bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Public health and the Australian Constitution
Authors: Reynolds Christopher
Published: August 2010

The powers vested in the Commonwealth Government by the Constitution contain the basis of much public health law in Australia. Yet this is not often recognised; public health law is generally, and historically, seen as the states' responsibility. This article surveys the broad range of constitutional powers that the Commonwealth Government can rely upon to make public health laws. It considers areas of power specified in the Constitution, such as those with respect to external affairs and corporations. Decisions of the High Court have interpreted the various heads of power very broadly and have significantly enhanced the potential of the Commonwealth to pass detailed and far‐reaching public health law. To this fact must be added the taxation arrangements in Australia and, with these, the very extensive control that the Commonwealth can exercise through its monopoly of major taxation sources. Its power to make financial arrangements can tie dependent states into specific policies (including public health policies) as a condition of the grants made to them. However, these broad powers may be limited in some important respects: the High Court is increasingly identifying rights and freedoms in the Constitution that may increasingly bring both state and Commonwealth public health law under challenge. Despite this possibility, the Commonwealth may prove to be our most significant source of public health law, and public health policy makers should recognise the full potential of its power to make such laws. (Aust J Public Health 1995; 19: 243–9)
Problems of focus group methods in cross‐cultural research: a case study of beliefs about sudden infant death syndrome
Authors: Yelland Jane , Gifford Sandra M.
Published: August 2010

Over the past decade there has been increasing interest in using focus group methods in public health research. Focus group discussions have become particularly popular, in part because they are commonly perceived to be a less time‐consuming and less expensive way of collecting qualitative data than the more traditional ethnographic methods. However, little attention has been given to methodological issues when the locus group method is applied in cross‐cultural settings. This paper discusses a number of these concerns, illustrated through the use of the focus groups to explore mothers' beliefs about sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) in an ethnically diverse sample in Victoria. We found that some methodological difficulties were related to cultural factors. This has led us to use caution when considering the use of focused group discussions as a research method in cross‐cultural contexts. We urge public health researchers to take a critical look at the appropriateness of focus groups before applying this method in cross‐cultural public health research. (Aust J Public Health 1995; 19: 257–63)
The effect of an educational brochure on knowledge and early detection of melanoma
Authors: Hanrahan Pauline F. , Hersey Peter , Watson Alan B. , Callaghan Terry M.
Published: August 2010

Men over the age of 45 present with thicker, more advanced melanomas than younger people. A randomised trial was conducted in this group to evaluate whether an educational brochure would increase knowledge about melanoma and the ability to recognise and discriminate between pigmented skin lesions. Men in an industrial complex were allocated to an intervention group (n = 110) and two control groups (n = 96 and n = 108). The intervention group was given two educational brochures about melanoma. Their effect on knowledge and ability to detect pigmented lesions was assessed by a questionnaire and a self‐examination body chart given before the brochure, and at four weeks and three months after return of the brochure. The control groups did not receive any educational material, but control group 2 received the questionnaire and chart. At the end of the study all participants were examined for pigmented lesions by doctors, whose counts were compared with those of the participants. There was a significant (19.8 per cent) increase in knowledge about melanoma in the intervention group (but not in the control groups), except for discrimination of photos of benign and malignant lesions. The educational material did not improve the ability of those in the intervention group to recognise and count their pigmented lesions nor to discriminate between benign and malignant pigmented lesions. The increased knowledge about melanoma was retained for at least three months. (Aust J Public Health 1995; 19: 270–4)
Which way kaikai blo umi? Food and nutrition in the Torres Strait
Authors: Leonard Dympna , Beilin Ruth , Moran Mark
Published: August 2010

The people of the Torres Strait suffer a disproportionate level of diet‐related disease, especially diabetes. The Torres Strait Health Strategy identified the difficulty in obtaining healthy food, particularly fruit and vegetables, as a major problem for people living in the Torres Strait. This study examined traditional plant food supply systems and current local production of fruit and vegetables. The supply system of fruit and vegetables from mainland Australia was also examined. Traditional garden food production was seen to continue (mainly to provide food for ceremonial occasions), but had declined because of easy access to store foods, changes in the physical, social and economic environment, limited access to land and water, and quarantine restrictions on movement of garden produce. Supplies of fruit and vegetables from the Australian mainland were infrequent and the prolonged transit time meant that produce was often in poor condition on arrival and prone to continued rapid deterioration due to limited store‐level storage facilities. Demand for fresh produce exceeded supply.
Family planning: personal and political perspectives from Choiseul Province, Solomon Islands
Authors: Rowling Diane , Hartley Debra , Owen Judy , Strachan Janet
Published: August 2010

