Number Of Production Units Research Articles

The location and capacity-dependent price impacts of biofuel production and its effect on the forest industry

Forest-based biofuel stands out as a promising solution to avoid fossil emissions in parts of the transport sector. Biofuel production will need large amounts of forest biomass, collected from a large area. Roundwood is costly to transport compared with other goods. Therefore, the location of forest-based biofuel production is a crucial part of an investment decision. This study analyses the optimal location of biofuel plants in Norway and the implications for the traditional forest sector in the Nordic countries. We test different numbers of production units, different sizes of the units, and various raw materials. The study applies a partial equilibrium model that covers the Norwegian and Nordic forest sectors, with 356 regions in Norway. The results indicate that small biofuel plants have the potential to turn exporting regions into importing regions. Larger biofuel plants are suitable for areas with large harvest activity today or regions with access to harbour or timber terminals along railways. We find that forest owners close to a biofuel plant will profit the most from biofuel production. Policymakers and investors should take into account that different locations and production capacities have different impacts on the forest sectors.

ALOKASI BIAYA OVERHEAD PABRIK BERDASARKAN ACTIVITY BASED COSTING DALAM MENENTUKAN HARGA POKOK PRODUKSI PADA ANDRA BAKERY MEDAN

This study aims to determine and analyze how the allocation of factory overhead costs based on activity based costing in determining the cost of production at Andra Bakery Medan. The population in this study is data regarding costs related to the Cost of Production, namely direct processing data and factory overhead costs at Andra Bakery Medan from the year it was founded until 2020. The research sample in this study was direct processing data and factory overhead costs at Andra Bakery Medan in 2020. The data analysis technique in this study is a descriptive analysis method.Based on the results of the analysis and evaluation, it can be concluded that the cost of production per unit with the traditional method for banana bread is Rp. 1,090, for brown bread is Rp. 1,179, and for srikaya bread is Rp. 1,212. While the cost of production per unit using the activity based costing method, different results were obtained for banana bread of Rp. 1,084, for brown bread of Rp. 1,172, and srikaya bread of Rp. 1,229. This difference is caused because in the traditional method the overhead costs for each product are only charged to one cost driver, namely the number of production units. Meanwhile, in Activity Based Costing, overhead costs for each product are charged to 3 cost drivers, namely the number of production units, direct working hours, and area

Principal–agent models where a principal is only affected by extreme performances

We consider an independent agents setting, where only the highest or lowest achievement affects the principal. An example of highest achievement scenario is the output of parallel research and development (R&D) teams, when only the highest/best achievement matters. An example of lowest achievement could be an assembly system, where the number of product units that can be assembled equals the lowest number of adequate parts of any component. The findings show that when only extreme performances matter, a principal employs weaker incentives for multiple agents. Furthermore, the reward parameter is especially small if only the lowest achievement is relevant.

MATHEMATICAL MODELING OF MIXTURE PROCESS RAW MATERIALS FOR MANUFACTURING CARBON BLACK

It was investigated the technological process of changing the raw material for the production of technical carbon. The expediency of developing a new control system is analyzed. The mathematical model proce-su is developed.The volume of carbon black production in the world does not increase since 2010. Moreover, it will help to increase the quality of help and quality of money in the market.The optimal formulation should be as economically profitable as possible, that is, to choose the highest yield of technical carbon per unit of raw materials. This formulation is currently determined in the laboratory by conducting a series of studies on components. Automated recipe management system does not exist at this time. Since the production of TV raw materials is a combination of many hydrocarbons and all of them are combined with products of the petrochemical or coke industry, through which their composition can fluctuate on a single user, raises questions about the optimal formulation of raw materials for each supplier. To do this, you need to develop a mathematical model that will allow you to predict the review of the process and synthesize optimal control algorithms.In this paper, the actual scientific and practical problem of modeling the static and dynamic regime of the raw material process for the production of technical carbon is considered. The current development was introduced, as well as the possible use of the paths, namely, the synthesis of optimal management of raw recipe management, which can be used to optimize the recipes. This development will allow to optimize the types of use of available resources to increase the productivity of technical carbon production and reduce the number of production units. It improves economic efficiency and reduces the speed of costs, reducing financial costs and giving the opportunity to quasilifting human resources to solve other pressing problems. Transition processes have been built, aimed at the implementation of different models. They attest to the transient process of the first-order links.Because of the significant nonlinearity and dependence, each other influences one another from the proposed automatic system of optimal control of the linearization of the object. For the convenience of further practical use, it is proposed to attract optimal controls at different meanings of the initial rates for further approximation. This will allow the proposed algorithms to be used with fewer technical resources.

