基于系统思考的企业危机管理的探讨

企业的危机是企业随时可能面对的问题。危机管理是一门艺术性和策略性非常强的科学,是基于坦诚、沟通基础上极为讲究策略的科学。本文通过对企业危机管理中利益攸关者的态度和行为的分析,探索其相互联系和影响,并通过建立危机处理的模型,寻找解决危机的根本方法。     

A master production scheduling procedure for stochastic demand and rolling planning horizons

The problem of interest is a one product, uncapacitated master production schedule (MPS) in which decisions are made under rolling planning horizons. Demand is stochastic and time varying, and effectiveness is measured by inventory holding, production setup, and backorder costs.Typically, in both the research literature and the business practice the stochastic nature of the problem is modeled in an ad hoc fashion. The stochastic MPS problem is usually solved by adding safety stock to production quantities obtained from a deterministic lot-sizing algorithm. Here, the stochastic nature of the problem is explicitly considered, as an optimal algorithm for solving the static probabilistic dynamic lot-sizing problem is adapted to rolling planning horizons. The resulting algorithm is found to dominate traditional approaches over a wide variety of experimental factors, reducing total costs by an average of 16% over traditional methods.     

Flexibility and rigidity in customization and build-to-order production

This paper deals with the efforts of firms to tailor their products to the needs of individual customers. The overall aim is to analyse the features of the evolving activity structures where customized offerings are created with ‘near mass production efficiency’. The paper begins with a literature review outlining modularity and build-to-order production as key features of customizing. The empirical setting of the case study is Volvo Cars' activity structure for build-to-order production. This structure is compared with previous means of making products available. The conclusion of the study is that activity structures for build-to-order production require extensive coordination, exchange of information, and interaction across company boundaries. The analysis shows that these structures rely on flexibility in some dimensions, while in others they build on rigidity. The paper concludes with implications for suppliers regarding how to combine flexibility and rigidity in order to be able to customize at reasonable costs.     

The development from prototype construction to workshop production of an advanced underground locomotive: A case study

This paper reports on the problems encountered and their subsequent solution during the development and construction of an advanced locomotive from prototype to full production assembly. A fleet of these locomotives are to work in the UK National Coal Board's (NCB) Selby coalfield. In order to ensure that all the information was accurately recorded and could be applied to a reasonably precise point in the development process, visits were made to the company at intervals of about two weeks. In developing products of this nature a strongproblem solving capacity is a necessity and in the main it was found that engineering and theoretical design problems were solved quickly and once solved did not recur on subsequent units. Strong links between specialist suppliers and customers are vital, since components will often be used in unfamiliar applications and the customer may have to spend time carrying out applied development of suppliers' components. The development and production of the locomotive would have been aided by the NCB providing more accurate specifications, giving an indication of future volume requirements and being better prepared to site test the prototype after its delivery.     

AIDS and food production in East and Central Africa: a research outline

AIDS has penetrated at least 42 countries in Africa. Death of Africans usually occurs within 3 years of diagnosis. Not much is currently known about the demographics of the disease or about its impact on economic and social behavior, farming, and food production. There is currently a food crisis in Africa, so it is appropriate to study how much of an impact this disease has on future food production. In order to study the problem, one must predict the spread of AIDS. 2nd, one must infer how labor loss effects current rural production. Labor loss will cause changes in organization of production, technology, and types of crops grown. As a crisis increases, certain groups will be cut out of the food distribution. Characterizations such as these allow the mapping of areas vulnerable to labor loss. Field analysis and modeling must substantiate the theories and predictions. This paper describes the research design which will be used by 2 researchers from the Overseas Development Group of the University of East Anglia to measure the impact of AIDS on food production, working initially in a high HIV - prevalent area in Uganda.     

国有建筑企业中的人力资源开发与管理

在现代管理中人力资源开发与管理日益成为企业的一项战略性工作，赢得了人才就赢得了企业的持续发展的后劲。本通过选择一个传统的建筑行业为出发点，结合笔较长时期在该行业从事人力资源管理工作的实际，从建筑企业自身具具的特殊工作性质来概述人力资源开发与管理工作的现状、面临的难题，分析其原因、并着重从具体的人员培训、绩效考核、薪酬管理以及企业化建设几个方面来提出如何建立、实行高效的人力资源开发与管理体制，从而为企业的发展提供强大的人才保障。     

基于连锁零售企业退货管理的供应链协调机制研究

在对连锁零售企业退货物流网络结构进行分析的基础上,建立了与价格相关的随机需求下存在顾客退货和允许库存结转的单一供应商、单一连锁零售企业、单一产品的供应链模型。根据供应链一体化模式下得到的相关决策变量的一阶条件,论证基于回馈和惩罚的批发价格契约能够实现供应链的协调。研究表明,在给定回馈和惩罚因子的前提下,供应商可以通过调整目标订购数量来实现供应链整体利润的任意分配,并且当目标订购数量和回馈惩罚因子满足一定条件时,供应链的协调才是有效的,从而为连锁零售企业的退货物流管理提供了重要的理论依据。     

