External Clients Research Articles

Multi-Criteria Optimization of the Paper Production Process Using Numerical Taxonomy Methods: A Necessary Condition for Predicting Heat and Electricity Output in a Combined Heat and Power (CHP) System

The subject of this study is the optimization of the paper production process in one of Poland’s leading paper mills. In addition to its primary objective of paper production, the company generates heat and electricity for internal consumption and external clients, including the local municipality. Surplus energy may be sold on the power exchange; however, this requires forecasting the quantity of energy to be sold 24 h in advance, which introduces an element of uncertainty. Production stoppages, often caused by random events such as paper breakage, force a power decrease in the CHP system, further complicating energy forecasting. To minimize the occurrence of such events, numerical taxonomy methods were employed to determine the optimal screen speed (Vs) and winding speed (Vn) for two paper machines, based on the type and weight of the paper produced. This analysis utilized detailed daily data collected by the company over the period 2015–2020. The findings contribute to minimizing the occurrence of paper roll tearing, thereby reducing the risk of inaccurate forecasts of the energy and heat produced by the CHP system. Furthermore, the methodology employed in this study may be effectively applied to other optimization problems in industrial processes.

Process Management Framework for Health and Safety at Work (SST) Companies

Objective: This study aims to develop and implement a process management framework for Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) companies, seeking to optimize the organization and execution of services, identifying improvement opportunities throughout the customer journey, from contract closure to renewal. The proposal is to offer an adaptable model that meets industry demands and enhances the operational efficiency of companies. Theoretical Framework: The theoretical framework addresses the evolution of Regulatory Standards (NRs) since the 1970s and the importance of complying with labor laws for the safety and health of workers in Brazil. The role of eSocial, created in 2014 to unify and ensure the collection of employer information, is highlighted, as well as its function in alerting them to legal risks. Method: The methodology used was action research, as defined by Oquist (1978). The research involved mapping the operational processes of OSH companies to identify areas for improvement. The first version of the framework was developed, tested, and based on the results, improved into a second version. The improvements were based on tests and validations conducted throughout the process. Results and Discussion: The first version of the framework showed positive results but also highlighted the need for improvements, which were incorporated into the second version. Changes included the restructuring of steps and the addition of a new phase focused on the commercial process. Satisfaction surveys with internal and external clients, as well as accounting firms, indicated positive acceptance but also a lack of systemic vision among professionals, affecting the quality of the work. Research Implications: The research implications are significant for the OSH sector. The developed framework improves the organization and efficiency of service-providing companies. The study also highlights the importance of performance indicators to monitor performance and mitigate risks, such as customer loss. It is recommended that future research explore the adaptation of the framework to new technologies and automation. Originality/Value: The originality of this study lies in the creation of a process management framework specifically for OSH companies, where organization and efficiency are essential for complying with labor regulations and ensuring worker safety. The value of the work resides in its practical contribution to the sector, offering an adaptable model that can be improved based on feedback and technological advancements.

Extending high quality health information to non-government organisations across the Northern Territory: experiences of NT Health Library Services

This paper discusses NT Health Library Services’ initiative to provide resources and services to health professionals who work for non-government organisations across the Territory. In 2009, Memorandums of Understanding (MOUs) were established. Since then a website has been created specifically for these MOU members and a recent renewal and upgrade project ensured the agreements were updated and the website security standards were being met. With vendor permission the library currently offers access to the following: eight research databases, two clinical decision support tools, one medication database and five electronic book and journal collections. Marketing has begun to increase awareness among these external clients.

Challenges in the Receiving and Inspection of Supplies & Equipment in an International Organization in West Africa

The warehouse operation has enabled physical inspection activities, including receiving and inspection of materials and equipment. It has been found that there are certain challenges faced by inspectors during the receiving and inspection of materials. The warehouse custodian has performed the physical inspection, but not all cross-checking activities are accurate. Therefore, receiving and inspection are crucial to the delivery process, and distinct approaches must be implemented to deal with internal and external clients, including international and local suppliers. To effectively deal with these challenges, a process for entry document processing must be established. This process should include harmonizing the purchase order's terms and supporting it with the delivery note, packing list, invoice, bill of lading, and airway/waybill provided by the supplier. This will ensure that the material's quantity, quality, and specifications are accurately documented. A total of 14 responses were collected among managers and supervisors of receiving and inspection unit through interviews and survey questionnaires in the seven geographical locations of Mali, West Africa. The independent variables, namely (PI) physical inspection, (HOV) handover, and (DOC) documentation, significantly impact the dependent variable.

