Search results for "Operations Research"
showing 10 items of 1297 documents
Deviations in pedestrian itineraries in urban areas: a method to assess the role of environmental factors
2010
Walking has long been neglected in urban-mobility research, but it is now making its way into numerous studies using various approaches. Empirical data are often processed in well-known models of flow allocation to study the behaviour of pedestrians and to identify their preferences. However, these models assume that route choices are predetermined at the start of each trip and do not admit any possible intervening decision along these trips. We propose to overcome this limitation through a new method for the analysis of pedestrian behaviour. This method, which we call ‘deviation analysis’ consists of (1) identifying the intersections from which a pedestrian has chosen a route longer than …
Quality management in the public sector accounting department - (un)avoidable quality costs and unlikely financial impacts
2017
This paper investigates the nature of quality costs and the likelihood of their having financial impacts in the public sector. An illustrative quality development case project in an accounting department of a Finnish city administration is presented. The empirical data includes answers to a qualitative project question sheet, workshop material and participative observation. Quality problems are classified according to their quality cost category and the extent to which they are avoidable. Some of the quality costs proved unavoidable and some are likely to lack financial impact, exhibiting sticky cost behaviour. The study indicates that certain prevention and appraisal costs in the public se…
Business strategy in new high‐tech ventures: an empirical analysis
1999
The aim of this study is to determine the existence of specific and unique features characterising markets, activities and customers in at least two of the most representative high technology sectors nowadays, the microelectronics/software industry and the biotechnology/biomedical industry. Cross‐Tabs statistical method has been used to analyze the data collected from the sample made up by 18 high‐tech American firms. One of the major findings of this study is that the business strategy will hold better prospects in those high‐tech firms benefiting from a higher technological excellence, having spent longer time in developing and launching their products, being able to keep longer the novel…
Information technology and logistics quality: a basis for companies' segmentation
2010
The use of information technology (IT) is substantially modifying business areas in companies, and logistics is no exception. Moreover, the incorporation of concepts like 'Quality' has been truly revolutionary. This paper focuses on the study of these variables and aims to investigate their ability to group companies. To attain this goal we have carried out an empirical research in the Spanish market. The study carried out shows that companies can be grouped according to the level of introduction and use of IT and their perceptions on the level of service quality provided by the supplier.
Domestic load forecasting using neural network and its use for missing data analysis
2015
Domestic demand prediction is very important for home energy management system and also for peak reduction in power system network. In this work, active and reactive power consumption prediction model is developed and analysed for a typical Southern Norwegian house for hourly power (active and reactive) consumptions and time information as inputs. In the proposed model, a neural network is adopted as a main technique and historical domestic load data of around 2 years are used as input. The available data has some measurement errors and missing segments. Before using the data for training purpose, missing and inaccurate data are considered and then it is used for testing the model. It is ob…
ELECTRE TRI-based approach to the failure modes classification on the basis of risk parameters: An alternative to the risk priority number
2017
Proposing an ELECTRE TRI-based approach for the failure modes classification into predefined and ordered risk classes.Direct identification of failure modes on which performing the corrective actions with priority.Easy definition of risk classes on the basis of DMs expertise and perception of the industrial context considered.Application to dairy manufacturing processes. Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA) is an engineering technique aimed at the detection of potential failures, their causes and consequences on the system/process under investigation. When used for the failure modes prioritization, FMEA is also referred to as Failure Mode, Effects and Criticality Analysis (FMECA). In tr…
Linkages between the Elements of Management Control Systems in a Non-Profit Organization
2011
This qualitative case study examines the emergence of MCS package. We apply the MCS package framework of [Malmi, T. and Brown, D.A. (2008) Management control systems as a package-Opportunities, challenges and research directions, Management Accounting Research, Vol. 19, Iss. 4, pp. 287-300] and investigate the linkages between different control elements of MCS package. The control elements of MCS package, particularly governance structures and cybernetic systems became often overlapping and redundant. All the control elements remained in the MCS package when they were once constructed. Even tough a large number of cybernetic controls (i.e. balanced scorecard, budgets, quality management sys…
A Complex Adaptive System Framework for Management and Marketing Studies
2015
This theoretical work aims to analyze the choice of strategicmanagement activities, taking into account a complex systems perspective. Following this approach, we represent the firm as a complex adaptive system, in which the management must be able to develop and implement different behaviors in order to dynamically ensure the viability of the firm or system. This implies that the management governing the firm or system is capable of choosing, from among a number of heterogeneous entities, the relevant stakeholders within the competitive context and of creating and maintaining significant relationships with them, which are considered to be relevant in a turbulent environment. As an expressi…
Economic evaluation on the use of reconfiguration systems for increase of energy production in PV plants
2016
This paper presents an economic analysis of the effectiveness of Dynamic Reconfiguration Systems (DRS) for PV plants in dependence of the incentive policies offered by several countries of the European Community. This evaluation has been achieved by means of the NPV (Net Present Value) and through the comparison between Bulgaria, Romania, Greece and Croatia. From the obtained results, it can be stated that the adoption of reconfiguration systems, in certain cases, can be a convenient solution.
An expert system for vineyard management based upon ubiquitous network technologies
2011
Vineyard operations for quality wines production are currently based upon costly and time-consuming manual sampling operations required to assess the maturity phases of grapevines. The ripening process however is significantly influenced by the environmental parameters which nowadays can be effectively monitored by means of ubiquitous computing technologies. Besides the possibility of gathering data, hence, suitable tools are required to support the vineyard management process. The present research concerns the development of an expert system to effectively manage the vineyard operations. The methodology is based on the analysis of the time series of indices related to the maturation phases…