Water rights,conservation and recreation planning

Decision making for administrative planning is a particularly important factor. Additionally, water resource management is a major problem for public agencies. Therefore, a case study was developed on the Illinois water rights laws, their implications for planning, and the need to use a total system approach to water resource planning to prevent a massive chaotic situation. Many of the problems created in Illinois because of the lack of a coordinated approach to water rights laws and planning were identified, and suggestions were made to alleviate the situation. While the article relates to a specific environment and a particular set of laws, it raises questions which will be pertinent to water resource planners in many other locations.     

Half Empty? Drinking Water Systems and Regional Resilience in Rural Canada

This paper investigates the extent that new regionalism has been employed in the planning of rural drinking water systems as a strategy to support rural regional resilience. Through a content analysis of policy documents, this paper explores the question of whether current approaches to the planning of rural drinking water systems reflect a transition towards regional resilience. While there is potential for drinking water systems to support or enhance rural regional resilience, this potential is emergent at best. Policy documents reveal the adoption of regionalist practices is challenged by a lack of regional cohesion and barriers from existing institutional structures.     

Decision analysis for water resources planning

Quantitative decision analysis techniques were applied to a particular problem of water resources planning: how should the water supply of the metropolitan Boston area be increased to meet the projected demand for 1990? The analytic approach used a multiattribute value model to evaluate several alternatives from the points of view of different interested constituencies. The model was presented to a number of individuals and groups with responsibility for recommending policy, and they indicated an interest in the findings.     

Developing a planning culture for more effective strategic planning

The literature of long-range planning is replete with justifications of the need for strategic planning and admonitions concerning its critical importance. However, both the literature of planning and its practice, as manifested in a variety of organizations as diverse as industrial firms, educational systems and law enforcement agencies, are deficient in specifying proven techniques and methodologies for marshalling organizational resources to effectively implement strategic planning.Over a period of years, the authors have consulted with a variety of business organizations and public agencies in the development and implementation of long-range planning processes. From this work has come an empirically-tested conclusion that the success of long-range planning in an organization is less sensitive to the parameters of the planning techniques that it is to the overall culture within which the planning is accomplished. Since most of the non-pontifical literature of planning focuses on planning techniques and specifications for planning processes, these conclusions suggest a critical void in planning methodology.     

An Empirical Agent‐Based Model to Simulate the Adoption of Water Reuse Using the Social Amplification of Risk Framework

Water reuse can serve as a sustainable alternative water source for urban areas. However, the successful implementation of large‐scale water reuse projects depends on community acceptance. Because of the negative perceptions that are traditionally associated with reclaimed water, water reuse is often not considered in the development of urban water management plans. This study develops a simulation model for understanding community opinion dynamics surrounding the issue of water reuse, and how individual perceptions evolve within that context, which can help in the planning and decision‐making process. Based on the social amplification of risk framework, our agent‐based model simulates consumer perceptions, discussion patterns, and their adoption or rejection of water reuse. The model is based on the “risk publics” model, an empirical approach that uses the concept of belief clusters to explain the adoption of new technology. Each household is represented as an agent, and parameters that define their behavior and attributes are defined from survey data. Community‐level parameters—including social groups, relationships, and communication variables, also from survey data—are encoded to simulate the social processes that influence community opinion. The model demonstrates its capabilities to simulate opinion dynamics and consumer adoption of water reuse. In addition, based on empirical data, the model is applied to investigate water reuse behavior in different regions of the United States. Importantly, our results reveal that public opinion dynamics emerge differently based on membership in opinion clusters, frequency of discussion, and the structure of social networks.     

Reconsidering Scale: Using Geographic Information Systems to Support Spatial Planning Conversations

How do planners compose plans that fit complex environmental systems? How do they align mismatched ecological and governance landscapes? We studied a small group of practitioners planning for groundwater sustainability to explore these questions. We recorded and transcribed their talk as they worked with geovisualization tools to diagnose and resolve future water shortages. Our findings showed how these planners crossed scales and levels as they reconsidered the relationships between groundwater supplies and consumers. While they recognized the urgency of aquifer overdraft, they complained about a lack of fine-grained hydrogeologic data, which they rely on for managing local water shortages.     

Impact of Information Systems (IS) Steering Committees on IS Planning*

One of the most efficient ways to manage the information systems function is to introduce steering committees. It has been suggested that one of the foremost benefits of a steering committee is that it can improve the information systems planning efforts of an organization. However, there is very little empirical evidence in the literature that deals with how such committees affect planning. This study investigates the impact of steering committees on three phases of information systems planning: strategic planning, systems planning, and implementation of planning. The greatest impact of steering committees appears to be the strategic planning phase, while a lesser effect is observed in the systems planning and implementation of planning phases.     

