Town Centre Management: Outlook from Portugal

In the last two decades, the Portuguese Government has responded to the decline of centres of commerce. In this paper, we analyse the three different experiences of town centre management (TCM) schemes developed in Portugal since the turn of the millennium. The first two stages were developed using public sector initiatives and their impacts were limited. The third stage is still under way and is composed of private projects created by local business owners. Taking Lisbon as a case study for this third stage we conclude that these projects have become a pro-active means of intervention in Portuguese town centres.     

A CANONICAL ANALYSIS OF MANAGERIAL-ENVIRONMENTAL RELATIONSHIPS: IMPLICATIONS FOR METHODOLOGY AND POLICY*

The present study uses canonical analysis to examine the contingency model of organizations in the nursing home field. Data on environmental pressures and managerial practices relevant to the decision-making process are analyzed. Results support the theory that managerial practices are contingent on environmental pressures. The implications of these results for health-care decision makers and for future assessments of managerial-environmental relationships are discussed.     

A ONE-PERIOD STOCHASTIC INVENTORY PROBLEM WITH A LUMP-SUM PENALTY COST

This paper presents an inventory problem related to the one-period stochastic inventory (or “newsboy”) problem. In this problem, the firm has to decide how much product to order to meet a random one-period demand. The version of the problem presented is novel in two respects. First, demand is explicitly permitted to be negative, and second, the penalty (or shortage) cost is assumed to be independent of the magnitude of the shortage. This situation is shown to change the form of the cost function and to complicate the determination of optimal policies. The form of the optimal policy is developed, and two example problems are presented in some detail.     

社会工作方法与思想政治工作的创新

在思想政治教育中,借鉴社会工作中平等待人的观念、服务的观念和受教育者自决的观念,引进个案工作、团体工作、社区工作等社会工作方法,可以有效地充实思想政治教育的内容、改进思想政治教育的方式、提高思想政治教育的效果。将社会工作的价值理念及其方法运用于思想政治教育工作中,是使之实现创新的重要途径。     

中国传统诚信思想及其对构建和谐社会的启示

中国传统诚信思想丰富多彩,既蕴涵着超越时空、具有现实价值的优秀成分,又含有受到历史局限性制约的糟粕。客观评析中国传统诚信思想的得与失,并对其进行创造性的合理转换,对于我们坚持批判继承的原则,取其精华,去其糟粕,构建社会主义和谐社会具有重要的理论价值。     

教育公平的理念与实践

教育公平是人类的基本理念之一,是人类价值的基本尺度,不同时期有不同的教育公平观。在今天的绩效社会里,教育机会均等成为教育公平的理念,构成我们追寻的理想。为实现教育公平,在实践领域主要有三条途径:国家化与法制化、资源的公平分配、微观教育活动的公平。在中国,理论界对教育公平的关注主要是20世纪90年代以来的事,我们正在构建和谐社会,教育公平问题当需审慎思考。     

中国企业经营国际化策略探析

本文从认识国际化的现状到分析国际化的未来发展及趋势,着重分析了中国在国际化的这条道路上已开创了怎样的一个局面和国际化策略在未来中国的发展中面临的问题及其解决方法。认为,中国政府应采用适当的倾斜政策,重点扶持一批优势行业和“龙头企业”,使它们能率先具备国际竞争的实力,制定并实施跨国公司战略,同时,中国企业在国际化经营中要放弃急功近利的思想。     

Labor Utilization Effects of Labor Scheduling Flexibility Alternatives in a Tour Scheduling Environment

This study used a factorial experimental design and a new modeling methodology to investigate the impact of a number of labor scheduling flexibility alternatives and labor requirements characteristics on labor utilization within a tour scheduling environment. Break-placement flexibility and shift-length flexibility were found to be extremely effective in improving labor utilization for all labor requirement distributions used. Flexibility with respect to the number of days included in a tour schedule resulted in substantial improvement in labor utilization for all labor requirements distributions exhibiting daily and/or weekly variation. Surprisingly, virtually no improvement in labor utilization was achieved for any labor requirement distribution by the removal of requirements for consecutive days off. In addition, almost no improvement was found by allowing the shift start time to vary across the working days included in tours. High labor requirement amplitude was found to have a strong adverse effect on labor utilization while longer operational days were associated with improved labor utilization for all labor requirement distributions. We discuss the implications of these results for service operations management and provide suggestions for future research.     

Integrative Cycle Scheduling Approach for a Capacitated Flexible Assembly System*

This study revisits the traditional single stage, multi-item, capacitated lot-sizing problem (CLSP) with a new integrative focus on problem structuring. Unlike past research, we develop integrative cycle scheduling approaches which simultaneously address lot-sizing, capacity, and sequencing issues. Our purposes are to (1) explore the effect of sequencing on inventory levels, (2) examine the problem of infeasibility in the economic lot scheduling problem (ELSP), and (3) provide a simple methodology of generating low-cost cycle schedules in an environment with discrete shipping, dynamic demands, limited capacity, zero setup cost, and sequence-independent setup times. Our procedures are compared to benchmark cycle scheduling approaches in terms of both inventory cost and computation time under different demand scenarios, using the operating data from a flexible assembly system (FAS) at the Ford Motor Company's Sandusky, Ohio plant.     

An Evaluation of Capacity Sensitive Order Review and Release Procedures in Job Shops

We investigate the performance of capacity-sensitive order review and release (ORR) procedures in job shop environments that have not been previously explored. Previous research has ignored the case of job shops which must perform to very tight due-dates because of time-sensitive customers. We propose and test a new capacity sensitive ORR procedure called path based bottleneck (PBB) in such environments, along with the modified infinite loading (MIL) procedure which has been shown to work well in several studies. We compare the performance of these two controlled release rules with that of immediate release rule under different conditions of capacity utilization and customer specified exogenous duedates. Our results indicate that PBB performs well in lowering total costs when due-dates are tight, while MIL is a better procedure with relatively loose to medium due-dates. We also show that in many cases, the shortest processing time (SPT) dispatching rule is a superior performer than a due-date based rule like critical ratio (CR); a conclusion which is contrary to the existing research in this area. In addition, the shop floor control policies recommended are shown to be sensitive to the cost structure of the firm. The managerial implications of this research in providing effective shop floor control in job shops operating under tight due-date conditions are also discussed.