Exploring competition efficiency of automobile brands: An extensional data envelopment analysis-metafrontier framework

This study integrates metafrontier with bootstrapping to investigate automobile vehicle efficiency. The results are as follows: (1) general cars exhibited the most favorable performance in terms of price, costs, and mileage. (2) Metafrontier efficiency was the highest for general cars, which may be because this automobile type has the highest prevalence. Sports cars had the most favorable group frontier. (3) General cars had the most favorable performance in terms of miles-per-gallon. The conclusions could enhance consumers' green cognition and serve as a reference in purchase decision-making; they can provide manufacturers with directions regarding future product designs to mitigate technology gaps.     

美、日、韩汽车供应商管理模型的比较分析

比较了美、日、韩三国汽车制造商对供应商管理采取的不同采购模式。分析了交易型和伙伴型供应商管理模型之间的差异，并对两种管理模式的优劣作出了评价。     

浅析丰田装载标准作业在我国整车物流的应用

装卸作业是汽车物流的重要组成部分,在整车物流运输业务方面具有重要的影响。装卸标准作业流程的建立,能提高装载作业的效率,提高对商品车品质安全,为汽车物流企业提供更大的安全保障。日本的丰田汽车物流起步较早,他们先进的轿运车装载技术,值得借鉴和学习。文中从分析丰田体系标准作业入手,对国内轿运车装载现状提出改善构想,通过完善培训体系,加强对作业人员的培训,实现提高轿运车装卸作业效率与商品车的品质安全。     

The effects of fuel prices and vehicle sales on fuel‐saving technology adoption in passenger vehicles

Although economic theory suggests that both sales and fuel costs affect technology adoption by vehicle manufacturers, there is very little empirical evidence on either effect. We document a strong connection between a vehicle's sales and its energy efficiency. Using a demographics‐driven demand shifter to isolate demand‐side changes in sales, we find that a one standard deviation increase in sales raises efficiency by 0.2%, compared with a mean improvement rate of 1.4% per year between 1997 and 2013. Higher fuel prices also increase technology adoption directly by increasing willingness to pay for fuel cost savings. The results have two implications: manufacturers will continue to focus technological improvements on top selling vehicles; and fuel taxes will have larger effects on technology adoption than fuel economy standards and feebates.     

中小汽车企业经销商电子商务管理系统的设计

本文研究的对象是基于中小汽车企业的经销商电子商务管理系统。针对中小型汽车制造企业现有的销售中存在的诸多问题,经过反复的调研实践,通过切实合理的销售流程分析,为中小型汽车制造企业的经销商设计并开发了经销商管理系统。该系统主要完善并改进了汽车销售中的内部管理,旨在提高销售过程中的经销商内部业务管理水平的能力,在中小型汽车制造企业和经销商之间构建一个有效的共同渠道,打破了企业与经销商之间信息交互的屏障,提高企业的效率,促进销售的增长,增强中小汽车企业的市场竞争能力。     

整车制造企业战略性供应商技术创新能力选择研究

为降低企业的生产成本和经营风险,整车制造企业将零配件外包给汽车零配件供应商,战略性供应商技术创新能力的选择则是其关键的环节。首先确定整车制造企业战略性供应商技术创新能力选择的指标,然后用主成份分析法确定指标体系结构、体系中各准则和各指标的权重,从而排列战略性供应商技术创新能力的次序,最后选定技术创新能力最强的战略性供应商。     

Reverse efficiency measures for environmental assessment in data envelopment analysis

Environmental issues are becoming more and more important in our everyday life. Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) is a tool developed for measuring relative operational efficiency. DEA can also be employed to estimate environmental efficiency where undesirable outputs like greenhouse gases exist. The classical DEA method identifies best practices among a given empirical data set. In many situations, however, it is advantageous to determine the worst practices and perform efficiency evaluation by comparing DMUs with the full-inefficient frontier. This strategy requires that the conventional production possibility set is defined from a reverse perspective. In this paper, presence of both desirable and undesirable outputs is assumed and a methodological framework for performing an unbiased efficiency analysis is proposed. The reverse production possibility set is defined and new models are presented regarding the full-inefficient frontier. The operational, environmental and overall reverse efficiencies are studied. The important notion of weak disposability is discussed and the effects of this assumption on the proposed models are investigated. The capability of the proposed method is examined using data from a real-world application about paper production.     

