Dollar Savings Research Articles

Modelling the effectiveness of computer-aided development projects in the semiconductor industry

This paper presents a complete quantitative model to estimate the potential benefits of simulation-based projects over the conventional approach. In the semiconductor industry, technology computer-aided design has shown a great potential for rapid and cost-effective development of advanced integrated circuit manufacturing technologies. However, a complete quantitative model to estimate the efficiency and effectiveness of simulation-based projects has not yet been developed. This paper describes a simplified mathematical model to estimate the reduction in development cycle time and cost by computer applications in technology development to reduce the number of expensive and time-consuming experiments in the wafer fabrication facility. This model, clearly, demonstrates a reduction in technology development cycle time over 67% and multi-million dollar cost savings by computer-aided technology development in contrast to the conventional trial-and-error-experimentation. Thus, the proposed model offers project managers a valuable tool to quantitatively assess the time and cost advantage of computer-aided advanced technology development projects.

Human Resource development in Toyota culture

Companies throughout the world are engaging in 'lean' programs for manufacturing, product development, office work, and even the enterprise following Toyota as a model. The goal is to eliminate waste. Generally speaking these programs have had success at driving impressive dollar savings, but we believe the results are still far below what is possible and generally not sustainable. The problem is a fundamental misunderstanding of what has made Toyota so successful. For Toyota the goal is always to be the best at cost, quality, delivery, safety, and morale through engaging people in continuous improvement. This paper summarises how they do that through an exceptional Human Resource (HR) development system.

Generic script share and the price of brand-name drugs: the role of consumer choice

Pharmaceutical expenditures have grown rapidly in recent decades, and now total nearly 10% of health care costs. Generic drug utilization has risen substantially alongside, from 19% of scripts in 1984 to 47% in 2001, thus tempering expenditure growth through significant direct dollar savings. However, generic drugs may lead to indirect savings as well if their use reduces the average price of those brand-name drugs that are still purchased. Prior work indicates that brand-name producers do not lower their prices in the face of generic competition, and our study confirms that finding. However, prior work is silent on how the mix of consumer choices between generic and brand-name drugs might affect the average price of those brand-name drugs that are purchased. We use a nationally representative panel of data on drug utilization and costs for the years 1996-2001 to examine how the share of an individual's prescriptions filled by generics (generic script share) affects his average out-of-pocket cost for brand-name drugs, and the net cost paid by the insurer. Our principal finding is that a higher generic script share lowers average brand-name prices to consumers, presumably because consumers are more likely to substitute generics when brand-name drugs would cost them more. This effect is substantial: a 10% increase in the consumer's generic script share is associated with a 15.6% decline in the average price paid for brand-name drugs by consumers. This implies that the potential cost savings to consumers from generic substitution are far greater than prior work suggests. In contrast, the percentage reduction in average brand costs to health plans is far smaller, and statistically insignificant.

Poison control centers decrease emergency healthcare utilization costs

Patient home management by a regional poison control center has potential to save public healthcare dollars by preventing unnecessary utilization of emergency department services. We wished to conservatively quantify such savings at a large regional poison center and compare savings to funds received in state support. Banner Poison Control Center (BPCC) serves a population of about four million in central AZ. A telephone survey of callers who were managed at home in February and March of 2007 after nontoxic exposures was used to calculate what percentage of such callers would have sought unnecessary medical care in emergency departments. Twelve emergency departments geographically dispersed in the region were surveyed, and a state database of hospital charges was queried to determine hospital charges and physician professional charges for conservative management of a patient who would have been advised to remain at home by BPCC. BPCC managed 28,883 callers at home in 2007. Seventy percent of home-managed patients would have sought unnecessary care in emergency departments. Using most conservative assumptions, a median of $33 million [range $18 million to $45 million] in unnecessary health care charges were prevented by BPCC home-management in 2007. A median of about $36 in unnecessary health care charges were prevented for each dollar of state funding BPCC received. Home management by BPCC provides large dollar savings to residents compared to dollars received in state support.

Aerodynamics of an intercity bus

A number of passive aerodynamic drag reduction methods were applied separately and then in different combinations on an intercity bus model, through wind tunnel studies on a 1:20 scale model of a Mercedes Benz Tourismo 15 RHD intercity bus. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) modelling was also conducted in parallel to assist with flow visualisation. The commercial CFD package <TEX>$CFX^{TM}$</TEX> was used. It has been found that dramatic reductions in coefficient of drag (<TEX>$C_D$</TEX>) of up to 70% can be achieved on the model using tapered and rounded top and side leading edges, and a truncated rear boat-tail. The curved front section allows the airflow to adhere to the bus surfaces for the full length of the vehicle, while the boat-tails reduce the size of the low pressure region at the base of the bus and more importantly, additional pressure recovery occurs and the base pressures rise, reducing drag. It is found that the CFD results show remarkable agreement with experimental results, both in the magnitude of the force coefficients as well as in their trends. An analysis shows that such a reduction in aerodynamic drag could lead to a significant 28% reduction in fuel consumption for a typical bus on intercity or interstate operation. This could translate to a massive dollar savings as well as significant emissions reductions across a fleet. On road tests are recommended.

