A benchmark-learning roadmap for the Military Finance Center

This paper aims to explore the operating efficiency and the benchmark-learning roadmap of military financial units for the finance center under the supervision of the Comptroller Bureau. A benchmarking managerial framework is developed and illustrated through application to the finance center. The framework encompasses a performance pyramid which embodies multiple perspectives of the organization under a balanced scorecard, data envelopment analysis, and cluster analysis. This assessment can assist the Comptroller Bureau to enhance the operational management of the finance center and to help military financial units deliver more efficient services, including the Armed Forces’ financial management, the audit of personnel-related expenditure, and the supervision and evaluation of the operation and financial management process. This paper highlights the potential applications and strengths of the methods used in assessing the military financial units.     

A closer look at the economic-environmental disparities for regional development in China

Although China has harvested the fruits of its rapid economic growth over a period of several decades, it has encountered serious environmental problems, an important one being air pollution in the form of soot, dust, and sulfur dioxide. In considering the concept of ‘green-GDP’, this paper analyzes China’s regional development by examining its economic performance while taking into account various environmental factors. In addition to computing technical efficiency for 31 regions in China, a cross-efficiency measure is applied to differentiate the genuine DMUs. ‘Overall’ efficient regions and ‘false positive’ ones are recognized by a false positive index (FPI). It is found that the coastal regions perform on average better than the inland regions both economically and environmentally. For inefficient regions, the benchmark should be those regions with high cross-efficiency mean scores (e.g., Guangdong) rather than those with high self-appraisal scores (e.g., Shanghai). A cross-tabulation illustrating the difference between GDP-oriented performance and Pollution-oriented performance shows that the coastal regions make up the dominant proportion in terms of the benchmarks for economic-environmental optimization.     

A systems approach to identifying decisive information for sustainable development

Many governments are striving to implement sustainable development programs. While there are many definitions of `sustainability', most agree that a more comprehensive information infrastructure including economic, social, environmental, and cultural measures is required to assess courses of action and evaluate progress. Also critical is the development of information about the structure and behavior of the systems in which decisions are made. Most of the efforts toward the identification of information to support sustainable development decision making have focused on developing measures of progress toward sustainability. The Pressure-State-Response framework has been suggested as a method for capturing perceptions of causality. This framework fails to capture important information about complex causal relationships and system behavior. A systems approach to identifying decisive information is discussed as an alternative. This approach supports the identification of relationships among the indicators, learning about the behavior of the system, and provides a common language for interdisciplinary communication.     

Robustness analysis for sustainable community development

This paper presents some alternatives for the improvement of the conditions of life for poor communities based on self-management and sustainability in food production. A complex decision process is necessarily involved, and a soft OR approach, more specifically, robustness analysis, is used in its analysis. Some new features of the approach arise, not least from its community operational research context. A software called Robus has been developed which helps in the application of the methodology.     

A MIP flow model for crop-rotation planning in a context of forest sustainable development

We propose a Mixed-Integer Linear Programming model for a class of multi-period crop rotation optimization problems with demand constraints and incompatibility constraints between cultivation and fallow state on a land plot. This model is applied to a case study on Madagascan farms in the scope of a sustainable development campain against deforestation, where the objective is to better control agricultural space while covering seasonal needs of farmer. We propose an efficient upper bound computation and study the variation of the minimum number of plots and total space needed in function of the unitary surface area of a plot. Numerical results associated with the Madagascan case are reported.     

Modelling and optimisation for sustainable development policy assessment

Earlier work on sustainable development devised a policy assessment tool that was based on a static optimisation formulation. Key ingredients in sustainable development problems are the presence of random effects and the conflict between different objectives. To accommodate these, the earlier formulation was strongly stochastic and was posed in a multi-objective framework. The purpose of this paper is to consider the extension of the work to a formulation that deploys dynamic optimisation. In particular it is the aim here to use simulations based on a large scale model to derive dynamic rather than static representations, to integrate these into the optimisation scheme and to assess the benefits.     

Analysis of dynamical model for resource-based industry sustainable development

This paper aims at the sustainable development of resource-based industry. First, one-dimensional discrete dynamic model is formulated by considering exploitation and protection of renewable resource simultaneously, and then it is extended to two-dimensional dynamic model by assuming that government carries on the dynamic management to the exploitation speed of resource. The conditions of the existence and local stability of positive equilibrium are derived. The threshold of output is given which ensures the resource is stabilized at a fixed value. The global analysis of both models is represented by determining the feasible domain of attractor. The stability of positive fixed point at flip bifurcation and Neimark-Sacker bifurcation is respectively investigated with center manifold theorem and normal form. We also verify the given conclusions by the method of numerical analysis. In the end, we argued that if the government implements the dynamic quota management for resource exploitation, not only can we maintain a certain stock of resources so that people can get more resources permanently but also we can ensure a higher and wider output to meet the development of the industry.     

A risk management system for sustainable fleet replacement

This article analyzes the fleet management problem faced by a firm when deciding which vehicles to add to its fleet. Such a decision depends not only on the expected mileage and tasks to be assigned to the vehicle but also on the evolution of fuel and CO₂ emission prices and on fuel efficiency. This article contributes to the literature on fleet replacement and sustainable operations by proposing a general decision support system for the fleet replacement problem using stochastic programming and conditional value at risk (CVaR) to account for uncertainty in the decision process. The article analyzes how the CVaR associated with different types of vehicle is affected by the parameters in the model by reporting on the results of a real-world case study.     

