Changes In Product Mix Research Articles

Analyzing production optimization models across various carbon pricing policies

As the EU and the US successively proposed the carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM) and the Clean Competition Act (CCA), importers are now required to declare the carbon emissions of their products. Particularly, wheel companies face increasing time pressure with the gradual development of implementation paths for net-zero emissions and implementing carbon pricing policies in various countries. This research uses the production data of Taiwan wheel companies to establish a mathematical model for the activity-based cost optimisation decision-making process. It explores the impact of different carbon emission costs on a company’s product mix with pricing decisions. Further, the research proposes five mathematical programmes for single-period cost optimisation decision-making under carbon pricing. These models provide some detailed view, such as changes in profits and product mix caused by high carbon taxes or other changes for each resource. Furthermore, the production cost optimal model proposed in this research can be used by enterprises to fulfill their social responsibilities while ensuring profitability and serve as a reference for making net-zero transformation decisions.

Logistics Outsourcing Services and Performance of Firms in the Tele-Communications Sector: A Case of Airtel Rwanda Ltd

This study assessed the effect of out-sourcing services on performance of firms in telecommunication sector with reference to Airtel Rwanda Ltd. The specific objectives were to determine effect of financial systems, network monitoring tools services, and supplier network responsiveness outsourcing on organizational performance of Airtel Rwanda Plc the study provides useful data to management of Airtel to assist it in service delivery and quality performance for the outsourced services. The study targeted 65 senior managers and key employees at Airtel Rwanda Ltd and sampled 56 respondents using Yamane formula. Primary and secondary data collection techniques were both using through questionnaire and interview guide. Data was analyzed using Pearson’s correlation analysis to establish the relationship between variables. Results to the first objective show that the logistic process response to unexpected demand changes and the effectiveness in delivery of shipments both scored means of 4.597. These variables scored means of 4.376, 4.376 and 4.038 respectively. There was the significant correlation between rapidly adjusts warehouse capacity to address demand changes and project time (r=.206; p-value=.000). Results to the second objective that all respondents agreed that their company uses outsourcing in its operations and as a result, they indicated that the supply chain operating system responds rapidly to changes in product volume demanded by customers (mean 4.921). The grand mean of these factors was 4.498 showing that generally there was higher responsiveness of the supply chain systems to customer needs. For  the effect on responds rapidly to changes in product mix demanded by customers on quality, time cost, the study ascertained that responds rapidly to changes in product mix demanded by customers is statistically significant with quality (r=0.122*;p value=0.035). Results on effectively expedites emergency customer orders felt that it is significantly correlated with an increase of quality of services (r=0.123*; p value=0.034). Results to the third objective shows that the grand mean was 4.155. It was indicated that major suppliers consistently accommodated requests (mean of 4.712) and the major suppliers changed product volume in a relatively short time (Mean of 4.259). Results show that major suppliers consistently accommodate our requests was insignificant with the quality of services (r=0.080, p-value=.0169), and major suppliers consistently accommodate our requests was insignificantly correlated with efficient and effective use of cost (r=0.013, p-value=.822). Finally, the study found a significant correlation between Major suppliers consistently accommodate our requests and timely delivered of services to beneficiaries (r=0.105, p-value=0.071). All the correlations were statistically significant given that the p value was < 0.05 proposing that an increase in major suppliers consistently accommodate our requests was insignificant with the quality of services increase quality of services, timely delivered, efficient and effective use of cost allocated and vice versa. In conclusion, the study concludes that Airtel Rwanda Plc in Rwanda have outsourced financial system billing. Airtel Plc had outsourced networking monitoring tools which play a pertinent role to the organizational success. Airtel has masts/towers and fleet management that contribute to organizational performance.  Finally, the study recommends that to adopt masts/towers and fleet management in means, the government should revise competition policy, and contract duration for outsourcing activities. Future studies should consider conducting similar research in different types of companies for comparison of results with the aim of coming into consensus on the generalization of the results. Keywords: Outsourcing, in-housing development, telecommunication, core business activities.