Supply optimization for the production of raw sugar

Based on a case study from Venezuela, the production of raw sugar is investigated. Ideally, sugar mills operate at a constant production rate. However, safety stocks of the raw material cannot be maintained as sugar cane quality deteriorates very rapidly. Sugar cane is therefore continuously sourced in diverse quantities and qualities from hundreds of geographically dispersed haciendas and supplied to the milling process. Furthermore, due to weather conditions changing throughout the year, tight time windows must be observed for harvesting.The approach presented in this paper aims at preserving a constant supply while minimizing the associated costs. The entire planning problem is structured in a hierarchical fashion: (1) cultivation of the haciendas, (2) harvesting, and (3) dispatching of the harvesting crews and equipment. The corresponding optimization models and solution procedures are introduced and applied to the case study problem.     

Model and analysis of integrated production–inventory system: The case of steel production

The study originated from an industrial case study in the field of steel production, but it presents a larger interest, as many other manufacturing fields have similar concerns (e.g. foundries, food, textile and paper industries). A significant phase of steel manufacturing is the product cooling (likewise, drying in paper and textile production, or maturing in food production). This phase may be completed in different ways, but (1) it must be carried out in the finished product warehouse and (2) it must meet both production optimisation and customer needs. The latter requirement acquires a strategic relevance in JIT environments. The present study proposes a mathematical model to find the optimal production schedule of steel billets, based on the relevant parameters of the productive system (set-up and processing times, demand profile). In the industrial case examined, the negative impact of holding costs on cash flows is also linked to the space required by the cooling process, which depends on the production schedule adopted. In other words, the finished product storage can be considered a part of the manufacturing cycle and impacts on it. In the case of steel plants operating in JIT environments, the warehouse must be promptly emptied and carefully managed to exploit the available space. Thus, the effect of inventory costs is examined in a production–inventory system with finite capacity, where products are made to order and share the same manufacturing facility. The study is completed by an experimental analysis to investigate the effect of variations in the relevant parameters of the problem.     

Reengineering the production planning process in the food industry

This paper addresses managerial process reengineering and in particular the reengineering of the production planning process. The reengineered process highlights planning options to avoid the process imbalance and loss of production potential that can follow innovation in a facility that is fully committed to JIT production.The study was motivated by production problems following product innovation within the food industry but the reengineering conclusions and procedures are applicable to all similarly structured industries. An example based on data from a snack food manufacturing company illustrates the reengineered procedure for a plant that is typical of the food processing industry.     

Assessment of stock size to minimize cutting stock production costs

A method for assessing the optimal stock size for the expected order size for a single-period one-dimensional cutting stock problem is proposed. The stock size is optimal when the expected total costs of trim loss, warehousing, and non-fulfilment are minimum. The stock size is the sum of all bar lengths in the stock, and the order size is the sum of shorter bar lengths in various numbers of pieces. Using simulated test cases, a statistical estimation of optimal stock size is conducted, which in our case is approximately 50% above the expected order. The proposed method can help company choose the appropriate level of stock to minimize their total costs.     

Performance criteria for production subunits in Australian manufacture

Forty-two measures of subunit performance are rated by 155 production managers, and these ratings are factor analyzed to yield performance criteria. Nine criteria emerged from this analysis and five of them are rated by the managers as significantly useful. One of the significant criteria suggests, rather surprisingly, that customer satisfaction is an important consideration to production subunit performance. The application of these results to managerial situations is discussed briefly.Dr Graham K. Kenny is a visiting Professor of Management from the Department of Management, College of Business Administration, San Diego State University; and Professor Alan S. Dunk is a Professor with the School of Economic and Financial Studies, Macquarie University. Thanks are due to John Brown, Bob Hinings, and John Waterhouse for their helpful comments on an earlier draft of this paper.     

Managing 'green' product innovation in small firms

The growing social and regulatory concern for the environment is leading an increasing number of companies to considering 'green' issues as a major source of strategic change. In particular, this trend has major and complex implications on the technological strategy of a company and on its product innovations. Indeed, most authors acknowledge that eco‐efficiency will be one of the major challenges for R&D practice and theory in the next decade. Unfortunately, studies usually focus on large corporations. There is a debate as to whether this factor will affect R&D practices and product innovation in small and medium enterprises (SMEs). A superficial glimpse at the problem could lead one to think that SMEs will not be major green innovators, especially as far as product technologies are concerned, and that they will simply try to comply with environmental regulations (mainly on production processes).
This paper shows that 'green' product innovation may occur and may also have strategic implications in SMEs. Starting from the analysis of four selected case studies and using a Precursors Events methodology, this paper illustrates why 'green' product innovation cannot be considered a marginal issue for most SMEs, even for those that are not directly affected by environmental regulations. Hence, the paper suggests a contingent framework to support SMEs in the analysis of the drivers of 'green' product innovation and in the choice of a proper R&D strategy that explicitly accounts for the eco‐efficiency of product technologies.     

