Measurement Of Productive Efficiency Research Articles

Regular Variable Returns to Scale Production Frontier and Efficiency Measurement

Breakthrough in Measuring Efficiency with Respect to Nonconvex Technology The variable returns to scale (VRS) frontier, commonly used in data envelopment analysis, has a convex technology set and follows a specific “regular VRS” structure in economics. This structure demonstrates increasing, constant, and then, decreasing returns to scale, and it is the standard in data envelopment analysis. When the convexity assumption is relaxed, modeling regular VRS becomes challenging, and no satisfactory solution currently exists for multioutput production. In “Regular Variable Returns to Scale Production Frontier and Efficiency Measurement,” Li, Tsang, Lee, and He introduce a new framework for analyzing regular variable returns to scale and propose an innovative empirical production frontier. This new frontier can more accurately measure technical efficiency without the convexity assumption. The implications of this research are extensive, impacting fields like manufacturing, agriculture, healthcare, banking, etc., with crucial findings for informed decision making and effective policy implementation.

Effects of genetic and environmental trends from 1970 to 2020 on farm efficiency estimated with a whole farm modeling system

The objectives of this study were to evaluate associations of genetic, cow management and nutrition, inbreeding, and crop yields from 1970 to 2020 with measures of production and economic efficiency according to a whole farm model, and to evaluate effects of genetic change in individual traits on economic efficiency in comparison to expectations from economic selection indexes. Genetic and phenotypic performance metrics for Holsteins from 1970 and 2020 were retrieved and input into the Integrated Farm System Model (IFSM) for a 7000 cow TX herd and a 50 cow PA grazing herd. Crop yields estimates from 1970 and 2020 were retrieved and farm hectarage was altered so that forage and energy concentrate requirements were met through farm production; likewise, scenarios evaluating effects of atmospheric CO2 fertilization (CO2F) on crop yield were evaluated by altering farm hectarage. For single traits that could be dynamically modeled by IFSM, performance shifts and resulting change in product prices or management expenses were added to 1970 base models. Economic efficiency was evaluated as the per cow return to management and unpaid factors as compared with 1970 base models. As averaged across state scenarios, gains in economic efficiency were +$945 and -$76 for additive genetic and inbreeding effects, respectively, for a total gain from genetic change of +$869. Genetic gain in fat yield (+$549) and protein yield (+$524) were responsible for most of the genetic gain, whereas milk yield (-$128) and increased cow BW (-$129) depressed economic efficiency. Genetic change in productive life had a smaller effect (+$44) than predicted unless heifers were purchased and at double the default value. Gains due to cow management and nutrition increased efficiency by +$666 and crop yield increased efficiency by +$711, of which +$371 was attributed to CO2F across scenarios. Whole farm dry matter efficiencies derived as the ratio of fat and protein corrected milk yield to dry matter intake increased from 0.82 (PA) and 0.97 (TX) in 1970 to 1.20 in 2020 and could be higher if farms reduce the size of their replacement herd by producing beef calves. The landmass required in 2020 was 63% and 78% of the 1970 requirement for TX and PA, respectively. Changes in cow genetic merit, management and nutrition, and crop yields have all increased the economic and environmental sustainability of milk production, and systems such as IFSM could be a useful tool to help inform economic selection indices.

Partially Convex Production Technology and Efficiency Measurement

Partially Convex Production Technology and Efficiency Measurement

Improvement of agricultural productivity and optimization of rural economic structure from a digital perspective

Abstract This paper first analyzes and researches the current practice status of digital transformation of Chinese agricultural production from production, credit, and management aspects. Then, it analyzes the measurement of agricultural production efficiency and the factors influencing agricultural production efficiency in the context of digital transformation by using DEA measurement tools. The impact of digitalization level enhancement on rural economic structure is also analyzed and explained from the perspective of technological progress bias through spatial econometric models. The results show that the level of digitalization promotes the development of agricultural modernization in terms of the change in the ranking of scores between 2014 and 2023. The correlation coefficients of the level of digital economy development, financial support for agriculture, and urbanization rate are 0.483, 1.163, and 0.764, which significantly promote the efficiency of agricultural production in China. There is a significant spatial dependence relationship between economic structure and digital transformation (P<0.001).

