Different Types Of Flexibility Research Articles

Valuing Combinations of Flexible Planning, Design, and Operations in Water Supply Infrastructure

AbstractUncertainty arising from climate change poses a central challenge to the long‐term performance of many engineered water systems. Water supply infrastructure projects can leverage different types of flexibility, in planning, design, or operations, to adapt infrastructure systems in response to climate change over time. Both flexible planning and design enable future capacity expansion if‐and‐when needed, with flexible design proactively incorporating physical design changes that enable retrofits. All three forms of flexibility have not previously been analyzed together to explicitly assess their relative value in mitigating cost and water supply reliability risk. In this paper, we propose a new framework to evaluate combinations of flexible planning, design, and operations. We develop a nested stochastic dynamic optimization approach that jointly optimizes dam development and operating policies under dynamic climate uncertainty. We demonstrate this approach on a reservoir project near Mombasa, Kenya. Our results find that flexible operations have the greatest potential to reduce costs. Flexible design and flexible planning can amplify the value of flexible operations under higher discounting scenarios and when initial infrastructure capacities are undersized. This approach provides insight on the climate change and techno‐economic conditions under which flexible planning, design, and operations can be best leveraged individually or in combination to reduce climate change uncertainty risks in water supply infrastructure projects.

Component integration manufacturing middleware for customized production

The cyber-physical production system requires continuous effort to integrate heterogeneous resources and code with frequent changes in components to support customized production for personalized consumer needs. First, we introduce the cloud-native concept to build component integration manufacturing middleware, to realize the unity of software and hardware components, including application, service, model, data, workflow, etc. On the edge and cloud, node services are deployed in containers to form a service mesh; microservices are orchestrated in the middleware; continuous integration and deployment are used at the frontground to design and produce. Second, by elaborating on the specific process of using the middleware for design and production, the improvement of the flexibility of customized production is demonstrated from three aspects: product, process, and resource. Last, the proposed approach is evaluated by building a customized production platform according to the middleware design concept. According to the need for different types of flexibility, corresponding experiments were designed and further verified. Experimental results show that the proposed middleware design approach can provide multiple flexibility for the production system, enabling the cyber-physical production system to support customized production.

Conceptualizing Flexibility in Programming-Based Mathematical Problem-Solving

Computational thinking (CT) has received much attention in mathematics education in recent years, and researchers have begun to experiment with the integration of CT into mathematics education to promote students’ CT and mathematical thinking (MT) development. However, there is a lack of empirical evidence and new theoretical perspectives on the mechanisms of interaction between CT and MT. To address this research gap, this study analyses the participants’ thinking processes in solving programming-based mathematical problems from a flexibility perspective, focusing on the interplay between computational and mathematical thinking, that is, how CT and MT work together to influence and determine the problem-solver’s choice of solution strategy. Using data collected from a large design-based study, we summarise two types of flexibility and six subtypes of flexibility demonstrated by participants in the programming-based mathematical problem-solving process using thematic analysis. These different types of flexibility provide researchers and mathematics educators with new theoretical perspectives to examine the interplay of CT and MT. Findings will also contribute toward student learning characteristics in programming-based mathematical problem-solving to sketch the big picture of how CT and MT emerge in complementary or mismatching ways.

Development of a Conceptual Framework for Evaluating the Flexibility of Future Chemical Processes

Incorporating (operational) flexibility into process design has been a key approach to cope with uncertainties. The increasing penetration of renewables and the need for developing new low-carbon technologies will increase the demand for flexibility in chemical processes. This paper presents a state-of-the-art review focusing on the origin, definition, and elements of flexibility in the chemical engineering context. The article points out a significant overlap in terminology and concepts, making it difficult to understand and compare flexibility potential and constraints among studies. Further, the paper identifies a lack of available metrics for assessing specific types of flexibility and the need for developing indicators for exploring the potential flexibility of novel chemical processes. The paper proposes a classification of flexibility types and provides an overview of design strategies that have been adopted so far to enable different types of flexibility. Finally, it offers a conceptual framework that can support designers to evaluate specific types of flexibility in early-stage assessments of novel chemical processes.

