scholarly journals An applied approach to multi-criteria humanitarian supply chain planning for pandemic response

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Behnam Malmir ◽  
Christopher W. Zobel
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Primary Source ◽  
Real Data ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Simulation Based ◽  
Actual Growth Rate ◽  
Actual Growth ◽  
Deprivation Costs ◽  
Humanitarian Supply Chain ◽  
The Cost

PurposeWhen a large-scale outbreak such as the COVID-19 pandemic happens, organizations that are responsible for delivering relief may face a lack of both provisions and human resources. Governments are the primary source for the humanitarian supplies required during such a crisis; however, coordination with humanitarian NGOs in handling such pandemics is a vital form of public-private partnership (PPP). Aid organizations have to consider not only the total degree of demand satisfaction in such cases but also the obligation that relief goods such as medicine and foods should be distributed as equitably as possible within the affected areas (AAs).Design/methodology/approachGiven the challenges of acquiring real data associated with procuring relief items during the COVID-19 outbreak, a comprehensive simulation-based plan is used to generate 243 small, medium and large-sized problems with uncertain demand, and these problems are solved to optimality using GAMS. Finally, post-optimality analyses are conducted, and some useful managerial insights are presented.FindingsThe results imply that given a reasonable measure of deprivation costs, it can be important for managers to focus less on the logistical costs of delivering resources and more on the value associated with quickly and effectively reducing the overall suffering of the affected individuals. It is also important for managers to recognize that even though deprivation costs and transportation costs are both increasing as the time horizon increases, the actual growth rate of the deprivation costs decreases over time.Originality/valueIn this paper, a novel mathematical model is presented to minimize the total costs of delivering humanitarian aid for pandemic relief. With a focus on sustainability of operations, the model incorporates total transportation and delivery costs, the cost of utilizing the transportation fleet (transportation mode cost), and equity and deprivation costs. Taking social costs such as deprivation and equity costs into account, in addition to other important classic cost terms, enables managers to organize the best possible response when such outbreaks happen.

The 2008–2009 global financial crisis and the cost of debt capital among SMEs: Swedish evidence

2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Darush Yazdanfar ◽  
Peter Öhman
Keyword(s):  
Financial Crisis ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Global Financial Crisis ◽  
Dynamic Panel Data ◽  
Cost Of Debt ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Debt Capital ◽  
Using Data ◽  
The Cost

PurposeThe main purpose of this study is to describe and analyse the relationship between the 2008–2009 global financial crisis and small and medium-sized enterprises' cost of debt capital.Design/methodology/approachStatistical methods, including multiple OLS and dynamic panel data, were used to analyse a longitudinal cross-sectional panel dataset of 3865 Swedish SMEs operating in five industry sectors over the 2008–2015 period.FindingsThe results suggest that the cost of debt was influenced by the financial crisis and another macroeconomic factor, i.e. the interbank interest rate, and by firm-specific factors such as firm size and lagged cost of debt.Originality/valueTo the authors' best knowledge, this is one of few studies to examine the cost of debt among SMEs during the crisis and post-crisis periods using data from a large-scale, longitudinal, cross-sectional database.

Global steel market will still face oversupply

2016 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Latin American ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Raw Materials ◽  
Emerging Market ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Steel Output ◽  
Steel Consumption ◽  
Steel Market ◽  
The Cost

Subject Slow cuts to global steel overcapacity. Significance In 2015, global steel output fell 2.8% compared to 2014, reaching 1.62 billion tonnes. China's production dropped by 2.3% to 804 million tonnes. In 2015, European benchmark steel prices fell by 27%, from 480 dollars/tonne to 350 dollars/tonne, while Chinese prices suffered a 41% drop, from 440 to 260 dollars/tonne. Margins at many steel-making groups contracted, as steel prices fell faster than the cost of raw materials. Large-scale job losses intensified in Europe, with the United Kingdom and Spain enduring the most of the capacity cuts. Impacts Latin American production could suffer from Asian competition unless sector-specific safeguards are introduced. Renewed dollar appreciation could make dollar-denominated debt unsustainable for many emerging-market steel-makers. BRICS exporters will suffer tariffs imposed by the US Department of Commerce. India will remain the industry's best hope for growth, due to its urbanisation and still low per capita steel consumption.

