Impact of the current medical system on the financial stability of world countries and the Republic of Moldova

The economic crises that have occurred worldwide so far have been caused by emerging problems arising from the supply-demand correlation for certain products on the world market. However, the current economic crisis has been caused by the global COVID-19 pandemic. The greatest difficulty has been the impossibility of predicting the crisis that has arisen as a result of the need to introduce urgent restrictive measures to combat the pandemic. The devastating consequences of the crisis caused by COVID-19 were the halt of the world economy and the decline in Global Production, which was recorded by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in the spring of 2020. The Republic of Moldova faced the overlap of two major crises: first caused by the COVID19 pandemic and second by the severe drought, mentioned as the most severe recession in the last 20 years. As crisis consequence, the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the Republic of Moldova estimated for 2020 decreased by about 6.5%.

Research on Dynamic Storage Location Assignment of Picker-to-Parts Picking Systems under Traversing Routing Method

Considering time-varying demand of online retail industry, the traditional static storage location assignment is converted into a multistage storage location assignment process based on the idea of gradual and small-step-forward optimization, which can respond to rapid changes in demand by adjusting the storage location of SKUs in the warehouse in real time and dynamically. First, the study formulates the framework dynamic storage location assignment. Then, the adjustment gain model of dynamic storage location assignment is built, and a genetic algorithm is designed to find the final adjustment solution. Finally, the computer program is developed to simulate the whole process. Simulation and data analysis results show that dynamic storage location assignment can effectively improve picking efficiency when the average order size is small and large demand correlation strength. Dynamic storage location assignment simplifies the warehouse operation process by combining the picking operation and storage location assignment into one without changing the picker’s current walking route, which can offer some theoretical guidance for online retail enterprises implementing dynamic storage location assignment.

Inflation, Employment and FDI in Bosnia and Herzegovina

The monetary policy of Bosnia and Herzegovina (hereinafter referred to as BIH) operates under the currency board system, responsible for strengthening the market economy and price stability. On the other hand, the economy of BIH is facing long-term unemployment, unfavorable business environment and feeble competitive position. This discourages economic development. Further retaining the currency board system in BIH attracts great interest. The paper analyzes the relation among inflation, unemployment and foreign direct investment (FDI). Statistical analysis (coefficient of correlation and simple linear regression (period 2004/2014)) indicates that there is no inversion similar to the Phillips curve between inflation and unemployment. Thus, it is implied that BIH renounces employment, aggregate demand and economic growth for the sake of stable prices. Moreover, the ratio of inflation and participation of FDI in GDP is inverse with a negligible correlation. Analyses demonstrate that there is no optimal combination of inflation and unemployment in BIH that would improve business environment and stimulate FDI and aggregate demand. Correlation and regression analyses fail to provide the arguments to statistically challenge the currency board as the monetary system model of BIH.

Capacity decision under preset service level and process flexibility

PurposeProcess flexibility (PF) is seen as a hedging instrument against demand uncertainty. This paper aims to examine capacity decisions for both flexible and dedicated processes under production policies such as make-to-order and make-to-stock. The study identifies some relative benefits, in terms of expected profit, of the process flexible plant over the dedicated ones. Furthermore, the advantage appears to be contingent upon the decision on the preset service level.Design/methodology/approachUsing the sample-based optimization procedure, a detailed computational analysis is undertaken to identify the conditions under which a flexible plant is preferred over a dedicated plant. A combination of genetic algorithm and sample-based optimization procedure is used to capture the effects of preset service level. The factors controlled in this paper include the demand variance, demand correlation, capacity investment cost and the product price.FindingsAccording to this study, in a dedicated process changing to a flexible process is not justified for the same level of demand correlation even with high demand variance. In fact, a strict control on the preset service level prefers the dedicated strategy. The advantage of a flexible plant increases as the demand correlation decreases, product price decreases, price asymmetry increases or capacity investment cost increases. With a preset service level constraint, a flexible process should be preferred to a dedicated one only when the capacity investment cost is high or the products have low contribution margins.Originality/valueThe PF index is introduced in this paper to measure the benefit of a flexible plant over a group of dedicated plants. The benefits were found to be contingent upon the decision on the required service level.

Measure and Analysis of the Bullwhip Effect in Supply Chain When Demand Correlation Exists between Two Market Groups Under the First-Order Moving-Average Demand Processes

With supply chains becoming increasingly global, the issue of bullwhip effect, a phenomenon attributable to demand fluctuation in the upstream section of the supply chains, has received greater attention from many researchers. The phenomenon in which the variation of upstream members' orders is amplified than the variation of downstream members' demands in the supply chain is called the bullwhip effect (BWEF). Most of existing research studies did not realize the demand dependency of market demands. Thus, this research focused on the study of the influence of the demand correlation coefficient between two market groups on the BWEF. The incoming demand processes are assumed the separate first-order moving-average, [MA(1)] demand patterns. The scope of the supply chain structure used in this research is composed of one manufacturer and two distribution centers. The general result reveals that the coefficient of correlation is one of several factors affecting the BWEF.