New “design” of human capital management in a flexible employment

The labor market is constantly changing, atypical work is gaining significant relevance, especiallyin the current time of restrictions associated with the coronavirus crisis. In Kazakhstan, the promotionof a teleworking law has made flexibility in work an interesting topic and has become an increasinglyimportant requirement in hiring and a motivating factor for employees. In this context, this article aims toexplore the relationship between employee development and flexibility in working time and workspaceas important characteristics of sustainable management of human capital, job satisfaction and employeeproductivity. In addition, the article is aimed at studying the impact on the performance of employeesof various types of flexibility – contractual, functional, working time and workspace flexibility. To emphasizethe relevance of employee development and employee flexibility as important aspects of sustainablehuman capital management. To make this possible, a “Composite Employee Flexibility Score”was developed, which considers different types of flexibility, based on employee feedback collectedthrough a nationally representative survey using multiple match analysis. In addition, the effect of individualflexibility and employee flexibility on overall job satisfaction was quantified using binary logisticregression models. The study reveals the concept of “work flexibility”, special attention is paid to theimpact of new types of workspaces (flexible office, coworking, shared home office, partial home office)on labor productivity, job satisfaction, organizational efficiency, professional growth and development, social and professional relationships, personal professional activities, as well as the general level of workmotivation.Key words: flexible management of human capital, methodology of agile HC management, projectmanagement of HC, flexibility of work, job satisfaction.

Challenges and Opportunities to Enhance Flexibility in Design and Operation of Chemical Processes

AbstractFlexibility receives increased interest in chemical engineering and is discussed as one measure to deal with upcoming challenges for the chemical industry. In this paper, different types of flexibility are presented, and flexibility needs are illustrated. The focus is on the evaluation and classification of available solutions to enhance flexibility. Solutions and future challenges across all length scales of chemical engineering are discussed: from tailored catalyst properties to decoupling of processes by means of storage.

Work Flexibility, Job Satisfaction, and Job Performance among Romanian Employees—Implications for Sustainable Human Resource Management

In light of future work challenges, actual human resource management (HRM) needs to be redesigned, including long-term development, regeneration, and renewal of human resources, passing from consuming to developing human resources by incorporating the concept of sustainability. Thus, sustainable HRM is seen as an extension of strategic human resources, presenting a new approach to human resource management. The labor market is constantly changing, atypical work acquiring a significant relevance, especially in these current times of coronavirus crisis restrictions. In Romania, promoting the law of teleworking transformed labor flexibility into a topic of interest, and became an increasingly vital requirement for employment and a motivating factor for Romanian employees. In such a context, this paper aims to investigate the link between employee development and worktime and workspace flexibility as relevant characteristics of sustainable HRM, job satisfaction and job performance among Romanian employees in order to identify how to redesign HRM in the face of “future work” challenges. Additionally, the paper aims to examine the impact of different types of flexibility—contractual, functional, working time, and workspace flexibility—in order to highlight the relevance of employee development and employee flexibility as important aspects of sustainable HRM in increasing the overall level of employee job satisfaction. In order to make this possible, an “employee flexibility composite indicator,” which takes into account different types of flexibility, has been developed using feedback from Romanian employees, which was gathered by a national representative survey using multiple correspondence analysis. Furthermore, the impact of both individual and employee flexibility on overall level of job satisfaction has been quantified using binary logistic regression models. Within the research, there is a particular focus on the impact of new types of workspaces (flex office, co-working, total home office, partial home office—FO, CW, HOT, HOP) on job performance, job satisfaction, organizational performance, professional growth and development, social and professional relationships, and personal professional performance as well as on the overall level of work motivation. The empirical results revealed that these new types of workspaces are highly appreciated by employees, generating a growing interest among them. Partial home working, the mix between working from home and working in a company’s office, has been considered an optimal solution in increasing organizational performance, social and professional relationships, learning and personal development, and the overall level of work motivation. The results of the multiple correspondence analysis highlighted a medium level of flexibility among those Romanian employees interviewed, with only one third of them exhibiting high levels of flexibility. The empirical analysis of logistic regression analysis pointed out the role of functional flexibility, working time, and workspace flexibility along with the flexibility composite indicator in increasing the level of job satisfaction in employees. Therefore, if the challenge is to redesign the actual human resource management in order to include the concept of sustainability, attention needs to be on a combination of employee development-flexible time and flexible places, leading to an increase in both employee job satisfaction and organizational performance as important outcomes of sustainable HRM.

Demand smoothing in shift design

Shift design is an essential step in workforce planning in which staffing requirements must be obtained for a set of shifts which best cover forecasted demand given as a demand pattern. Existing models for this challenging optimization problem perform well when these demand patterns fluctuate around an average without any strong variability in demand. However, when demand is irregular, these models inevitably generate solutions with a significant amount of over—or understaffing or an excessive use of short shifts. The present paper explores a strategy which involves modifying the demand patterns such that the variable workload may be better matched using an acceptable number of shifts. Integer programming is employed to solve the resulting optimization problem. A computational study of the proposed model reveals interactions between different problem parameters which control the scope of demand modification and the type of the selected shifts. Moreover, the potential impact from an economic point-of-view is discussed and the time before profitability of the approach is evaluated. These insights enable operations management to better understand the trade-off between solution quality and different types of flexibility which may be realized in an organization.