A hybrid approach based on the variable neighborhood search and particle swarm optimization for parallel machine scheduling problems—A case study for solar cell industry

This paper studies a solar cell industry scheduling problem which is similar to the traditional hybrid flow shop scheduling (HFS). In a typical HFS with parallel machines problem, the allocation of machine resources for each order should be scheduled in advance and then the optimal multiprocessor task scheduling in each stage could be determined. However, the challenge in solar cell manufacturing is the number of machines can be dynamically adjusted to complete the job within the shortest possible time. Therefore, the paper addresses a multi-stage HFS scheduling problem with characteristics of parallel processing, dedicated machines, sequence-independent setup time, and sequence-dependent setup time. The objective is to schedule the job production sequence, number of sublots, and dynamically allocate sublots to parallel machines such that the makespan time is minimized. The problem is formulated as a mixed integer linear programming (MILP) model. A hybrid approach based on the variable neighborhood search and particle swarm optimization (VNPSO) is developed to obtain the near-optimal solution. Preliminary computational study indicates that the developed VNPSO not only provides good quality solutions within a reasonable amount of time but also outperforms the classic branch and bound method and the current industry heuristic practiced by the case company.     

An extended production/recycling model with stationary demand and return rates

A production–recycling system is investigated. A constant demand can be satisfied with production and recycling. The used items are bought back and then recycled. The non-recycled products are disposed of. Two types of models will be analyzed. The first model examines the EOQ-related costs and minimizes the relevant costs. The second model generalizes the first model with the introduction of the cost function with linear waste disposal, recycling, production and buyback costs. It is asked whether the pure (either production or recycling) or mixed strategies are optimal and it will be shown that under these circumstances the mixed strategies are dominated by the pure strategies. The paper generalizes a former model proposed by the authors for the case of one recycling and one production batch to the case of arbitrary batch numbers.     

EU Economic Partnership Agreements and WTO negotiations. A quantitative assessment of trade preference granting and erosion in the banana market

The paper provides a quantitative assessment of the impact on the banana market of the expansion of trade preferences the European Union granted Africa, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries with the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPA) and of the possible erosion of these preferences as a result of different possible conclusions, if any, of on-going WTO negotiations. The results of the simulations performed suggest that the impact of the EPA on production and consumption of bananas in the EU will be limited, while benefits for ACP countries will be significant (at the expense of Most Favoured Nation (MFN) exporters). An agreement between the EU and MFN countries to end the outstanding WTO disputes on bananas and/or the conclusion of the WTO Doha round may bring an erosion of the preferential margins currently enjoyed by ACP countries of such an order of magnitude as to cancel out most of these benefits.     

Two-machine flow shop scheduling of polyurethane foam production

This paper studies a two-machine flow shop scheduling problem with a supporting precedence relation. The model originates from a real production context of a chemical factory that produces foam-rubber products. We extend the traditional two-machine flow shop by dividing the operations into two categories: supporting tasks and regular jobs. In the model, several different compositions of foam rubber can be mixed at the foam blooming stage, and products are processed at the manufacturing stage. Each job (product) on the second machine cannot start until its supporting tasks (parts) on the first machine are all finished and the second machine is not occupied. The objective is to find a schedule that minimizes the total job completion time. The studied problem is strongly NP-hard. In this paper, we propose a branch-and-bound algorithm incorporating a lower bound and two dominance rules. We also design a simple heuristic and an iterated local search (ILS) algorithm to derive approximate solutions. The performances of the proposed algorithms are examined through computational experiments.     

增产丙烯途径的技术经济比较

介绍了增产丙烯的三种工艺;结合蒸汽裂解装置增产丙烯（烯烃置换工艺、ＭＯＩ工艺）丙烷脱氢工艺、ＦＣＣ装置增产丙烯,进行技术经济比较,认为结合乙烯裂解装置增产丙烯的工艺是一条最有前途的工艺路线,但对我国来说,选择ＦＣＣ增产丙烯的工艺最为合理。     

利用闲置设备生产甲醇的经济可行性分析

通过对目前制氢装置供氢平衡分析，提出利用停用的制氢B系列装置，来生产以天然气为原料的甲醇产品。文章分析了甲醇市场价格走势与生产甲醇的可行性。认为投资生产甲醇，提高了制氢装置利用率。并具有较高的投资间报。     

工程建设的不当规避及其防范研究

《招标投标法》和《建设工程工程量清单计价规范》的相继实施，进一步促进了工程造价管理工作的发展。但由于工程建设自身的特点以及相关单位对相关规定的曲解，使当前的工程建设中仍然存在着一些不当规避，极大的降低了工程造价管理工作的效率。从建设单位的角度出发，在分析工程建设的不当规避基础上，提出了相应的防范措施，对于全面控制和降低工程造价有一定的指导意义。