Longitudinal genetic dynamics of weaning index and implications for cow-calf production efficiency

In beef cattle, the selection for higher weights at young ages has been questioned with the argument that this criterion may increase the adult weight of cows, resulting in higher costs. Therefore, selection criteria should be employed to increase weights at young ages with minimal impact on the adult weight of cows. Additionally, the relationship between measures of cow production efficiency and other well-established selection criteria in breeding programs remains poorly understood. The objective of this study was to longitudinally evaluate the relationship between the weaning index (WIndex) as a measure of efficiency and growth traits of the cows. Possible changes over time in WIndex due to selection applied for yearling weight (YW) were also investigated. The WIndex was proposed to maximize genetic response in the weaning weight of the calf while maintaining genetic gain in BW of the cow at zero. A random regression model was adopted to estimate correlations between WIndex, BW, hip height (HH), and body condition score (BCS) using records of Nelore cows from three lines. Genetic trends were calculated for the control line (NeC) and lines selected for greater YW (NeS and NeT). The age of 3 years was the most critical for the weaning efficiency of the cows. At this stage, young cows are still growing and wean lighter calves than their adult counterparts. The genetic correlation estimates between WIndex and BW (−0.58 to 0.04), HH (−0.05 to −0.34), and BCS (−0.51 to −0.17) were close to zero or negative. BW and HH were strongly correlated genetically across all ages (0.73–0.76). In general, HH exhibited a weak and negative genetic relationship with BCS. The genetic correlation between BW and BCS was stronger for advanced ages (0.45–0.68). In lines selected for YW, important increases in WIndex were observed. However, NeS has been selected since the 1980s until the present for YW, and thus, it showed a more pronounced trend of increasing BW and, consequently, a more modest trend of increasing WIndex compared to NeT. In contrast, WIndex exhibited a trend close to zero for NeC. In this context, monitoring HH and BCS can be useful to avoid losses in the weaning efficiency of cows. Furthermore, we suggest that one way to mitigate efficiency losses in calf production could involve stabilizing the BW of cows and increasing the weaning weight of calves using the WIndex.

Explanatory and predictive analytics for movie production efficiency by online word-of-mouth

It has become increasingly important to consider the efficiency of movies in creating box revenue while using fewer movie resources. Further, there is a lack of eWOM (online-word-of-mouth) studies regarding using the production efficiency of movies as a dependent outcome measure replacing box revenue. This study shows that production efficiency can be suggested by comparing movie resources powers, i.e., powers of actors, directors, distributors, and production companies, which are input for movie production, and the box office. For testing the validity of the measure of production efficiency, this study examines the effect of eWOM attributes, i.e., review depth, volume, rating, review sentiment, and helpfulness on production efficiency. Data envelopment analysis is adopted to produce the efficiency of movies. This study provides insights into a current movie study on eWOM by showing the effect of interaction between eWOM (review rating) and helpfulness on production efficiency. Further, this study purports to test the prediction power in predicting production efficiency using decision trees, neural networks, and logistic regression. These results show that k nearest neighbor and automated neural networks outperform the other machine learning methods in classifying efficient movies.

Energy efficient smart manufacturing of pharmaceutical solid oral dosage forms

Background: The global pharmaceuticals market is a trillion-dollar industry which grows more than 5% annually. However, in comparison to other manufacturing industries (e.g., oil refining, automotive), the pharmaceutical sector lags in manufacturing innovation and automation. In the production of pharmaceutical solid dosage forms, the use of energy utilization as a performance measure of production efficiency has neither been implemented extensively, nor been optimized to maximize efficiency. This study will focus on the development and implementation of a smart manufacturing platform to optimize energy productivity whilst maintaining tablet quality via the consideration of different manufacturing scenarios.
 Methods: This study will consider three main unit operations (wet granulation, drying and milling) which are relatively more energy intensive in pharmaceutical downstream processing, used to produce solid dosage forms, such as tablets. Four case-studies will be considered, which are 1: baseline batch, 2: baseline continuous, 3: optimized batch and 4: optimized continuous. Smart manufacturing is implemented to present optimized cases 3: and 4: Improvements in the energy and performance metrics are quantified and compared to the baseline cases. 
 Results and conclusions: The smart manufacturing platform used in this study, integrates advanced process model development, optimization, technoeconomic analysis and data integration. The utilization of this framework contributed to a ~70% and ~80% improvement in energy utilization in the optimized batch and continuous cases, respectively, when compared to the baseline batch case. In the optimized cases, tablet quality was maintained within targeted specifications and was comparable to the baseline batch case. This smart manufacturing framework can be generalized for drug product manufacturing and other particulate-based industries such as food, agriculture, and fine chemicals.