Rapid population growth has put family planning on personal and political agendas in the Solomon Islands. With the release of a population policy in 1988, national leaders sanctioned the concept of family planning as a key strategy in reducing the rate of population growth. On a personal level, Solomon Islanders share their government's concern about population problems. There is a shortage of arable land, health services are stretched, and there are limited places in school for children. A study in Choiseul Province, a rural area in Solomon Islands, suggests that people want smaller families but have limited means to control their fertility. Meagre resources and infrastructure, compounded by geography, climate, culture and religion, constrain the development of family planning services.
MANUFACTURING PROCESS TECHNOLOGY and SUPPORT STAFF COMPOSITION: AN EMPIRICAL VIEW OF INDUSTRY EVIDENCE
Authors: WARD PETER T. , BERGER PAUL D. , MILLER JEFFREY G. , ROSENTHAL STEPHEN R.
Published: August 2010

Despite the attention given to restructuring and trimming down manufacturing firms during the 198Os, little attention has been paid to the mix of skills they needed under different circumstances. We examined the patterns of employment by occupation in manufacturing industries utilizing different production technologies and the effect of establishment size on nonproduction employment.

We found that a relationship exists between production technology and nonproduction employment per 100 production workers. Establishment size is found to be a moderator between nonproduction employment and production technology. Our findings imply two clear messages for managers. First, when considering major changes in production technology, managers should be aware that the supporting skills they will need from their nonproduction work force are likely to change greatly. Further, these changes involve technical and managerial workers as well as clerical and production support people. Second, they should restructure the functional or occupational mix of an organization in the context of the process technologies in place. Different process technologies require different structures.
ANALYSIS OF ALTERNATIVE SCHEDULING POLICIES FOR HOSPITAL NURSES
Authors: EASTON FRED F. , ROSSIN DONALD F. , BORDERS WILLIAM S.
Published: August 2010

The persistent shortage of nurses adversely affects the productivity, quality of care, and operating costs in most acute care hospitals. Aggravating the shortage are high nurse turnover rates, approaching 200% in some institutions. Policies to ensure adequate staffing levels and provide more attractive work schedules are alleged to improve nurse retention. However, their cost is seldom discussed.

We compared expected nursing expense and workforce requirements to staff eight medical and surgical nursing units of a large hospital for 1 month, under 12 different scheduling policies alleged to improve turnover. Using simulation and an integrated staffing and scheduling methodology, we found that the expected nursing wages and workforce requirements for some policies differed by as much as 33%. In this hospital, the expected labor costs for certain policies could erode the benefits expected from improved retention. In contrast, other policies appear to allow high utilization of nursing resources, enhancing the expected benefits of reduced turnover with significant reductions in expenses for labor, recruiting, training, and fringe benefits.
USING SHORT‐TERM DEDICATION FOR SCHEDULING MULTIPLE PRODUCTS ON PARALLEL MACHINES
Authors: CAMPBELL GERARD M.
Published: August 2010

In a multiproduct, parallel machine environment, it may be beneficial to dedicate one or more of the machines to a single product for consecutive time periods. However, previous lot‐sizing and scheduling models usually do not allow for such short‐term dedication. This paper presents a mixed‐integer programming model that allows for short‐term dedication in scheduling parallel machines serving multiple products with dynamic demands. It also describes a Lagrangian‐based algorithm for solving such scheduling problems.

An experiment verifies the effectiveness of the algorithm and demonstrates the importance of allowing for short‐term dedication. Capacity utilization, one of six factors investigated, greatly affects the use of dedication. A strong interaction effect between the number of machines and the number of products is also seen with respect to the usefulness of short‐term dedication. A measure of estimated production frequency incorporates these two factors along with magnitudes of periodic demands. This measure has a strong relationship with the amount of short‐term dedication used in solutions. Operations managers employing parallel machines could use the experimental results in deciding whether to use short‐term dedication to reduce costs.
THE EFFECTS OF LEAD TIME ON PLANT TIMING AND SIZE
Authors: CHAOUCH BEN A. , BUZACOTT JOHN A.
Published: August 2010

An important issue in planning capacity expansion under uncertain demand is the effect of lead time on the timing of plant construction. Our model helps decide whether (1) plant construction is initiated after a certain deficit is accumulated, or (2) plant construction is initiated ahead of demand when a certain capacity surplus is reached. In addition to our analytical results, we present computational results to show that it is economically attractive to delay plant construction beyond the time when existing excess capacity becomes fully absorbed, with relatively short construction lead time.
MINIMIZING ABSOLUTE AND SQUARED DEVIATION OF COMPLETION TIMES FROM DUE DATES
Authors: ALIDAEE BAHRAM
Published: August 2010

This is a study of a single‐machine scheduling problem with the objective of minimizing the sum of a function of earliness and tardiness called the earliness and tardiness (ET) problem. I will show that if priority weights of jobs are proportional to their processing times, and if earliness and tardiness cost functions are linear, the problem will be equivalent to the total weighted tardiness problem. This proves that the et problem is np‐hard. In addition, I present a heuristic algorithm with worst case bound for the et problem based on the equivalence relation between the two. When earliness and tardiness cost functions are quadratic, I consider the problem for a common due date for all jobs and for different job due dates. In general, the et problem with quadratic earliness and tardiness cost functions and all job weights equal to one is np‐hard. I show that in many cases, when weights of jobs are proportional to their processing times, the problem can be solved efficiently. In the published results on the et problem with quadratic earliness and tardiness cost functions other researchers have assumed a zero starting time for the schedule. I discuss the advantages of a nonzero starting time for the schedule.
ON THE TABLETOP IMPROVEMENT EXPERIMENTS OF JAPAN
Authors: ROBINSON ALAN G. , ROBINSON MARGARET M.
Published: August 2010