基于5S管理的转向机分装改善研究

5S管理是汽车企业现场管理的有效模式。我国汽车企业只有提升现场管理水平，才能获得持续的竞争优势。文中以陕汽特种车事业部为背景，提出实施5S管理应遵循系统分析、成本收益、持续改善、以人为本和创新发展5项原则，指出5S管理的关键点是强化5S管理知识培训、实行5S全过程目标管理、实施定置管理和目视管理、培育适应5S管理的企业文化。     

Relative Performance of U.S. and Japanese Electricity Distribution: An Application of Stochastic Frontier Analysis

This paper estimates and compares the technical efficiency of the U.S. and Japanese electric utilities during the period 1982–1997 using a stochastic frontier analysis. Our focus is on electricity distribution services of major investor-owned utilities. We employ translog input distance functions to represent the technology of electricity distribution. Empirical results show that after controlling for environmental variables, on average, the Japanese electric utilities are more efficient. It is shown, however, that some U.S. utilities are as efficient as the most efficient Japanese utilities, indicating that the estimated frontier is not necessarily dominated by Japanese utilities.An erratum to this article can be found at     

谈商用微车后车架的设计

现阶段,我国汽车业蓬勃发展,各大汽车生产商越来越重视汽车的开发速度,而成熟的汽车设计方法能大大缩短开发时间,加快汽车开发速度。文章对商用微车后车架的设计过程进行了探讨、分析,从汽车总体布置到典型截面,以及3D数据构建和运用CAE模拟分析同步设计的现代汽车设计方法,介绍汽车主要骨架后车架的设计过程,以期对其他汽车后车架设计提供理论性参考。     

基于复杂网络理论的生产企业网络分析

丰田汽车公司基于企业间的分工与协作关系构建了汽车生产企业网络。本文利用复杂网络理论对丰田的生产企业网络进行了分析,结果表明:该生产企业网络具有小世界效应和无标度特性,应认定为复杂网络。这为我们认识生产企业网络的结构特征,进一步研究生产网络中结点企业间的相互关系、信息传递机制、协同生产机制等提供了理论基础。     

Application of evidential reasoning approach and OWA operator weights in road safety evaluation considering the best and worst practice frontiers

Data envelopment analysis (DEA) has recently become relatively popular with road safety experts. Therefore, various decision-making units (DMUs), such as EU countries, have been assessed in terms of road safety performance (RSP). However, the DEA has been criticized because it evaluates DMUs based only on the concept of self-assessment, and, therefore does not provide a unique ranking for DMUs. Therefore, cross efficiency method (CEM) was developed to overcome this shortcoming. Peer-evaluations in addition to self-evaluation have made the CEM to be recognized as an effective method for ranking DMUs. The traditional CEM is based only on the standard CCR (Charnes, Cooper and Rhodes) model, and it evaluates DMUs according to their position relative to the best practice frontier while neglecting the worst practice frontier. However, the DMUs can also be assessed based on their position relative to the worst practice frontier. In this regard, the present study aims to provide a double-frontier CEM for assessing RSP by taking into account the best and worst frontiers simultaneously. For this purpose, the cross efficiency and cross anti-efficiency matrices are generated.Even though a weighted average method (WAM) is most frequently used for cross efficiency aggregation, the decision maker's (DM) preference structure may not be reflected. For this reason, the present study mainly focuses on the evidential reasoning approach (ERA), as a nonlinear aggregation method, rather than the linear WAM. Equal weights are often used for cross efficiency aggregation; consequently, the effect of the DM's subjective judgments in obtaining the overall efficiency is ignored. In this respect, the minimax entropy approach (MEA) and the maximum disparity approach (MMDA) are applied for determining the ordered weighted averaging (OWA) operator weights for cross efficiency aggregation. The weighted cross efficiencies and cross anti-efficiencies are then aggregated using the ERA. Finally, the proposed method, called DF-CEM-ERA, is used to evaluate the RSP of EU countries as well as Serbian police departments (PDs).     

A Comparison of Regulatory Awareness and Green Supply Chain Management Practices Among Chinese and Japanese Manufacturers

Leading manufacturers in developed countries generally have high environmental awareness and implement proactive environmental management practices such as green supply chain management (GSCM). However, it is uncertain if smaller manufacturers in developed countries are more proactive than all manufacturers in developing countries. To understand this situation, we carried out surveys among small and medium‐sized Japanese manufacturers, leading Chinese manufacturers and traditional Chinese manufacturers. Statistical results show that leading Chinese manufacturers have the highest awareness of both domestic and international environmental regulations/policies, and implement all GSCM practices at the highest level. Leading Chinese manufacturers and Japanese manufacturers are aware of international environmental regulations/policies, but such awareness only motivates them to implement eco‐design practices. Traditional Chinese manufacturers have limited awareness of international environmental regulations/policies, but such awareness brings all types of GSCM practice. Such results can be helpful for different manufacturers in both developed and developing countries to develop suitable environmental strategies. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment     

Bayesian estimation of manufacturing effects in a fuel economy model

The analysis of fuel economy data results in estimates of the technology utilization by manufacturer and vehicle line. The analysis employs a hierarchical Bayesian regression model with random components representing vehicle lines and manufacturers. The model includes predictor variables which describe vehicle features, such as type of transmission, and vehicle line specific measurements, such as compression ratio. Non-informative priors with novel modifications are used and the Bayes estimates are obtained by use of Gibbs sampling. The results show there is substantial variability among manufacturers in efficiently utilizing technology for fuel economy.     

