Operational Management Decisions Research Articles

Automation of business processes of an educational organization: Financial module

The national program “Digital Economy of the Russian Federation” and the modernization of education, the transition to new professional standards, the need for personnel with digital competencies, make it necessary the automation of the main and auxiliary business processes of the educational organization at different levels of management. The article presents the results of the research, the object of which is the management of educational, scientific and educational activities, the subject of the research is the process of creating a unified information and educational environment of the university, the purpose of the research is the automation of business processes that contribute to the adoption of competent and operational management decisions in accordance with the Federal Law “On Education in the Russian Federation”. The article deals with the issues of designing the educational environment of university on the basis of object-oriented and structural approaches. The experience of an educational organization in designing a unified information space based on modules (subsystems) that automate the main business processes related to the management of educational activities in the South Ural State Humanitarian Pedagogical University is described. The article describes the software solution used by the university to achieve its goals by integrating it into the main and auxiliary business processes. The experience of designing a unified information and educational environment based on the 1C:University PROF system at the South Ural State Humanitarian Pedagogical University can be used by other educational organizations to build an integrative management system based on ready-made software systems.

Clavicles continue to grow beyond skeletal maturity: radiographic analysis of clavicle length in adolescents and young adults.

There has been minimal research regarding the clavicle's growth and its clinical implications in the late adolescent and early adult population. Previous studies have evaluated postnatal clavicle growth to age 18 without analysing growth through the age of secondary ossification center closure. The purpose of this study was (1) to determine clavicle length and age-related growth in males and females from age 12 to 25 years and (2) to specifically analyse clavicle growth in late adolescence. This was a retrospective analysis of chest radiographs in patients aged 12-25 years. The ruler tool was used to measure clavicle length. Mean values were tabulated for each year of age in males (n = 697) and females (n = 672). Mean right clavicle growth significantly increased from age 12 to 25 in both males and females (P < 0.0001). In males, the increase from age 16 to 25 was 17.5 mm, representing 10.6% of total clavicle length (P < 0.0001). In females, the increase from age 14 to 25 was 7.7 mm, representing 5.2% of total clavicle length (P < 0.0001). We found that from skeletal maturity to the closure of the secondary ossification center, growth was 17.5 mm (10.6% of total clavicle length) in males and 7.7 mm (5.2% of total clavicle length) in females. During their growth spurts, the adolescent male and female clavicle have growth potentials very similar to previous studies of radius growth. Understanding these clavicular growth potentials can influence operative vs. nonoperative management decisions by orthopaedic surgeons. Level of evidence: Level III.

Methods of ensuring flexibility of the budget process at holding enterprises of energy industry

Achieving business success for a company is directly related to financial planning, budgeting and analysis of results. Any system is viable if it includes feedback elements that provide an analysis of what the system has done and current adjustments to the system’s behavior as signals about its state. The article deals with the features of the budget process at energy enterprises as part of vertically oriented holding structures. The system formed by such enterprises is very complex, so it is necessary to take additional measures to maintain the efficiency of the budget process in such conditions. Therefore, an important issue is the organization of effective control in the budget execution system to make operational management decisions, which turns it into an effective tool for managing the enterprise. The essence and importance of budget control of energy companies are revealed. The paper deals with the organization of budget planning at an enterprise of the energy industry. Models for budget development and budget execution processes were built and budget limits were adjusted for enterprises using the IDEF0 methodology. The methods of control over the budget execution of energy industry enterprises are considered. The essence and types of the process of adjusting the budget of enterprises are revealed.

Bike3S: A tool for bike sharing systems simulation

ABSTRACT Vehicle sharing systems are becoming increasingly popular. The effectiveness of such systems depends, among other factors, on different strategic and operational management decisions and policies, like the dimension of the fleet or the distribution of vehicles. It is of foremost importance to be able to anticipate and evaluate the potential effects of such strategies before they can be successfully deployed. In this paper we present Bike3S, a simulator for a station-based bike sharing system. The simulator performs semi-realistic simulations of the operation of a bike sharing system and allows for evaluating and testing different management decisions and strategies. In particular, the simulator has been designed to test different station capacities, station distributions, and balancing strategies. The simulator carries out microscopic agent-based simulations, where users of different types can be defined that act according to their individual goals and objectives which influences the overall dynamics of the whole system.