Originally conceived by Frank and Lillian Gilbreth, the “tabletop improvement experiments” have been used in Japan since 1925 to teach important principles of continuous improvement. The experiments, designed for classroom use, communicate their lessons in a striking and memorable way. The work‐related experiments categorize the sources of resistance to change and show how to neutralize them. The process‐related experiments sharpen understanding of where the biggest opportunities for process improvement usually lie. Surprisingly, the experiments are hardly known in the West. We describe all of them and document their history for the first time.
A SINGLE‐MACHINE SCHEDULING MODEL WITH FIXED‐INTERVAL DELIVERIES
Authors: CHAND SURESH , CHHAJED DILIP , TRAUB RODNEY
Published: August 2010

We consider an environment where a production facility modeled as a single machine needs to assign delivery dates to several orders and find a feasible sequence. Tardy jobs are not allowed. The delivery dates are to be at prespecified fixed intervals. The objective is to minimize the due date penalty and the cost of earliness. We provide a dynamic programming‐based solution procedure that runs in polynomial time. We develop several dominance results that reduced the computational requirement by an order of magnitude in our computational study.
GLOBAL JOB SHOP SCHEDULING WITH A GENETIC ALGORITHM
Authors: HERRMANN JEFFREY W. , LEE CHUNG‐YEE , HINCHMAN JIM
Published: August 2010

This paper describes a global job shop scheduling procedure that uses a genetic algorithm to find a good schedule. Unlike previously considered algorithms, this procedure has been implemented in the scheduling system for a manufacturing facility and has led to improved scheduling. This facility is a semiconductor test area. The test area is a job shop and has sequence‐dependent setup times at some operations. The concern of management is to meet their customer due dates and to increase throughput. This requires the coordination of many resources, a task beyond the ability of simple dispatching rules. We discuss a centralized procedure that can find a good schedule through the use of a detailed scheduling model and a genetic algorithm that searches over combinations of dispatching rules. We discuss our effort in developing a system that models the shop, creates schedules for the test area personnel, and makes a number of contributions to test area management.
A BRANCH‐AND‐BOUND APPROACH FOR SEQUENCING EXPANSION PROJECTS
Authors: WANG HONGBO
Published: August 2010

The paper examines the problem of finding a sequence of a finite set of expansion projects to meet a deterministic demand projection at minimum discounted cost. As the general problem is NP‐complete, we focus on the case when the demand growth is in the exponential form, which is quite often found in applications of electric power generation, transportation, water resources and communication. We find that projects' annual costs are an effective ranking criteria for determining an optimal expansion sequence. As the annual cost for a project is a function of time or capacity level, an optimal expansion sequence can be obtained easily if dominance orders of the annual costs exist for all pairwise projects, which is likely to be the case for most practical problems. When the annual costs for the projects are in conditional order, a branch‐and‐bound algorithm has been developed to effectively reduce the searching range. Our extensive computational results show that the approach is very efficient compared with the other approaches and always solves the problem to optimum although the optimality of the approach still remains to be proven.
MULTISTAGE SAFETY STOCK PLANNING WITH ITEM DEMANDS CORRELATED ACROSS PRODUCTS AND THROUGH TIME
Authors: INDERFURTH KARL
Published: August 2010

Determining safety stocks in multistage manufacturing systems with serial or divergent structures, where end‐item demands are allowed to be correlated both between products as well as in time, is my focus. I show that these types of correlation have contrary effects on the distribution of safety stocks over the manufacturing stages and that neglecting the correlation of demand can lead to significant deviation from the optimal buffer policy. Using base‐stock control and assuming total reliability for internal supplies, I present a procedure for integrated multilevel safety stock optimization that can be applied to arbitrary serial and divergent systems even when demand is jointly cross‐product and cross‐time correlated. As I demonstrate in an example for autocorrelated demands of a moving average type, there are specific solution properties that drastically reduce the computational effort for safety stock planning. Safety stocks determined in that way can be used as an appropriate protection against demand uncertainties in material requirements planning systems.
EVALUATING ORDER RELEASE MECHANISMS IN A JOB SHOP WITH SEQUENCE‐DEPENDENT SETUP TIMES
Authors: KIM SEUNG‐CHUL , BOBROWSKI PAUL M.
Published: August 2010

Job‐release mechanisms in job‐shop control are receiving increased recognition in recent research. However, there is considerable disagreement over the benefits of sophisticated job‐release mechanisms, and they remain to be tested in various operating environments.

