A New Framework for Manufacturing Planning and Control Systems*

This paper presents a new framework for manufacturing planning and control systems which we call iterative manufacturing planning in continuous time (IMPICT) that appears to have several advantages over the well-known material requirements planning (MRP) framework. IMPICT explicitly considers capacity constraints and total system cost (including tardiness) to determine order sizes, order release/due dates, and operation schedules in a deterministic, multi-level, finite horizon, dynamic demand environment. Continuous time scheduling variables allow setups to be carried over from one period to the next. Three new heuristics built on the IMPICT framework are presented and tested in a simulation-based, full-factorial experiment with a wide variety of problem environments. The benchmark for the experiment was materials requirements planning with operations sequencing (MRP/OS) implemented with best-case, fixed planned lead times. The experiment showed that all three heuristics were statistically better than MRP/OS. The total cost for the order merging (OM) heuristic was 25 percent better than the total cost for MRP/OS. Computational times for OM were substantially larger than for MRP/OS; however, the computational times in the experiment suggest that OM is still computationally viable for large-scale batch manufacturing environments found in industry. IMPICT is superior to standard MRP systems because it explicitly considers capacity constraints and total system costs when it creates a materials plan. IMPICT is superior to linear programming-based approaches to finite loading and scheduling found in the literature because it allows setups to be carried over from one period to another and because it is computationally viable for realistic-sized problems.     

Effects of Product Structure Complexity on Multi-level Lot Sizing*

As an input to the materials requirement planning (MRP) process, the product structure interacts with the lot-sizing rules to affect inventories, materials flow, and production costs. Despite engineering constraints, considerable latitude is still available to construct alternate product structures for the same product. An important concern of MRP managers and designers is the impact of product structure complexity on the cost performance of the lot-sizing rules. To date, there exists no detailed research that provides managers with guidelines that relate the lot-sizing rules to individual product structure parameters. We report on an extensive experiment to test the effects of individual product structure parameters on the relative cost performance of 11 lot-sizing rules. Three parameters—the number of items, number of levels, and commonality index—are proposed to characterise product structure complexity and used as factors in an experiment involving a large variety of product structures. The results indicate that all three parameters affect the relative cost differences but not the ranking of the rules. The overall best lot-sizing rule is Bookbinder and Koch's [11] rule.     

Evaluating the Effectiveness and Efficiency of Hong Kong Welfare Programmes in Reducing Child Poverty

This paper examines the effectiveness and efficiency of welfare programmes that are relevant to child poverty reduction in Hong Kong. We employ data from a cross‐sectional survey of a representative sample of families, conducted in 2015 through face‐to‐face interviews. Our results indicate that all four welfare programmes were inadequate in alleviating child poverty. This was either due to the deep poverty gap to be filled or high rates of exclusion error. Most programmes are also inefficient because of inclusion error. We conclude by suggesting some policy implications for the welfare programmes.     

Devolution of employment and training policy: the case of older workers

The case for the devolution of employment and training programs has traditionally been based on the supply side argument that state and local governments are in the best position to assess the training needs of their disadvantaged workers. We provide a different perspective by focusing on the demand side of the labor market and the link between aiding older workers and fostering economic growth. We illustrate the importance of this focus by examining the labor market in Massachusetts, where the full employment economy of the late 1990s resulted in serious labor supply bottlenecks. Older workers, whose ranks are growing rapidly, provide the largest known labor reserve for meeting these labor supply deficits in the next decade. Tapping this reserve, however, means improving skills, deferring retirement, bringing older persons back into the labor market, and increasing full-time employment. Massachusetts already has the policy tools needed to train older workers to fill emerging job needs, but these policies will need to be substantially upgraded and reoriented. Too little funding, an emphasis on short-term programs, lack of coordination among programs, weak linkages to the private sector, and the limited flexibility of human resources practices in both the private and public sectors have left both government programs and employers ill-prepared to utilize fully the older worker labor reserve.     

Bedbugs and Grasshoppers: Translation,Myth and the Becoming of the Nation‐State

How is literally, a nation translated? This paper looks at translation practices as historical process and practice rather than submitting them to causal explanations with respect to the constitution of the nation‐state. It takes as its starting point, two contemporary Malay words negeri (province, state) and negara (country, nation‐state) and how they once had opposing definitions. Working with over three hundred years of dictionaries and lexicons, mainly English‐Malay dictionaries, the words negeri and negara were translated and defined very differently from current dictionaries – nor are they clarified today. What then happened to these words and how were they understood and translated over time, and in what possible context within the language of post‐colonial nation‐state formation? What do the processes of translation offer or convey that disrupts the singularity of nations and nationalism? Writings on translation do not necessarily shed any further clarity but they offer a space in which we can think about translating practices and what they enact in the narrative of the nation.     

Longitudinal Tracer Studies: Research Methodology of the Middle Range

This article reviews the longitudinal tracer study in the context of the researcher–practitioner relevance gap. It proposes the tracer as a methodological middle-range approach that takes account of relevancy and which involves practitioners in the research process. An ESRC research project about hoshin kanri (policy deployment) is used as an example to explain the longitudinal tracer study approach. The methodological approach is consistent with middle range theory and thinking, and involves skeletal prior theory, tags, a practitioner network, and continuous reflexivity. It is concluded that the longitudinal tracer study can be a useful middle-range solution to help close the researcher–practitioner gap.     

Modeling the Effects of a Service Guarantee on Perceived Service Quality Using Alternating Conditional Expectations (ACE)*

This paper addresses the dearth of empirical research on the relationship between service guarantee and perceived service quality (PSQ). In particular, we examine the moderating effects of a service guarantee on PSQ. While a recent study provided empirical evidence that service quality is affected by service guarantee and employee variables such as employee motivation/vision and learning through service failure, the nature and form of the relationships between these variables remain unclear. Knowledge of these relationships can assist service managers to allocate resources more judiciously, avoid pitfalls, and establish more realistic expectations. Data was obtained from employees and customers of a multinational hotel chain that has implemented a service guarantee program in 89 of its hotels in America and Canada. As the employee variables could affect performance in a non‐linear fashion, we relaxed the assumption of model linearity by using the Alternating Conditional Expectations (ACE) algorithm to arrive at a better‐fitting, non‐linear regression model for PSQ. Our findings indicate the existence of significant non‐linear relationships between PSQ and its determinant variables. The ACE model also revealed that service guarantee interacts with the employee variables to affect PSQ in a non‐linear fashion. The non‐linear relationships present new insights into the management of service guarantees and PSQ. Explanations and managerial implications of our results are presented and discussed.