Methodology for optimizing geographical distribution and capacities of biomass power plants in Sabah, East Malaysia

2014 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 100-120 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yun Seng Lim ◽  
Siong Lee Koh ◽  
Stella Morris
Keyword(s):  
Power Plants ◽  
Transportation Cost ◽  
Real Data ◽  
Total Biomass ◽  
Biomass Waste ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Capital Costs ◽  
Total Capacity ◽  
The Cost ◽  
Biomass Power Plants

Purpose – Biomass waste can be used as fuel in biomass power plants to generate electricity. It is a type of renewable energy widely available in Malaysia because 12 million tons of the biomass waste is produced every year. At present, only 5 per cent of the total biomass waste in Sabah, one of the states in Malaysia, is used to generate electricity for on-site consumption. The remaining 95 per cent of the biomass waste has not been utilized because the transportation cost for shifting the waste from the plantations to the power plants is substantial, hence making the cost of the biomass generated electricity to be high. Therefore, a methodology is developed and presented in this paper to determine the optimum geographic distribution and capacities of the biomass power plants around a region so that the cost of biomass generated electricity can be minimized. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach – The methodology is able to identify the potential locations of biomass power plants on any locations on a region taking into account the operation and capital costs of the power plants as well as the cost of connecting the power plants to the national grid. The methodology is programmed using Fortran. Findings – This methodology is applied to Sabah using the real data. The results generated from the methodology show the best locations and capacities of biomass power plants in Sabah. There are 20 locations suitable for biomass power plants. The total capacity of these biomass power plants is 4,996 MW with an annual generation of 35,013 GWh. This is sufficient to meet all the electricity demand in Sabah up to 2030. Originality/value – The methodology is an effective tool to determine the best geographic locations and sizes of the biomass power plants around a region.

scholarly journals Embedding ensemble learning into simulation-based optimisation: a learning-based optimisation approach for construction planning

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kailun Feng ◽  
Shiwei Chen ◽  
Weizhuo Lu ◽  
Shuo Wang ◽  
Bin Yang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Ensemble Learning ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Quality Measurement ◽  
Construction Planning ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Engineering Construction ◽  
Alternative Approach ◽  
Simulation Based ◽  
Computing Platforms ◽  
Searching Ability

PurposeSimulation-based optimisation (SO) is a popular optimisation approach for building and civil engineering construction planning. However, in the framework of SO, the simulation is continuously invoked during the optimisation trajectory, which increases the computational loads to levels unrealistic for timely construction decisions. Modification on the optimisation settings such as reducing searching ability is a popular method to address this challenge, but the quality measurement of the obtained optimal decisions, also termed as optimisation quality, is also reduced by this setting. Therefore, this study aims to develop an optimisation approach for construction planning that reduces the high computational loads of SO and provides reliable optimisation quality simultaneously.Design/methodology/approachThis study proposes the optimisation approach by modifying the SO framework through establishing an embedded connection between simulation and optimisation technologies. This approach reduces the computational loads and ensures the optimisation quality associated with the conventional SO approach by accurately learning the knowledge from construction simulations using embedded ensemble learning algorithms, which automatically provides efficient and reliable fitness evaluations for optimisation iterations.FindingsA large-scale project application shows that the proposed approach was able to reduce computational loads of SO by approximately 90%. Meanwhile, the proposed approach outperformed SO in terms of optimisation quality when the optimisation has limited searching ability.Originality/valueThe core contribution of this research is to provide an innovative method that improves efficiency and ensures effectiveness, simultaneously, of the well-known SO approach in construction applications. The proposed method is an alternative approach to SO that can run on standard computing platforms and support nearly real-time construction on-site decision-making.

scholarly journals Comparative performance of PPPs and traditional procurement projects in Indonesia

2017 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 118-136 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gigih Udi Atmo ◽  
Colin Duffield ◽  
Lihai Zhang ◽  
David Ian Wilson
Keyword(s):  
Power Plant ◽  
Emerging Economies ◽  
Power Plants ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Public Procurement ◽  
High Quality ◽  
Comparative Performance ◽  
Quality Performance ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Cost

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the outcomes of Indonesian power projects as representative projects of Asian emerging economies that were procured via public-private partnerships (PPPs) and traditional public sector procurement. Power generation infrastructure delivery in emerging economies frequently seeks private participation via PPPs as one of the key mechanisms to attract private finance. Undertaking a comparative benchmark study of the outcomes of Indonesian power projects provides an opportunity to explore the historic evidence as to whether PPPs deliver better outcomes than traditional public procurement in emerging economies. Design/methodology/approach This paper reports on a study of the performance of 56 Indonesian power projects procured via either PPPs or traditional procurement. First, it focusses on project time and cost outcomes of power plant facility during construction and commissioning and then extends this comparison to consider the operating availability of power plants during their first two years of operation. Findings The results indicate that PPP projects had superior time and operating availability to those procured traditionally whereas no significant differences were identified in the cost performance between PPPs and traditionally procured projects. These findings highlight the importance of adopting policies that are supported by broader sources of international financiers and high quality power plant developers. Research limitations/implications The quality performance analyses of projects (based on equivalent available factor indices) were limited to the power plants in the Java-Bali region where the majority of projects are large scale power plants. Practical implications This study provides an empirical basis for governments of emerging economies to select the most beneficial procurement strategy for power plant projects. It highlights the importance of selecting experienced providers and to adopt policies that attract high quality international project financiers and power plant developers. This includes the need to ensure the commercial viability of projects and to seriously consider the use of cleaner power technologies. Originality/value This study is the first to compare the outcomes of power projects in Asian emerging economies delivered via PPPs against those delivered by traditional public procurement that includes consideration of the quality of the delivered product.