Improving Architecture of Legal System by using TOGAF-ADM

The article takes a case study of a state-owned utility company, XYZ, that provides nationwide electricity and serves her major contractors around Indonesia. Since year 2020 with Covid pandemic, the company has taken a hybrid work (work-from-home and work-from-office) for all her staffs. The article addresses the legal department where the entire process has been done manually with minimum computer system involvements. The hybrid work has made slow response of the staffs to serve other units and external clients, where it causes major dissatisfactions of the management of the company. Since last decade, XYZ directors have promoted digital transformation program in all her business units, including legal department. The article examines the use of enterprise architecture approach (TOGAF ADM) to support the digital transformation program that enables legal staffs to work in a hybrid mode and expect the similar work performance as offline work. The article addresses improving business process in legal department that ready to accommodate the latest IT trends. The outcome of the article is expected to address common issues related to digital transformation in legal department.

Multi-player evolutionary game of federated learning incentive mechanism based on system dynamics

Federated learning has emerged as a new way of data sharing. The participants in the federation tend to choose different strategies based on their benefits, which is formalized into an evolutionary game model. Existing techniques can limit the malicious behavior of participants by detecting betrayers or weakening their influence. The problem that whether there is an incentive mechanism which makes participants spontaneously choose to cooperate honestly and maintains the stability of the federated learning system is urgent. In this paper, we develop a multi-player evolutionary game model in federated learning. We model the federated learning process by evaluating the payoffs of the central server, internal clients, and external clients. The stability of the federated learning system in the long-term dynamics process is assessed by seeking the evolutionarily stable equilibrium solutions. In this paper, mathematical reasoning and computer simulation are combined to analyze the impact of reward and punishment strategies in incentive mechanisms on the game process and game equilibrium. An incentive mechanism is designed to achieve evolutionarily stable equilibrium while make most clients join the federation spontaneously and cooperate honestly. Finally, the effectiveness, stability, and generalizability of this incentive mechanism are verified by sensitivity analysis and Lyapunov stability theory.

STRATEGIC PLANNING Case: Department of Topography and Transportation Roads at the Faculty of Civil Engineering - UNI

The objective of this document was to present a diagnosis of the Department of Topography and Transportation Roads of the Faculty of Civil Engineering - UNI from the Strategic Approach. This department is part of the Faculty of Civil Engineering-UNI and the laboratory. According to the organizational chart, both depend independently from the faculty; however, there is a strong relationship between the department and the laboratory in practice. On the other hand, the department has the board of directors of the technology transfer center among its members: Instituto Vial Iberoamericano. It is also important to mention the existence of an office for extension courses for external clients. Among the main conclusions reached by the researchers, it is found that the importance lies in the effectiveness of the goals and objectives set by an organization in its program schedule, as long as the established monitoring and indicator system.

Dynamic Context Awareness of Universal Middleware based for IoT SNMP Service Platform