A Greedy Cooperative Co-Evolutionary Algorithm With Problem-Specific Knowledge for Multiobjective Flowshop Group Scheduling Problems

The flowshop sequence-dependent group scheduling problem (FSDGSP) with the production efficiency measures has been extensively studied due to its wide industrial applications. However, energy efficiency indicators are often ignored in the literature. This paper considers the FSDGSP to minimize makespan, total flow time and total energy consumption, simultaneously. After the problem-specific knowledge is extracted, a mixed-integer linear programming model and a critical path-based accelerated evaluation method are proposed. Since the FSDGSP includes multiple coupled sub-problems, a greedy cooperative co-evolutionary algorithm (GCCEA) is designed to explore the solution space in depth. Meanwhile, a random mutation operator and a greedy energy-saving strategy are employed to adjust the processing speeds of machines to obtain a potential non-dominated solution. A large number of experimental results show that the proposed algorithm significantly outperforms the existing classic multi-objective optimization algorithms, which is due to the usage of problem-related knowledge.

A cooperative whale optimization algorithm for energy-efficient scheduling of the distributed blocking flow-shop with sequence-dependent setup time

The distributed blocking flow-shop sequence-dependent scheduling problem (DBFSDSP) with the production efficiency measures has been extensively concerned as its wide industrial applications. Whereas, energy efficiency indicators are often ignored in the literature. The DBFSDSP considered makespan, total tardiness, and total energy consumption is investigated in this paper. A cooperative whale optimization algorithm (CWOA) is proposed to solve the DBFSDSP as the complexity of the distributed and multi-objective optimization. First, the critical path of DBFSDSP is defined. An energy-saving operation for the non-critical path is designed to reduce the energy consumption of the system. Second, an accelerated operation for the critical path is designed to reduce the makespan and total tardiness. Third, three acceptance criteria for multi-objective optimization are proposed to improve the diversity of the population. The statistical and computational experimentation in an extensive benchmark testified that the CWOA outperforms the state-of-the-art algorithms regarding efficiency and significance in solving DBFSDSP.

Production Efficiency Measurement of Seaweed Cultivation In The Specific Economic Zone of Mandalika, Central Lombok Regency

Central Lombok Regency, especially in the Specific Economic Zone (SEZ) Mandalika apart from being a tourism area it is also one of the centers for seaweed cultivation in NTB Province, seaweed cultivation in the SEZ Mandalika, Central Lombok Regency currently still has several problems, one of which is business productivity which is still low. The low productivity of seaweed cultivation can be caused by inefficient allocation of inputs. The aims of this study were: 1) to analyze the factors that affect the production of seaweed aquaculture, 2) to analyze the level of efficiency of the production of seaweed aquaculture, and 3) to analyze the factors that influence the level of technical inefficiency of seaweed cultivation in SEZ Mandalika, Central Lombok Regency. This study uses a descriptive research method with a mixed method research approach. Collecting research data using survey techniques through interviews with respondents as many as 30 people who were taken by accidental sampling. Analysis of the data in this study using the method of Cobb-Douglas stochastic frontier production function to measure the level of production efficiency of seaweed cultivation in SEZ Mandalika, Central Lombok Regency. The results of this study indicate that seaweed production is significantly influenced by the variables of area, seeds, and labour. The level of production efficiency of seaweed cultivation is efficient with a production efficiency value of 0.861. Then the factors that affect the technical inefficiency of seaweed cultivation in Central Lombok Regency include level of education and dummy farmer groups.