Different Flexibilities of 3D Scanners and Their Impact on Distinctive Applications

3D scanners are supporting technology which offers a higher level of flexibility to create designs for ergonomic tooling, biocompatible surgical guides, and realistic prototypes and parts. Flexibility helps to reduce lead time, weight, cost, and product development time. Scanning technologies are in tandem with support software that helps a designer to (re)design products at a cheaper and faster rate. There is a need to understand different types of flexibilities and associated application of 3D scanner. In this article, we have conducted an extensive review of the available literature for identifying various flexibilities of 3D scanners and its applications. This research categorises 3D scanner flexibility and applications into five major types. From design to final quality inspection, these flexibilities play a significant role in industries and sectors to achieve optimum performance. Ranking of these flexibilities and their impact on different applications are accomplished using the analytical hierarchical process (AHP) with the help of expert opinion. The ranking of five significant flexibilities by using 3D scanners, undertaken through the AHP technique shows that scanning provides object flexibility at a higher level. The impacts of different flexibilities on applications are also weighted, and it shows that all flexibilities are enough to achieve application individually. This digital technology is helpful to create the customised product which is also helpful to achieve goals of Industry 4.0. It facilitates the customisation and has a significant impact on the design applications. This study provides an understanding of the 3D scanner in the context of flexibilities by identifying the different flexibilities it offers when used for different applications. Findings may assist developing a decision support system for the selection of 3D scanners for the different applications.

Flexible Work Arrangements in Low Wage Jobs: Evidence from Job Vacancy Data

In this paper, we analyze firm demand for flexible jobs by exploiting the language used to describe work arrangements in job vacancies. We take a supervised machine learning approach to classify the work arrangements described in more than 46 million UK job vacancies. We highlight the existence of very different types of flexibility amongst low and high wage vacancies. Job flexibility at low wages is more likely to be offered alongside a wage-contract that exposes workers to earnings risk, while flexibility at higher wages and in more skilled occupations is more likely to be offered alongside a fixed salary that shields workers from earnings variation. We show that firm demand for flexible work arrangements is partly driven by a desire to reduce labor costs; we find that a large and unexpected change to the minimum wage led to a 7 percentage point increase in the proportion of flexible and non-salaried vacancies at low wages.

Flexibility Options for Absorption and Distillation to Adapt to Raw Material Supply and Product Demand Uncertainties: A Review

The chemical industry has to deal with increasing uncertainties regarding the boundary conditions of their production processes. On the one hand, uncertainties affect the availability, quality, and prizes of raw material and energy. On the other hand, the demand side is affected by increasing volatilities in product demand and increasing requirements for product variety. These changing boundary conditions lead to higher needs for flexibility in production processes of the chemical industry. Within this article technical solutions for an enhancement of different forms of flexibility are presented for production concepts and apparatus concepts, respectively. The latter focuses on unit operations for the separation of gas–liquid mixtures. This includes a review regarding transformable, modular production processes and a classification of their field of application. Additionally, concepts for named unit operations on different scales are presented and discussed. The presented concepts are also classified with respect to the different types of flexibility.

Analysis of SCF under sales promotional schemes: an application of interpretive structural modelling approach

In the competitive market of today, supply chain flexibility (SCF) plays crucial way to address various supply chain uncertainties. But, in diverse situations, the supply chain needs different types of flexibilities. This paper analyses the flexibility of an automobile supply chain under sales promotional schemes (SPS) to meet the demand uncertainty. Taking the opinion of supply chain experts from automobile original equipment manufacturers (OEM’s), 14 SCF strategies have been identified and then using interpretive structural modelling (ISM) on the conducted survey, their interrelationships are established and a hierarchical model is developed. MICMAC analysis is done to classify the strategies into four categories viz. autonomous, dependent, linkage and independent strategies, which are based on their driving and dependence powers. Sensitivity analysis has been conducted to check the stability of the model. The thorough exposition of the model presents a handful of insights to supply chain managers to know the most important strategies affecting each other. The study helps in bridging the SCF with SPS, a huge gap existing in the literature.