Performance assessment methodology for AI-supported decision-making in production management

Artificial intelligence (AI) gains importance in many domains and may soon be transferred decision-making responsibilities in production management from production managers. For the future, it will be vital to identify each entity’s domain of decision-making superiority. Therefore, this paper proposes and applies a model to assess AI performance in contrast to human decision-making. Relying on reinforcement learning and item response theory, the approach describes a minimum viable setup for AI systems to identify opportunities for AI systems in manufacturing. The model is based on operative production management decisions (job-shop scheduling) and validated through a series of academic scheduling instances.

Accounting and analytical support of internal management reporting on reclamation works

In modern conditions, the objective need for the functioning of an agricultural organization is to maintain management accounting and the formation of internal management reporting. The internal management reporting contains information that is used by the management of the organization in making informed operational and strategic management decisions. However, in developing the format of internal reporting there are problems with the definition of a set of indicators necessary to assess the effectiveness of financial and economic activities of the enterprise. The purpose of the article is to justify the theoretical provisions and development of practical recommendations for the development of accounting and analytical support for the formation of internal reporting on reclamation work. Objectives of the study: to study the theoretical aspects, methodological tools, to determine the stages of formation of internal management reporting, to develop forms of management reports containing basic indicators to assess the effectiveness of reclamation activities. When writing this article, such methods as analysis of scientific and theoretical sources, system approach, method of comparative analysis, generalization were used. The approach suggested by the authors to the formation of internal management reports allows to form a system of accounting and analytical information, which allows to solve organizational, economic and production problems arising in the process of managing the enterprise. The system of indicators, contained in the developed formats of management reporting, is a tool that characterizes the effectiveness of management.

Сутність та місце оперативного контролю в системі економічного контролю

The constant complication of business conditions leads to increased requirements for the enterprise management system. Accordingly, there is a need to create an internal control system that will cover all aspects of the enterprise activity and meet the needs of management in the prompt receipt of information of a diversified nature. The purpose of the article is to disclose and clarify approaches to understanding the essence of operational control and to determine its place in the economic control system. The analysis of scientific approaches to understanding the essence of such concepts as economic control, financial and economic control, internal control was carried out. It was proved that the concept of “economic control” is more general, it refers to the exercise of control at the macro level. At the micro level, namely in relation to the economic activities of enterprises, financial and economic control is carried out. Internal control is an integral part of it, which, in turn, includes the implementation of operational control. The views of various scientists on the essence of operational control were summarized and defined as a form of control that allows you to fix deviations and the reasons for their occurrence, as well as take preventive measures to avoid their occurrence. This will make it easier to obtain necessary information in real time for making operational management decisions. Its place in the economic control system has been determined. It was determined that operational control is carried out in accordance with the well-known control cycle, which includes the processing of information and its comparison with the standard during control procedures. Moreover, this process should be built taking into account the need to solve problems in the field of operational management of an enterprise, namely at the level of economic processes.

Application of Learning Curves in Operations Management Decisions

In the time of industry 4.0 and big data, methods which are based on the collection and the processing of a large amount of data in order to support managerial decisions have outstanding significance. The learning curve theory pertains to these methods. The purpose of this paper is to explore some application possibilities of the classical learning curve in manufacturing and service operations. The learning effect assumes that as the quantity of units manufactured increases, the time needed to produce an individual unit decreases. The function describing this phenomenon is the learning curve. Various learning curves have been developed and applied in the area of production economics and much research studies the significance of the learning effect in management decisions. This study summarizes the main learning curve models and demonstrates how learning can be considered in three classical areas of operations management. First, the calculation of economic manufacturing quantity in the presence of learning is studied. Next, the effect of learning in break-even analysis and assembly line balancing is explored. The results show that with the consideration of the learning effect, calculations become more complex and require greater efforts, but the application of the learning curve concept can provide valuable insight both at operational and strategic levels.

The Role of Inclusive Innovation in Promoting Social Sustainability

This special issue implores us to address sustainability from the lens of emerging economies and the role that innovation can play in this context. We posit that, for sustainable operations research to be relevant in the context of emerging economies, it needs to incorporate social concerns and conditions of underserved populations, with an emphasis on inclusion and equity. Especially important for addressing social concerns of these populations will be product/service innovation, process/business model innovation, and supply chain innovation. We further posit that successful innovation in these areas will require collaboration of for‐profit firms with the public sector, civil society organizations, and communities. In thisstudy, we put forward “inclusive innovation” as a unifying approach that enables the collaborative integration of social issues of relevance to underserved populations in operations management decisions. We then focus on contemporary sectoral challenges in services, manufacturing, and agriculture, highlight the relevant social sustainability issues with an emphasis on those relevant to underserved populations, and point to new opportunities for research.

