Manufacturing in the Nineties By H.J. STRUDEL and P.DESRUELLE(Van Nostrand Reinhold,New York, 1992). £31.50.

Abstract

Looking for a world model for the manufacturing information flow diagram has brought us to the conclusion that it is impossible to build an all-encompassing, all-inclusive system. The redundancy and overlap would make the system excessively complex and ineffective. The best way to generalize a model of this type is to simplify. The result is that we eliminate nearly the entire production control mechanism that is found in the labour intensive MRP system (Fig. 1). We come up with a system that is much closer to the material intensive JIT system (Fig. 2). The conclusion is that effective production control requires that you choose which resource you wish to optimize, and then select a system that controls the plant around the selected resource base. This is the function of books like International Management and Production. A second conclusion would be that complexity (MRP—Fig. 1) gains very little over simplicity (JIT—Fig. 2 or World Model—Fig. 4) in productivity or efficiency. As Shozo Hibino says in his book Breakthrough Thinking, we need to run our plants smarter, not harder.     

P2P网络借贷研究进展及中国问题研究展望

P2P(个人对个人)网络借贷是指通过网络借贷平台,在全球范围内实现个人与个人或小微企业间的小额信用借贷交易.P2P网络借贷作为全新的互联网金融服务受到商业界的高度关注,而且发展成为学术研究的国际前沿领域.对P2P网络借贷相关研究文献进行了综述,具体从影响借贷交易的信息因素、羊群效应以及社交网络等3个方面分析了该领域研究的现状和发展脉络.因为中国已超越美国成为全球最大的P2P网络借贷交易市场,所以结合中国的具体情境和问题,提出了未来研究工作的展望.     

Biographical Notes - James H. Reynierse; Dennis Ackerman; Alexis A. Fink; John B. Harker; James T. Scarnati; David Boyd; Jay A. Halfond; Barbara A. Edwards; Tomas Brytting; Claes Trollestad; Margaret Ryan

Biography

Biographical Notes - James H. Reynierse; Dennis Ackerman; Alexis A. Fink; John B. Harker; James T. Scarnati; David Boyd; Jay A. Halfond; Barbara A. Edwards; Tomas Brytting; Claes Trollestad; Margaret Ryan     

The dark side of P4P

Examine the pitfalls of pay for performance and learn why some physicians and others are deeply concerned about the idea of incentive pay and fear it will have a negative impact on patient care.     

Entrenchment in publicly traded family firms: Evidence from the S&P 500

Family involvement in corporate governance through ownership, management, and board membership presents a unique dilemma for understanding the strategic impetus and costs of entrenchment decisions. The presence of shared family ties and the family-centered goals of firm principals call to question the applicability of extant agency arguments regarding the nature and antecedents of managerial entrenchment. Exploring this, we develop and test a model of family firm-specific determinants (i.e., family ownership and family's involvement in management and governance) of entrenchment in publicly traded firms by drawing upon principal-principal agency theory. Findings of the empirical analysis of family owned S&P 500 firms suggest family firms are motivated to entrench managers when doing so supports the pursuit of family-centric goals. However, the extent to which entrenchment supports such goals varies at different levels of family ownership.     

Probabilistic Reliability Modeling for Oil Exploration & Production (E&P) Facilities in the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve

The aging domestic oil production infrastructure represents a high risk to the environment because of the type of fluids being handled (oil and brine) and the potential for accidental release of these fluids into sensitive ecosystems. Currently, there is not a quantitative risk model directly applicable to onshore oil exploration and production (E&P) facilities. We report on a probabilistic reliability model created for onshore exploration and production (E&P) facilities. Reliability theory, failure modes and effects analysis (FMEA), and event trees were used to develop the model estimates of the failure probability of typical oil production equipment. Monte Carlo simulation was used to translate uncertainty in input parameter values to uncertainty in the model output. The predicted failure rates were calibrated to available failure rate information by adjusting probability density function parameters used as random variates in the Monte Carlo simulations. The mean and standard deviation of normal variate distributions from which the Weibull distribution characteristic life was chosen were used as adjustable parameters in the model calibration. The model was applied to oil production leases in the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve, Oklahoma. We present the estimated failure probability due to the combination of the most significant failure modes associated with each type of equipment (pumps, tanks, and pipes). The results show that the estimated probability of failure for tanks is about the same as that for pipes, but that pumps have much lower failure probability. The model can provide necessary equipment reliability information for proactive risk management at the lease level by providing quantitative information to base allocation of maintenance resources to high-risk equipment that will minimize both lost production and ecosystem damage.     

P2P借贷投资者的群体智慧

互联网金融领域"去专家化"的投资趋势正在凸显群体意见的重要性,而群体是否有智慧就是一个非常重要的话题。本文使用了中国一家P2P借贷平台的交易数据,借助构建的一个羊群行为指标研究了群体智慧对于违约率的预测。我们发现,在控制借款各项特征的情况下,随着羊群效应程度的增强,借款的违约率在下降。进一步的研究发现,对于两笔特征相似的借款,投资者羊群效应程度高的借款违约率显著低于未发生羊群效应的借款,因此投资者羊群效应程度可以为判别借款违约概率增加新的信息。久期分析的结果指出,在借款已经正常还款若干个月的条件下,投资者羊群效应程度高的借款在下个月发生违约的风险也会显著降低。总而言之,本文研究结果表明：在P2P网贷的投资中,群体是有智慧的,并且群体智慧能够提供新的信息。