Robust facility layout design for flexible manufacturing: a doe-based heuristic

Flexible manufacturing systems (FMS) should be able to respond to changing manufacturing requirements and environments. From the layout point of view, FMS need to be rearranged to fit the new requirements. However, rearranging the layout is often undesirable due to its unpredicted high costs and production disruption. This paper proposes a practical approach to mitigate the effects and repercussions of changing environments and avoid rearranging the layout. A robust layout approach is presented, where changes in product demand and mix are absorbed by altering product routes and not rearranging the layout. In this approach, the problem is decomposed into two sub-problems: sub-problem 1 (SP1) where a robust layout is constructed, and sub-problem 2 (SP2) to obtain the best routes of products. To solve SP1, design of experiments is used to find a critical period, which is the period most affected under demand changes. Then, the layout for the critical period is determined using a hybridized genetic-tabu search algorithm. Then SP2 is solved by a branch and cut algorithm to obtain the optimal routes of the products in each period. The performance of the proposed methodology is illustrated using a case study and is benchmarked against rival ones from the literature.

Turning over a new leaf: Vape shop closings, openings and transitions in six U.S. Metropolitan statistical areas.

This study characterizes vape shop closings, openings, and changes in product mix in six U.S. metropolitan statistical areas with different tobacco and marijuana policies. With concern for higher rates of marijuana use among those who vape nicotine, the presence of marijuana-related terms in store names was also assessed. A census of stores that were classified online as vape shops/stores or vaporizer stores were telephoned in April-May 2018 (n = 739) and July-September 2019 (n = 919) to verify whether vape products and other tobacco products (OTP) were sold. We computed the percent of stores that closed, opened, and started/stopped selling OTP. Multilevel models tested whether these events varied by store type and by neighborhood demographics. Within 16 months, 11.5% of 739 stores had closed and 29.8% of 919 stores at follow-up had opened. Closings were more likely among vape-only than vape + OTP stores (AOR = 2.51, 95% CI = 1.47,4.29); vape-only stores were less likely to open (AOR = 0.46, 95% CI = 0.34,0.62). Regardless of store type, the odds of a store opening increased as the proportion of non-Hispanic/Latino White residents in the census tract increased (AOR = 1.47, 95% CI = 1.18,1.85). Overall, 2.0% of stores (vape-only and vape + OTP) had marijuana-related names at baseline and 3.5% at follow-up. The observed change (1.6% to 5.8%) was greatest in Oklahoma City, where the state legalized medical marijuana between baseline and follow-up. More stores were opening than closing in six U.S. metropolitan statistical areas before statewide sales restrictions on flavored tobacco and COVID-19. Uniform licensing is recommended to define vape shops and track their location and sales practices.

Suitability of Self-Organization for Different Types of Production

Production tends to become decentralized to provide more flexibility and robustness. Hence planning and control is also shifting to decentralized solutions to cope with a changing product mix. We present an intensive simulation study of different types of production and analyze the influence of product structure, product complexity and multiple use of materials. We show for which type of production self-organizing planning and control performs best. For this, we give a brief introduction to our self-organizing production and outline how we generate a wide variety of production master data that are freely customizable in terms of their statistical parameters, like product complexity, multiple use of materials and degree of organization, to reflect different types of productions. The results of our simulation study show the advantages of our self-organizing production.

Community-level analysis of correlated fish production in fisheries and aquaculture: The case of Japan

Global aquaculture production is expected to exceed marine capture production by 2030. A comprehensive understanding of the relationship between coastal fisheries and aquaculture production at community level is required for fishery managers to ensure the efficient use of resources and to minimise potential conflicts between resource users. Improving communities’ ability to flexibly adjust the production mix between the two is also crucial to enhance communities’ resilience to external shocks, such as climate change and resource depletion. Based on data from Japan’s Census of Fisheries, a panel data set of 1922 fishing communities show that a decrease in the number of coastal fishing entities within a community is partially offset by an increasing number of aquaculture entities, suggesting that coastal fisheries and aquaculture production are negatively related at community level. The results also show that changes in production mix are not solely determined within the community per se but also depend on the production mix in neighbouring communities.