Opportunities and Hurdles to the Adoption and Enhanced Efficacy of Feed Additives towards Pronounced Mitigation of Enteric Methane Emissions from Ruminant Livestock

This paper analyzes the mitigation of enteric methane (CH4) emissions from ruminants with the use of feed additives inhibiting rumen methanogenesis to limit the global temperature increase to 1.5 °C. A mathematical simulation conducted herein predicted that pronounced inhibition of rumen methanogenesis with pure chemicals or bromoform-containing algae with an efficacy higher than that obtained in most studies can be important to limiting global temperature increase by 2050 to 1.5 °C but will likely need to be accompanied by improved production efficiency and other mitigation measures. Currently, the most important limitations to the adoption of antimethanogenic feed additives are increased feeding cost without a consistent return in production efficiency and achieving sustained delivery of inhibitors to grazing animals, especially in extensive systems. Economic incentives could be applied in some countries to favor adoption of inhibitors. Changes in rumen microbial and whole animal metabolism caused by inhibiting methanogenesis could potentially be used to make the methanogenesis inhibition intervention cost-effective, although research in this direction is unlikely to yield results in the short term. Future research directions to maximize the adoption and efficacy of inhibitors of methanogenesis are examined.

Technical Efficiency of Rice Production in the Upper North of Thailand: Clustering Copula-Based Stochastic Frontier Analysis

This study examines the efficiency of rice production in Thailand, especially major rice, which is the main crop of farmers in all regions of Thailand and is still a pressing issue. Analyzing technical efficiency by using the appropriate analytical tools inevitably brings about determining the correct production efficiency measures. In this study, we applied the K-Means algorithm and copula-based stochastic frontier model to cluster farmer groups in order to find the different factors that impact the group, and to relax the assumption of the two components of random error, which is that they are independent to each other; the correlation of the two components of random error is also represented by the estimation of copula. The findings from the K-Means clustering algorithms applied in this study indicate that the production frontiers can be divided into two frontiers, with the number of farmers under the frontiers of such production differing from the number of farmers collected in each area. The production frontiers were obtained with 591 farmers under the first production frontier and 65 farmers under the second. In addition, the results reflected a correlation between the two error components U and V. This suggests inefficiencies and zero-mean, and that the symmetric error is not independent of each other. The findings from the application of the copula-based stochastic frontier production function models indicate that land, cost of chemicals, and labor inputs have significant positive effects on the mean output of major rice in both groups of farmers. Therefore, the results of this study indicate that the financial services in rural areas should be continuously promoted by governmental policy, particularly via agricultural loans, to rural people since the utilization of inputs affects the quantity of rice produced. Timely loans should be encouraged.

O32 Correlation between different measures of production efficiency in grazing Holstein dairy cows

O32 Correlation between different measures of production efficiency in grazing Holstein dairy cows

Potato farming in Southwestern Colombia: Types of farmers, technical efficiency and recommendations for the sector’s strengthening

Potato is a traditional and economically important crop for farmers in the high mountains of Nariño (Colombia). However, its productivity growth is weakening, injuring farmers’ livelihoods. We hypothesize that an in-depth study of farm typologies and their relationship with productive efficiency could prove helpful in delivering recommendations for sector improvement. With a representative sample of 1,018 farmers, this research used cluster methods to identify representative types of farming and then a stochastic frontier model to build a measure of potato production efficiency. Finally, it analyzed how technical efficiency behaves across the calculated types of farming. Results suggested that four kinds of farming describe potato production in Nariño: micro, small, medium, and large-scale. Most farmers are of the micro (71.8 %) and small scale (23.8 %), and their conditions are unfavorable in terms of access to technical assistance, credit, and improved production practices. Although these farmers report an average efficiency of 79 % and 85 %, respectively, there is still an opportunity for improvement. We close with a brief discussion that focuses on suggestions for future policy or research advances around these farmers.

