Inside Contracting Research Articles

Optimizing noisy CNLS problems by using Nelder-Mead algorithm: A new method to compute simplex step efficiency

Nelder-Mead “simplex” algorithm (NMA) is a derivative-free algorithm that can be used to solve complex nonlinear least-squared (CNLS) problems. NMA can fit equivalent electrical circuit models to noisy electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) data. The ability of NMA simplex to adapt itself onto the local landscape of mathematical functions is governed by the simplex steps (reflection, expansion, inside and outside contraction and shrink steps). However, according to EIS literature, a method to compute the simplex step efficiency has not been reported yet.Herein, we provide and recommend a new method to compute the simplex step efficiency. The new method was used to evaluate the adaptive and standard NMA modifications (SNMA and ANMA). Be advised that by using the new method we detected an unknown property of a more successful ANMA (vs. SNMA), i.e. the application of adaptive parameters decreased only the inside contraction step efficiency. However, the aforementioned drawback was resolved by modifying and boosting the existing ANMA, which was a process that demonstrated the usefulness of the new method. Thereby, SNMA, ANMA, and the modified ANMA fitting engines were embedded in the free (MIT licensed) software by using Python programming language.

Inside Contracting Parties’ Minds: The Decision-making Processes in Cross-border Sales

Inside Contracting Parties’ Minds: The Decision-making Processes in Cross-border Sales

The Impact of Technological Change on Incentive Provision

- The simple trade-off between incentive and risk, which is crucial to the agency problem, is not a sufficient explanation for the ineffectiveness of a specific output-related pay such as the contract system adopted in the US iron and steel industry during the second half of the nineteenth-century. The high rate of technological innovation along with workers' extensive bargaining power made output-related pay a sub-optimal solution. This stylised fact unveils the conflicting nature of piece-rate pay compared to fixed pay as new technology is introduced and stimulates an analysis of the interaction between technological change, bargaining powers, and payment systems which can be conducive to a better understanding of the agency problem and the use of incentive pay. Key words: Incentive Contracts, Inside Contracting, Unions, Technological Change. JEL Classification: J33, J51, N31, O33

Risk-Shifting and Institutional Lag: Industrial Accident Statistics of Regular Workers and Inside Contract workers at the Hyundai Motor Ulsan Plant

Risk-Shifting and Institutional Lag: Industrial Accident Statistics of Regular Workers and Inside Contract workers at the Hyundai Motor Ulsan Plant

A New Framework for Workshop Contracting: Philadelphia Machine Building, 1870–1914

Most historians believe that inside contracting (IC), a system that had its origins in the early industrial revolution, remained an important practice throughout nineteenth-century America. Under IC, proprietors appointed a senior worker who agreed to supply components or completed articles at an agreed price. It was the contractor who bore the risk of failure or pocketed the profits. Here was a system that created an alternative locus of power within the workshop. Focusing on machine building, this article argues that IC should be seen as a feature of the earlier nineteenth century, primarily associated with New England's industrial development. In the workshops of 1870s and 1880s Philadelphia, proprietors and workers used the language of ‘contracting’ but its meaning was altogether different. In Philadelphia, a system of piece contracting (PC) emerged, encouraged by the crisis of the 1870s depression, as proprietors attempted to reduce costs and control skilled labour—in contrast to earlier IC which was an expression of owners’ reluctance or inability to take charge. At the Baldwin Locomotive Works and Cramp shipyard a sophisticated system of gang PC also developed. PC did not offer a share of the profits but only limited inducement to a layer of labour aristocrat ‘contractors’; overall, it intended to constrain the world of the skilled mechanic.

Study of the contraction flow using grid generation technique

We study a model procedure to solve the incompressible Navier-Stokes equations on the flow inside contraction geometry. The governing equations are expressed in the primitive variable formulation. A rectangular computational plane is arises by elliptic grid generation technique. The numerical solution is based on a technique of automatic numerical generation of a curvilinear coordinate system. By transformed the governing equation into computational plane. The time dependent momentum equations are solved explicitly for the velocity field using the explicit marching procedure, the continuity equation is applied at each grid point in the solution of pressure equation, while the successive over relaxation (SOR) method is used for the Neumann problem for pressure. We will apply the technique on several irregular-shape.

Neo- instead of post-Fordism: the transformation of labour processes in Hungary

The paper consists of two parts, the first focusing on the institutional heritage of an innovative work organization (teamworking) that emerged in state-socialist firms in Hungary in the 1980s. The second part of the analysis concentrates on the impacts of foreign direct investment (FDI) on work organization, with special regard to the employees' role in task structuring in the post-socialist economy during the 1990s. The experience with the so-called ‘Inside Contracting Groups’ (Hungarian acronym: VGMK) in the 1980s actually meant an innovative attempt to mobilize human resources by letting employees establish their autonomous working groups after their regular working time. Almost a tenth of the industrial workforce participated in this nation-wide social experiment. The technical-professional and social-cultural learning processes in these autonomous working groups have produced the following ‘spill-over effect’: these ‘proto-entrepreneurs’ within the state-socialist firms became micro- or small business owners after the collapse of the state-socialist political and economic regime. During the 1990s, the first decade of the emerging market economy in Hungary, massive FDI arrived in the country and had a strong impact on the diffusion of organizational innovations in labour processes, too (e.g. teamworking, cost centres, TQM, IT use, ISO 9000, etc.). ‘Leading-edge’ management practices in foreign-owned firms play the role of ‘external benchmarking’ for Hungarian firms, but, beside the transfer of some organizational innovations in labour processes (e.g. increasing employee participation in the quality assurance), it is hard to identify in the indigenous firms innovative practices like that of the VGMK in the 1980s.