Development of an approach for operative control over railway transport technological safety based on the identification of risks in the indicators of its operation

The paper addresses the mechanism of ensuring and management of traffic safety in railway traffic. It uses the actual statistics on the cases of violations of traffic safety along the railways of Ukraine over recent years. We have selected three departments for empirical research and justification of the need for a systematic approach. The departments account for 60 % of traffic accidents a year. The departments include a locomotive department, tracks department and carriages department. A systematic approach to technological safety management has been proposed. It uses safety violation statistics as input information. It systematizes each safety violation accident according to eight parameters that characterize location, time, type of case, its cause, guilty party, circumstances, motivation, and targeted damage. It creates the appropriate database with systematization parameters. The analysis of dynamics of traffic accidents in the one-, two-, and three-dimensional space of systematization parameters detected hidden patterns, which pose a threat of deterioration of safety and occurrence of emergency. We interpreted this as a bottleneck, which requires increased attention and development of measures to prevent escalation into an emergency. We defined a risk as the most significant prerequisite for traffic accidents. Prerequisites are in the plane of ensuring of a transportation process, and they are systemic in nature. The developed algorithm for operative management of technological safety and a procedure for support of making operative management decisions reduce the impact of risks. The algorithm is formalized and ready for automation. Automation involves application of 4.0 digital technologies. Application of the proposed approach will help to reduce an impact of the human factor, to increase efficiency and objectivity of management decisions for ensuring of safety, and to make safety financing targeted and effective. It is possible to apply the proposed approach to other modes of transportation

Operational analysis of agricultural production: state, problems, prospects

In modern agricultural production, economic analysis is increasing for the perception of operational management decisions. The purpose of this article is to justify the expediency and necessity of conducting operational economic analysis as a special element of operational management in all agricultural enterprises to increase the efficiency of their activities. The article defines the essence of operational economic analysis of agricultural production. Three of its subspecies considered in detail: periodic, operational and situational analysis. Specificity of agriculture determines the features of organization and conducting of operational analysis. Because in agricultural production, firstly, the periods of implementation of costs and outputs do not coincide; and secondly, the process of production for certain types of products is stretched over time. Therefore, conducting operational analysis by industry characterize by its specifics. In particular, in crop production, operational analysis carry out during the periods of basic agrotechnical works: pre-planting of soil and sowing; care of crops; harvesting. We have determined that the main feature of operational analysis is the continuity and rhythm of analytical work throughout the year (daily, monthly). Unfortunately, today it doesn’t solve as for small, as for large agricultural enterprises also. We have made substantiated conclusions about the peculiarities of the operational analysis of agricultural production and the necessity of its implementation in all agricultural enterprises.

Social Sustainability in Emerging Economies: The Role of Inclusive Innovationn

This special issue implores us to address sustainability from the lens of emerging economies and the role that innovation can play in this context. We posit that, for sustainable operations research to be relevant in the context of emerging economies, it needs to incorporate social concerns and conditions of underserved populations, with an emphasis on inclusion and equity. Especially important for addressing social concerns of these populations will be product/service innovation, process/business model innovation, and supply chain innovation. We further posit that successful innovation in these areas will require collaboration of for-profit firms with the public sector, civil society organizations, and communities. In this paper, we put forward “inclusive innovation” as a unifying approach that enables the collaborative integration of social issues of relevance to underserved populations in operations management decisions. We then focus on contemporary sectoral challenges in services, manufacturing, and agriculture, highlight the relevant social sustainability issues with an emphasis on those relevant to underserved populations, and point to new opportunities for research.

Influence of National Cultures on Operations Management and Supply Chain Management Practices—A Research Agenda

The role of national culture interactions is important in operations management and supply chain management decisions. Yet, cross‐cultural research in this field is limited. Our goal in this study is to review relevant research, to raise awareness about the critical role of national culture among operations management and supply chain management researchers, and to offer directions for future research. To achieve this goal, we report our research findings in three major categories: (i) Operational Decisions (innovation, and research and development, quality management, workforce management, performance measurement, and risk, security and disaster management); (ii) Supply Chain Management (buyer–supplier interactions, governance mechanisms, outsourcing, and offshore operations); and (iii) Interdisciplinary Topics (entrepreneurship, investments, joint ventures, and mergers and acquisitions). We also suggest methodological considerations for future research by those interested in studying national culture.