Multi-skilled worker assignment in seru production system for the trade-off between production efficiency and workload fairness

PurposeThe paper formulates a bi-objective mixed-integer nonlinear programming model, aimed at minimizing the total labor hours and the workload unfairness for the multi-skilled worker assignment problem in Seru production system (SPS).Design/methodology/approachThree approaches, namely epsilon-constraint method, non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm 2 (NSGA-II) and improved strength Pareto evolutionary algorithm (SPEA2), are designed for solving the problem.FindingsNumerous experiments are performed to assess the applicability of the proposed model and evaluate the performance of algorithms. The merged Pareto-fronts obtained from both NSGA-II and SPEA2 were proposed as final solutions to provide useful information for decision-makers.Practical implicationsSPS has the flexibility to respond to the changing demand for small amount production of multiple varieties products. Assigning cross-trained workers to obtain flexibility has emerged as a major concern for the implementation of SPS. Most enterprises focus solely on measures of production efficiency, such as minimizing the total throughput time. Solutions based on optimizing efficiency measures alone can be unacceptable by workers who have high proficiency levels when they are achieved at the expense of the workers taking more workload. Therefore, study the tradeoff between production efficiency and fairness in the multi-skilled worker assignment problem is very important for SPS.Originality/valueThe study investigates a new mixed-integer programming model to optimize worker-to-seru assignment, batch-to-seru assignment and task-to-worker assignment in SPS. In order to solve the proposed problem, three problem-specific solution approaches are proposed.

Measurement of resource use efficiency in corn production: a two-stage data envelopment analysis approach in Turkey

ABSTRACT: This research analyzed the efficiency situation of corn farms operating in the Adana province of Turkey. In this context, required farm management data were collected from 111 corn farmers by using face to face survey method during the 2019-2020 cultivation season. To determine the technical efficiency (TE) levels of corn farms, Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) was applied. Furthermore, factors that cause the inefficiency in corn farms were detected by using the Tobit regression model. According to research results, the average TE levels of corn farms in the research area under the variable return to scale conditions are reported as 0.887 (111 farms). These results suggested that if farms reduced their input use by 11.3% on average, they can achieve the same output level and be able to reach full technical efficiency. The most ineffective source in terms of farms performance is machine expenditures with 68.2% of excessive use followed by labor use. In this regard, mechanization modernization, education and training of the labor force and more sensitive fertilizers and pesticide use can increase the efficiency of corn farms. Results of the Tobit regression model indicated that factors such as experience, education, number of tractors and size of the irrigated area positively influenced the TE, whereas family size in corn farming has a negative effect.

Assessing the Environmental Efficiency of Grain Production and Their Spatial Effects: Case Study of Major Grain Production Areas in China

Environmental factors have a profound impact on the evaluation of grain production efficiency. Taking environmental factors into account can more accurately measure grain production efficiency and identify the development stage of grain production. Based on the global super-efficiency SBM model, environmental factors are included in the grain production efficiency measurement system, while the temporal and spatial evolution characteristics of grain production environmental efficiency and the sources of inefficiency are analyzed. In addition, the Spatial Durbin Model is used to investigate the influencing factors and spatial spillover effects of China’s grain production environmental efficiency. The results show that: environmental factors have a significant impact on the efficiency of grain production in China; the environmental efficiency of grain production in China fluctuates with a downward trend; the environmental efficiency of grain production in different provinces show obvious spatial differentiation and geographical agglomeration; the main influencing factors of the environmental efficiency loss of grain production in major grain production areas are carbon emissions, non-point source pollution of grain production and labor input; the level of education, the level of technological development, and labor transfer have a significant positive spillover effect on the environmental efficiency of China’s grain production, yet disaster rate has a significantly negative one. Thus, it is important to pay attention to resource conservation and pollution control, strengthen cooperation and exchanges between provinces, and take the path of coordinated development between the environment and grain production.