In our study, we extend previous job‐releasing research by examining several job‐release mechanisms in a different operating environment‐a sequence‐dependent setup job shop. We tested these release mechanisms, originally developed for a machine‐constrained job shop, in conjunction with two groups of sequencing rules‐ordinary and setup‐oriented sequencing rules. We measured shop performance in terms of total cost, the sum of inventory‐holding and late‐penalty costs. We developed a simulation model of a nine‐machine job shop for our experiment.
DEVELOPING SOPHISTICATED QUALITY IMPROVEMENT APPROACHES THROUGH BUSINESS‐ACADEME COLLABORATIONS: INTRODUCTION TO THE SPECIAL ISSUE
Authors: SINGHAL KALYAN
Published: August 2010

The pursuit of better performance has led to a number of business‐academe collaborations. These collaborators have developed a number of sophisticated approaches that go far beyond such traditional simple methods as benchmarking against the best company, Ishikawa diagrams on feedback and control, Pareto diagrams, incentive systems based solely on output or quality, standard process control charts, and separate treatment of control charts and product inspection. The authors in this special issue report on approaches like benchmarking industrial performance through industry studies; the use of an artificial‐intelligence statistical‐tree growing method to analyze complex customer service data; an incentive system based on the total quality management (TQM) concepts of continuous improvement, teamwork, adaptation to change, and a focus on customer satisfaction; and integration of product inspection and process control. Because of the continuing widespread interest in TQM, there is an opportunity to take stock of how successful TQM initiatives have been and how we should consolidate and further extend the knowledge in TQM. Two of the papers report on the gap between what organizations espouse as TQM and what they actually implement and on the literature on TQM.
COMPUTER‐INTEGRATED MANUFACTURING: A TAXONOMY OF INTEGRATION AND RESEARCH ISSUES
Authors: VEERAMANI DHARMARAJ , BERNARDO JOHN J. , CHUNG CHEN H. , GUPTA YASH P.
Published: August 2010

The past decade has seen an upsurgence in the number of manufacturing companies that are attempting to transform into computer‐integrated enterprises. However, much of the computer‐based integration efforts in these manufacturing organizations have been limited in scope and localized within certain areas of the organization (particularly, technology‐intensive areas such as the shop floor). Such compartmentalized and myopic approaches to the development of computer‐integrated manufacturing (CIM) systems undermine the ability of these systems to reach their fullest potential. CIM is much larger in scope and can impact an organization along various dimensions and at various levels. The fact that no completely integrated manufacturing enterprise has been developed to date can be attributed, in part, to a lack of understanding of the scope and implications of CIM. The purpose of this paper is, therefore, twofold. First, the paper presents a meta‐schema (called TRIAD) for multidimensional and multilevel integration of a manufacturing system. Second, on the basis of the proposed meta‐schema, the paper develops a taxonomical framework for defining key integration issues in CIM system design and discusses critical research needs that exist in this area. It is hoped that this paper will serve as a road map for research efforts that will enable the emergence of comprehensive CIM systems.
MANUFACTURING STRATEGY: AT THE INTERSECTION OF TWO PARADIGM SHIFTS
Authors: Hayes Robert H. , Pisano Gary P.
Published: August 2010

The concept of “manufacturing strategy” is still, in human terms, barely past adolescence. In years, it is younger than most of the MBAs who study it today. So it is not surprising that–like them–it has been undergoing almost continual growth and elaboration throughout its short life, as it tested itself against the real world and as that world evolved. Today it is facing perhaps the greatest challenge in its short history, as it finds itself in the crossfire of debates about core aspects of its two parent disciplines: manufacturing management and competitive strategy. This paper begins by briefly reviewing some of the key steps in the conceptual development of the manufacturing strategy paradigm, then describes the attacks now being directed at both the manufacturing management and the competitive strategy paradigms, and finally discusses the new perspectives that these two paradigm shifts are shedding on some familiar problems.
AN OPERATIONAL PLANNING CONCEPT FOR DEEP LANE STORAGE SYSTEMS
Authors: Stadtler Hartmut
Published: August 2010

The main advantage of deep lane storage systems compared with conventional high bay warehouses is seen in a better space utilization, because products are stored in channels one pallet behind the other. However, for deep lane storage systems the last‐in‐first‐out principle holds and direct access to pallets is lost apart from the last pallet entering a channel. To operate deep lane storage systems effectively, namely, providing high throughput rates even at times of high storage rack utilization requires a sophisticated operational planning system. We will describe a totally new concept consisting of five modules for storage and retrieval assignments, as well as for a reorganization of storage location occupations.
ON THE RELATIVE PERFORMANCE OF FUNCTIONAL AND CELLULAR LAYOUTS‐ AN ANALYSIS OF THE MODEL‐BASED COMPARATIVE STUDIES LITERATURE
Authors: Johnson Danny J. , Wemmerlöv Urban
Published: August 2010