Collaborative roles of Temporoparietal Junction and Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex in Different Types of Behavioural Flexibility

Behavioural flexibility is essential for everyday life. This involves shifting attention between different perspectives. Previous studies suggest that flexibility is mainly subserved by the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC). However, although rarely emphasized, the temporoparietal junction (TPJ) is frequently recruited during flexible behaviour. A crucial question is whether TPJ plays a role in different types of flexibility, compared to its limited role in perceptual flexibility. We hypothesized that TPJ activity during diverse flexibility tasks plays a common role in stimulus-driven attention-shifting, thereby contributing to different types of flexibility, and thus the collaboration between DLPFC and TPJ might serve as a more appropriate mechanism than DLPFC alone. We used fMRI to measure DLPFC/TPJ activity recruited during moral flexibility, and examined its effect on other domains of flexibility (economic/perceptual). Here, we show the additional, yet crucial role of TPJ: a combined DLPFC/TPJ activity predicted flexibility, regardless of domain. Different types of flexibility might rely on more basic attention-shifting, which highlights the behavioural significance of alternatives.

Investigating Flexibility as a Performance Dimension of a Manufacturing Value Modeling Methodology (MVMM): A Framework for Identifying Flexibility Types in Manufacturing Systems

In recent years manufacturing companies have been faced with various challenges related to volatile demand and changing requirements from customer as well as suppliers. This trend is now even accelerating with a direct impact on the value chain. New technological roadmaps and suggested interventions in manufacturing systems try to solve these challenges and solutions such as the German high tech strategy “Industrie 4.0” or the Italian cluster “Fabbrica Intelligente” which often aimed at enhancing the flexibility of manufacturing systems among many other competitive dimensions. However, these approaches often do not provide a detailed definition of flexibility and its different manifestations. Therefore, the question rises if different types of flexibility, that have an impact on the complete manufacturing system, can be better identified with the existing Manufacturing Value Modeling Methodology (MVMM). This question becomes even more important when considering the potential that smart machines interacting with humans, such as cyber-physical systems (CPS), and the possibility to increase connectivity and data access through technologies, such as the internet of things (IoT), offer for increasing flexibility. Especially due to the various possibilities it becomes even more important to understand, which kind of flexibility is needed for a given problem. Implementing flexibility into the MVMM requires a ‘catalog’ that makes use of the MVMM framework presenting an overview of internal and external influence factors in order to support the identification of correct solutions and improvements related to functional areas in the manufacturing environment. Starting from a qualitative literature review on manufacturing flexibility, a ‘flexibility catalog’ is designed, which provides a structural definition of existing flexibility types and their composition as well as providing decision support. In conclusion, the scope of the ‘flexibility catalog’ is to verify that the flexibility demand fits into the market trends and is aligned to the manufacturing and company strategy, in order to help firms to take decisions and delivering value.

Organizational Flexibility, Employee Security, and Organizational Efficiency – a Case Study of Slovenian Public and Private Sector Organizations

Abstract Background: Literature defines different types of flexibility and security with regard to work. Regardless of which type of flexibility or security is discussed, the consequences for individuals, organizations or employers and society are significant. Purpose: The purpose of the research was to compare and analyse the correlation between the different types of flexibility and security in work and organizational efficiency. Methodology: Data was gathered using the Computer-Assisted Web Interview (CAWI) method. A link to an online questionnaire was e-mailed to randomly selected organisations across all economic sectors in Slovenia that had a published e-mail address, either in business directories or on a company website. We asked them to forward our e-mail to their employees. The correlation between different variables was used for data analysis. Results: The results of our research show that there is a low positive level of correlation between different types of flexibility and security in the context of work and also between different types of flexibility in work and organizational efficiency. The correlation between different types of security in work and organizational efficiency is positive and medium strong. Conclusion: It is recommended that the legislators be aware of the importance of their correlation with organizational efficiency when preparing legislative amendments regarding introduction of the flexibility and security in the field of work.

Organizational Flexibility for Superior Value Proposition: Implications for Service Industry

Flexibility has emerged as one of key areas for sustaining competitiveness in twenty-first century [1] amid unfolding globalization and fledgling innovations. Further among the different types of flexibilities, organizational flexibility is the one that helps the organizations to withstand the harmful effects of changing business environment and fluctuations. As observed by Stohr and Muehlen [2] organizational flexibility is most important concern in this era of rapid technological change and growing turbulence.