The cost of players’ injuries to professional sports leagues and other sports organizations

2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Bhavneet Walia ◽  
Christopher John Boudreaux
Keyword(s):  
Primary Source ◽  
Professional Sports ◽  
Treatment Costs ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Sports Organizations ◽  
Direct Treatment ◽  
Sports Leagues ◽  
Playing Time ◽  
The Cost ◽  
Professional Sports Leagues

PurposeMost literature studies have focused on direct treatment costs of injuries. This literature is extended to include the foregone playing time of players as an additional injury cost.Design/methodology/approachThe authors have reviewed the literature on the cost of players’ injuries to professional sports leagues and other organizations.FindingsThe authors concluded that players’ injury costs are substantial and sufficiently variable to be a primary source of financial uncertainty for a team.Originality/valueThis study's value has added risk pooling and league-wide revenue sharing as tools to mitigate the risk of injury costs. Previous literature reviews focused predominately on direct treatment costs.

Providing consumers with a representative subset from online reviews

2017 ◽  
Vol 41 (6) ◽  
pp. 877-899 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jin Zhang ◽  
Ming Ren ◽  
Xian Xiao ◽  
Jilong Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
User Study ◽  
Real Data ◽  
Online Reviews ◽  
Heuristic Approach ◽  
Online Information ◽  
Consumer Decision Making ◽  
High Coverage ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Representative Subset

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to find a representative subset from large-scale online reviews for consumers. The subset is significantly small in size, but covers the majority amount of information in the original reviews and contains little redundant information. Design/methodology/approach A heuristic approach named RewSel is proposed to successively select representatives until the number of representatives meets the requirement. To reveal the advantages of the approach, extensive data experiments and a user study are conducted on real data. Findings The proposed approach has the advantage over the benchmarks in terms of coverage and redundancy. People show preference to the representative subsets provided by RewSel. The proposed approach also has good scalability, and is more adaptive to big data applications. Research limitations/implications The paper contributes to the literature of review selection, by proposing a heuristic approach which achieves both high coverage and low redundancy. This study can be applied as the basis for conducting further analysis of large-scale online reviews. Practical implications The proposed approach offers a novel way to select a representative subset of online reviews to facilitate consumer decision making. It can also enhance the existing information retrieval system to provide representative information to users rather than a large amount of results. Originality/value The proposed approach finds the representative subset by adopting the concept of relative entropy and sentiment analysis methods. Compared with state-of-the-art approaches, it offers a more effective and efficient way for users to handle a large amount of online information.

To buy or to borrow? Evaluating the cost of an eBook in TalTech library

2020 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 74-93
Author(s):  
Kate-Riin Kont
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Statistical Data ◽  
Background Information ◽  
Activity Based Costing ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Central Platform ◽  
Cost Behaviour ◽  
Usage Cost ◽  
The Cost

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to find out how much the purchasing and lending of individual electronic books really cost. Additionally, this paper investigates which kind of approach would be cheaper and less time-consuming for library staff as well as library patrons – purchase or short-term loan. Design/methodology/approach This study was conducted at the Tallinn University of Technology (TalTech) Library. This is the only university library in Estonia where the Ebook Central platform is adapted on a large scale. For background information, all statistical data of expenditures and average prices of purchases and short-term loans during April 2013 and December 2018 were calculated and analysed. Through a case study, the time-driven activity-based costing (TDABC) method was used – all activities related to acquisition and lending of eBooks were identified, recorded in detail and analysed. More specifically, the study concerned eBooks offered in the Ebook Central platform and covered purchasing and short-term loan processes, such as receipt of order request, communication with the patron (if necessary) making a purchase or short-term loan, and feedback to the patron. Findings While analysing the results, it appeared there are many additional activities libraries can avoid during the eBook short-term loan process compared to purchasing. As a normality in TalTech library, purchase is always followed by a cataloguing process which increases the time and cost of this process in turn. On the basis of the current study, it can be said that short-term loan is a cheaper way to use eBooks; many activities related to the short-term loan of eBooks take remarkably less staff time and financial resources than eBooks acquisition/purchasing activities. When analysing the literature reviewed as well as collected statistical data, the problem may arise when the decision-maker librarian is not experienced, professional or long-sighted enough to understand the future behaviour of the patron or the usage of the specific eBook. When the usage reaches a certain point, it becomes an indicator of continuing future usage and so it makes sense to purchase the eBook, as the library pays no further charges once an eBook is owned. Originality/value Most studies reviewed by the author are based on the statistical data collected about expenditure, costs, usage, cost-per-use, etc. of short-term loans and purchases. While acquisitions costs, average cost per acquired item per year and cost per usage are easy to identify, it has been difficult to measure associated costs of acquisition, cataloging and circulation. The TDABC methodology seems to be one of the best tools for understanding cost behaviour and refining a cost system for university libraries. Based on the information known to the author, there is no study carried out using the TDABC methodology for analysing costs of eBook programmes.