Paralleling the increased interest in cellular manufacturing in recent years, a large number of studies have emerged that focus on the relative performance of cell systems and the functionally organized systems they replace. This paper is an analysis of studies that use model‐based, controlled experimentation to seek answers to the questions of if, when, and why cellular layouts outperform their functional counterparts. Twenty‐four model‐based studies are analyzed with respect to their definitions of cellular versus functional layouts, the experimental factors that have been investigated, the results concerning relative performance, and the findings' relevance to layout choice. We conclude that although the comparative studies have been very valuable in their efforts at identifying the factors that embody the essence of cells and shape performance improvements, most of the basic findings are known from past research. Furthermore, the studies' findings cannot assist practitioners in making specific choices between existing layouts and alternative cell systems. However, the totality of the findings reinforce our knowledge of how work systems in general can be designed and organized to reduce throughput time, and can also be used to identify environments and conditions for which conversions to cells may have more or less potential.
MINIMIZING TOTAL WEIGHTED COMPLETION TIME ON A SINGLE BATCH PROCESSING MACHINE
Authors: Uzsoy Reha , Yang Yaoyu
Published: August 2010

We study the problem of scheduling jobs on a single batch processing machine to minimize the total weighted completion time. A batch processing machine is one that can process a number of jobs simultaneously as a batch. The processing time of a batch is given by the processing time of the longest job in the batch. We present a branch and bound algorithm to obtain optimal solutions and develop lower bounds and dominance conditions. We also develop a number of heuristics and evaluate their performance through extensive computational experiments. Results show that two of the heuristics consistently generate high‐quality solutions in modest CPU times.
THE EROSION IN EUROPEAN MANUFACTURING
Authors: Schmenner Roger W.
Published: August 2010

The competitiveness of Western European manufacturing is slowly being eroded away and European firms must act decisively to halt this decline. Costs in Europe are high and getting higher. Productivity is not keeping pace. European manufacturers have adopted some of the ideas that have proved useful to manufacturers elsewhere around the globe, but they need to do more. Many European countries remain net exporters of direct investment. If the erosion is to be halted, European manufacturers must address overcapacity, particularly among the many small factories there, inappropriate plant locations, and company organizations that foster too much country‐specific independence.
DEVELOPMENT AND R&D CAPABILITY AT MANUFACTURING SITES: ELECTRONICS MULTINATIONALS IN SINGAPORE AND TAIWAN
Authors: Tilley Kevin J. , Williams David J. , Conway Paul P.
Published: August 2010

In this paper we present the results of an empirical study of the manufacturing sites of foreign electronics companies in Singapore and Taiwan. The manufacturing and R&D capabilities at the sites are assessed. The way in which host government policies interact with R&D development at the sites and the speed of the R&D development are also considered. The results suggest that Singapore and Taiwan are now host to some advanced manufacturing and R&D operations. We show, however, that the product design work at the sites visited is never leading edge for the companies concerned. The speed at which product design responsibilities were designated to the sites is shown to be rapid when compared to an earlier study of foreign sites in the United Kingdom. We indicate areas in which national strategies in Singapore and Taiwan may have contributed to this faster development. In Singapore, we identify tax holidays and R&D grants as contributing to the pace of development.
DYNAMIC INTERACTION OF PRICE AND DESIGN QUALITY FOR PRODUCTS WITH CONVEX PRODUCTION COSTS
Authors: KOUVELIS PANAGIOTIS , MALLICK DEBASISH N. , MUKHOPADHYAY SAMAR K.
Published: August 2010

Price and design quality define value for customers and are often used by firms to position products in the marketplace. Setting price and quality level on a new product for the first time and making appropriate changes over time to these variables to reflect changing conditions in the market requires careful coordination of design, manufacturing, and marketing variables. We present a control theoretic model to study the complex interaction among price, quality, and cost during the life cycle of a product. Our model considers the major design‐manufacturing‐marketing tradeoffs and helps determine optimal pricing, design quality, and production strategies in a dynamic environment with convex production costs.
AN ANALYSIS OF PURCHASING COSTS AS THE NUMBER OF PRODUCTS‘ COMPONENTS IS REDUCED
Authors: EYNAN AMIT , ROSENBLATT MEIR J.
Published: August 2010

Product design efforts in recent years have focused on standardization and simplification of the product structure. It has been widely argued that savings, tangible and intangible, can be realized by simplifying the product design. In this study, we examine this belief and show that other issues like flexibility of process and design are important as well. We demonstrate that having process flexibility, e.g., of producing a product in two different ways, using two different product structures (as opposed to one), is advantageous with respect to components purchasing costs. This result is in contrast with the notion of standardization since the variety of components in the flexible design is increased. Properties of savings in purchasing costs associated with the use of this flexible design are provided.
THEORIES AND REALITIES OF QUANTITY DISCOUNTS: AN EXPLORATORY STUDY
Authors: MUNSON CHARLES L. , ROSENBLATT MEIR J.
Published: August 2010