Multi-criteria analysis and the resolution of sustainable development dilemmas: A stakeholder management approach

We demonstrate that stakeholder-oriented multi-criteria analysis (MCA) can adequately address a variety of sustainable development dilemmas in decision-making, especially when applied to complex project evaluations involving multiple objectives and multiple stakeholder groups. Such evaluations are typically geared towards satisfying simultaneously private economic goals, broader social objectives and environmental targets. We show that, under specific conditions, a variety of stakeholder-oriented MCA approaches may be able to contribute substantively to the resolution or improved governance of societal conflicts and the pursuit of the public good in the form of sustainable development. We contrast the potential usefulness of these stakeholder-oriented approaches – in terms of their ability to contribute to sustainable development – with more conventional MCA approaches and social cost–benefit analysis.     

A multi-methodological approach to the development of a regional solid waste management system

The management of solid waste at regional level has received considerable attention over the last years. Increased consumption levels are causing an exacerbation of the problem, whereas the sensitivity of the public over environmental issues makes its solution harder. Although the main difficulties in resolving the different occurrences of the problem belong to the realm of policy making, so far the employment of operational research and systems methods seems to adopt a purely technocratic stance, concentrating on the content and understating the solution process. In the different formulations of the problem as static optimization relating to the economics of the location of the treatment facilities and the methods and routes of waste transportation, the dynamics of the issue and the intervention activities are neglected, whereas cognitive and social perspectives of the solution process are objectified and over-rationalized. This paper aims at demonstrating how the solid waste management (SWM) problem and its solution process can be addressed in a more holistic way by adopting a multi-methodological point of view. Towards this end, we present the combined application of soft systems methodology, system dynamics and multi-objective optimization in an action research project for the development of an SWM system for a specific region in Greece.     

Integration of ECQFD,TRIZ, and AHP for innovative and sustainable product development

Automotive organizations need to adopt sustainability principles to survive in a competitive environment. The rapidly changing marketplace also means that organizations need to include innovation in product development. We propose a model that integrates environmentally conscious quality function deployment (ECQFD), the theory of inventive problem-solving (TRIZ), and an analytical hierarchy process (AHP) for innovative and sustainable product development of automotive components. The voice of the customer (VOC) was captured and translated to engineering characteristics using ECQFD. Design options were identified using ECQFD and correlated with TRIZ to identify innovative design alternatives. Selection of the best design alternatives under many criteria is a typical multicriteria decision-making problem. We used AHP to identify the best design in terms of innovation and sustainability. These design changes were then incorporated in the component. A case study involving design of an automotive component demonstrates the applicability of our approach.     

The use of optimisation for enhancing the development of a novel sustainable masonry unit

This paper examines whether it is possible to utilise optimisation techniques to enhance the efficiency of the experiment-based development of a new product. Conventionally, a laboratory-based experimental investigation requires to check all combinations of all independent parameters describing the product; hence the optimum levels of the tested parameters is obtained. As a result there may be many thousands of samples produced to optimise these parameters; this is a time consuming, costly and laborious process. Instead, it is suggested that an empirical model is established and validated using the results of the laboratory investigation making it suitable for optimisation.     

Operational research and sustainable development: Tackling the social dimension

Sustainable development is increasingly being seen as a major challenge in global terms. Operational Research (OR) has yet to be fully utilised in this area. To date, where it has been mostly used, it tends to deal with the relationships between environmental management and product supply chain and rarely focuses on the social dimension. This article seeks to discuss the potential of OR in the wider arena of sustainable development. It first explores the issue of widening OR responses to an inter-generational ethic. A case study is then described using a more holistic approach to explore sustainable development in the context of a city. The paper finishes with a discussion of the implications of this approach in relation to sustainable development more generally.     

Modeling technology adoptions for sustainable development under increasing returns,uncertainty, and heterogeneous agents

This paper presents a stylized model of technology adoptions for sustainable development under the three potentially most important “stylized facts”: increasing returns to adoption, uncertainty, and heterogeneous agents following diverse technology development and adoption strategies. The stylized model deals with three technologies and two heterogeneous agents: a risk-taking one and a risk-averse one. Interactions between the two agents include trade in resources and goods, and technological spillover (free riding and technology trade). With the two heterogeneous agents, we run optimizations to minimize their aggregated costs in order to find out what rational behaviors are under different assumptions if the two agents are somehow cooperative. By considering uncertain carbon taxes, the model also addresses environmental issues as potential driving forces for technology adoptions.     

A multicriteria approach to sustainable energy supply for the rural poor

Despite significant progress in energy technology, about two billion people worldwide, particularly the poor in rural areas of developing countries, have no access to electricity. Decision-making concerning the most appropriate energy technology for supplying these areas has been difficult; existing energy decision-support tools have been useful but are mostly incomplete. Trade-offs, as well as impacts that can be positive or negative, may emerge as a result of implementing modern forms of energy. These can affect both community’s livelihoods as well as the confidence of decision-makers in relation to alternative technologies. The paper discusses a newly designed multicriteria approach and its novel robustness analysis for selecting energy generation systems for the improvement of livelihoods in rural areas. The proposed methodology builds upon a sustainable rural livelihoods framework to address multiple interactions and calculate trade-offs aimed at boosting decision-makers’ confidence in the selected technologies. The methodology is tested via a case study in Colombia.     

Dynamical approach to complex regional economic growth based on Keynesian model for China

The paper addresses the problem of complex regional economic growth by using nonlinear Keynesian model with focusing on direct foreign investments effects. We investigate the dynamics of the model for the broad range of parameters which, in particular, contains the parameter values obtained recently by econometric analysis of the data for economic growth in China. For the single-region model we give conditions for which the dynamics of the model will be chaotic or regular. The parameters which prevent the economic stagnation are indicated. Further, we consider the model for two regions with a common trade as a coupling factor. The conditions are given for the two trading systems to exhibit chaotic synchronization, in-phase and out-of-phase behavior.