Linking aggregate production planning with marketing pricing decisions

In this paper, we link production planning decisions to marketing decisions that involve the price of product groups. The focus of this paper is the development of a closed-loop procedure for aggregate production planning and pricing. We seek to satisfy uncertain demand while minimizing total costs that include material, labour, and inventory holding costs. The procedure is useful for variable demand to update short-term aggregate plans.     

Hierarchical model to design manufacturing systems applied to a metal-mechanic company

This paper describes the application of a model to design and manage the manufacturing process through an integrated system, using a Hierarchical methodology-by means of different aggregation and disaggregation stages with an appropriate time horizon. The hierarchical model obtained allows interfacing between the master schedule and the schedule of the orders. At each level of the hierarchical model some decisions have to be made in order to design the manufacturing system, but having a model that also takes into consideration the management of the system. To do this it is necessary to use aggregated information concerned with the level at which decisions are made. It is obtained from the database, which contains the information at the highest level of aggregation. This model has been applied to a metal mechanic company, that makes final products such as car washers, etc. The benefits of this approach for the company are addressed in this paper.     

Load-oriented manufacturing control just-in-time production for job shops

The paper describes the principles of load-oriented manufacturing control as a new solution for job shops and its successful implementation in a pump-manufacturing factory. The idea of load-oriented manufacturing control is to limit and balance work-in-process inventory on a level as low as possible in order to accomplish a high work-centre utilization as well as a rapid and in-time flow of orders. As the new system keeps actual lead times on a planned level in a self-regulating way, it allows reliable due-date scheduling. Furthermore it points out the bottlenecks and performs applicable mid-term and short-term capacity planning.     

Performance of TOC based finite capacity material requirement planning system for a multi-stage assembly factory

This paper aims to develop a finite capacity material requirement planning (FCMRP) system based on TOC philosophy (TOC-MRP) for multi-stage assembly factory that has some bottleneck stations. The proposed TOC-MRP system tries to load and schedule operations on bottleneck stations in a manner that they are free of idle time and overtime. The schedules on non-bottleneck stations will be arranged until they are not conflicting with those on the bottleneck stations. The non-bottleneck stations are allowed to have idle time and overtime if necessary. To analyse whether TOC-MRP is effective, it is compared with a FCMRP method that does not adopt TOC philosophy. The experimental results reveal that the TOC-MRP outperforms the FCMRP without TOC philosophy.     

Shop floor characteristics influencing the use of advanced planning and scheduling systems

The purpose of this article is to investigate how the manufacturing process, the shop type and the data quality, i.e. the shop floor characteristics, influence the use of advanced planning and scheduling (APS) systems in production activity and control (PAC). The methodology implemented is a multiple case study at three case companies. Each company has different shop floor characteristics, but all use a scheduling module in an APS system, which supports production scheduling. A theoretical framework is developed suggesting how APS system are used in the PAC activities, and which major aspect to consider. The case analysis shows that the scheduling module in APS system, foremost supports sequencing and dispatching. In particular, the shop type is influenced by the decision of how often the APS runs and what freedom is given to the shop floor. The manufacturing process influences how the dispatch list is created. Contrary to the literature presuming that APS systems are most suitable in job shop processes, it is found that the manufacturing process is not a crucial factor when deciding whether APS systems are an appropriate investment. It is found that the level of data quality needed in the APS system depends to a large extent on how the dispatch list is used. For example, is the dispatch list used as a guideline, not a regulation, the need for accurate data in the module is reduced. This article extends the previous literature concerning APS systems by analysing how APS systems influence PAC as a whole and increase the understanding of the challenges of using APS systems in PAC.     

A mathematical model and genetic algorithm-based approach for parallel two-sided assembly line balancing problem

Assembly lines are usually constructed as the last stage of the entire production system and efficiency of an assembly line is one of the most important factors which affect the performance of a complex production system. The main purpose of this paper is to mathematically formulate and to provide an insight for modelling the parallel two-sided assembly line balancing problem, where two or more two-sided assembly lines are constructed in parallel to each other. We also propose a new genetic algorithm (GA)-based approach in alternatively to the existing only solution approach in the literature, which is a tabu search algorithm. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first formal presentation of the problem as well as the proposed algorithm is the first attempt to solve the problem with a GA-based approach in the literature. The proposed approach is illustrated with an example to explain the procedures of the algorithm. Test problems are solved and promising results are obtained. Statistical tests are designed to analyse the advantage of line parallelisation in two-sided assembly lines through obtained test results. The response of the overall system to the changes in the cycle times of the parallel lines is also analysed through test problems for the first time in the literature.     

Improving human resources for health planning in developing economies

There is a universal consensus that human resources represent the heart and soul of effective health systems everywhere. However, despite this consensus, human resource planning in low income countries remains a neglected, often poorly implemented and ineffective component of health-system development. The planning exercises that do take place are often inefficient, use inappropriate planning models or fail to adequately prioritize human resource investment decisions. This article briefly discusses possible reasons why this failure occurs and describes four key steps that can help health system planners more effectively prioritize and link human resource for health investment decisions to health system strategy and programmatic initiatives. Implications for human resource development practice and national human resource development are discussed.     

Non‐dominated Time‐Window Policies in City Distribution

Urban freight contributes significantly to pollution, noise disturbance, traffic congestion, and safety problems in city centers. In many cities, local governments have introduced policy measures, in particular time‐access restrictions, to alleviate these problems. However, setting time windows is very challenging due to the conflicting interests and objectives of the stakeholders involved. In this article, we examine whether it is possible to develop time‐window policies that enhance environmental sustainability and distribution efficiencies, while meeting the objectives of the municipalities. We develop a framework for balancing retailer (costs), municipality (satisfaction), and environmental (emissions) objectives, using data envelopment analysis, under different urban time‐window policies. The approach is illustrated by a case study of three Dutch retail organizations, with a large number of stores affected by such time windows. On the basis of an evaluation of 99 different time‐window policies, our results show that harmonizing time windows between neighboring cities leads to the best overall performance. The currently used time‐window policy appears to perform reasonably well, but can be improved on all dimensions . However, harmonizing time‐window policies may be difficult to realize in practice.     

我国城乡老年人口生活质量比较研究

老年人口的核心问题是生活质量问题,对老年人口主观幸福感的关注有助于提高老年人口的生活质量.基于杭州市城乡老年人口主观幸福感的调查研究发现,城市老年人比农村老年人具有更强烈的主观幸福感.子女孝顺是影响城市和农村老年人主观幸福感的最主要因素;经济状况、对社区工作满意度、婚姻、性别等也是共同影响因素,但影响程度在城市和农村间存在差异.此外,在城市模型中,自我照料程度、子女个数等个人特征因素对老年人主观幸福感影响显著;在农村模型中,经济来源、对权益受侵害后的处理方式等经济和社会保障因素对老年人主观幸福感影响显著.总之,城乡老年人对提高生活质量的需求不同,城市老年人已侧重于对精神的需求,而农村老年人首先还需要物质的满足.     

城市化与京津冀区域经济一体化进程研究

京津冀地区是当前我国经济发展最具潜力的区域之一，与殊三角和长三角相比具有比较优势，但目前京津冀区域中的城市化水平较低，已影响了京津冀地区区域经济一体化的进程。因此，现阶段应大力推进京津冀区域中的城市化水平。本文就京津冀区域中城市化存在的问题进行了分析，并提出了相应的解决对策。