ZMET으로 분석한 외식공간으로서의 편의점 장소성 형성 요인

Convenience stores (CVSs) are embracing convergence for their business areas as the product mix changes. They have started to offer a dining experience since their sales are led by home meal replacement, baked goods, coffee and desserts. This study investigated the sense of place for a CVS as a contextually meaningful dining space. Factors were identified based on literature review and qualitative research methods to understand internal consumer demands. The component concept was classified regarding how a CVS develops placeness in line with the changing business areas. What consumers demand at a CVS is described in the consensus map. ZMET was applied to analyze the consumer recognition and in-depth interviews were conducted with twelve CVS customers aged 25 – 35 years. The analysis showed that physical, active, and individual factors are involved to develop CVS placeness. Next, features of a physical factor are categorized into accessibility, spatiality, marginality and amenity of CVS environments. An active factor with regard to the service behaviors and user activities includes promptness, purposefulness, interaction and convenience, while individuals experience satisfaction, diversity or differentiation after repetitive and/or continuing visits. In the consensus map, a CVS is conceptualized as a highly accessible lounge in terms of time, service and space. These findings suggest theoretical implications to help identify the component concept of a CVS with placeness, and provide insight into how consumers recognize the changing values and increasing number of services of a CVS.

Integrated North American energy markets under different futures of cross-border energy infrastructure

We study how changes in cross-border energy infrastructure in North America will impact local and national markets. Electricity and natural gas are all transported across the borders of Canada, US, and Mexico. However, future changes in the energy production mix will lead to the further development of these infrastructures, as energy supply and demand cause stress across borders. We use a multimodel approach to investigate what happens to standard output metrics of local energy markets when these infrastructures are changed under different scenarios. These scenarios include increasing the capacity of electricity transmission by 20% and decreasing the cost of transporting natural gas by 20% vis-à-vis the modelers’ reference case starting 2020. We find that electricity transmission across the Canadian-US border increases, with most of the increase in electricity production by natural gas. We also find that natural gas trade increases across the US-Mexico border, with a change in flows of natural gas within the US moving away from the northeast and northwest. While electricity production from renewable energy is expected to increase in the reference scenario, the changes in cross-border energy infrastructure do not significantly impact the generation from renewable energy. The scenarios help identify bottlenecks in the cross-border energy infrastructure, and propose future investment opportunities to decrease overall system costs for producing and consuming energy.

Probing Synergies between Lignin-Rich and Cellulose Compounds for Gasification

The fixed-bed gasification of lignin-rich and -deficient mixtures was carried out to probe the synergistic effects between two model compounds, Lignin Pink (LP) rich in Na and Cellulose Microcrystalline (CM). Reaction conditions utilized the most commonly used air ratios in current wood gasifiers at 750 and 850 °C. It was found that by increasing the lignin content in the mixture, there was a selectivity change from solid to gas products, contrary to a similar study previously carried out for pyrolysis. This change in product mix was promoted by the catalytic effect of Na edge recession deposits on the surface of the char. As a result, the water gas shift reaction was enhanced at 850 °C for the LP48CM52 mixture across all air ratios. This was evidenced by a strong correlation between the produced H2 and COx. Meanwhile, by lowering the lignin content in the mixtures, the reactivity of cellulose microcrystalline was found to generate more char at higher temperatures, similar to lignin mixtures when undergoing pyrolysis.

Impact of the Food-Labeling and Advertising Law Banning Competitive Food and Beverages in Chilean Public Schools, 2014-2016.

Objectives. To evaluate the impact of a national law banning sales of competitive food and beverages (CF&B) in schools on the availability of CF&B sold at school kiosks.Methods. This study was uncontrolled before and after study. We evaluated public schools in Santiago de Chile (n = 21; 78% response rate) in 2014 and 2016 (6 months after the law came into force). Trained personnel collected data on calories, total sugars, saturated fat, and sodium from food labels. The outcome was the percentage of foods exceeding the cutoff levels defined in the law and the mean difference between 2014 and 2016.Results. Foods exceeding any cutoffs decreased from 90.4% in 2014 to 15.0% in 2016. Solid products had a substantial reduction in calories, sugar, saturated fat, and sodium. Liquid products had a reduction in calories, total sugar, and saturated fat, whereas sodium increased. This was a result of changes in product mix.Conclusions. A ban on sales of CF&B reduced the availability of CF&B at Santiago's school kiosks. Further research should examine the impact of this ban on food intake and health outcomes.