This paper compares and contrasts the current state of the art in the theory of quantity discounts with a field study of 39 firms. We start by categorizing and tabulating the literature pertaining to quantity discounts, and by summarizing the various studies and models according to their perspectives, assumptions, and characteristics. Next we describe current trends in industry with respect to the reasons why firms offer quantity discounts, the characteristics of discount schedules, and the effect of quantity discounts on the extent of centralized purchasing, number of suppliers, and just‐in‐time delivery. Finally, we identify a number of fruitful directions for future research.
THE IMPACT OF SIMPLE PRIORITY RULE COMBINATIONS ON DELIVERY SPEED AND DELIVERY RELIABILITY IN A HYBRID SHOP
Authors: BARMAN SAMIR , LAFORGE R. LAWRENCE
Published: August 2010

This study examines the effects of using different priority rules at different stages of a multistage, flow‐dominant shop. A simulation model is constructed of a manufacturing system comprised of three stages: gateway, intcrmcdiatc, and finishing. As is typical of a flow‐dominant shop, the overall flow of the simulated system (gateway to intermediate to finishing) is consistent with a flow shop, but processing in the intermediate stage involves multiple work centers and resembles a job shop.

Shop performance is observed when four well‐known priority heuristics are applied in different combinations in the gateway, intermediate, and finishing stages of the process. Multiple performance measures addressing the strategic objectives of delivery speed and delivery reliability are recorded under two different shop load conditions.

Results show that the measures of both delivery speed and delivery reliability are affected by the priority rule combinations, and that a tradeoff exists between average performance and consistency of performance. Certain priority rule combinations affect performance in predictable ways, allowing the user to assess tradeoffs between delivery speed and delivery reliability.
REDUCING FLOW TIME IN AIRCRAFT MANUFACTURING
Authors: CHAO JACKSON S. , GRAVES STEPHEN C.
Published: August 2010

The assembly of aircraft is a labor‐intensive process that exhibits a significant learning‐curve effect and that requires long flow times and costly work‐in‐process inventories. This paper describes the production context, the cost of flow time in this context, and some of the causes for the long flow times. We then develop an argument for a firm to use improvements in labor productivity to reduce flow times. Boeing has implemented the recommendations from this research and has obtained significant benefits from reducing flow times.
INTEGRATED OPERATIONS: A PROPOSAL FOR OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT TEACHING AND RESEARCH
Authors: LOVEJOY WILLIAM S.
Published: August 2010

This paper, addressed to professors of operations management (om) in research institutions, suggests that the long‐term academic viability of our discipline requires the generation of a theory uniquely associated with the practice of OM. Such a theory will rest on foundations laid by other disciplines, but must find its own unique synthesis that attends to the problems of OM practice. The paper proposes a framework that recognizes physics, social psychology and philosophy as foundational disciplines for an integrative theoryof OM and suggests which concepts from those disciplines may find voice in such a theory.
TEACHING OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT FROM A SCIENCE OF MANUFACTURING
Authors: SPEARMAN MARK L. , HOPP WALLACE J.
Published: August 2010

Recently, there has been much concern over the dumbing down of production and operations management (pom) courses in response to the repudiation of the theory‐heavy operations research (or) approach that became dominant during the 1970s. However, although almost everyone agrees that a new POM framework is needed, there is as yet little agreement on what it should be like. As a result, there is currently a huge variance among POM courses at different universities, ranging all the way from traditional OR courses to almost purely anecdotal case‐oriented courses. Although academics have struggled with the search for an appropriate level of methodological rigor in POM courses, our customers (i.e., students and the firms that hire them) have been inundated by a blizzard of management buzzwords. Although many of these undoubtedly contain kernels of truth, the very nature of the buzzword approach is such that it provides little balanced guidance as to what methods work well in a given situation. In recognition of these disparities, POM researchers have begun trying to systematically describe the underlying behavior of production systems. The goal is to provide a framework that will help organize educational approaches and business practices in a consistent fashion. In this paper, we describe our attempt at the needed “science of manufacturing,” which we call factory physics, and illustrate how it fits into a new paradigm of POM teaching.
A NEW PARADIGM FOR TEACHING INTRODUCTORY PRODUCTION/OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT
Authors: LESCHKE JOHN P.
Published: August 2010

This paper postulates that the perception among students that operations management is a tedious, irrelevant subject is a symptom of the lack of a conceptual framework that effectively communicates the importance and relevance of the operations function in a firm. The first half of this paper discusses traditional frameworks, those most frequently found in introductory production and operations management (pom) textbooks, and several alternative approaches to teaching an introductory POM course. The discussion questions whether any of these existing frameworks is sufficient to meet the challenges faced while teaching POM in today's environment and identifies what characteristics an effective framework should possess. These characteristics include defining the scope and bounds of the field, capturing its integrative and system aspects, providing a visible depiction of the framework to aid comprehension, and promoting higher‐level thinking (i.e., analysis, synthesis, and criticism) to deepen understanding. This discussion concludes that no current framework meets all of these criteria, therefore there remains a need for a more effective approach for introducing POM. The remainder of the paper describes one approach to conceptualizing the field that satisfies these criteria.
THE EMPIRICAL DETERMINANTS OF INVENTORY LEVELS IN HIGH‐VOLUME MANUFACTURING
Authors: Lieberman Marvin B. , Helper Susan , Demeester Lieven
Published: August 2010

This study uses survey data on several hundred automotive suppliers in North America to evaluate the determinants of inventory levels in high‐volume discrete parts manufacturing. We assess the magnitude of raw materials, work‐in‐process, and finished goods inventories held at automotive supply plants. Inventories are shown to be jointly determined by technological and managerial factors in a manner roughly consistent with classical inventory theory.