Inside and outside the black box: organization of interdependencies

Production theory has remained substantially unchanged since the publication of the theory of production by Frisch (Theory of production, D. Reidel, Dordrecht, 1928; Nord613 Tidskr Tek Økon 1:12–27, 1935). The theory is based on the idea of a firm deciding on the possible input and output combinations of a single unit of production. His theory was substantially copied in contributions by Carlson (A study on the pure theory of production, University of Chicago, Chicago, 1939) and Schneider (Einführung in die Wirtschaftstheorie. 4 Bände, Mohr, Tübingen, 1947), and later by practically all textbooks in microeconomics. The idea is to model the firm as a “black box” in which a finite number of externally purchased inputs are transformed into a finite number of outputs to be sold in the market(s). Most of the time, the prices are externally determined. Often, the production process is summarized by some simplified production function as, for example, in the form of a CES function. Another and conceptually richer approach is the formulation of an activity analysis model. In the latter case, simple internal interdependencies can be included. In this paper, we indicate how internal interdependencies can also be modeled within a special CES framework. In recent decades, there has been a remarkable growth in the number of production units of firms such as IKEA, Walmart and Apple to name a few such global networking firms. Most of the analysis of these network firms has been modeled by logistics and other operations-research analysts (Simchi-Levi et al. 2008) and to a limited extent by researchers in business administration schools. Very little has been done in economics. We propose a modeling approach consistent with the microeconomic theory.

Sedimentary units-layering system and depositional model of the carbonate Mishrif reservoir in Rumaila oilfield, Southern Iraq

The Mishrif Formation (Cenomanian–Lower Campanian) is the main productive oilfield at Basrah in southern Iraq. It mainly comprises of shales and carbonates characterized by vertical phase transitions, including seals and oil reservoirs. This study establishes the Cenomanian–Campanian sequence stratigraphic framework through the integration of geochemical and geophysical data in order to distinguish between the stratigraphic intervals of shale and non-shale along oil wells in the Rumaila Oil Field that penetrates the Mishrif, Khasib and Tanuma formations. The geochemical profile has shown that carbonate and shale are the main lithologies along the 315 m stratigraphic interval from the top of Tanuma to the base of Mishrif, in the oil well WQ2-139. The stratigraphic column accordingly was divided into twenty stratigraphic intervals (zones); four zones in Tanuma, five zones in Khasib and eleven zones in the Mishrif Formation. The lower part of the Mishrif Formation is the main reservoir in the stratigraphic column as already known, yet the problem lies in the controversy over the number of productive units and their stratigraphic intervals. The porosity, lithology and fluid characters were discriminated based on distribution temperature (DT), Distribution Temperature Sensing (DTS) and RHOB logs as well as the compressional-wave velocity (Vp), shear-wave velocity (Vs) and density logs. The shale, gas limestone, oil limestone and brine limestone are well estimated and presented where the chi angle is about 0° and fluid-fill (i.e. oil from brine) is 30°–50°. This study provided headway in establishing milestones in the stratigraphic framework that have an important effect in determining reservoir storage quality.

Eating With Your Eyes: How Packaging Visual Cues Affect Content Estimation and Self-control in Virtue and Vice Food

This research investigates the effects of visual cues depicted on food packaging on consumers’ estimates of the contained amount and consumers’ self-control intentions. Results from two experiments show that the number of product units shown on the package drives perceptions and behavioral intentions in food categories where product size tends to be quite standardized, supporting the “see more, expect more” effect reported by previous literature, but adding a “see virtue, expect more” effect triggered by product type. Instead, when product size tends to vary across manufacturers, picture size has a greater effect on consumers’ content estimations and self-control intention than the number of product units depicted, suggesting the existence of a “see small, expect more” effect according to which consumers estimate larger content when the package portrays smaller product units. Results stimulate awareness of the effects that can be conveyed by images on packaging, on content estimates and consumer self-control.