Evolution, principles and recent trends in reconfigurable manufacturing system

In today’s era, the companies need to respond rapidly to the new product introduction, mix and demand changes to stay competitive. It has been very well accepted that traditional manufacturing systems are not suitable to offer an edge in such a competitive market. Reconfigurable manufacturing systems (RMS) appear to be a most promising mechanism for enabling the manufacturing sector to be more competitive and sustain itself in the tough global scenario. This manuscript attempts to survey the characteristics of RMS and evolution of research to improve the practical applicability of RMS. Further the recent trends of reconfigurable manufacturing system in the present context have also been discussed along with the future research directions.

Introduction of a new product in an operating assembly process at Graz University of Technology´s LEAD Factory

Abstract Volatile markets and uncertain future scenarios require the capability to efficiently adapt production volumes according to market needs. The increasing variety of products is driven by a shift towards customer markets. Consequently, companies have to deal with more variants of existing products and steady introduction of new products to meet customer needs. The implementation necessitates knowledge about different strategies to cope with short term product mix changes and the understanding of consequential effects on the production system. The Institute of Innovation and Industrial Management at Graz University of Technology operates the LEAD Factory to enable practice-oriented learning in an environment close to industrial reality. The aim of this research is to discuss a concept how to teach the implementation of a new product in a lean improved assembly process. Therefore, this research outlines (1) strategies to cope with new variants and products in an operating assembly process, (2) the case of the LEAD Factory introducing a new product and (3) based on experiences gained from industry projects and operating the LEAD Factory the respective teaching module “introduction of an e-scooter”. Within the corresponding teaching model training participants will analyze the new product, identify the relevant differences to the classic pedal scooter and determine necessary tools and times for the additional assembly tasks. End product of the teaching module is the implementation of a new production layout and the levelling of the production. In the center of the teaching module is the elaboration of a simulation model to explore the impact of the gathered solutions before physically changing the learning factory.

Hybrid optimisation approach for sequencing and assignment decision-making in reconfigurable assembly lines

Technological advances, promoted by the Industry 4.0 paradigm, attempt to support the reconfigurability of manufacturing systems and to contribute to adaptive operational conditions. These systems must be responsive to significant changes in demand volume and product mix. In this paper, a hybrid optimisation approach is suggested to solve sequencing and assignment problems of reconfigurable assembly lines, where mobile robots collaborate with human operators. The objectives are: i) to define a schedule of jobs, ii) to assign tasks to the mobile robots, and iii) to decide the allocation of robots to workstations, in order to minimise the number of robots required. Preliminary results show that the proposed methodology can make an efficient robot allocation under high demand variety. In addition to that, the hybrid optimisation approach can be adapted to other configurations of assembly systems, which demonstrates its applicability to solve problems in other contexts.

Stochastic Pinch Analysis To Optimize Resource Allocation Networks

Pinch analysis is a physical insight-based optimization technique, applicable to conservation problems for a wide range of resources (such as energy, water, hydrogen, cooling water, etc.). Principally, it has been applied to optimize the external resource, to satisfy unmet demands in source-sink allocation problems, with deterministic flows and deterministic quality parameters (such as contamination concentration in water and hydrogen conservation problems). However, in many applications, quality and flow parameters of different sources may not be deterministic due to changes in environmental as well as operational conditions (e.g., changes in product mix and/or feed characteristics). In this paper, the applicability of pinch analysis has been extended to resource conservation networks with uncertain qualities and flows for the operation of individual sources and demands with the desired reliability. The uncertainties in source quality and source flows are incorporated through different probability distri...