Several categories of managerial practices are found to be important. Low inventories are linked to employee problem solving and frequent communication with customers. More unexpectedly, we find the absence of inventory differences between U.S.‐owned and Japanese‐owned plants in North America. This contrasts with substantial differences in inventory holding between US plants and those in Japan.
LINKING PROCESS CHOICE WITH PLANT‐LEVEL DECISIONS ABOUT CAPITAL AND HUMAN RESOURCES
Authors: Ritzman Larry P. , Safizadeh M. Hossein
Published: August 2010

We examine how process choice links with design decisions about capital and human resources. Our analysis confirms empirically most expected differences between process‐ and product‐focused plants for these decisions. What is unexpected is how top‐performing plants resemble other plants within the same process choice category in most respects, while distinguishing themselves on a few selected process attributes. For example, better performing process‐focused plants not only achieve higher machine flexibility levels and lower overhead costs as expected, but also have more intensive preventive maintenance programs. Similarly, product‐focused plants that achieve certain hallmarks of process‐focused plants also enjoy superior performance.
INTEGRATED COMPONENT AND SUPPLIER SELECTION FOR A PRODUCT FAMILY
Authors: Gupta Saurabh , Krishnan V.
Published: August 2010

This paper examines the reduction in complexity of a product family through product design. By leveraging the commonalities among products in a family, the decision support methodology presented in the paper helps choose components and suppliers that minimize the sum of design, procurement, and usage costs. The problem of integrated component and supplier selection is conceptualized and formulated as an integer‐programming model. Analysis of the model yields two properties, complete and continuous replacement, which form the basis of a heuristic procedure. Computational tests show that the heuristic provides results close to the optimal solution and can be used for selecting components and suppliers. Application of the model to an industrial problem is discussed.
PLAYING THE BEER DISTRIBUTION GAME OVER THE INTERNET
Authors: Jacobs F. Robert
Published: August 2010

This paper describes an Internet implementation of the Beer Distribution Game. Many teachers demonstrate the bullwhip effect that is often observed in supply chains by playing this game with their students. This implementation has the advantage of considerably reducing the time required to play the game.
THE IMPACT OF UNIONS ON OPERATIONS STRATEGY
Authors: Pagell Mark , Handfield Robert
Published: August 2010

This paper explores the effect that unions have on a firm's ability to reengineer manufacturing processes. We begin by exploring the various effects that a union may have in a manufacturing environment. Next, we briefly review how unions may affect managerial initiatives to reengineer processes and improve manufacturing performance. The third section analyzes an existing database to test for differences in cycle time and manufacturing performance between union and nonunion firms. Finally, we discuss the implications of the study for future operations strategy research and note how a different form of union‐management relationships is beginning to evolve.
MANAGING A FLOW LINE WITH SINGLE‐KANBAN, DUAL‐KANBAN OR CONWIP
Authors: YANG KUM KHIONG
Published: August 2010

To control the production of different parts on a single flow line, managers can choose between the Single‐kanban, Dual‐kanban, and Conwip. This paper therefore compares the three different systems. The results show that Conwip consistently produces the shortest mean customer wait time and lowest total work‐in‐process. Our results also contradict the finding of a previous study, which showed that Dual‐kanban performed better than Single‐kanban. The different findings can, however, be attributed to the use of a material transfer policy, which favors the Dual‐kanban modeled in the previous study. Our study shows that transferring replenished containers immediately to downstream stations, increasing the number of cards, and reducing the withdrawal cycle reduce the mean customer wait time significantly.
STOCK LEVELS AND DELIVERY RATES IN VENDORMANAGED INVENTORY PROGRAMS
Authors: CHAOUCH BEN A.
Published: August 2010

Using the latest information technology, powerful retailers like Wal‐Mart have taken the lead in forging shorter replenishment‐cycles, automated supply systems with suppliers. With the objective to reduce cost, these retailers are directing suppliers to take full responsibility for managing stocks and deliveries. Suppliers' performance is measured according to how often inventory is shipped to the retailer, and how often customers are unable to purchase the product because it is out of stock. This emerging trend also implies that suppliers are absorbing a large part of the inventory and delivery costs and, therefore, must plan delivery programs including delivery frequency to ensure that the inherent costs are minimized.