DIAGNOSIS, VERIFICATION AND VALIDITY OF DATA FOR COMPUTER-AIDED SYSTEM

Modern approaches to feasibility, the safe operation, industrial safety are based on the concept of automation and information guaranteed level of information security. Increasing the level of information security - is the need to implement automated diagnostic procedures of state technical means of verification data circulating in automated systems. Solving problems diagnostics devices devoted to a sufficiently large number of works which examined approaches to the identification as sudden and gradual (functional) failure. Much less work is devoted to solving the problems of verification and validity (VaV) of data in large distributed production systems, for example, on objects of JSC Transneft, PJSC Gazprom, petroleum-refining and petrochemical complexes where a number of signals can reach tens and hundreds of thousands. Outstanding tasks are mixing different kinds of balances (energy, process liquids) and sourcing imbalance. When solving the latter problem, due to the inability to identify the sources imbalance, there is a need to substantiate the number and place of installation of measuring equipment to ensure unambiguous identification of the causes of imbalance. This article discusses ways to improve the level of information safety by automating complex diagnostic tools, verification data. It is necessary for the implementation of the automated technological complexes, which include those subsystems are advanced control and safety. For complex (in terms of criteria such as distribution areas, the number of production units, parameters and indicators) the technique of development models based on cognitive modeling ideas and approach to building diagnostics, and verification (validity).

Parasite surveillance and novel use of anthelmintics in cattle

Background Cattle are economically the most important livestock for farmers in Sweden. However, both dairy and beef production has been subjected to considerable structural change over recent decades. Currently, there are approximately 1.5 million cattle, including ≈370 000 dairy cows producing milk worth 1 m€ [1]. The trend is that the numbers of dairy cows are decreasing slowly, while beef cows are somewhat increasing. At the same time as the productivity has been intensified since the 1950’s in the cattle sector, herd size has increased and the number of production units, especially the number of dairy farms, have been dramatically reduced. In contrast, the numbers of organic farms are steadily increasing. The goal of the Swedish government is to increase the Swedish organic production of agricultural commodities to 20% within a three-year period. According to the Swedish animal welfare regulations, both conventional and organic cattle must have access to pasture for a period of 2–3 months per year [2]. The grazing season normally occurs between early May and October. As pasture-borne parasites are ubiquitous wherever animals are grazing, they remain one of the most important productivity constraints in Swedish cattle production. These parasites have in common that they often exhibit simple direct life cycles with infective stages transmitted on pasture by the faecal–oral route. The most important pasture-borne parasites of grazing cattle in Sweden are the gastrointestinal (GI) nematodes Ostertagia ostertagi and Cooperia oncophora. To a lesser degree, the lungworm Dictyocaulus viviparus, and also the coccidian Eimeria alabamensis, are important pathogens. Furthermore, in wet areas the liver fluke Fasciola hepatica, with a complex life cycle, sometimes cause problems. The importance of GI-nematodes and lungworms on the productivity in first-season grazing (FSG) cattle has been demonstrated in a range of independent grazing trials conducted at SWEPAR over the last decade [3-8]. According to the results, the weight-gain penalties in unprotected set stocked FSG animals were on an average in the range of 20 to 65 kg, compared to simultaneously grazed calves but that were fully protected from parasites by the use of effective anthelmintics. Combined, these trials demonstrate the importance of nematode parasites on animal productivity under Swedish climatic and management conditions. They also show that good levels of nematode control can be achieved through the correct use of anthelmintics. However, at the same time there are concerns that over-dependence on ‘chemical’ control may lead to long-term difficulties. This occurs partly through development of anthelmintic resistance, but also because these substances are not widely accepted among consumers. Routine prophylactic use of anthelmintics is not accepted in organic livestock farming [9]. However, “blanket” treatment of the whole grazing group or herd is accepted, even on organic farms, in response to a worm problem after it has been diagnosed. Although the results from our grazing trials also have shown that good levels of parasite control can be achieved without anthelmintics, some of the alternative non-chemical parasite control approaches that we have tested are impractical. For example, when it comes to the use of natural pasturelands there are situations where high grazing pressure must be maintained in order to maintain a profile necessary for the generation of subsidies. Young and adult stock on Swedish dairy Department of Biomedical Sciences and Veterinary Public Health, Div. of Parasitology and Virology (SWEPAR), Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), SE-751 80 Uppsala, Sweden Hoglund Acta Veterinaria Scandinavica 2010, 52(Suppl 1):S25 http://www.actavetscand.com/content/52/S1/S25