Decision-making method of reconfigurable manufacturing systems’ reconfiguration by a Gale-Shapley model

The companies need to rapid response to new product introduction, mix and demand changes to stay competitive. A reconfigurable manufacturing system can quickly react to changes in products and market. The control method to reconfigure the machines of a reconfigurable manufacturing system is crucial for the performance level. This paper proposes a reconfiguration decision-making method based on a Game-Theory algorithm, and in particular the Gale-Shapley model. A periodic review strategy is used to create two sets: one set of machine over-loaded and one set under-loaded. The Gale-Shapley model forms a coupled of over-loaded and under-loaded machines. The reconfiguration concerns the under-loaded machine of the coupled adding also the task performed by the over-loaded machine. This paper presents a simulation environment developed to evaluate the proposed method and highlight the main topics. The simulation results highlight how the game-theory approach developed improves all the performance measures with controlled number of machines’ reconfigurations.

Export upgrading and environmental performance: Evidence from China

This study argues that export upgrading can, but does not necessarily, lead to environmental improvement. A synergy between global and local linkage determines the likely disjuncture between export upgrading and environmental improvement. On the basis of the panel data covering 261 prefectural-level cities in China during 2003–2011, this study applies the decomposition of export sophistication to quantify diverse upgrading types. It also divides the sample cities into groups and uses the fixed-effect regression by groups to investigate the role of local linkages. Empirical findings indicate that environmental improvement associated with export upgrading in China has largely relied on changing product mix to avoid environmental costs, exhibiting a significant displacement effect. The role of efficiency promotion of production process is still insignificant. Local linkage may alter the environmental effects of export upgrading. Specialisation in polluting production can help cities to change product mix through the agglomeration of related firms. Stringent environmental regulation protects cities from the export–environment disjuncture through imposing additional costs. These findings suggest that the greening efforts of China should take one step further from export restructuring to efficiency promoting.

Amelioration of Capacity Constraints in Manufacturing Systems Using Alternate Production Sequence

Today’s market is in a constant flux of demand changes. Due to this the product demand and the product mix continuously change from one time-period to the next. For a company to be profitable and competitive, it has to ensure that all of its resources are optimally utilized. These resources include facility layout, material handling, and production system. Previous research has shown that the system state has to be identified prior to increasing capacity to mitigate the constraint. As the demand and product mix change, a facility layout that was efficient can soon become inefficient or the cost of production and material handling increase. This research evaluates usage of alternate part sequence as a means to eliminate or reduce production system constraints. It focuses on reducing machine usage when the selected process sequence leads to production capacity constraints.

Prescription Drug Utilization and Reimbursement Increased Following State Medicaid Expansion in 2014.

