Phase-synchronisation in continuous flow models of production networks

To improve their position at the market, many companies concentrate on their core competences and hence cooperate with suppliers and distributors. Thus, between many independent companies strong linkages develop and production and logistics networks emerge. These networks are characterised by permanently increasing complexity, and are nowadays forced to adapt to dynamically changing markets. This factor complicates an enterprise-spreading production planning and control enormously. Therefore, a continuous flow model for production networks will be derived regarding these special logistic problems. Furthermore, phase-synchronisation effects will be presented and their dependencies to the set of network parameters will be investigated.     

A CS-AdaBoost-BP model for product quality inspection

Quality inspection is essential in preventing defective products from entering the market. Due to the typically low percentage of defective products, it is generally challenging to detect them using algorithms that aim for the overall classification accuracy. To help solve this problem, we propose an ensemble learning classification model, where we employ adaptive boosting (AdaBoost) to cascade multiple backpropagation (BP) neural networks. Furthermore, cost-sensitive (CS) learning is introduced to adjust the loss function of the basic classifier of the BP neural network. For clarity, this model is called a CS-AdaBoost-BP model. To empirically verify its effectiveness, we use data from home appliance production lines from Bosch. We carry out tenfold cross-validation to evaluate and compare the performance between the CS-AdaBoost-BP model and three existing models: BP neural network, BP neural network based on sampling, and AdaBoost-BP. The results show that our proposed model not only performs better than the other models but also significantly improves the ability to identify defective products. Furthermore, based on the mean value of the Youden index, our proposed model has the highest stability.

     

汽车制造商分时租赁模式采用及产品线策略研究

考虑自有平台和第三方平台两种分时租赁方式,将汽车质量划分为性能质量和环境质量,构建销售模式、纯分时租赁模式和混合模式下的产品线策略模型,研究制造商产品线策略与商业模式之间的相互作用。研究发现,同品牌产品间竞争和合并效应是分时租赁模式影响产品线策略的两个关键因素。同品牌产品间竞争的加剧和合并效应的增大都会激励企业选择性能更好的车型而忽略其环境表现。分时租赁模式能同时改进利润与产品环境表现,但存在条件:当消费者价格敏感性较低时,使用成本高且合并效应小是实现同时改进的条件;当消费者价格敏感较高时,使用成本低且合并效应小则是同时改进的条件。     

On existence and essential components for solution set for system of strong vector quasi-equilibrium problems

In this paper, we study the system of strong vector quasi-equilibrium problems without assuming that the dual of the ordering cone has a weak* compact base. We show the existence and essential components of solution set for system of strong vector quasi-equilibrium problems by defining the best-reply mapping.     

Fixed points of multivalued quasi-nonexpansive mappings using a faster iterative process

In this article, we prove some strong and weak convergence theorems for quasi-nonexpansive multivalued mappings in Banach spaces. The iterative process used is independent of Ishikawa iterative process and converges faster. Some examples are provided to validate our results. Our results extend and unify some results in the contemporary literature.     

Measurement and sources of overall and input inefficiencies: Evidences and implications in hospital services

Traditional data envelopment analysis (DEA) focuses exclusively on measuring the overall efficiency of a decision making unit (DMU). Yet, variables that have explanatory power for the overall operational inefficiency of a DMU may not necessarily be the same as those that affect its individual input inefficiencies. On many occasions, variables that explain the overall inefficiency of a DMU can be inconsistent or incongruent with those that cause its individual input inefficiencies. Therefore, we conjecture that an overall inefficiency score alone may have limited value for decision making since such a process requires fine-tuning and adjustments of specific input factors of the DMU in order to maximize its overall efficiency. In this paper, the utilization and financial data of a set of hospitals in California is used to empirically test the above conjecture.Our study has several important contributions and practical implications. First, we fine-tune previous efficiency measures on hospitals by refining input and output measures. Second, with variables on organization, management, demographics, and market competition, we identify specific factors associated with a hospital's overall operational inefficiency. More importantly, by decomposing the overall DEA operational inefficiency score into different individual input inefficiencies (including slacks), we further identify specific variables that cause individual input inefficiency. Third, significant differences are observed among factors of the overall inefficiency and individual input inefficiencies. These findings have important implications for identifying congruent factors for performance standard setting and evaluation; it also provides invaluable information for guiding effective resource allocation and better decision making for improving hospital operational efficiency.     

On technical progress and the boundary of non-traded goods

We use a Ricardian model with continuum of goods to study the effect of technical progress on the endogenously determined ranges of non-traded, exported, and imported goods. We show that if technical progress is unbiased (biased toward the goods that a country has more comparative advantage), the range of non-traded goods increases (decreases).     

Manufacturer’s revenue-sharing contract and retail competition

This paper investigates a revenue-sharing contract for coordinating a supply chain comprising one manufacturer and two competing retailers. The manufacturer, as a Stackelberg leader, offers a revenue-sharing contract to two competing retailers who face stochastic demand before the selling season. Under the offered contract terms, the competing retailers are to determine the quantities to be ordered from the manufacturer, prior to the season, and the retail price at which to sell the items during the season. The process of pricing and ordering is expected to result in an equilibrium as in the Bayesian Nash game. On the basis of anticipated responses and actions of the retailers, the manufacturer designs the revenue-sharing contract. Adopting the classic newsvendor problem model framework and using numerical methods, the study finds that the provision of revenue-sharing in the contract can obtain better performance than a price-only contract. However, the benefits earned under the revenue-sharing contract by different supply chain partners differ because of the impact of demand variability and price-sensitivity factors. The paper also analyses the impact of demand variability on decisions about optimal retail price, order quantity and profit sharing between the manufacturer and the retailers. Lastly, it investigates how the competition (between retailers) factor influences the decision-making of supply chain members in response to uncertain demand and profit variability.