RELIABILITY ANALYSIS OF COMPLEX SYSTEMS BASED ON THE LOSSES FROM FAILURES

The conventional reliability analysis is based on the premise that increasing the reliability of a system will decrease the losses from failures. In this paper it is demonstrated that increasing the reliability of the system does not always mean decreasing the losses from failures. An inappropriate increase of the reliability of the system may lead to a simultaneous increase of the losses from failure. In other words, a system reliability improvement, which is disconnected from the losses from failure does not necessarily reduce the losses from failures. An efficient discrete-event simulation model and algorithm have been proposed for reliability analysis based on the losses from failure for production systems with complex topology. The model links reliability with losses from failures. A new algorithm has also been developed for system reliability analysis related to productions systems based on multiple production units where the absence of critical failure means that at least m out n production units are working. The parametric study conducted on the basis of the developed models revealed that a dual-control production system is characterized by enhanced production availability, which increases with increasing the number of production units in the system. A production unit from a dual-control production system including multiple production units is characterized by a larger availability compared to a production unit from a dual-control production system including a single production unit. The proposed approach has been demonstrated by comparing the losses from failures and the net present values of two competing design topologies: one based on a single-channel control and the other based on a dual-channel control. The proposed models have been successfully applied and tested for reliability value analysis of productions systems in deepwater oil and gas production. It is also argued that the reliability allocation in a production system should be done to maximize the net profit/value obtained from the system. Consequently, a method for setting reliability requirements and reliability allocation maximizing the net profit by minimizing the sum of the capital costs and the expected losses from failures has been proposed. Reliability allocation which maximizes the net profit in case of a system consisting of blocks arranged in series is achieved by determining for each block individually, the reliabilities of the components which minimize the sum of the capital costs and the expected losses from failures.

Credit Channel and Industrial Firms’ Market Power

The model presented here describes an economy where a concentrated industrial sector interacts with a financial system in which industrial firms can choose to finance their investments either by issuing bonds on a competitive spot financial market or by borrowing money from the banking sector, where they enjoy some oligopsonistic power. It is shown that, for a given number of production units, an exogenous modification in the degree of concentration in the industrial sector (caused for example by mergers) affects not only the equilibrium level of investments but also the transmission mechanism of monetary policy with composite effects. In the benchmark case of a perfectly ‘market–oriented’ financial system (i.e. where firms raise their funds on frictionless spot financial markets) mergers and acquisitions tend to reduce the short–run impact of monetary policy because they make the industrial sector less reactive to the changes in marginal financial costs determined by open market operations.

AN EMPIRICAL STUDY OF TWO CLASSES OF ESTIMATORS FOR PROCESS VARIATION TRANSMISSION

Manufacturing processes often consist of a number of sequential stages. Of interest is to control the variation in one or more quality characteristics of a production unit at the final stage. By understanding how variation is transmitted and added across the stages, remedial actions in reducing variation at the final stage can be properly planned. With one quality characteristic measured at each stage, a set of naive estimators is previously proposed and shown to perform indistinguishably well with maximum likelihood estimators. Thus naive estimators are more convenient than maximum likelihood estimators as the former exist in closed form while the latter do not. This article considers situations when more than one quality characteristic is measured throughout the stages. Methods of analyzing variation transmission are briefly reviewed and the finite sample properties of naive and maximum likelihood estimators for multivariate measurements are further examined. A broad conclusion is that for moderate number of production units, naive estimators have smaller bias and variability. Furthermore, "proper" naive estimates provide more accurate interval estimates at a given confidence level. Finally, a set of piston-machining data is used for illustration.

Small-scale enterprise policy in developing countries: an analysis of India's reservation policy

This paper examines the effects of India's reservation policy to help the small-scale enterprises. Empirical tests showed three main results. Firstly, reservation has increased the number of production units, per item produced. Secondly, the units that produce mainly reserved items have higher levels of installed capacities, than those making mainly unreserved items, but the former do not have higher levels of production, thereby resulting in significantly lower levels of capacity utilisation. Thirdly, reservation has not helped reduce the problem of closures of small units. The empirical results suggest that reservation may have brought little help to production and employment in the small-scale units nor to the consumers of their products, while at the same time it may have restricted production and employment in the large units. Thus reservation may have caused a loss in overall economic welfare. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Commercialization of plant tissue culture in India

Commercial application of plant tissue culture started in USA with micropropagation of orchids in 1970s. It has seen tremendous expansion globally from 1985 to 1990 in the number of production units as well as the number of plants produced. With an estimated global market of 15 billion US dollars per annum for tissue cultured products, even with exponential expansion in the industry, the demand far exceeds production, leaving enough scope for expansion. This industry appears to be undergoing a pause in growth presently in developed countries as it is finding difficult to remain cost–effective. In US, only half the production capacity is being utilized currently due to high labour costs. In developing countries, with lower wage scales, plants are being produced at much cheaper rates. Indian micropropagation industry, though a late starter by almost a decade, compared to its western counterparts, has expanded exponentially from 5 million annual capacity in 1988 to 190 million in 1996. The facilities now created are at par with the best in leading countries like the Netherlands and USA. To remain in profitable business and to earn the much needed foreign exchange, Indian units need to judiciously mix steady revenue generating items with unique speciality items based on demand in domestic and international markets.