Nice numbers encourage deeper and wider ADR research

AbstractResearchers extract data from the U.S. Department of Justice on government ‐able results on the effectiveness of dispute resolution processes. The time and dollar savings that will be reported in a law review article next year are significant, and carry implications for commercial ADR practices and processes

IOM: The Economics of Better Environmental Health

Over the past two decades, epidemiological studies have strengthened the link between air pollution and specific respiratory ailments, yielding better valuations for the pollution-related costs of illness and thus pinpointing the benefits of environmental regulations. Much work remains to be done, however, in linking air pollution to other important health outcomes, such as cancer, infant mortality, and even doctor visits. Nagging questions also remain about how best to translate health effects into economic values. These were some of the questions addressed at the 14 November 2006 Roundtable on Environmental Health Sciences, Research, and Medicine. a project of the National Academies’ Institute of Medicine cosponsored by the NIEHS along with several other public and private entities. Economists and public health analysts outlined developing methodologies to identify and quantify the health benefits of reduced air pollution and to pinpoint costs to industry of complying with air quality regulations. “Overall, estimating risk from air pollution is becoming more precise as the pathway from air pollution to health is better characterized,” said C. Arden Pope, a Brigham Young University economist, at the roundtable. Monitoring large groups of people for long periods has enabled researchers to better control for confounding factors such as age, sex, and cigarette smoking, said Pope. More interdisciplinary work is needed to expand the scope of health benefits that can result from reduced pollution as well as further pinpoint measurable compliance costs of regulation.

Impact of Full Mental Health and Substance Abuse Parity for Children in the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program

The Federal Employees Health Benefits Program implemented full mental health and substance abuse parity in January 2001. Evaluation of this policy revealed that parity increased adult beneficiaries' financial protection by lowering mental health and substance abuse out-of-pocket costs for service users in most plans studied but did not increase rates of service use or spending among adult service users. This study examined the effects of full mental health and substance abuse parity for children. Employing a quasiexperimental design, we compared children in 7 Federal Employees Health Benefits plans from 1999 to 2002 with children in a matched set of plans that did not have a comparable change in mental health and substance abuse coverage. Using a difference-in-differences analysis, we examined the likelihood of child mental health and substance abuse service use, total spending among child service users, and out-of-pocket spending. The apparent increase in the rate of children's mental health and substance abuse service use after implementation of parity was almost entirely due to secular trends of increased service utilization. Estimates for children's mental health and substance abuse spending conditional on this service use showed significant decreases in spending per user attributable to parity for 2 plans; spending estimates for the other plans were not statistically significant. Children using these services in 3 of 7 plans experienced statistically significant reductions in out-of-pocket spending attributable to the parity policy, and the average dollar savings was sizeable for users in those 3 plans. In the remaining 4 plans, out-of-pocket spending also decreased, but these decreases were not statistically significant. Full mental health and substance abuse parity for children, within the context of managed care, can achieve equivalence of benefits in health insurance coverage and improve financial protection without adversely affecting health care costs but may not expand access for children who need these services.

SBT Approach towards Analog Electronic Circuit Fault Diagnosis

An approach for the fault diagnosis of single and multiple faults in linear analog electronic circuits is proposed in this paper. The simulation-before-test (SBT) diagnosis approach proposed in this write up basically consists of obtaining the frequency response of fault free/faulty circuit. The peak frequency and the peak amplitude from the error response are observed and processed suitably to extract distinct signatures for faulty and nonfaulty conditions under maximum tolerance conditions for other network components. The artificial neural network classifiers are then used for the classification of fault. Networks of reasonable dimensions are shown to be capable of robust diagnosis of analog circuits including effects due to tolerances. This is a unique contribution of this paper. Fault computation time is drastically reduced from the traditional analysis techniques. This results in a direct dollar savings at test time. A comparison of the proposed work with the previous works which also employ preprocessing techniques, reveals that our algorithm performs significantly better in fault diagnosis of analog circuits due to our proposed preprocessing techniques.

Cost-Effectiveness of Impedance Cardiography Testing in Uncontrolled Hypertension

To evaluate the short- and long-term cost-effectiveness of impedance cardiography (ICG) testing in uncontrolled hypertensives, we analyzed the Consideration of Noninvasive Hemodynamic Monitoring to Target Reduction of Blood Pressure Levels (CONTROL) trial results that compared the blood pressure-lowering effects of standard vs ICG care. Short-term cost-effectiveness was evaluated as the incremental cost per incremental mm Hg reduced during the trial. Long-term cost-effectiveness was evaluated as incremental cost per quality-adjusted life-year gained over 10 years. ICG care short-term cost-effectiveness was 20 US dollar per incremental mm Hg reduced for systolic blood pressure (vs standard care, 36 US dollar per mm Hg reduced) and 23 US dollar per incremental mm Hg reduced for diastolic blood pressure (vs standard care, 79 US dollar per mm Hg reduced). In the long term, ICG resulted in a 476 US dollar cost savings and 0.109 quality-adjusted life-years gained per patient (-4,371 US dollar per quality-adjusted life-year gained, sensitivity analysis -8,764 to 13,163 US dollar). The use of ICG testing to reduce blood pressure in uncontrolled hypertensive patients is cost-effective from both a short- and long-term perspective.