With the idea to incorporate this shift in focus, this paper looks at the problem facing the supplier who wants quicker replenishment at lower cost. In particular, we present a model that seeks the best trade‐off among inventory investment, delivery rates, and permitting shortages to occur, given some random demand pattern for the product. The process generating demand consists of two components: one is deterministic and the other is random. The random part is assumed to follow a compound Poisson process. Furthermore, we assume that the supplier may fail to meet uniform shipping schedules, and, therefore, uncertainty is present in delivery times. The solution to this transportationinventory problem requires determining jointly delivery rates and stock levels that will minimize transportation, inventory, and shortage costs. Several numerical results are presented to give a feel of the optimal policy's general behavior.
MANAGING THE ENVIRONMENTAL EXTERNALITIES OF TRAFFIC LOGISTICS: THE ISSUE OF EMISSIONS
Authors: VANWOENSEL TOM , CRETEN RUTH , VANDAELE NICO
Published: August 2010

Companies are increasingly being held accountable for the life‐cycle impact of their products and services. Transportation is frequently a major component of this life‐cycle impact. Hence, to reduce total environmental impact, logistics managers will have to become more sophisticated in their understanding of how they can reduce the environmental impact of their transportation operations, without negatively affecting the cost or effectiveness of these operations. In line with this mandate, we quantify the dynamic impact of road vehicles on the environment. In most emission models, a constant speed is used depending only on the specific road type. Using such a model will lead to an underestimation of the effective emissions. It turns out that the differences with a more realistic dynamic assessment model are significant. The analysis here suggests that the policy consequences of these differences for both public sector managers and private companies are potentially quite important.
LEAN, GREEN, AND THE QUEST FOR SUPERIOR ENVIRONMENTAL PERFORMANCE
Authors: ROTHENBERG SANDRA , PIL FRITS K. , MAXWELL JAMES
Published: August 2010

We examine the relationship between lean manufacturing practices and environmental performance as measured in terms of air emissions and resource use. We draw on two unique surveys of 31 automobile assembly plants in North America and Japan, which contain information on manufacturing practice and environmental performance, as well as in‐depth interviews with 156 plant level employees at 17 assembly plants. Our survey results and interviews suggest that lean management and reduction of air emissions of volatile organic compounds (vocs) are associated negatively. Lean manufacturing practices contribute to more efficient use of paints and cleaning solvents, but these in‐process changes are not sufficient to meet the most stringent air regulations. We found some evidence to support the link between lean practices and resource efficiency. While our survey results were in hypothesized direction, they were not statistically significant. In‐depth semi‐structured interviews, however, suggest a more robust relationship, and we use them to describe some mechanisms by which all three aspects of lean management (buffer minimization, work systems, and human resource management) may be related to environmental management practices and performance.
ALIGNING ACCOUNTABILITY AND AWARENESS FOR ENVIRONMENTAL PERFORMANCE IN OPERATIONS
Authors: CHINANDER KAREN R.
Published: August 2010

This study assesses internal drivers of a firm's level of environmental awareness, including methods for incorporating environmental objectives into the strategic planning of operations, communication of objectives throughout the organization, and deployment of accountability to operating personnel and managers for environmental performance. Challenges firms may encounter in motivating and holding employees and process owners accountable for environmental performance are discussed, as well as a potential for inconsistencies between management's espoused theories and theories in use. A case study of a steel manufacturer is used to determine how accountability for and awareness of environmental objectives can be operationally implemented.
OPERATIONALIZING AND TESTING NORMAL ACCIDENT THEORY IN PETROCHEMICAL PLANTS AND REFINERIES
Authors: WOLF FREDERICK G.
Published: August 2010

Since “Normal Accidents: Living With High‐Risk Technologies” was first published in 1984, there have been very few tests of its validity or its application to different classes of technology or organizations. This paper describes a robust, parametric test of Normal Accident Theory applied to a class of high‐risk systems: petrochemical plants and refineries. The theory has important implications for scholars interested in the relationship of organizations to the natural environment and managers responsible for safe, socially responsible, and environmentally appropriate operation of high‐consequence systems.
STAKEHOLDERS AND COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE: THE CASE OF ISO 14001
Authors: DELMAS MAGALI
Published: August 2010

This paper integrates a stakeholder perspective into the resource‐based view of the firm, to analyze the mechanisms that link the adoption of the international Environmental Management Standard ISO 14001 to firms' competitive advantage. This paper shows that the perceived competitiveness impact of the standard depends mostly on the involvement of firms' external stakeholders (distributors, customers, community members, and regulatory agencies) in its design. ISO 14001 is a process standard, and it is difficult for stakeholders to get credible information on the effectiveness of the standard if they are not involved in its design. Stakeholders' involvement in a firm's ISO 14001 standard becomes a valuable organizational capability, which is difficult to imitate by competitors. The analysis is supported by primary data collected from a questionnaire mailed to 152 firms, resulting in 55 observations representing 30% of the total number of firms certified in the U.S. in August 1998.