The Affordable Care Act (ACA) expanded health care and medication insurance coverage through Medicaid expansion in select states. Expansion has the potential to increase the availability of health services to patients, including prescription medications. However, limited studies have examined how expansion affected prescription drug utilization and reimbursement. To compare prescription drug utilization (number of prescriptions filled) and reimbursement trends between states that did and did not expand Medicaid coverage in 2014, while accounting for known effects of expansion on Medicaid enrollment. We conducted a comparative interrupted time series using retrospective Medicaid state drug utilization data from 2011 to 2014. After inclusion/exclusion criteria, 8 states that expanded Medicaid in 2014 and 10 states that did not expand Medicaid were studied. Primary outcomes were changes in quarterly prescription drug utilization and quarterly total prescription drug reimbursement before and after expansion. To account for increases in enrollment in expansion states, secondary outcomes were per-member-per-quarter (PMPQ) utilization and reimbursement before and after expansion. Expansion states experienced a 1.4 million prescriptions per quarter and $163 million per quarter increase in utilization and reimbursement above the change in rates observed in nonexpansion states after expansion (P < 0.001). Specifically, 1 year after ACA implementation, expansion states used 17.0% more prescriptions and spent 36.1% more in reimbursement than the quarter preceding expansion. Expansion and nonexpansion states experienced significant drops in PMPQ prescriptions immediately after expansion (P < 0.001), but PMPQ prescriptions and reimbursement trends increased by the end of the postexpansion period in expansion states (P < 0.029 and P < 0.001, respectively). Study results suggest that Medicaid expansion offers vulnerable patients who were previously uninsured increased access to health care resources, specifically prescription drugs. Although this hypothesis would benefit from further testing, it aligns with previous studies that have shown that Medicaid expansion has led to increased access to coverage and care. While enrollment contributes to the increase in prescription utilization and reimbursement, the drop in PMPQ utilization suggests that the patients entering the program are healthier than existing patients. This shows that risk pooling is working. However, the increase in PMPQ reimbursement suggests that new enrollment may not be the only factor driving reimbursement changes. Factors such as changes in product mix, risk pool composition, and drug pricing and their effects on total and per-member reimbursement should be evaluated in future studies. No outside funding supported this study. Mahendraratnam is currently a Worldwide Health Economics and Outcomes Research Pre-doctoral Fellow at Bristol-Myers Squibb and previously provided advisory services to public and private sector clients while employed at Avalere Health, an Inovalon Company, as well as completed an internship at Genentech, a member of the Roche Group. Farley and Dusetzina have no conflicts of interest to report. Preliminary results of this study were presented at the 2016 International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research (ISPOR) 21st Annual Meeting in Washington, DC, on May 21-25, 2016, and the 2016 AcademyHealth Annual Research Meeting (ARM) in Boston, Massachusetts, on June 26-28, 2016. Study concept and design were contributed by Farley, Mahendraratnam, and Dusetzina. Mahendraratnam, Farley, and Dusetzina collected the data, and data interpretation was performed by all the authors. The manuscript was written by Mahendraratnam, Farley, and Dusetzina and revised by Farley, Dusetzina, and Mahendraratnam.

Designing robust stochastic bi-objective cellular layout in manufacturing systems

In today's competitive and challenging environment, product demand and product mix change very rapidly. To match with the rapid variations in product demand and product mix, layout should be effective and efficient to incorporate all these uncertainties over different time periods. One way to design effective and efficient layout is to make it robust which should be capable to absorb uncertainty in demand and product mix. The paper proposes a novel robust stochastic bi-quadratic assignment programming (RSbi-QAP) model. The proposed robust layout is stochastic bi-objective cellular facility layout in manufacturing systems. The proposed model also incorporates the stochastic demand for multi-products in multi-time periods, and simultaneously minimises material handling cost (MHC) and maximises similarity score (SS). To demonstrate the working methodology of the proposed model numerical illustration is also provided.

Iz istorii razvitiya kruzhevnogo promysla chernozemnogo yuga Rossii (2-ya polovina XIX – nachalo XX v.)

The author studies the specifics of lace in the territory of the South Black Earth Russia in the 19th - early 20th centuries. The author has analyzed the history of lace crafts in the Yelets and Mtsensk districts of the Orlovsk province, and in the Zadonsk district of the Voronezh province. Based on archive materials the article determines such features of lace crafts development as the uniqueness of lace; the dependence of the growth of the influence of buyers on the pace of industry development; presence of the qualitative indicators of the manufacturing process inversely proportional to the quantitative; expanding the range of manufactured lace; the expansion of the sales area of lace; activation of the attention of individuals and public institutions to revive the specificity and individuality of local products lace. It was concluded that the impact of identified features on the pace of development of the lace industry in the South Black Earth Russia and on the development of Russian business in general. Analyzing the history of lace crafts, the author describes the conditions of industrial activity lace, which showed the formation of the capitalist forms of lace makers' work. The features of the capitalist forms of labour which characterized crafts activity are pointed out. The peculiarities of lace sales organization in local and distant markets are studied. In addition to interprovince and interdistrict markets the author investigates the material on exporting goods abroad. The main reasons for the expansion of sales geography determine the change in product mix. The author raises the issue related to the history of the preservation of unique lace made following the traditions of Russian folk art of their ancestors. The problem consisted in the fact that the buyers were not interested in the originality and identity of the goods. As a result, this led to the reduction of the original performance by increasing the amount of work on the standard models.