This study focused on the Universal Middleware design for the IoT (Internet of Things) service gateway for the implementation module of the convergence platform. Recently, IoT service gateway including convergence platform could be supported on dynamic module system that is required mounting and recognized intelligent status with the remote network protocol. These awareness concepts support the dynamic environment of the cross-platform distributed computing technology is supported by these idea as a Universal Middleware for network substitution. Distribution system commonly used in recent embedded systems include CORBA (Common Object Request Broker Architecture), RMI (Remote Method Invocation), DCE (Distributed Computing Environment) for dynamic service interface, and suggested implementations of a device object context. However, the aforementioned technologies do not support each standardization of application services, communication protocols, and data, but are also limited in supporting inter-system scalability. In particular, in order to configure an IoT service module, the system can be simplified, and an independent service module can be configured as long as it can support the standardization of modules based on hardware and software components. This paper proposed a design method for Universal Middleware that, by providing IoT modules and service gateways with scalability for configuring operating system configuration, may be utilized as an alternative. This design could be a standardized interface provisioning way for hardware and software components as convergence services, and providing a framework for system construction. Universal Middleware Framework could be presented and dynamic environment standardization module of network protocols, various application service modules such as JINI (Apache River), UPnP (Universal Plug & Play), SLP (Service Location Protocol) bundles that provide communication facilities, and persistence data module. In this IoT gateway, management for based Universal Middleware framework support and available for each management operation, application service component could be cross-executed over SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol) version 1, version 2, and version 3. The way of SNMP extension service modules are conducted cross-support each module and independent system meta-information that could be built life cycle management component through the MIB (Management Information Base) information unit analysis. Therefore, the MIB role of relation with the Dispatcher applied to support multiple concurrent SNMP messages by receiving incoming messages and managing the transfer of PDU (Protocol Data Unit) between the RFC 1906 network in this study. Results of the study revealed utilizing Universal Middleware that dynamic situations of context objects with mechanisms and tools to publish information could be consisted of IoT to standardize module interfaces to external service clients as a convergence between hardware and software platforms.

Pathogen Prevalence Estimates and Diagnostic Methodology Trends in Laboratory Mice and Rats from 2003 to 2020.

Rodents used in biomedical research are maintained as specific pathogen-free (SPF) by employing biosecurity measures that eliminate and exclude adventitious infectious agents known to confound research. The efficacy of these practices is assessed by routine laboratory testing referred to as health monitoring (HM). This study summarizes the results of HM performed at Charles River Research Animal Diagnostic Services (CR-RADS) on samples submitted by external (non-Charles River) clients between 2003 and 2020. Summarizing this vast amount of data has been made practicable by the recent introduction of end-user business intelligence tools to Excel. HM summaries include the number of samples tested and the percent positive by diagnostic methodology, including direct examination for parasites, cultural isolation and identification for bacteria, serology for antibodies to viruses and fastidious microorganisms, and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assays for pathogen-specific genomic sequences. Consistent with comparable studies, the percentages of pathogen-positive samples by diagnostic methodology and year interval are referred to as period prevalence estimates (%PE). These %PE substantiate the elimination of once common respiratory pathogens, such as Sendai virus, and reductions in the prevalence of other agents considered common, such as the rodent coronaviruses and parvoviruses. Conversely, the %PE of certain pathogens, for example, murine norovirus (MNV), Helicobacter, Rodentibacter, and parasites remain high, perhaps due to the increasing exchange of genetically engineered mutant (GEM) rodents among researchers and the challenges and high cost of eliminating these agents from rodent housing facilities. Study results also document the growing role of PCR in HM because of its applicability to all pathogen types and its high specificity and sensitivity; moreover, PCR can detect pathogens in samples collected antemortem directly from colony animals and from the environment, thereby improving the detection of host-adapted, environmentally unstable pathogens that are not efficiently transmitted to sentinels by soiled bedding.

Perceived quality of care for severe acute malnutrition management among caregivers of under-five children with severe acute malnutrition in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 2022: a mixed-method study.

All the factors at the institutional, provider, and client levels have an impact on the quality of care. In low- and middle-income countries, poor quality of severe acute malnutrition (SAM) management at health institutions is a major contributor to child morbidity and mortality. This study aimed to determine the perceived quality of care for SAM management among caregivers of under-five children. This study was conducted in public health facilities that provide inpatient SAM management in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. An institution-based convergent mixed-method study design was implemented. Quantitative data were analyzed by using a logistic regression model, while thematic analysis was used to analyze the qualitative data. A total of 181 caregivers and 15 healthcare providers were recruited. The overall perceived quality of care for SAM management was 55.80% (CI: 48.5-63.10). Urban residence (AOR = 0.32, 95% CI: 0.16-0.66), college and above level education (AOR = 4.42, 95% CI: 1.41-13.86), working as a government employee (AOR = 2.72, 95% CI: 1.05-7.05), readmitted to the hospital (AOR = 0.47, 95% CI: 0.23-0.94), and length of hospital stays >7 days (AOR = 2.1, 95% CI: 1.01-4.27) were found to be significantly associated factors with perceived low-quality care for SAM management. Additionally, lack of support and attention from higher levels of management, and lack of supplements, separate units, and laboratory facilities were among the factors that impede the provision of quality care. Perceived quality of SAM management services was low against the national goal of quality improvement to meet the expectations of both internal and external clients. Rural residents, those with more educational qualifications, government employees, newly admitted patients, and patients who stayed longer in hospitals were the most unsatisfied groups. Improving support and logistic supply to health facilities, providing client-centered care, and responding to caregivers' demands may help to improve quality and satisfaction.

