Companies belonging to broadly globalized sectors are looking for keys and guidelines that will allow them to stand out from their competitors in order to win the contracts tendered on a global scale. The study conducted in this research has found the importance of following the principles of the standards of Environmental Management (EM; ISO 14001), Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR; ISO 26000), Quality Management (QM; ISO 9001), and Occupational Health and Safety Assessment Series (OSHAS 18001) in the shipbuilding industry and its relationship with firms' performance. This research proposes a new measurement index that evaluates the degree of certification of the industry over time regarding EM, CSR, QM, and Occupational Health, demonstrating a link between the evolution of companies' results (in terms of orderbooks, completions, and new orders) and the implantation of official certifications and their maturity (time elapsed since certification).

This research studies the relationship between the compliance with the five principles of the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and the performance of the shipbuilding industry. Recent studies have shown signs of a positive relationship between these concepts, although these studies are limited to certain specific fields, existing a need for detailed research in other sectors, such as shipbuilding. A longitudinal analysis of the shipbuilding sector performance is presented, considering the trends of the last five years in the five continents, considering the most relevant shipyards. Two types of results are evaluated, current contracts and new contracts, which provides respectively a perspective of the current and future strategy of the organizations. This research identifies a clear positive trend between organizations' efforts (in terms of CSR principles) and improvement in their results. This recognizes CSR as a tool that not only improves the company's image in society, but also enhances performance.

Advanced manufacturing techniques such as die-sinking electro-discharge machining have been introduced in different industries such as the naval, automotive and product manufacturing. The surface finish of the parts subjected to these processes is influenced by diverse factors related to geometrical parameters, electric circuit, lubrication system and materials. For that reason, this work is focused on the analysis of the surface morphology of machined part that can be achieved by electro-discharge machining, as a function of some of the main process parameters such as the current intensity and penetration depth. In this work, three different methods for experimental analysis of surface quality, based on the measuring of surface roughness, material profile ratio and crater diameter, were applied and compared. The experimental phase included tests with copper tools on AISI 316 stainless steel workpieces. The surface roughness and accumulated material profile were recorded using measurements made with a profilometer, and for the purpose of measuring the diameter of the craters, scanning electron microscopy technology was used. According to the results, crater diameter can be adopted as a better indicator to characterize the surface quality in electro-discharge machining, because it exhibits a clearer tendency as a function of current intensity and penetration depth.

This study analyses the relationships between the technologies of Industry 4.0, continuous improvement, and the business results. To carry out this study, 109 questionnaires to companies of different sectors were collected, but an indispensable condition to take into account was the fact that these companies develop themselves their logistics management. The analysis of the results obtained through the Partial Least Squares (PLS) methodology argues that there is a positive relationship between 4.0 Industry and continuous improvement processes, as well as between continuous improvement processes and organizational results, although it cannot be concluded that a direct relationship between 4.0 Industry and organizational results exists, which means that there are other variables, such as continuous improvement, mediating between them. With this work, there is already an accredited reference of the relationship, which has been verified to exist, between the Industry 4.0, the continuous improvement, and the business results.

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