Performance measurement and classification data in DEA: Input-oriented model

This paper presents an improved efficiency measurement tool by modifying the existing data envelopment analysis methodology to permit the incorporation of expert knowledge. A previous paper examined the inclusion of such knowledge within the additive model. This information appeared in the form of a binary classification of a subset of the decision making units under study (e.g. good versus poor performers). In the current paper, we extend this logic to the input-oriented radial projection model. We demonstrate that the inclusion of this and other forms of expert judgment can improve the performance of the DEA tool in the sense that the efficiency scores are more in line with expert/management beliefs.     

EVALUATING ALTERNATIVE LINEAR PROGRAMMING MODELS TO SOLVE THE TWO-GROUP DISCRIMINANT PROBLEM

The two-group discriminant problem has applications in many areas, for example, differentiating between good credit risks and poor ones, between promising new firms and those likely to fail, or between patients with strong prospects for recovery and those highly at risk. To expand our tools for dealing with such problems, we propose a class of nonpara-metric discriminant procedures based on linear programming (LP). Although these procedures have attracted considerable attention recently, only a limited number of computational studies have examined the relative merits of alternative formulations. In this paper we provide a detailed study of three contrasting formulations for the two-group problem. The experimental design provides a variety of test conditions involving both normal and nonnormal populations. Our results establish the LP model which seeks to minimize the sum of deviations beyond the two-group boundary as a promising alternative to more conventional linear discriminant techniques.     

A Stochastic Goal Program for Employee Scheduling*

Deterministic goal programs for employee scheduling decisions attempt to minimize expected operating costs by assigning the ideal number of employees to each feasible schedule. For each period in the planning horizon, managers must first determine the amount of labor that should be scheduled for duty. These requirements are often established with marginal analysis techniques, which use estimates for incremental labor costs and shortage expenses. Typically, each period in the planning horizon is evaluated as an independent epoch. An implicit assumption is that individual employees can be assigned to schedules with as little as a single period of work. If this assumption violates local work rules, the labor requirements parameters for the deterministic goal program may be suboptimal. As we show in this research, this well-known limitation can lead to costly staffing and scheduling errors. We propose an employee scheduling model that overcomes this limitation by integrating the labor requirements and scheduling decisions. Instead of a single, externally determined staffing goal for each period, the model uses a probability distribution for the quantity of labor required. The model is free to choose an appropriate staffing level for each period, eliminating the need for a separate goal-setting procedure. In most cases this results in better, less costly decisions. In addition, the proposed model easily accommodates both linear and nonlinear under- and overstaffing penalties. We use simple examples to demonstrate many of these advantages and to illustrate the key techniques necessary to implement our model. We also assess its performance in a study of more than 1,700 simulated stochastic employee scheduling problems.     

中国传统哲学本体论中的终极视域与终极本体

在中国传统哲学本体论中,终极视域是一个绝对超越的无限世界,对于终极视域的探讨产生了终极本体即"虚极"、"太极"或"太虚"。终极本体不是从逻辑性、知识论,而是从感应性、感通性的维度实现主体对终极本体的发现。由于感应性、感通性往往具有主体所赋予的价值性规定,所以,终极视域的本体论形态最终表现出价值论的特征。从理论意义看,终极视域的本体论提供了解决有限性视域或经验世界的终极根源问题的根据。     

爱的存在——蒂利希终极关怀思想管窥

爱不仅是情感的维度,更具有存在的意义。作为终极关怀的一部分,爱与终极关怀休戚相关,爱的沉沦正是终极关怀的困境所在,而爱的诠释则是终极关怀的表达。爱的存在深入生命的深层,并通过象征、悖论以及信仰的方式呈现出来,爱的呈现既是生命的展开,也是终极关怀的践行。     

An integrated approach for the electronic contract manufacturer selection problem

In the global competitive environment, lead companies have to outsource their manufacturing to electronic contract manufacturers (ECM) in order to reduce operational cost and capture higher profit. Thus, the process of selecting contract manufacturers to be strategic partners is important for these companies. For this reason, this paper proposes an integrated approach for the electronic contract manufacturer selection problem, combining the voting method and the goal programming (GP) model to take into account quantitative factors involved in the selection process, which is applied to a real-world ECM selection problem encountered by a leading provider of complete broadband access solutions. Results of the case study indicate that the voting method can acquire the rating information quickly from manufacturing managers based on suitable evaluating criteria. The rating information simultaneously incorporates ECMs' performance scores as a weight for each ECM. A production planner can easily employ the GP model and ECMs’ weight information to effectively assign demand quantities to ECMs. Therefore, the integrated approach is a practical and useful tool for solving the contract manufacturer selection problem.     

中国上市公司终极控制权及其与东亚、西欧上市公司的比较分析

本文运用终极产权论对上市公司的控股主体进行分类,通过追踪上市公司终极控制股东,发现在1260家样本公司中,终极控制股东拥有的控制权平均为43.67%,而其投入的现金流平均只有39.33%,就是说控制股东投入的现金流显著小于其获得的控制权,有4.34%的差异,两者的比值为0.890。在三种终极控制股东中,家族企业投入了相对较少的现金流量,却取得了相对较多的控制权,控制权和现金流量权的偏离达到了49.16%。同时,通过对中国上市公司和东亚、西欧国家的上市公司进行比较分析,得出了许多有意义的结论。     

An interactive three-stage model for mutual funds portfolio selection

The aim of this work is to be a useful instrument for helping finance practitioners on the selection of suitable mutual fund portfolios. The portfolio selection problem is characterized by imprecision and/or vagueness inherent in the required data and more generally, in the context where investors have to make decisions. In order to mitigate these problems, a three stage model has been proposed based on a multi-index model and considering several market scenarios described in an imprecise way by an expert. The proposed fuzzy model allows the Decision Maker to select, by means of an outranking method, a suitable portfolio taking into account the uncertainty related to the market scenarios and the imprecision and/or vagueness associated with the model data.     

Performance of TOC based finite capacity material requirement planning system for a multi-stage assembly factory

This paper aims to develop a finite capacity material requirement planning (FCMRP) system based on TOC philosophy (TOC-MRP) for multi-stage assembly factory that has some bottleneck stations. The proposed TOC-MRP system tries to load and schedule operations on bottleneck stations in a manner that they are free of idle time and overtime. The schedules on non-bottleneck stations will be arranged until they are not conflicting with those on the bottleneck stations. The non-bottleneck stations are allowed to have idle time and overtime if necessary. To analyse whether TOC-MRP is effective, it is compared with a FCMRP method that does not adopt TOC philosophy. The experimental results reveal that the TOC-MRP outperforms the FCMRP without TOC philosophy.     

Time-based goal chasing method for mixed-model assembly line problem with multiple work stations

In sequencing problems for mixed-model assembly line in JIT production system, the Goal Chasing method (GC) is widely used for parts used leveling goal. The difference in assembly time of each product is not taken into consideration in the Goal Chasing method. Assembly time usually varies with product types. In recent years, the Time-Based Goal Chasing method (TBGC) has been proposed. The advantage of TBGC is to consider the influence of different assembly time of each product and idle time in production period. TBGC, however, has been only applied to single work station problems. In this paper, TBGC is applied to an assembly line problem with multiple work stations. Furthermore, the sequencing method and use of Simulated Annealing (SA) or Local Search (LS) for this problem are proposed.