Achieving manufacturing excellence through the integration of enterprise systems and simulation

This paper discusses the significance of the enterprise systems and simulation integration in improving shop floor’s short-term production planning capability. The ultimate objectives are to identify the integration protocols, optimisation parameters and critical design artefacts, thereby identifying key ‘ingredients’ that help in setting out a future research agenda in pursuit of optimum decision-making at the shop floor level. While the integration of enterprise systems and simulation gains a widespread agreement within the existing work, the optimality, scalability and flexibility of the schedules remained unanswered. Furthermore, there seems to be no commonality or pattern as to how many core modules are required to enable such a flexible and scalable integration. Nevertheless, the objective of such integration remains clear, i.e. to achieve an optimum total production time, lead time, cycle time, production release rates and cost. The issues presently faced by existing enterprise systems (ES), if properly addressed, can contribute to the achievement of manufacturing excellence and can help identify the building blocks for the software architectural platform enabling the integration.     

论规划环境影响评价的司法审查

规划环境影响评价的司法审查通过发挥公众和法院等主体的监督作用,为规划环评制度的有效实施设立司法防线,预防政府的决策失误,减少因规划问题而引发的环境矛盾和纠纷.中国虽然确立了规划环评制度,但尚未作出与之相配套的司法审查规定,造成了现实中的实施效果不佳.尽管在一定程度上体现了对行政行为成熟性原则的突破,但从诉之利益、审查适当性等方面看并不存在对非指导性专项规划环评行为进行司法审查的障碍.我们应当在借鉴他国有益经验的基础上,重视和挖掘自身独特的政治制度与法制传统,以环境影响评价制度改革为契机,确立针对规划环评的司法审查制度.     

新时代高质量战略规划效能的特性逻辑、评价模型及提升路径——以“十四五”时期高校的战略规划文本为切入点

面对新时代新要求,深化战略管理理念,提升战略规划效能,是增强核心竞争力、实现高质量发展的应然选择。通过调研国内外12所高水平大学的战略规划文本,分析高效能战略规划的应有特性和逻辑过程;应用CiteSpace软件进行文献关键词分析,采用扎根理论梳理现实表征,明晰战略规划效能的主要评价要素,并采用主题分析法全面细化,构建“三阶段三层级”战略规划效能评价模型。在此基础上,结合新形势和规划管理工作共性问题,提出“十四五”时期提升高校战略规划效能的关键路径。     

全球或区域性战略研究典型案例比较

全球或区域战略研究的总体思路,通常是由分析战略环境出发,在厘清战略资源、明确战略驱动力的基础上,研究未来发展的战略风险,并制定未来发展愿景,最终提出实现愿景的对策。在实际研究过程中,基于研究主体和研究背景的差异性,各类研究会有不同的关注重点,有些特别关注某些重点环节,而有些则会进行综合分析。由于研究背景和分析视角的差异,一些模型和方法、观点和表述,并不一定适用于所有战略及规划研究。特别是,制定区域性战略规划还应结合本区域实际进行具体深入的分析研讨。     

Production planning and control for remanufacturing: exploring characteristics and difficulties with case studies

Production planning and control for remanufacturing is a major managerial challenge in the operations management. Researches demonstrate the need for decision-making methods in this context, which has generated theoretical and quantitative studies. However, this area still lacks empirical studies dealing with the practical, day-to-day difficulties of remanufacturers. The purpose of this paper is to link the literature and practice in a systematic in such a way that it is possible to show the similarities and differences between theoretically listed needs and real cases, thereby extending the results of previous research. For this purpose, four case studies are considered. The cases involve original equipment manufacturers (OEM) of automotive parts that have remanufacturing operations. The results indicate that these companies have difficulties that have not been addressed to date in the literature related to the uncertainties inherent in remanufacturing. In addition, we find that these companies use simplified decision-making approaches.     