A multidimensional longitudinal meta-analysis of quality costing research

2018 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 405-429 ◽  
Author(s):  
Evrikleia Chatzipetrou ◽  
Odysseas Moschidis
Keyword(s):  
Geographical Origin ◽  
Multiple Correspondence Analysis ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Internal Audit ◽  
Real Data ◽  
Business Sector ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Quality Costs ◽  
The Cost ◽  
Cost Components

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the longitudinal evolution of quality costs measurement, depicted in 99 real data studies of the last 30 years. A meta-analysis of these articles is conducted, in order to highlight the evolution of the variables that have been used for the study of quality costing, in relation to the date of publication, business sector and geographical origin of each paper. Design/methodology/approach The analysis of the cost components has been conducted with the use of multiple correspondence analysis, which is a useful tool for the exploration of the interrelations among all elements, aiming at the identification of the dominant and most substantial tendencies in their structure. Findings The findings suggest that the level of analysis of quality costs is related to the date of publication, the business sector and the origin of each research. Furthermore, it is pointed out that the most prominent prevention costs are related to suppliers’ assurance, internal audit and new product’s design and development. Appraisal costs are mostly defined by quality audits and procurement costs, while failure costs by defect/failure analysis, low quality losses, complaint investigation and concessions and warranty claims. Originality/value The present paper is a longitudinal meta-analysis of 99 quality cost papers that have been published in the last 30 years. It explores the evolution of research in quality costing, not only in relation to the cost components in use, but also in terms of date of publication, business sector and geographical origin of the studies.

ITU cost model and methodology to assist national regulatory authorities to engage with international mobile roaming

2018 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 125-148 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon Forge ◽  
Lara Srivastava
Keyword(s):  
Business Model ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Business Processes ◽  
Cost Model ◽  
Cost Models ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Regulatory Authorities ◽  
The Cost ◽  
Practical Implications

Purpose Tariffs for international mobile roaming (IMR) are often viewed by governments as an additional tax on international trade and on tourism. IMR customer bills may appear to be arbitrary and sometimes excessive. The purpose of this paper is therefore to set out a pragmatic approach to assessing international charges for mobile roaming, making use of a realistic cost model of the international roaming process and its cost elements, at a level that is useful to regulatory authorities and operators. Design/methodology/approach The discussion presented is based on industry practices for handling voice calls and data sessions with the mobile network operators (MNOs) business model, based on industry sources. The basic mechanisms use two common constructs from business analysis – business processes and use-cases – to provide a simplified form of activity-based costing. This provides a model suitable for national regulatory authorities to move towards cost-based IMR tariffs. Findings Using a perspective on costs based on a bottom-up survey procedure for elucidating the key information, the paper presents the cost elements for the various IMR network components and business processes, with an approach suitable for analysing both wholesale and retail pricing. Research limitations/implications The method is specifically designed to overcome the key problem of such approaches, the limitations set by differences in network technologies, network topology, operational scale and the engineering, as well as MNO business model and accounting practices, which otherwise would preclude the method presented here from being vendor neutral. Practical implications Vendor and network engineering neutrality implies the approach can be used to compare different MNOs in terms of the validity of their IMR charges and whether they are cost based. Social implications Impacts on society of so-called “bill-shock” have become quite common, increasingly for data sessions. The cost model presented here was developed with the intention of improving the accountability and transparency of the mobile roaming market. It thus assists in the introduction of cost-based tariffs over an economic region, such the European Union. Originality/value The paper examines the practical implications of building large-scale cost models for assessing the real IMR costs, a modelling exercise that has not been seen elsewhere in terms of its approach and neutrality as to MNO structure and assets.

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