title: Effective supply chain research via the quick scan audit methodology

authors: Childerhouse, Paul

subjects: auditing

abstract: Purpose – This paper aims to provide an answer to the important question of how can accurate assessment of supply chain practice and performance be conducted? By conducting audits across a sample of value streams it is thereby possible to identify the components of “good practice” via evidence-based procedures.

Design/methodology/approach – Quick scan audit methodology (QSAM) is a site-based, team-oriented action research-led investigative technique for establishing meaningful “snapshots” of value stream behaviour. The participants cover both academic researchers and host organisation staff.

Findings – QSAM is found to output repeatable results enabling the transfer of technique between companies, between businesses, between market sectors, and between countries.

Research limitations/implications – Care must be taken when training new auditors and QSAM teams to ensure the required degree of consistency. There is no substitute for operating a “watch one, share one, do one” regimen.

Practical implications – The research purpose is to establish the performance vectors to enable effective value stream health comparisons to be made. Additionally “quick hits” (not “quick fixes”) may well be identified specific to an individual host organisation.

Originality/value – QSAM has already made an important contribution in enabling the gap between case-based and survey-based logistics research to be properly bridged.

text: Effective supply chain research via the quick scan audit methodology Purpose – This paper aims to provide an answer to the important question of how can accurate assessment of supply chain practice and performance be conducted? By conducting audits across a sample of value streams it is thereby possible to identify the components of “good practice” via evidence-based procedures.

Design/methodology/approach – Quick scan audit methodology (QSAM) is a site-based, team-oriented action research-led investigative technique for establishing meaningful “snapshots” of value stream behaviour. The participants cover both academic researchers and host organisation staff.

Findings – QSAM is found to output repeatable results enabling the transfer of technique between companies, between businesses, between market sectors, and between countries.

Research limitations/implications – Care must be taken when training new auditors and QSAM teams to ensure the required degree of consistency. There is no substitute for operating a “watch one, share one, do one” regimen.

Practical implications – The research purpose is to establish the performance vectors to enable effective value stream health comparisons to be made. Additionally “quick hits” (not “quick fixes”) may well be identified specific to an individual host organisation.

Originality/value – QSAM has already made an important contribution in enabling the gap between case-based and survey-based logistics research to be properly bridged.

year: 2010

title: Quinnat salmon (oncorhynchus tshawytscha) spawning in the Rangitikei river

authors: Hicks, Brendan J.

subjects: biology

abstract: The occurrence of adult quinnat salmon {Oncorhynchus tshawytscha (Walbaum)) in the Rangitikei River, North Island, New Zealand, has been confirmed on several occasions since 1922, but juvenile salmon have not previously been recorded. In late February 1981 a 79-mm-fork-length smolt was caught in a stranded side channel 180 km upstream from the mouth. This suggests that quinnat salmon can spawn successfully in this river.

text: Quinnat salmon (oncorhynchus tshawytscha) spawning in the Rangitikei river The occurrence of adult quinnat salmon {Oncorhynchus tshawytscha (Walbaum)) in the Rangitikei River, North Island, New Zealand, has been confirmed on several occasions since 1922, but juvenile salmon have not previously been recorded. In late February 1981 a 79-mm-fork-length smolt was caught in a stranded side channel 180 km upstream from the mouth. This suggests that quinnat salmon can spawn successfully in this river.

year: 1983

title: The Price of Mauri: Exploring the validity of Welfare Economics when seeking to measure Mātauranga Māori

authors: Awatere, Shaun

subjects: welfare economics

abstract: Since the 1980s New Zealand has pursued neo-classical or market-based policies with a particular fervour. Market-based options are seen by resource management decision makers as essential frameworks for efficiently allocating resources, an approach that continues to support the view of the inherent dominance of Western knowledge. This is particularly concerning, given that Māori (the indigenous people of New Zealand), have an important role to play in New Zealand resource management and perceive their own knowledge systems have been marginalised. The primary goal of this thesis is to explore the validity of welfare economics when seeking to measure quantitatively Mātauranga Māori or Māori views of the environment through the contingent valuation method. A contingent valuation study is carried out using three separate samples drawn from the general Māori population in Auckland city, a hāpu/sub-tribe indigenous to the Auckland isthmus, and drivers of motor vehicles in Auckland city. Data collection modes include a postal survey and face-to-face interviews. This thesis challenges the validity of political-legal ethnicity constructs to measure Mātauranga Māori. The search for a central tendency will lead to biased, misleading and inaccurate results. The thesis also challenges the validity of contingent valuation to produce true economic measures and to measure and identify Mātauranga Māori. Despite advances in analytical techniques, economic efficiency measures are always deficient, given the difficulty of capturing and anticipating all impacts and valuing them appropriately. Mātauranga Māori is derived from a Māori epistemology and should be considered or analysed with primary reference to this body of knowledge. Economic analysis is only one important cog in the machinery of resource management policy. Given that an economist's contribution to local and regional resource management is most valuable when focusing on the  economic efficiency  of the proposed resource allocation, it is appropriate that other perspectives such as Mātauranga Māori be considered.

text: The Price of Mauri: Exploring the validity of Welfare Economics when seeking to measure Mātauranga Māori Since the 1980s New Zealand has pursued neo-classical or market-based policies with a particular fervour. Market-based options are seen by resource management decision makers as essential frameworks for efficiently allocating resources, an approach that continues to support the view of the inherent dominance of Western knowledge. This is particularly concerning, given that Māori (the indigenous people of New Zealand), have an important role to play in New Zealand resource management and perceive their own knowledge systems have been marginalised. The primary goal of this thesis is to explore the validity of welfare economics when seeking to measure quantitatively Mātauranga Māori or Māori views of the environment through the contingent valuation method. A contingent valuation study is carried out using three separate samples drawn from the general Māori population in Auckland city, a hāpu/sub-tribe indigenous to the Auckland isthmus, and drivers of motor vehicles in Auckland city. Data collection modes include a postal survey and face-to-face interviews. This thesis challenges the validity of political-legal ethnicity constructs to measure Mātauranga Māori. The search for a central tendency will lead to biased, misleading and inaccurate results. The thesis also challenges the validity of contingent valuation to produce true economic measures and to measure and identify Mātauranga Māori. Despite advances in analytical techniques, economic efficiency measures are always deficient, given the difficulty of capturing and anticipating all impacts and valuing them appropriately. Mātauranga Māori is derived from a Māori epistemology and should be considered or analysed with primary reference to this body of knowledge. Economic analysis is only one important cog in the machinery of resource management policy. Given that an economist's contribution to local and regional resource management is most valuable when focusing on the  economic efficiency  of the proposed resource allocation, it is appropriate that other perspectives such as Mātauranga Māori be considered.

year: 2008