燃煤机组退役与技术升级的减排及经济效益研究——基于鲁棒电源规划的方法

火电行业是中国推行节能减排战略所重点关注的行业之一。为了降低高污染燃煤机组对环境的不利影响，中国近年来出台了一系列的能源政策，鼓励淘汰高污染的燃煤机组或者对其进行超低排放改造的技术升级。本文研究了燃煤机组主动退役及超低排放改造升级的环境及经济的双重效益。基于电源投资规划鲁棒优化的方法，考虑了受不确定的环保税、超低排放机组上网电价的补贴及电能需求影响下的发电机组最优配置问题，构建了含两阶段决策的三层鲁棒优化模型。该模型是一类具有多个不确定场景耦合特征的大规模优化问题。为了求解的便利，采用列与约束生成（column and constraint generation，CCG）算法进行求解。算例分析结果显示，当考虑了燃煤机组主动退役及超低排放改造升级的决策时，本文构建模型所提供的最优电源结构方案能够有效地降低各类污染物的排放，同时提升发电企业的经济性。     

Performance of spare parts supply chains in developing industries

Spare parts supply chains of manufacturing equipment in developing industries such as the Saudi manufacturing sector often operate in one direction. Importing production machinery and setups to run such developing industries, from more developed industrial countries, sway the flow of spare supplies upstream. Based on empirical data collected from 210 local manufacturing firms, this study characterises and models such supply chains. The effects of supplier proximity, diversity and time lag on spare parts supply chain performance were explained using structural equation modelling. Delivery time lag and supplier diversity increased the deficiency of spare parts availability. Opposite to earlier consensus found in the literature, the impact of supplier proximity on spare parts supply chain performance was insignificant. Recent improvements in the agility and capacity of logistical services might have diminished the influence of supplier remoteness. However, supplier proximity correlated with supplier diversity in such supply chains.     

Coordinating pricing and production decisions for multiple products

We consider a dynamic problem of joint pricing and production decisions for a profit-maximizing firm that produces multiple products. We model the problem as a mixed integer nonlinear program, incorporating capacity constraints, setup costs, and dynamic demand. We assume demand functions to be convex, continuous, differentiable, and strictly decreasing in price. We present a solution approach which is more general than previous approaches that require the assumption of a specific demand function. Using real-world data from a manufacturer, we study problem instances for different demand scenarios and capacities and solve for optimal prices and production plans. We present analytical results that provide managerial insights on how the optimal prices change for different production plans and capacities. We extend some of the earlier works that consider single product problems to the case of multiple products and time variant production capacities. We also benchmark performance of proposed algorithm with a commercial solver and show that it outperforms the solver both in terms of solution quality and computational times.     

Power planning in ICT infrastructure: A multi-criteria operational performance evaluation approach

It is critical for information and communications technology (ICT) companies to carry our effective power planning, in order to support the growing number of services they provide, and this traditionally relies on the tacit knowledge and experience of senior staff. The loss of such domain knowledge resulting from the retirement of staff is an important issue for organizations such as Chunghwa Telecom (CHT), the largest ICT operator in Taiwan. This study thus develops a systematic power planning model using a multi-criteria operational performance evaluation. A group version of the fuzzy repertory grid and fuzzy TOPSIS approaches is applied to elicit a set of evaluation criteria that senior staff agree on, and then the priorities of the telecom rooms are evaluated against this. In addition, a new factor, reflecting the attitudes of the decision makers with respect to the degree of strictness, is defined to determine the superiority and inferiority of each alternative compared to the others. Furthermore, a novel decision aggregation strategy regarding the degree of variation among decision makers is proposed, and a quantitative assessment is carried out to analyze its impact on the ranking results in an objective manner. The proposed model may help ICT organizations to more effectively manage their power resources, and thus obtain competitive advantages.     

Barriers Associated with the Implementation of an Advance Care Planning Program in a Prison Setting

Advance care planning is considered a best practice within health care. However, the extent to which planning occurs within prison settings is unknown. Through the course of implementing an advance care planning (ACP) program for aging and dying offenders at a medical classification center, multiple barriers were identified that need to be addressed systemically to ensure the medical wishes of offenders were known and honored. This article will outline the barriers and the steps that were taken to create systems change to promote and sustain advance care planning.