Linear Programming Models for the Measurement of Environmental Performance of Firms—Concepts and Empirical Results

I use linear programming models to define standardised, aggregate environmental performance indicators for firms. The best practice frontier obtained corresponds to decision making units showing the best environmental behaviour. Results are obtained with data from U.S. fossil fuel-fired electric utilities, starting from four alternative models, among which are three linear programming models that differ in the way they account for undesirable outputs (pollutants) and resources used as inputs. The results indicate important discrepancies in the rankings obtained by the four models. Rather than contradictory, these results are interpreted as giving different, complementary kinds of information, that should all be taken into account by public decision-makers.     

LED简介及其在汽车灯具设计中的作用

随着广大汽车消费者审美水平的不断提高,汽车不再是单纯的代步工具,还是时尚和潮流的最好的体现。汽车灯具作为车身画龙点睛之笔,对于汽车整体造型的完美体现起到至关重要的作用,而在灯具的设计过程中,光源的选择在一定程度上限制着灯具整体设计的自由度。文章简单介绍了LED应用于汽车灯具的优势,概述了LED在车灯行业的发展趋势。     

Estimating the impact on efficiency of the adoption of a voluntary environmental standard: an empirical study of the global copper mining industry

This paper uses data on the world’s copper mining industry to measure the impact on efficiency of the adoption of the ISO 14001 environmental standard. Anecdotal and case study literature suggests that firms are motivated to adopt this standard so as to achieve greater efficiency through changes in operating procedures and processes. Using plant level panel data from 1992 to 2007 on most of the world’s industrial copper mines, the study uses stochastic frontier methods to investigate the effects of ISO adoption. The variety of models used in this study find that adoption either tends to improve efficiency or has no impact on efficiency, but no evidence is found that ISO adoption decreases efficiency.     

基于IOS平台的汽车安全驾驶系统

尽管汽车问世已有百余年,驾车体验技术依旧有着明显不足和巨大的改进空间。本文基于现有互联网及云计算技术,结合卫星定位和手机终端设计出一种ISO平台上的车辆故障显示与行驶规范的一体化软件系统;在文中所提出的汽车故障显示系统中,用户可通过智能手机上的故障检测软件发出指令,并经手机蓝牙或USB接口送达汽车故障诊断器。诊断器在通过传感器诊断后,将反馈请求依ISO15031—5协议规定的应用层、数据链路层、物理层等要求转换成相应的信号,再将汽车的诊断信息反馈给智能手机,并进一步通过手机发送给维修站。此外,本文设计的应用软件还具备建议反馈及智能泊车等一系列人性化功能,从而更好提升用户体验。     

Inter-Firm and Intra-Firm Efficiency Measures

Intra-firm efficiencyinvolves computing a particular firm's efficiency degree overtime relative to the firm-specific production frontier. Inter-firmefficiency reveals a particular firm's performance over timerelative to the ``best practice frontier' among the set of comparablefirms. These efficiency measures are related by an inter-firmcatch-up component reflecting differences in technology acrossfirms. Those measures are estimated for Dutch pot-plant firmsusing the Generalized Maximum Entropy formalism. The empiricalresults suggest the inter-firm catch-up component is the majordeterminant of inter-firm efficiency.     

Determinants of total factor productivity in former Soviet Union economies: A stochastic frontier approach

This paper investigates the process of GDP generation in former Soviet Union (FSU) economies to provide an understanding of the impact of technology channels on countries’ efficiency. We apply a stochastic frontier approach to 15 FSU economies over the period 1995–2008 and find that FDI and human capital improve countries’ technical efficiency. Furthermore, we show that these factors also have a positive impact on total factor productivity (TFP), which, in turn, improves real GDP growth. Hence, our results suggest that FSU countries should promote public policies that provide incentives to attract foreign investment and enhance domestic education in order to improve their economic growth. Additionally, our empirical evidence argues against the resource curse hypothesis. We also show, by computing efficiency change and technological change indices at the country level, that FSU economies benefit more from exploiting technological progress than from catching up to the best practice frontier.