Rational and non-rational planning

People's views on planning differ widely, as this article demonstrates. Within the broad field of planning, strategic policy-making is becoming ever more important. The authors aim to discuss a number of well known concepts, methods and theoretical approaches as they appear in the business and management literature of planning. In Part 1 they indicate the variety of planning attitudes and discuss why planning is necessary and what it entails. In Part 2, with the aid of conceptual frameworks, they discuss various planning approaches and new developments and end with an examination of rational planning and strategic policy making.     

Implications of selected production planning functions: Impact analysis through simulation

When capacity differences are minimized through an efficient algorithm, and integration of capacity planning with any production planning system is performed, it affects some elements of production planning functions. In the reverse way, some elements of production planning and management techniques also affect the effectiveness of capacity planning. These happen because capacity planning processes, production planning processes and production management techniques are not standalone sub-systems, rather these are totally dependent on each other. This paper aims at determining and formulating the effects of some of the selected elements of capacity and production planning functions on each other. This study is conducted using simulation in object-oriented SIMPLE+ + system.     

A modified hierarchical production planning system integrated with MRP: A case study

In this paper, a hierarchical planning system is proposed which integrates aggregate capacity planning with MRP. This system is to be implemented in a metal box manufacturing company which multi-user MRP system covering manufacturing activities as well as procurement sales order processing and accounting systems. The hierarchical planning system includes a medium-range aggregate planning model adapted to the firm's requirements and strategies. The model consists of a mathematical formulation which covers labour capacity has already installed a constraints and includes certain cost estimations in the objective function. The planning horizon of the medium range planning is taken as twelve months in order to cover sales seasonality. The aggregate production quantities resulting from the optimized medium-range planning model are disaggregated according to procedures already found in the literature. Furthermore, the theoretical infeasibilities pertaining to the disaggregation procedures are also resolved in an heuristic manner. Using the latter modified disaggregation procedure, a feasible disaggregated plan is generated for the whole planning horizon. The proposed plan is compared with the current production policy of the firm and it is observed that the proposed plan leads to backorder reduction.     

Evaluating the benefits of formal planning systems

While empirical studies indicate that formal planning influences corporate effectiveness, no systemic understanding exists regarding how and why formalization of the planning activity affects corporate performance. This article proposes a framework for analyzing the impact of formalization on the quality of the planning exercise.It is suggested that by formalizing the planning activity, certain benefits accrue which cannot result from informal planning. Also, the intrinsic purposes of planning are furthered in several ways by formalization. However, there are also disadvantages resulting from formalization, some inherent and some arising from faulty design. The consequences of formalization with respect to the generally accepted purposes of planning are examined and a checklist intended to help designers develop more effective formal planning systems is proposed.     

A review of capacity planning techniques within standard software packages

This paper gives a review of capacity planning techniques from which today's standard software packages for production control make their choice. The following techniques are discussed in the paper: four variants of the rough cut capacity check, capacity requirements planning with infinite and finite loading, input/output planning without and with individual work orders, and a number of sequencing techniques. An important issue throughout the paper is the concept of robustness and nervousness of planning techniques, Aspects of interaction between techniques and human planners arc given. The human planner is still an important factor in capacity planning.     

Strategic Manufacturing Planning Systems and Their Linkage to Planning System Success

Academics and practitioners alike are focusing more attention on manufacturing strategy after having recognized the important role it plays in shaping the success of industrial firms. Even though research in this area has increased in the last decade, the focus of much of that work has been on the content rather than the process of the manufacturing strategy. Consequently, this study attempts to understand the important elements of the strategic manufacturing planning process and its effectiveness. Borrowing from the extant literature in the fields of strategic management and information systems, we propose a research model that relates strategic manufacturing planning system design to planning system success. Using structured questionnaires, empirical data is collected from over 200 manufacturing executives to test the model hypotheses. Planning process in manufacturing was found to be a bottom‐up approach from a corporate or business perspective, which differs from the top‐down planning process prevalent in strategic information systems planning process. Findings also indicate that greater planning system success in manufacturing is associated with a planning system that combines some “rational” elements (formality, comprehensiveness, control focus, longer horizon) with others that lend adaptability (wider participation and more intense interaction). But the strategic manufacturing planning system is more than just a collection of independent planning characteristics. Instead, it can be viewed as a gestalt planning system whereby planning characteristics move together in affecting overall planning system success.     