The use of aircraft tracking GPS data to develop models of the use of airtankers in forest fire management

The Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry uses amphibious airtankers to help control forest fires in the province of Ontario. Their airtankers are based at airports from which they are dispatched to fires to assist FireRanger crews that work on the ground. Airtanker systems can be modelled as spatial queueing systems with fires as customers that arrive at rates that vary over both time and space and airtankers as mobile servers that fight fires at spatially dependent service rates. In order to model the airtanker service process one must know how much time airtankers spend travelling to and from and dropping water on fires. We developed a methodology for processing historical fire, airport location and on-board airtanker tracking GPS data to identify the key events that take place while airtankers are involved in fire suppression operations. We used that data to develop detailed models that describe how airtankers participate in the initial attack process. Those models can be incorporated in strategic, tactical and operational airtanker management decision support systems. We conclude by suggesting that our methodology be extended to model the use of transport helicopters, trucks and heavy equipment in fire suppression, and the activities of FireRanger crews on the ground.

Severe Fire Danger Index: A Forecastable Metric to Inform Firefighter and Community Wildfire Risk Management

Despite major advances in numerical weather prediction, few resources exist to forecast wildland fire danger conditions to support operational fire management decisions and community early-warning systems. Here we present the development and evaluation of a spatial fire danger index that can be used to assess historical events, forecast extreme fire danger, and communicate those conditions to both firefighters and the public. It uses two United States National Fire Danger Rating System indices that are related to fire intensity and spread potential. These indices are normalized, combined, and categorized based on a 39-yr climatology (1979–2017) to produce a single, categorical metric called the Severe Fire Danger Index (SFDI) that has five classes; Low, Moderate, High, Very High, and Severe. We evaluate the SFDI against the number of newly reported wildfires and total area burned from agency fire reports (1992–2017) as well as daily remotely sensed numbers of active fire pixels and total daily fire radiative power for large fires (2003–2016) from the Moderate-Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) across the conterminous United States. We show that the SFDI adequately captures geographic and seasonal variations of fire activity and intensity, where 58% of the eventual area burned reported by agency fire records, 75.2% of all MODIS active large fire pixels, and 81.2% of all fire radiative power occurred when the SFDI was either Very High or Severe (above the 90th percentile). We further show that SFDI is a strong predictor of firefighter fatalities, where 97 of 129 (75.2%) burnover deaths from 1979 to 2017 occurred when SFDI was either Very High or Severe. Finally, we present an operational system that uses short-term, numerical weather predictions to produce daily SFDI forecasts and show that 76.2% of all satellite active fire detections during the first 48 h following the ignition of nine high-profile case study fires in 2017 and 2018 occurred under Very High or Severe SFDI conditions. The case studies indicate that the extreme weather events that caused tremendous damage and loss of life could be mapped ahead of time, which would allow both wildland fire managers and vulnerable communities additional time to prepare for potentially dangerous conditions. Ultimately, this simple metric can provide critical decision support information to wildland firefighters and fire-prone communities and could form the basis of an early-warning system that can improve situational awareness and potentially save lives.

On the versatility of Little’s Law in operations management: a review and classification using vignettes

Despite Little’s Law being considered as one of the ‘laws’ of operations management, evidence of its application in an empirical context is diverse and diffuse. Hence, this paper aims to identify, classify and consolidate published empirical applications of Little’s Law in a systematic manner to better understand its versatility. This paper undertakes a systematic literature review of the databases of the five main publishers of operations management journals and snowball sampling for additional papers. A final sample of 128 empirical journal articles is identified and categorized. Tactical, medium-term decisions relating to capacity dynamics and operations re-engineering are the most popular categories. To give further insights into versatility, vignettes for each category are developed. The review and vignettes confirm Little’s Law as a highly relevant paradigm to operations management decisions due to its empirical versatility across levels, sectors and time domains. The paper suggests four factors to underline the empirical versatility of Little’s Law in operations management: applicability, utility, simplicity and visibility.

