Purpose Building on organizational support theory and social exchange theory, the purpose of this paper is to study the impact of organizational support on employee performance (EP) in the context of flexible manufacturing. In particular, the authors aimed to investigate the mediating role of employee attitude between organizational support and EP, and the moderating role of organizational justice (OJ). Design/methodology/approach A total of 180 participants from 36 work teams employed in 7 large automotive manufacturing enterprises in China were surveyed using a questionnaire designed by the authors. Multiple linear regressions were used to test the proposed hypotheses. Findings The results revealed four new performance indicators of frontline workers in the context of flexible manufacturing: continuous learning, teamwork, problem solving and active work. Organizational support can be divided into reinforcing support and inhibitive support. Reinforcing organizational support has a positive effect on new performance of frontline workers, and a sense of belonging plays a strong mediating role between them. Inhibitive organizational support plays an important role in the sense of awe (SA) of employees, but the SA has no influence on new performance of frontline workers. OJ plays a strong moderating role between organizational support and employee attitudes. Originality/value This study is one of the first attempts to explore the performance of frontline workers in the context of flexible manufacturing and contributes to the existing literature on the relationship between organizational support and EP.

As an animal-derived food, pork provides Chinese consumers with important nutritional value. The frequent safety incidents related to pork-made food have led the government and public advocate that a traceability system is as an effective means of controlling food quality and safety. This paper thus introduces a mobile pork quality and safety tracing system based on 2D (two-dimensional) barcode (also known as QR code) technology. First, literature search and field observations are used to evaluate the business processes in pork supply chain and key traceability information in the system.Then, a mobile solution based on 2D barcode technology for information collection, transformation, and delivery is designed. Finally, a pilot implementation in Jilin Province's Meat and Meat Products Safety Traceability and Regulatory Digitization Project is reported. The traceability system was integrated with the government supervision system to achieve the supervision and traceability of pork from source to table. Implementation results reveal that the system can realize batch-based traceability of pork, which greatly decreases traceability system cost. Additionally, the information verification mechanism between upstream and downstream players, as well as the full participation of consumers, enterprises, and the government, significantly improve the credibility of the traced information.

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Foodborne diseases (FBDs) are burdening countries worldwide. Several countries have successfully implemented policies that establish innovative systems for the inspection and grading of food service establishments (FSEs), which greatly contributes to a reduction in FBDs. China’s government has also responded by developing policies to protect consumers’ food safety, including the routine inspection policy and the risk-based grading policy. However, the extent of implementation of both policies has been poor to date. The aim of this paper was to identify regulatory challenges and design a smart supervision solution. The results of a national survey showed that the major barriers to policy implementation were a strong individual work intensity, strong business dynamics of FSEs, a lack of a monitoring and evaluation system, a lack of social support, a low development level of FSEs, and a lack of financing. A smart supervision solution to these challenges was designed based on mobile Internet and two-dimensional (2D) barcode technology. A pilot application in Jilin province assisted local supervisors in carrying out regulatory work on FSEs, which proved the feasibility of the smart supervision. This study can be used as an example for food safety supervision in other regions, and can assist other governments that wish to implement similar policies to ensure food safety in their countries.

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