The effect of Holstein-Friesian, Jersey × Holstein-Friesian, and Norwegian Red × (Jersey × Holstein-Friesian) cows on dry matter intake and production efficiencies in pasture-based systems

The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of cow genotype and parity on dry matter intake (DMI) and production efficiencies in pasture-based systems. Three dairy cow genotypes were evaluated over 3 yr; 40 Holstein-Friesian (HF), 40 Jersey × HF (JEX), and 40 Norwegian Red × JEX (3WAY) each year, with each genotype grazed in equal numbers on 1 of 4 grazing treatments in a 2 × 2 factorial arrangement of treatments [diploid or tetraploid perennial ryegrass (Lolium perenne L.) with or without white clover (Trifolium repens L.)]. A total of 208 individual cows were used during the experiment. The effect of parity (lactation 1, 2, and 3+) was also evaluated. Individual DMI was estimated 8 times during the study, 3 times in 2015 and in 2017, and twice in 2016, using the n-alkane technique. Days in milk at each DMI measurement period were 64, 110, and 189, corresponding to spring, summer, and autumn. Measures of milk production efficiency calculated were total DMI/100 kg of body weight (BW), milk solids (kg fat + protein; MSo)/100 kg of BW, solids-corrected milk (SCM)/100 kg of BW, and unité fourragère lait (net energy requirements for lactation equivalent of 1 kg of standard air-dry barley; UFL) available for standard (4.0% fat and 3.1% protein content) milk production after accounting for maintenance. During the DMI measurement periods HF had a greater milk yield (23.2 kg/cow per d) compared with JEX and 3WAY (22.0 and 21.9 kg/cow per d, respectively) but there was no difference in MSo yield. Holstein-Friesian and JEX, and JEX and 3WAY had similar DMI, but HF had greater total DMI than 3WAY (DMI was 17.2, 17.0, and 16.7 kg/cow per d for HF, JEX, and 3WAY, respectively). Jersey × Holstein-Friesian cows were the most efficient for total DMI/100 kg of BW, SCM/100 kg of BW, and MSo/100 kg of BW (3.63, 4.96, and 0.39 kg/kg of BW) compared with HF (3.36, 4.51, and 0.35 kg/kg of BW) and 3WAY (3.45, 4.63, and 0.37 kg/kg of BW), respectively. Unité fourragère lait available for standard milk production after accounting for maintenance was not different among genotypes. As expected, DMI differed significantly among parities with greater parity cows having higher DMI and subsequently higher milk and MSo yield. Although all 3 genotypes achieved high levels of DMI and production efficiency, JEX achieved the highest production efficiency. Some of the efficiency gains (SCM/100 kg of BW, MSo/100 kg of BW, and total DMI/100 kg of BW) achieved with JEX decreased when the third breed (Norwegian Red) was introduced.

Technical Efficiency and the Factors that Affect it in Rice Production in Indonesia

Most of the population of Asia depends on consuming rice to support their lives. This implies that rice production needs attention. The existence of inefficiencies in lowland rice production could reduce rice yields for consumption, so the measurement of technical efficiency in lowland rice production needed to be studied. This research aimed to analyze the level of technical efficiency in lowland rice cultivation and identify the factors affecting it. The research was done in the Palolo and Torue subdistrict of Indonesia. The number of samples used was 249 lowland rice farmlands, consisting of 106 and 143 farmers of organic and inorganic lowland rice cultivation, respectively. The results show that land, fertilizer, seeds, and labor had a positive and significant effect on lowland rice production. The average technical efficiency of lowland rice cultivation was around 78.2%. The results also show that manager education, extension contacts, superior seeds, and organic lowland rice cultivation have a significant effect on the level of technical efficiency in lowland rice production. We concluded that there is an opportunity for farmers to increase lowland rice yields if they can manage production factors in an efficient manner. The government could provide support for farmers, such as formal and informal education, extension, superior seeds, and ready-to-use organic materials.

ABOUT THE PERFOMANCE MULTI-PRODUCT MANUFACTURING SYSTEMS

The multi-product type of modern machine-building production significantly complicates the definition and use of its indicators. Some of them have clear meaning for traditional types of production. However, it is not well defined for multi-product production. This fully applies to the wellknown concept of “productivity” in mechanical engineering. Productivity metrics have traditionally been used as measures of production efficiency. However, they are not formally defined for multiproduct manufacturing. The presented article shows that these systems are collections of separate, but interacting subsystems. They are determined by a multitude of realized technological connections. It can be used several different productivity estimates when analyzing each subsystem. Only the results of the operation of alternative production systems, similar in input and output variables, can be compared in productivity. The productivity of the system grows with an increase in the share of its productive work time in the total time fund of its equipment, which is characterized by the value of the coefficient of extensive equipment use