Metadata: Practical, painless, profitable

Metadata: Practical, painless, profitable

Deal-prone consumers' response to promotion: The effects of relative and absolute promotion value

Increased use of promotions that target different market segments makes the study of consumer characteristics associated with the response to promotions more noteworthy. This article assesses the effect of a common segmentation criterion, consumer deal proneness, on consumers' responses to promotions of more and less relative and absolute value. The results of a pair of experiments indicate that deal-prone consumers are sensitive to the value of a promotion relative to other available promotions only in a condition of high absolute dollar savings. The findings help integrate conflicting views of deal proneness into a framework in which deal proneness serves as a heuristic to limit or heighten processing of promotion-related information depending on the promotion environment. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Inefficient Education Spending in Public School Districts: A Case for Consolidation?

This article estimates scale economies for Arkansas school districts. Large economies of scale exist in teacher salary and supply costs, as well as total costs. The results suggest that districts, especially rural districts, would experience measurable cost savings from consolidation. The authors simulate a hypothetical rural school district consolidation to obtain cost‐saving estimates from consolidation. Simulations indicate that districts could save an average of 34% in average variable costs. At the state level, consolidation of rural districts in Arkansas could annually save $40 million. However, consolidation of school districts may increase various implicit costs to students and local communities. (JEL I22, I28)

Coffee, Tea, or …?: A Markov Decision Process Model for Airline Meal Provisioning

This paper develops and analyzes a finite horizon Markov decision process model for the airline meal provisioning activity focusing explicitly on developing policies for determining and revising the number of meals to upload. Using one year of daily data from over 40 flights, the paper shows that the optimal policies can result in both improved customer service and significant dollar savings, especially in long haul flights. It also applies the model to derive an efficient frontier and investigate tradeoffs between having too few and too many meals on a flight.

Savings From Drug Discount Cards: Relief For Medicare Beneficiaries?

Beginning in mid-2004, Medicare beneficiaries can enroll in prescription drug discount card programs approved by the federal government. We estimate modest savings for beneficiaries without drug coverage from existing drug discount card programs, with average savings of 17.4 percent over current retail prices. Although estimated percentage savings are greater on generics than brand-name drugs, estimated absolute dollar savings are greater for brands. Medicare-approved discount card savings for individual beneficiaries will depend on current out-of-pocket drug spending, the number and types of drugs used, and specific card program features. Aggregate savings estimates vary widely, based on uncertainty in discounts and program participation rates.

The New Flexible Health Plans

The New Flexible Health Plans

Benefits of the United States nationwide plumbing efficiency standards

In 2000, the American Water Works Association (AWWA) and California Urban Water Conservation Council partnered to study the merits of the United States National Plumbing Efficiency Standards. The study develops information on the value of the national plumbing standards, based on a nationwide survey of water supply utilities. Using base year 1999 water production levels, the study found forecasted water production due to the national plumbing code reduced by 5 per cent in 2010, climbing to 8 per cent water savings by 2020. Average utility savings of US$26 per person extrapolated to the United States as a whole amount to about US$7.5 billion in reduced infrastructure costs due to the national plumbing code. Including energy benefits from hot water savings, the total dollar savings to communities is higher at US$35 billion in the United States. This paper highlights an example methodology into the overall assessment of water and cost savings from water conservation programs. This methodology, more fully presented in the original report document, is particularly useful for water agencies quantifying benefits when seeking to avoid acquiring new source water supplys and/or defer building capital projects.

Cancer DM programme nets million dollar savings in first 2 years

Cancer DM programme nets million dollar savings in first 2 years

Strict guidelines for prescription drug use mean multi-million dollar savings

Strict guidelines for prescription drug use mean multi-million dollar savings

Technology Potential of Thermal Energy Storage (TES) Systems in Federal Facilities

ABSTRACT Thermal energy storage (TES) reduces electric costs by shifting chilling activities to off-peak times. Water is chilled or ice is made during the night to either replace or augment operation of cooling equipment during the day. Off-peak demand and consumption rates produce significant dollar savings. TES requires favorable electric rate structures, available space to house the associated equipment, and either variation in buildings cooling loads or favorable climatic conditions. TES can be implemented anywhere cooling loads can be shifted to off-peak hours, with the best applications being office buildings, hospitals, and schools. Most TES projects are implemented in conjunction with an existing cooling system expansion, replacement of older cooling equipment, or new construction, thus reducing energy costs, consumption, and demand. A model was developed to estimate the potential application for TES in the federal sector utilizing weather data, cooling profiles for buildings of various size and g...