Comprehensive planning for libraries

In the area of planning, the literature has been almost entirely concerned with planning in the business (i.e. profit) setting. Some literature does exist on planning in the nonprofit sector, but it usually deals with tactical planning of the short-term character. This is specially true in the area of libraries and many librarians have developed and do administer large, complex organization— where conprehensive, long range planning is almost completely untreated in the literature.The current paper discusses the various steps in the strategic planning process, and relates them to a situation in which comprehensive long range plans for a new health sciences library have been developed, and to a considerable degree, implemented. In this framework, the steps of developing purpose and objecives, forecasting and policy formulation, developing and choosing growth strategy, determining resource requirements and provions, developing an organizational structure, and control system utilization are discussed both in the general framework of comprehensive planning, and with respect to actual experience in the development of a health sciences library. The roles of tactical planning and the implementation of plans are also treated.     

How planning and capital budgeting improve SME performance

This paper focuses on the use of strategic planning among small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in the UK manufacturing sector. It analyses the relationship between the intensity of strategic planning, business objectives, perceived performance, changes in the business environment and the use of capital budgeting techniques. Capital budgeting is of particular interest as an area of investigation, and is one which has seldom featured in previous studies of strategic planning behaviour. These issues were investigated via a survey of UK manufacturing SMEs carried out in the winter of 1996/97.

The key results suggest that SMEs incorporate a range of objectives into their strategic planning process, with profit improvement perceived to be the most important objective, followed by sales growth. SMEs engaged in detailed strategic planning are more likely to use formal capital budgeting techniques, including the net present value method, which is consistent with maximising the companys' value. Perceived profitability and success in achieving organisational objectives were positively associated with planning detail, suggesting that strategic planning is a key component improving performance. Planning detail was also associated with a significantly higher level of perceived change in the business environment.     

Strategic planning—A new arrival in Hungarian industry

This paper outlines the fairly recent history of strategic planning in Hungary, which is still by no means widespread. Strategic planning in business has to co-exist with the official national 1 and 5 year plans. At the present time some 30 percent of Hungarian industrial companies have some type of strategic planning practice, and the rest have some version of official planning. Those with good independent planning practices have proved more able to survive in a changing environment.     

Translating planning into action

This article is concerned with planning as a practical tool for management action. It is not about the theories of planning but about the dynamic impact of planning on a company. The author is committed to planning as a vital discipline for any company and a necessary element in evoking response to technological and market change.     

分布决策环境下生产-分销协同计划研究

针对分布决策环境下因信息不对称使得供应链协同计划求解困难及难以达到全局最优的问题,本文利用多层规划理论和方法构建一个供应链生产-分销协同计划模型,采用模糊交互式协商和遗传算法的优化求解方法对协同计划模型进行求解。该方法求解的结果是一组满足约束条件的满意解,各节点企业根据自身偏好和约束信息决定是否接受该满意解,或者修正各自目标满意度隶属函数重新求解。决策过程具有一定的柔性。最后通过算例给出供应链生产-分销协同计划满意解的求解过程,对文中所建立的模型和算法进行了有效地说明和验证。求解结果说明该模型和协商方法能够有效地解决非对称信息条件下供应链生产-分销协同计划的求解和冲突问题。     

A Critical Reflection on the Experimental Method for Planning Research: Testing the Added Value of PSS in a Controlled Environment

For planning research to successfully generate usable mechanisms for planning practitioners more hypothesis-testing research designs are needed. Currently, the academic field seems more geared toward generating hypotheses, either by observing practice or from theoretical studies. This approach is especially common in research that generates knowledge of planning. In this paper, I map several relevant research designs that allow for such hypothesis testing and discuss their usability in planning research. Then, I particularly focus on the experimental method as a promising design for generating contextualized mechanisms for planning practice. I describe and analyze a study that aimed to develop mechanisms about the added value of knowledge technologies for the quality of planning. Two consecutive experiments are described in detail, after which the usability of the experimental method for planning research is discussed. Reflecting on these experiments indicate that the main strength of this research design is that it allows to create ideal circumstances for falsification (which is virtually impossible in planning practices. The main weakness is the ecological validity of findings, especially when the research is executed with students.     

Tools and techniques of long-range planners

Long-range planning is concerned with the integration of predictions with corporate strategies. Both practitioners and scholars of management have frequently proposed approaches to planning that they believe to be helpful. The purpose of this paper is to report which techniques and tools and what approaches to planning are actually being used. It is hoped that this information will provide the executive or practitioner with a framework for evaluating his planning practices relative to other planners.This paper is divided into four parts. Part l provides information concerning the survey and data on which this article is based. Part ll deals with the planning process in approximately 400 business firms. Part lll examines the use of two planning tools—outside consultants and computers/mathematical models. The last section presents a summary and some general conclusions drawn from the analysis.