Numerical simulations for the contraction flow using grid generation

We study the incomprssible Navier Stokes equations for the flow inside contraction geometry. The governing equations are expressed in the vorticity-stream function formulations. A rectangular computational domain is arised by elliptic grid generation technique. The numerical solution is based on a technique of automatic numerical generation of acurvilinear coordinate system by transforming the governing equation into computational plane. The transformed equations are approximated using central differences and solved simultaneously by successive over relaxation iteration. The time dependent of the vorticity equation solved by using explicit marching procedure. We will apply the technique on several irregularshapes.

Convergence of the Nelder--Mead Simplex Method to a Nonstationary Point

This paper analyzes the behavior of the Nelder--Mead simplex method for a family of examples which cause the method to converge to a nonstationary point. All the examples use continuous functions of two variables. The family of functions contains strictly convex functions with up to three continuous derivatives. In all the examples the method repeatedly applies the inside contraction step with the best vertex remaining fixed. The simplices tend to a straight line which is orthogonal to the steepest descent direction. It is shown that this behavior cannot occur for functions with more than three continuous derivatives. The stability of the examples is analyzed.

Inside contracting at the Waltham Watch Company

Accounting historians continue to debate the development of cost accounting procedures in late nineteenth‐century US mass‐production industries. While conventional historians (economic rationalists) emphasize efficiency and co‐ordination, labour process and other “critical” scholars prioritize social, political, and ideological concerns. One neglected, but significant, aspect of this controversy is inside contracting. Clawson presented an important overview of inside contracting at several prominent US manufacturing establishments, including the Waltham Watch Company (WWC). Clawson’s work is significant because his most salient remarks have been cited by scholars who advocate the “new accounting history”. Discusses inside contracting in general terms within the socio‐political context of nineteenth‐century US mass‐production industries. Subsequently, evaluates specific WWC archival data from both the economic rationalist and labour process perspectives, the reasons for inside contracting’s abandonment, and the impact of inside contracting on cost accounting developments.

Sprinkler Performance as Function of Nozzle Geometrical Parameters

The main design parameter for a square nozzle is its inside contraction angle, and key design parameters for a triangular nozzle include the inside contraction angle and the length-to-width ratio of the triangular orifice. The variation of discharge coefficient, pattern radii, and uniformity of water application as a function of the parameters previously mentioned were studied. For a square nozzle, both the discharge coefficient and the pattern radius decreased with increasing inside contraction angle when the angle exceeded 50°. The suitable inside contraction angle is around 30°. For a triangular nozzle, the influence of the inside contraction angle on its discharge coefficient and water application was insignificant for an angle range of 10°–45°, but the water application profiles from a single sprinkler were sensitive to the orifice height-to-width ratio. A 1.00 height-to-width ratio nozzle discharges more water near the sprinkler and yields a higher uniformity coefficient than other ratio nozzles for a given sprinkler pressure and spacing.

Effects of Double-rectangular-slot Design on Impact Sprinkler Nozzle Performance

Some of the main design parameters for double rectangular nozzles are the inside contraction angle, the length-to-width ratio of the rectangular slot, the spacing between two slots, and the angle between the two adjacent slots. The inside contraction angle and slot dimensions and spacing were varied and water application patterns and droplet diameters at the end of the spray stream were evaluated. Pattern radius decreased as slot spacing increased and increased as the length-to-width ratio increased. Sprinkler pattern and droplet diameter were insensitive to the inside contraction angle. The nozzle discharge coefficient was independent of all investigated parameters. Sprinkler rotation speed decreased with slot spacing but increased with the length-to-width ratio.

Inside contracting at the Sargent Hardware Company

Four major points emerge from the events at the Sargent factory. First, the image of inside contracting as a system pitting owners against contractors is simplistic and incomplete. Rank and file workers constituted an important third force and were involved in a complex set of changing relationships with each group and within their own group. Shifts of power in this three-way straggle led to the organizational transition away from inside contracting.

The inside contract system of production and organization: A neglected aspect of the history of the firm

The inside contract system of production and organization: A neglected aspect of the history of the firm

アメリカにおける工場制度の変質と内部請負制度

In order to evaluate the impact of the inside contract system in the process on the evolution of factory management, this paper adopts the technology-organization approach. The type of organization developed by the early textile mills remainded satisfactory in the mechanical industries (textile, meat-packing, flouer-milling) and the refining and distilling (cottonseed oil, petroleum, beer, whisky). In the case of these industries, the adoption of the new continuous-process machinery and improved plant design had a profound effect on increasing output. They had much less impact on the modern factory organization. On the other hand, the metal-making and metal-working industries were faced with many managerial difficulties toward mass-production. Gang-work and separated plant lay-out impeded the coordination of flow through several processes of production. The inside contract system was the first organizational response to attain the high-volume throughput in these factories.

The Inside Contract System

The system of inside contracting has received little attention from economic historians despite its importance in the development of American industry. Although several authors have mentioned the system, none has described its operation in detail. The purpose of this paper, therefore, is to remedy this omission and analyze the reasons for the elimination of the system, with particular reference to one manufacturing plant (Winchester Repeating Arms Company).