Labour market flexibility and spatial mobility

Purpose– Recent economic recession has highlighted the role of labour market flexibility as a key factor of competitiveness of a country. Despite the fact that labour mobility can essentially be seen as part of labour market flexibility, there is notable research gap concerning spatial mobility and other facets of labour market flexibility. The purpose of this special issue is to fill these gaps.Design/methodology/approach –The papers in the special issue represent various quantitative methods and databases, whereas mainly micro data (workplace, labour force or immigrant surveys, job search portal, etc.) is used. However, the type of labour market flexibility addressed is both micro- and macro-level.Findings– It is demonstrated that labour occupational mobility is determined by the business cycle, numerical flexibility, occupational categories, and sector. Spatial mobility may have counterintuitive effects on individual occupational mobility depending on gender and it is related to various flexibilities in the workplace. It is also suggested that different types of flexibilities on a firm level are interdependent of each other.Originality/value– The special issue adds to the labour market related knowledge by integrating labour market flexibility and mobility. Individually, both phenomena have been studied before, but not much research is devoted to their inter-linkages. The special issue also contributes by examining labour market flexibility and spatial mobility in the context of different countries, economic cycles, and institutional settings.

Different Roles of Backbone-Originated and Native-Contact-Originated Flexibilities of an Intrinsically Disordered Protein in Fast Binding and Unbinding

The intrinsically disordered protein (IDP) in the unbound state is so flexible that it does not adopt a unique structure. IDP may exploit this flexibility to function as a signaling molecule, switching on and off the signal by binding to and unbinding from the target molecule, considering that the binding/unbinding kinetics is largely affected by the flexibility. For example, it has been suggested that the flexibility enhances the binding rate by the fly-casting mechanism. However, some counter evidences have been reported, so the role of the flexibility on the fly-casting mechanism is still controversial. To address this problem, we examined the effect of two different types of flexibilities that were computationally imparted to IDP to which the one-bead (Cα) Gō-like model was applied; one is by softening the backbone rigidity and the other is by weakening the native contact. We used pKID (kinase inducible domain of CREB) as a model of IDP. pKID folds upon binding to the partner protein, KIX. We calculated the potential of mean force as a function of distance between pKID and KIX. We found that the backbone-originated flexibility and the native-contact-originated one exhibit different results. The native-contact-originated flexibility yielded larger capturing radius and faster binding, consistent with the fly-casting, but the backbone-originated one did not. The strength of the interaction between IDP and the target was also shown to play a critical role. As for unbinding, the backbone-originated flexibility destabilized the bound state more effectively, leading to faster unbinding. Therefore, IDP can exploit these two different types of flexibilities to optimize their signaling function.

Dissociable fronto-striatal effects of dopamine D2 receptor stimulation on cognitive versus motor flexibility

Genetic and pharmacological studies suggest an important role of the dopamine D2 receptor (DRD2) in flexible behavioral adaptation, mostly shown in reward-based learning paradigms. Recent evidence from imaging genetics indicates that also intentional cognitive flexibility, associated with lateral frontal cortex, is affected by variations in DRD2 signaling. In the present functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) study, we tested the effects of a direct pharmacological manipulation of DRD2 stimulation on intentional flexibility in a task-switching context, requiring switches between cognitive task rules and between response hands. In a double blind, counterbalanced design, participants received either a low dose of the DRD2 agonist bromocriptine or a placebo in two separate sessions. Bromocriptine modulated the blood-oxygen-level-dependent (BOLD) signal during rule switching: rule-switching-related activity in the left posterior lateral frontal cortex and in the striatum was increased compared to placebo, at comparable performance levels. Fronto-striatal connectivity under bromocriptine was slightly increased for rule switches compared to rule repetitions. Hand-switching-related activity, in contrast, was reduced under bromocriptine in sensorimotor regions. Our results provide converging evidence for an involvement of DRD2 signaling in fronto-striatal mechanisms underlying intentional flexibility, and indicate that the neural mechanisms underlying different types of flexibility (cognitive vs motor) are affected differently by increased dopaminergic stimulation.

An Examination of Information Systems Flexibility

This study explores the possibility of flexibility in the use of information technology. The study examines different viewpoints and definitions of flexibility and tries to reconcile some of these different viewpoints by creating a model for flexibility in information systems. The model addresses two different types of flexibility, efficient versatility and robust responsiveness, that might effectively accommodate two types of changes, foreseen and unforeseen, respectively. Flexibility enablers for the two types of flexibility are proposed to accommodate these changes effectively. A case study examining an information system in a hypercompetitive industry is used to explore the viability of the flexibility enablers for the robust responsiveness flexibility type.