Impact of EC reforms on animal production systems: The ruminant sector viewpoint

The 1991 reform of the EC Common Agricultural Policy was designed to be acceptable to a successful GATT agreement with EC bureaucrats having an understanding of the GATT objectives, with the start of the recent GATT round beginning in 1986. Hence, the objective of both pieces of legislation is similar - to encourage free trade by reducing support of product prices through removing import quotas, export subsidies etc. As a consequence CAP has transferred open ended support for product price to a support of limited numbers of production units through cow and sheep quotas. It is therefore expected that product prices will fall closer to world market prices, particularly for products in surplus in the EC such as beef. Precise market specifications will therefore impinge directly on producers in terms of price and encourage the development of specific production systems to meet these specific markets, eg ultra light Mediterranean market.

Continuous sampling plans for markov-dependent production processes

This article discusses the behavior of three continuous sampling plans: continuous sampling plan 1 (CSP 1) and continuous sampling plan 2 (CSP 2) developed by Dodge [5] and Dodge and Torrey [7], and multilevel continuous sampling plan 2 (MLP 2) developed by Lieberman and Solomon [11], when the quality of successive units in a continuous production process follows a two-state time-homogeneous Markov chain. We first derive the average outgoing quality (AOQ) expressions of these plans. Exact procedures for determining the average outgoing quality limit (AOQL) can be obtained only for CSP 1. For CSP 2 and MLP 2 plans, iterative procedures have been used to obtain the AOQL contours. For these plans, it is assumed that the serial correlation coefficient between the two consecutive random variables of the Markov chain is known. In addition, estimation procedures for the coefficient are given. We show that if the serial correlation coefficient of the Markov chain is positive (negative), the AOQL is increased (decreased) as compared to the case when the successive units in the production process follows a Bernoulli pattern. Let r denote the number of production units examined in succession which are found to be of good quality and k denote the inverse of the sampling fraction employed when quality is good. Then if r and k are sufficiently small, it is observed from the graph that, for small departures of the serial correlation coefficient from zero, the AOQL values do not differ significantly for each of the three plans; whereas for sufficiently large values of r and k, the AOQL values differ significantly. Various aspects of these plans, such as their operating characteristics 2 (OC 2) and the serial correlation coefficient, are discussed.

Economic Reform in Bulgaria: Coping with “The kj Problem”

This chapter discusses the standard ways of classifying economic reforms and reviews developments in Bulgarian reforms to try and place Bulgaria within the traditional classification. It describes the kj problem—the problem of too many central controls (the ks ) and too many production units (the j's ) to control. Operating under the streamlined centralized system with decomposition (SCSD), the Bulgarian economy in 1979 generated the highest growth rate in Eastern Europe. The planned economic effect of the SCSD was to generate increased planning efficiency by reducing the number and changing the nature of the control figures to make them more internally consistent and to generally reduce the amount of detail handled at the centre. One way of reducing the size of the kj problem was to reduce the size of j’ , that is, reducing the number of production units, which is horizontal integration. This generated a horizontally reduced problem. No economic system or system of economic management is immune to the extreme stress that the developments in the raw materials and energy sectors in the 1970s placed on them.

The Optimum Span of Control in a Pure Hierarchy

This is a model of a pure hierarchy which oversees a given number of productive units. Its aim is to minimize costs, which are the sum of wage costs and costs caused by delays in decision making. The advantage of the model is that it permits the calculation of an optimum formal structure of the hierarchy in terms of the span of control at different levels. The general result is that spans of control should increase as one goes down the levels of the hierarchy. However, when time savings become more and wage costs less important, the difference between the optimum spans of control shrinks; in the limit, when wage costs are not considered at all, they become equal. These results support the findings of some empirical studies: there is evidence for increasing spans of control in business organizations, while in armies, where cost considerations are secondary, spans of control tend to be more uniform.