An Application of Master Schedule Smoothing and Planned Lead Time Control

Make‐to‐order (MTO) manufacturers must ensure concurrent availability of all parts required for production, as any unavailability may cause a delay in completion time. A major challenge for MTO manufacturers operating under high demand variability is to produce customized parts in time to meet internal production schedules. We present a case study of a producer of MTO offshore oil rigs that highlights the key aspects of the problem. The producer was faced with an increase in both demand and demand variability. Consequently, it had to rely heavily on subcontracting to handle production requirements that were in excess of its capacity. We focused on the manufacture of customized steel panels, which represent the main sub‐assemblies for building an oil rig. We considered two key tactical parameters: the planning window of the master production schedule and the planned lead time of each workstation. Under the constraint of a fixed internal delivery lead time, we determined the optimal planning parameters. This improvement effort reduced the subcontracting cost by implementing several actions: the creation of a master schedule for each sub‐assembly family of the steel panels, the smoothing of the master schedule over its planning window, and the controlling of production at each workstation by its planned lead time. We report our experience in applying the analytical model, the managerial insights gained, and how the application benefits the oil‐rig producer.     

On the Diaconis-Gangolli Markov chain for sampling contingency tables with cell-bounded entries

The problems of uniformly sampling and approximately counting contingency tables have been widely studied, but efficient solutions are only known in special cases. One appealing approach is the Diaconis and Gangolli Markov chain which updates the entries of a random 2×2 submatrix. This chain is known to be rapidly mixing for cell-bounded tables only when the cell bounds are all 1 and the row and column sums are regular. We demonstrate that the chain can require exponential time to mix in the cell-bounded case, even if we restrict to instances for which the state space is connected. Moreover, we show the chain can be slowly mixing even if we restrict to natural classes of problem instances, including regular instances with cell bounds of either 0 or 1 everywhere, and dense instances where at least a linear number of cells in each row or column have non-zero cell-bounds.     

Locating social service centres using interactive graphics

The paper explores the feasibility of using interactive graphic based solution procedures in location problems with discrete choices. It compares solutions generated through interactive graphics with those generated through optimization for a problem context where service centres had to be located in rural India. The comparison demonstrates the feasibility of generating near optimal solutions for problems with a certain dimensionality. Broad features of the graphic software are described. The paper also highlights other advantages and limitations of the interactive graphic procedure.     

Aging of Indian Women in India: The Experience of Older Women in Formal Care Homes

The feminization of aging is a process that has begun in India but is not occurring uniformly throughout India. Older women are more likely to be widowed, poor, and suffer vulnerability to adverse outcomes like poor health. With the changing social landscape of India, middle-income older women are increasingly opting for ‘pay and stay homes’, an emerging type of old age home in India. Majority of the 97 women residents of ‘pay and stay’ homes reported being widowed (68%), and 25% were childless. Childlessness and widowhood were important considerations in the decision to relocate to an old age home. Older women reported higher degrees of psychological closeness and contact with daughters than sons, and the overall social network size was small. High prevalence of diabetes rates among older women carries implications for potential functional disability. Strong advocacy measures for empowering older women in India should be a priority policy directive.     

I’m Here,You’re There: In-Absentia Caregiver Stress & Transnational Support of Elderly Mothers by Adult Children

ABSTRACT

Providing support between generations in a transnational family context is understudied in the aging literature. Specifically, this study investigated the stress experiences and stressors experienced by adult children in the United States when providing transnational support to their elderly mothers in India. Information gathered from two focus groups was supplemented by an online survey of 131 adult children. Participants expressed sentiments of worry, sadness, guilt, and especially helplessness at their limited capacity to care for their mothers from a distance. Results indicate that transnational family aged care is an important dimension of aging that requires further research. In particular, “in absentia caregiver stress” is experienced remotely, and has implications for the immigrant adult’s health and well-being.     

Understanding workplace deviant behavior in nonprofit organizations

Workplace deviant behavior has traditionally been studied with respect to business or for‐profit organizations. In this article, we argue that nonprofit organizations also experience deviance, and due to their unique characteristics, they deserve special attention for extending the understanding of workplace deviant behavior to other types of organizations. Based on a review of the literature on deviance, we develop a general model of workplace deviance that we apply to nonprofit organizations. Based on the integrative conceptual framework, we advance relevant propositions for understanding and explaining deviance in nonprofit organizations.     

Finite sample properties of beale's ratio estimator

In this paper, the exact blas and mean square error of Beale's ratio estimator are derived under a blvariate normal nlodel in the form of an infinite series. It is found that some conventional large sample approxlmatlons are extremely poor if the relative variance of the auxlllary variable X is large. It is also brought out through this.study that Beale's estimator of the population mean seems to be more efficient than the usual sanple mean under the condition resulting from the large sample comparison of the customary ratio estimator and the usual sample mean.     

Estimation of the inverse of mean

For the inverse of mean, a class of estimators with finite moments is considered and its properties are analyzed in the context of normal and non-normal populations.     

Socio-demographic Correlates of Subjective Well-being in Urban India

This study aimed to explore subjective well-being (SWB) in an urban Indian sample. Adults (n = 1099) belonging to two wards in the city of Bangalore in South India, responded to a study-specific questionnaire. This paper is based on data generated as part of an ongoing larger study looking at correlates of SWB. Almost equal number of men and women responded to the study and their age ranged from 20 to 81 years (mean age 37 years). Majority of them were married, Hindus, from middle socio-economic status, had studied above pre-university level and more than half were earning. The mean scores on positive affect (40.9), negative affect (27.6) and life satisfaction (24) suggested above average levels of SWB. Higher age, being married, having higher education, higher income and working in a full time job seemed to improve life satisfaction and decrease negative affect. Religion was also significantly associated with negative affect. Step-wise regression analysis suggested that only education and income were important predictors of positive affect, while negative affect was better predicted by age, income, work status and religion. Life satisfaction was predicted by income, age and education. The important correlates of SWB for men and women were somewhat different. Overall, sociodemographic variables have minimal effect on SWB in urban India and research needs to explore other predictors of SWB.