An Evaluation of Contributions of Selected Organizational and Sociological Theories to Managerial Accounting Research

Purpose: The drive of this research work was to evaluate selected organizational and sociological theories in regard to their contribution in management accounting research with the object of recognizing the gaps and areas for further study.
 Methodology: The study applied integrative review/critical review approach by relying on previous publications of which 28 publications were included in the study. Content analysis was used in data analysis.
 Findings: Contingency theory has received wider acceptance in the field of managerial accounting research. Its application has since been evidenced based on its contingent propositions which include; technology, organization structure, and the general operating environment of the organization. However, other studies suggested that contingency method has the look of being persuasive but momentary fashion and it is principally deceptive. That is, the exact and appropriate contingent elements have remained unclarified and thus the essence of in-depth theoretical, and realistic, consideration. Thus it provides a limited insight to organizational contingent factors. Moreover, Institutional theory as much as criticized of being political; it enables the organization to view itself holistically both from the angle of the task environment (technology, firm structure and work environment) and the external environment (political influences, public expectations, professional perspectives) implying management accounting programs implemented by the firm has to be in line with the social expectations of the company external clients. Resource dependency theory have highlighted on the role of governmental language, predominantly in budgeting procedures. Labour process theory has contributed toward management accounting in the sense that with the quest to shift from the old age production system to the contemporary company production; corporations required to appropriate profits. This could only be supported through employment of trained executives with knowledge in managerial accounting and book keeping. However the model has been disparaged on the foundation that its promoters believed on the adoption of the scientific approach which is simply but one aspect of the organizational view.
 Implications: The findings from the many empirical studies reviewed herein are therefore helpful in addressing the research objectives with supremacy that no single revision had done. This literature review is an outstanding way to expose gaps where more research work is necessary, and also being dire component of spawning original theoretic outlines and construction of conceptual ideas.
 Value of the Study: It contributes to management accounting research by evaluating the theories. Besides, it helped to suggest areas for further research plus offering recommendations based on the findings.

Ease of Doing Business in the City Human Resource Management Office of Butuan City

This study aimed to determine the level of compliance of Ease of Doing Business and efficient government service delivery in the City Human Resource Management Office of the City Government of Butuan. Specifically, this study determined the level of implementation of CHRMO Frontline Services as assessed by the participants in terms of: (1) Citizen’s Charter Provisions; (2) Access to Government Services through Frontline Services (3) Report Card Survey. Descriptive research design was used in conduct of the study. Participants were the internal and external clients of the office. Using the Cochran’s Formula for sample size determination, the researcher selected 200 participants with Systematic Random Sampling as a sampling technique. Overall, the assessment of the level of implementation of the CHRMO in terms of the Citizen’s Charter, access to government service through frontline services and in terms of Report Card survey are extremely high. On the other hand, there was a significant difference between the participants’ assessment of the Citizen’s Charter and their age. However, there were significant differences between the participants’ assessment on the access of government service in terms of Report Card Survey and the participants’ age, gender and type of employment. Further, the level of satisfaction of the participants for all the services rendered by the CHRMO is high. The participants’ assessment of the three components are extremely high, while their level of satisfaction is high. Although the level of satisfaction of the participants were high, still the CHRMO needs to enhance further its delivery of public service

Monitoring System for a Hybrid Photovoltaic-Diesel Power System: Web-Based SCADA Approach

