to information and knowledge coordination on quality and economic benefits obtained from Six Sigma. Wireless Networks, 26(8), 5713-5726. doi:10.1007/s11276-019-02180-7. Indexada en SCIE del Web of Sciences, siendo Q2 o Q3, según la categoría en la que sea analizada, con IF de 2.602 y con JIF de 53.66.Artículo 2. García-Alcaraz, J. L., Martínez-Hernández, F. A., Olguín-Tiznado, J. E. O., Realyvasquez-Vargas, A., Jiménez Macías, E., & Javierre-Lardies, C. (2021). Effect of quality lean manufacturing tools on commercial benefits gained by Mexican maquiladoras. Mathematics, 9(9). doi:10.3390/math9090971. Indexada en SCIE del Web of Sciences, siendo Q1 en la categoría de Matemathics (24/330) en el JCR 2020, con IF de 2.258 y con JIF de 92.88.Artículo 3. García-Alcaraz, J.L., Díaz Reza, J.R., Sánchez Ramírez, C., Limón Romero, J., Jiménez Macías, E., Lardies, C. J., & Rodríguez Medina, M. A. (2021). Lean manufacturing tools applied to material flow and their impact on economic sustainability. Sustainability (Switzerland), 13(19). doi:10.3390/su131910599. Indexada en SCIE del Web of Sciences, siendo Q2 o Q3 según la categoría en la que se analice en el JCR 2020, con un IF de 3.251.Artículo 4. García-Alcaraz, J. L., Díaz-Reza, J. R., Flor Montalvo, F. J., Jiménez-Macías, E., Blanco-Fernández, J., & Javierre Lardies, C. F. (2021). Effects of information sharing, decision synchronization and goal congruence on SC performance. Computers & Industrial Engineering, 162, 107744. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cie.2021.107744. Indexada en SCIE del Web of Sciences, siendo Q1 o Q2 según la categoría en la que se analice en el JCR 2020, con un IF de 5.431.

Total quality management (TQM) is a lean manufacturing tool that focuses on ensuring the production of goods that meet design specifications and give customer satisfaction, both attractive benefits highly appreciated by managers. However, there are several factors involved in the success of TQM programs, many of which are cultural aspects associated with human resources (HR). This article presents a structural equation model that integrates three latent variables related to internal HR: &ldquo, managerial commitment,&rdquo, &ldquo, employee integration,&rdquo, and &ldquo, training and education,&rdquo, which are linked to the operational benefits of a manufacturing system. The variables are connected through six hypotheses that have been validated with information obtained from 398 responses of a questionnaire applied to manufacturing industry professionals. In addition, a sensitivity analysis was carried out to describe the probabilities of occurrence for the variables at low and high levels. The hypotheses were statistically validated with the partial least squared technique, where the results showed that human factors play an essential role in the success of TQM, since the direct, indirect, and total effects of managerial commitment, employee integration and training, and education processes on the benefits obtained from the implementation of TQM were statistically significant at 95% confidence.

This paper reports a case study using a standardization process for increasing efficiency and a better optimization of resources in a printing company with 150 operators having manual and mechanical tasks in the box assembly department along with four production lines. The current capacity is 350 boxes per day, while the demand is 650 units, where the company is expected to pay large sums for overtime. Using work standardization, studying worker movements, timing, and workstations redesign, the main goal was to increase the efficiency and productivity indexes. After applying those tools, the inefficient movements in operators decreased from 230 to 78, eliminating 66% of the unnecessary movements, as well as the standard time in a workstation decreased from 244 to 199 s (18.44%) per each assembled box, and the production rate increased by 63.2%, that is, 229 units per assembly line a day, where overtime was reduced to zero.