Development of accounting functionality in business management

Development of accounting functionality in business management

INFLUENCE OF BUSINESS DIGITALIZATION ON THE OIL RECOVERY FACTOR AND IMPROVING THE EFFICIENCY OF THE OIL AND GAS COMPANIES ACTIVITY

Against the background of the decline structure of hydrocarbon reserves in Russia, the maintenance of a stable level of production and enhanced oil recovery at mature fields is associated with the introduction of technologies of the fourth industrial revolution (Industry 4.0). The real and possible impact of digitalization on the oil recovery factor and impact of the technological solutions on the development hard-to-recover reserves have been сonsidered in the article. Special attention has been paid to the transition to intellectual methods of management, within the framework of digitalization, which ensure the effective management for all company’s processes, provide objective and transparent information for making accurate and operational management decisions. To ensure a significant effect from the digital transformation of the industry, it is necessary to create favorable investment conditions, including government regulation and stimulation.

FINANCIAL CONTROL KEY ELEMENT TO PROVIDE ECONOMIC SECURITY OF THE ENTERPRISE

The article considers the essence of financial control and its importance in ensuring the economic security of the enterprise. It has been established that financial control is an effective coordinating system for ensuring the interconnection between the formation of an information base, financial analysis, financial planning and internal financial control, which ensures concentration of control activities. In the most priority areas of financial activity of the enterprise, timely detection of deviations of its actual results from the foreseen and the adoption of operational management decisions that ensure its normalization.&#x0D; The views of leading scientists concerning the definition of the concept of financial controlling and its key elements are researched. Also, the key financial control functions are analyzed and analyzed in the article.&#x0D; Six main concepts of financial controlling used for realization of functions of financial control in crisis conditions of management. The concept of generation of integrated planning and control tools; concept of production, sale or service; the concept of taking into account the specifics of the enterprise; the concept of the orientation of the movement of funds; use of the tools of the concept of financial control as the basis for making managerial decisions; management concept and management decision making.&#x0D; The effectiveness of the company in difficult conditions, and especially in the long run, means not just survival in the market, but also ensuring high rates of development and competitiveness, is determined by the level of financial potential and quality of financial management in the enterprise. Which is provided by a certain extent with the effective organization and implementation of the financial system controlling. The application of the financial controlling system at the enterprise will enable to prevent emergence of crises, to identify the causes of financial problems and to effectively search for solutions to them. the primary task of financial control is the maintenance of liquidity and solvency of an enterprise, which can be achieved under the condition of financial planning with the current analysis of financial sustainability.

Rating assessment of scientific and pedagogical workers: theoretical and methodical aspects within a market approach

The article investigates the theoretical and methodological principles of scientific and pedagogical workers rating assessment in higher educational institutions (HEI). According to the results of broad literature analysis, rating systems formation peculiarities of scientific and pedagogical university workers were determined. Further development of approaches to specification and detailing of the essence, functions, purposes and tasks of rating assessment, formation of principles, requirements and criteria, justification and rating models selection, harmonization of theoretical concepts with the practice of applying procedures for rating assessment in the HEI is substantiated.&#x0D; Research novelty is to elaborate on the essence and functions of scientific and pedagogical workers rating assessment system being considered as a multidimensional information system, which in turn is the subsystem of a more general management system. Scientific and pedagogical workers rating assessment system involves continuous observation, measurement and controlled object conditions evaluation, operational management decisions adoption, ensures the implementation, verification and review of management objectives, promotes educational and scientific standardization processes, provides ongoing regulation and forecasts further development. Rating assessment system is inextricably linked with professional activities monitoring of scientific and pedagogical workers in higher educational institutions and performs similar functions, such as informational, management, systematic, predictive, activating, analytical, qualimetric, corrective, diagnostic and formative ones.&#x0D; An important element of the scientific novelty studies is the feasibility justification of using a market approach based on marketing, social and ethical concepts marketing in formulating the goals, objectives and rating systems constructing principles for scientific and pedagogical workers.&#x0D; It is established that the most relevant principles in scientific and pedagogical workers rating systems formation are the principles of integrity with the general management system, dynamism and adaptability, orientation towards the needs of educational and scientific services consumers.&#x0D; Prospects for further research are related to the theoretical foundations development and methodology for building marketing complexes of educational and scientific services aimed at maximizing the consumers and society needs, which will be attained through more efficient management of human resource potential based on the use of rating models.