This paper presents a low-cost open-source web-based SCADA monitoring system that will provide a new application of real-time instrumentation for monitoring a hybrid photovoltaic-diesel power system. The system’s purpose is to monitor parameters such as the voltage and current of the AC and DC buses. A cheap Arduino acquisition board is the foundation for the system design, as documentation of the board is widely available. Data are displayed through a local host Node-Red and web real-time database system, and the acquisition is accomplished using a reasonably priced current and voltage sensors. To improve the stability and operability of the newly constructed monitoring system, a secure and cost-effective internet connection has been created between external clients and the primary network webserver. Amazon web server is configured to allow access to remote clients when credentials and certificates are verified. The proposed system shows its ability to acquire real-time data by monitoring the hybrid system and storing the data in the client database for future access. Since the proposed system is less costly and time-consuming, and can assimilate and record data more easily, it can readily replace human intervention to avoid errors associated with multimeters’ readings. Eventually, analyzing such data, will lead to enhance both the performance and operational efficiency of the monitored hybrid power system.

The virtual consulting company: Teaching statistical consulting through simulated experience

AbstractTraining students to become effective consultants is an important goal of statistical education. The pedagogical models include drop‐in consulting, workshops, long‐term projects and theory‐based courses based on case studies. This study performs a comparison of the curricular designs. We then introduce a virtual model for a statistical consulting course based on simulated experience. The virtual model creates a semester‐long simulation with the roles of consultants, managers and clients adopted by members of the class. The course includes classroom instruction on the technical skills and styles of communication that can facilitate collaborations. The students complete a series of consulting projects for a range of virtual clients. This study demonstrates the benefits of the virtual model of teaching statistical consulting. The simulation allows students to gain experience in collaborations without a dependence on external clients. The consulting projects allow for full development of statistical investigations, communication with a range of stakeholders and opportunities to present proposals to clients. With a designed curriculum, the consulting experience and lessons of the course are more repeatable and uniform across the students. As a result, the virtual model is a promising alternative to the other curricular models for statistical consulting.

Critical reagent inventory management system and web portal specifically optimized for supporting external clients.

High-quality critical reagents are essential for the establishment of robust ligand binding assays to support regulated bioanalysis. To ensure consistency in assay performance over the lifetime of a project, a well-defined set of processes is needed for critical reagent life cycle management. Moreover, contract research organizations must support reagent life cycle management for diverse global clients. To address these needs, the authors designed and implemented a customized inventory management system, known as LCM+. This software solution provides external clients with efficient, secure access via a web portal to their critical reagent information, pertinent documentation and inventory tracking. Hence, the authors believe that LCM+ can serve as a useful prototype to aid the design of future inventory management systems for optimal management of critical reagents.

Implementing a Senior Statistics Practicum: Lessons and Feedback from Multiple Offerings

A Statistics Practicum course is offered as another option besides an internship or research experience for students to fulfill a required statistics major capstone experience. This article discusses the first and fourth offering of this practicum course, which provides a unique perspective on the initial implementation of the course and its development over time. The course offers students opportunities to carry out statistical consulting projects with external clients. Students were given multiple reflection assignments throughout the course. Challenges of the projects were discussed in the reflections, which included issues of data cleaning and analysis. Students also responded to both Likert-scale and open-ended questions on an end of semester survey. These responses provided information on sentiment regarding the consulting projects and perceived usefulness of various components of the Statistics Practicum course. Both student reflection assignments and survey responses were analyzed in this study. Explanations of the thought processes that went into setting up and running the course are included. Advice and suggestions for course improvements and successful administration are also presented.

Exploring influence between employee motivation and service quality in the South African Police Service

The South African Police Service (SAPS) Training College, Paarl is facing challenges to reward, motivate and ensure service delivery at the Academy. In any organisation, employees are working to provide service to both internal and external clients for this it is important to take care of employees because they are interacting with these clients. Thus, a cardinal question is how can organisations retain and motivate employees in order to offer a quality service to their clients? The aim of this study was to determine the influence between rewards, motivation and service quality at the SAPS Training College, Paarl. Semi-structured interviews with 10 managers and supervisors utilizing purposive sampling were conducted. The findings revealed that participants at the Training College, Paarl are motivated by only intrinsic as the morale is slow due to a lack of extrinsic factors with particular emphasis on pay or remuneration. Lack of recognition or perceived favouritism with the SAPS where rewards are not linked to performance was identified to be the best de-motivating factor for employees at the SAPS Training College, Paarl. The quality of academic services has a significant effect on the consumer behavior of customers, the students.

