FORRIDGE - Principles of good practice in material flow

The post World War II Industrial Revolution has driven production away from the old 'economies of scale' to the new 'economies of scope'. Apparently Japanese led, the associated roots of present good practice on material flow can be traced back in the USA to Jay Forrester and in the UK to Jack Burbidge. Specifically, in the supply chain scenario, Forrester exposed the importance of system structure in relating and integrating information flow with material flow. Similarly Burbidge led the way in exploiting cycle time reduction, synchronization of orders throughout the chain, simplified product structures, and streamlined component flows. This paper unites their contributions to material flow engineering and shows how present day system design methodologies incorporate their ideas on best practice. These principles are particularly relevant to the product delivery process (PDP) which governs material flow in supply chains.     

商业贸易类展示中的文化

本文针对时下商业贸易性展会持续升温,密集而浮躁,缺乏文化品味的现状,结合专业特点,在理论基础上提出了打好“文化牌”,文化是精髓,文化是“卖点”的主张。     

加强监督管理搞好高校物资采购工作

高校的物资采购工作，是事关高校建设和发展的重要工作。文章从加强党风廉政建设的高度，结合工作实际，对如何实施物资采购的监督与管理，提高资金的使用效益，杜绝不规范操作，提出了一些行之有效的措施和办法。     

在城市与乡村之间:李大钊“物心两面冶的社会改造观

李大钊是中共第一个马克思主义者,他主张“灵肉一致冶和“物心两面冶的社会改造观。 早期他受托尔斯泰人道主义和泛劳动主义的影响,主张道德革命和精神改造,号召青年发扬劳动主义,到民间去与农民为伍。 在接受马克思主义之后,李大钊也主张物质改造运动,但他认为物质改造和阶级斗争仅是手段,最终还是要达到互助和人道主义的精神目标。 李大钊后来虽也提出“工人政治冶的表述,也领导了中共的工人运动,但随着都市工人运动的失败,他较早提出中国革命应依靠农民、应到农村开展农村革命。 深入研究李大钊的思想,对我们理解以无产阶级为基础的中共,从城市革命转向农村革命,具有重要的理论意义。     

The Impact of Forecast Errors on Early Order Commitment in a Supply Chain*

Supply chain partnership involves mutual commitments among participating firms. One example is early order commitment, wherein a retailer commits to purchase a fixed‐order quantity and delivery time from a supplier before the real need takes place. This paper explores the value of practicing early order commitment in the supply chain. We investigate the complex interactions between early order commitment and forecast errors by simulating a supply chain with one capacitated supplier and multiple retailers under demand uncertainty. We found that practicing early order commitment can generate significant savings in the supply chain, but the benefits are only valid within a range of order commitment periods. Different components of forecast errors have different cost implications to the supplier and the retailers. The presence of trend in the demand increases the total supply chain cost, but makes early order commitment more appealing. The more retailers sharing the same supplier, the more valuable for the supply chain to practice early order commitment. Except in cases where little capacity cushion is available, our findings are relatively consistent in the environments where cost structure, number of retailers, capacity utilization, and capacity policy are varied.     

伪蒙疆政权的物资统制法律制度

为掠取蒙疆地区丰富的资源,日本帝国主义推行物资统制政策,指使伪蒙疆政权制定了一系列法令,对统制物资的种类、输出入、价格、生产等均做出明确规定。物资统制法律制度的实施严重阻碍了蒙疆地区民族工商业的发展,造成蒙疆地区农牧业经济的破产,给蒙疆地区人民生活带来严重困难。     

Dial 'M' for Metonym: Universal Exports,M's Office Space and Empire

For James Bond, Britishness is most often realised outside the British Isles, within the old Empire. Whenever physically located in Britain proper, he is most likely to be found in the offices of Universal Exports otherwise known as the British Secret Service. M's office is a metonym for England, a stable point of departure for Bond's adventures, and a site from which to theorise the relationship between M (England) and Bond (Britain); ideology, iconography and office fittings; changes and challenges to that 'office space'; cognitive mapping and the resonance of a British signifier on the margins of empire.     

Predicting Material Hardship Among Former Welfare-to-Work Participants: An Income- and Resource-Packaging Model

ABSTRACT

Material hardship is of concern because it refers to physical deprivation related to meeting the basic needs of food, housing, utilities, and other items. This study tests a predictive income- and resource-packaging model of material hardship using survey data collected from 459 former welfare-to-work program participants. Logistic regression results show that receiving social support in the form of living rent-free decreased the odds for experiencing material hardship. The predictors of working in the informal economy, being sanctioned while on public assistance, having mental health issues, and having transportation problems all increased the odds for experiencing material hardship. The measures of formal employment income, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families income, work-first program participation, sharing living expenses, monetary social support, and assistance from nonprofit organizations were unrelated to predicting material hardship experiences. Policymakers interested in improving conditions for needy families should question the use of sanctions and carefully monitor material hardship among those sanctioned. Future programs and future research should consider the extent to which low-income women participate in the informal economy to make ends meet, rely on social networks to live rent-free, and struggle with poor health and transportation problems.     

Task Trade Between Similar Countries

We propose a theory of task trade between countries that have similar relative factor endowments and technological capabilities, but may differ in size. Firms produce differentiated goods by performing a continuum of tasks, each of which generates local spillovers. Tasks can be performed at home or abroad, but offshoring entails costs that vary by task. In equilibrium, the tasks with the highest offshoring costs may not be traded. Among the remainder, those with the relatively higher offshoring costs are performed in the country that has the higher wage and the higher aggregate output. We discuss the relationship between equilibrium wages, equilibrium outputs, and relative country size.     

The Effect of Language Differences and National Culture on Operational Process Compliance

With increasing frequency, firms are locating their operations in disparate countries with distinct national cultures and languages. This study develops and empirically tests hypotheses relating an operation's process compliance performance to (1) the presence of a language difference between the location of the operation and that of headquarters and (2) the national culture of the location of the operation and that of headquarters. Employing an international sample of pharmaceutical manufacturing plants located primarily in Western nations, the analysis reveals that a language difference between the location of a plant and the firm's headquarters is consistently related to decreased process compliance at the plant level. Regarding national culture, only limited evidence of a direct relationship between national cultural dimensions (at either the plant or headquarters location) and process compliance exists. However, the analysis does suggest that cultural congruence between the location of the plant and that of headquarters can relate to improved compliance performance. Such a relationship depends on the specific national cultural dimension studied. While these results are obtained in a specific manufacturing setting, they potentially have implications for process compliance in any global operation.