Effects of Human Resource on Quality Service Delivery of Mission Hospitals in Mery County, Kenya

Prudent human resource management is at the core of every successful entity whether private, for profit, public, faith based and not-for-profit organizations. The human resource is the driver of other resources towards organizational development and harmonization of service delivery. This study endeavoured to explore the role of human resource in facilitating quality delivery of services in mission hospitals in Meru County of Kenya. The population were stakeholders of the mission hospitals, both internal and external clients including the chief executive officers (CEOs), Finance and Human Resource officers, public relations officers and other staff internally and, patients, suppliers and neighbours as external stakeholders. There were eight mission hospitals in the County and all of them were included in the survey. The design was a descriptive study with both purposive judgmental sampling at selection of top-level respondents and simple random sampling among the respondents at other levels. Piloting of the study instruments was carried out at Wamba hospital in the neighbouring Isiolo county which is also a mission hospital to test and improve them. Data collection was through structured questionnaires which were administered through drop and pick method or by research assistants on behalf of those who could not directly react to them like patients and some neighbours. Data was analyzed using SPSS version 23 and descriptive statistics used to interpret and describe the findings. Correlation analysis was done to establish the relationship between the dependent and the independent variables and significance established at 95 percent. The findings revealed that there was positive correlation between human resource and quality of service delivery in mission hospitals in Meru County (R=0.71, F=21.397, P=0.00). Human resource was critical to organizational success in determining customer royalty and repeat visits through the quality of services offered by competent, committed and skilled staff that lead to positive word of mouth marketing of hospitals. The study recommended greater emphasis on customer care, improved human resource management for quality service to enable the hospitals retain and attract more clients. Studies on the same in private and public hospitals were advocated. Keywords: Human Resource, Quality Service Delivery, Mission hospitals, DOI: 10.7176/EJBM/14-6-05 Publication date: March 31 st 2022

Training for the Industry: Examining the Use of Real-life Consultancy Projects in Development Studies Programmes

Development degrees have begun experimenting with real-life consultancy projects carried out by students for external clients in the development sector. Students, concerned about their ‘employability’, flock to these programmes due to their promises of hands-on, professionalizing experience. Surprisingly, these developments have not yet triggered a major reflection on what this teaching device means for the way our students are educated. I address this gap by critically examining their functioning, the different actors and their motivations and incentives. I argue that the introduction of development organizations into the teaching relationship challenges three core academic principles: scientificity, fairness and ethics. Drawing on my experience of managing a consultancy project module, I discuss the extent to which departments can address them.

GENDER MAINSTREAMING PLAN FOR GENDER-RESPONSIVE PUBLIC SCHOOLS

This study sought to develop a gender mainstreaming plan for gender-responsive public schools. Specifically, the extent of gender mainstreaming practices among public schools and their hindering factors were assessed in this research. A descriptive method of research was employed to investigate the posed objectives in this study. Purposive and random sampling techniques were utilized in the selection of the respondents. Guided by the said sampling procedures, 282 school heads participated in the study. Data were collected through survey-questionnaire and computed using the weighted arithmetic mean (WAM). Results indicated that gender perspectives are relatively mainstreamed in the organizational processes of public schools. Specifically, gender perspectives are less mainstreamed into the policies and PPAs but relatively integrated into their support mechanisms and highly evident among people. However, lack of gender analysis and gender mainstreaming plan, as well as insufficient knowledge and training of internal and external clients are highly hindering factors among public schools to implement gender mainstreaming. Based on the results of this study, a gender mainstreaming plan was developed to serve as a framework among public schools in mainstreaming gender perspectives on their policies, PPAs, and enabling mechanisms.