System Service Level Research Articles

Stochastic programming model for integrating bus network design and dial-a-ride scheduling

ABSTRACT Travel demands in remote areas are scattered and unstable. Thus, the integration of different types of transportation can be beneficial for improving the service level of transportation systems in remote areas. This study proposes a two-stage stochastic programming (SP) model for the integrated planning of a fixed-route–fixed-schedule bus service and dial-a-ride (DAR) transportation (DART) in remote areas. In the first stage, the route and timetable of a bus line are optimized as a set partitioning problem. In the second stage, DART is formulated as a pickup and delivery vehicle routing problem with time windows (PDVRPTW). A hybrid algorithm is developed to solve the two-stage SP problem. Case studies are presented to validate the planning model and the solution algorithm. Results show that the integration of bus and DAR services and the implementation of DART as PDVRPTW considerably reduce unserved demands and improve the service of the entire system.

Rethinking Service Systems and Public Policy: A Transformative Refugee Service Experience Framework

The global refugee crisis is a complex humanitarian problem. Service researchers can assist in solving this crisis because refugees are immersed in complex human service systems. Drawing on marketing, sociology, transformative service, and consumer research literature, this study develops a Transformative Refugee Service Experience Framework to enable researchers, service actors, and public policy makers to navigate the challenges faced throughout a refugee’s service journey. The primary dimensions of this framework encompass the spectrum from hostile to hospitable refugee service systems and the resulting suffering or well-being in refugees’ experiences. The authors conceptualize this at three refugee service journey phases (entry, transition, and exit) and at three refugee service system levels (macro, meso, and micro) of analysis. The framework is supported by brief examples from a range of service-related refugee contexts as well as a Web Appendix with additional cases. Moreover, the authors derive a comprehensive research agenda from the framework, with detailed research questions for public policy and (service) marketing researchers. Managerial directions are provided to increase awareness of refugee service problems; stimulate productive interactions; and improve collaboration among public and nonprofit organizations, private service providers, and refugees. Finally, this work provides a vision for creating hospitable refugee service systems.

Determining barriers and facilitators to engagement for families in a family-based, multicomponent healthy lifestyles intervention for children and adolescents: a qualitative study

ObjectivesRecruitment and retention in child and adolescent healthy lifestyle intervention services for childhood obesity is challenging, and inequalities across social groups are persistent. This study aimed to understand the barriers...

Customer Satisfaction Analysis Based On SERVQUAL Method to Determine Service Level of Academic Information Systems on Higher Education

Higher education institutions such as universities or institutes that create graduate students with high qualifications must be able to provide the best services to their stakeholders. One kind of higher education service is academic information system services. The service quality level of the academic information system in a university can be decided by measuring the level of users’ perception and the level of users’ expectations that can be fulfilled. As an organization that offers academic information system services, the university must be able to measure the level of academic information system services as an approach to ensure the quality of services. This study aims to determine the level of customer satisfaction index in terms of service of higher education academic information systems using the service quality method. The service quality method is used to identify academic information system services that are analyzed based on the service quality dimensions. The results show that the value of the customer satisfaction index is 77.37% which refers to the satisfied category.

Research on Framework of Fault Prognostics and Health Management System for Complex System

This paper studies the framework of fault prognostics and health management for complex systems. Aiming at the problems of lack of effective organization and management of fault diagnosis resources and low resource sharing rate, this paper analyzes the characteristics of complex system and the shortcomings of traditional diagnosis mode, puts forward the service-oriented PHM system architecture, studies the system service mode and characteristics, analyzes the key technologies and main function modules of establishing the system, and carries out public PHM system service level for complex equipment field Taiwan research provides a new way of thinking.

Monitoring and Evaluation of Rural Water Supplies Sustainability in Ghana

Sustaining functionality and service levels of rural water systems in Ghana remains fraught with difficulties and can undermine the achievement of sustainable development goal six. The aim of this article is to contribute to emerging literature on monitoring and evaluation by assessing rural water system functionality, service levels and performance of service providers and authorities, particularly in terms of compliance to the Community Water and Sanitation Agency norms and standards. While more than three quarters of handpumps and piped schemes are functional, only 5% handpumps and 22% piped schemes provide basic services. Service providers have challenges in the area of composition, bank accounts, up-to-date financial and operational records, routine maintenance, and water quality testing in line with national guidelines. The study found that only one service authority carried out regular monitoring support toservice providers for small communities. This study highlights how systematic monitoring of rural water facilities, service providers and authorities provide information necessary to plan, set targets, budget , monitor progress , take remedial action and ensure accountability and sustainability of services. This article argues the need for stronger and regular post-construction support such as monitoring and evaluation and capacity building for service providers and authority to safeguard sustainable waterservices.

On joint effects of return policy coordination and retail competition

ABSTRACT This paper studies the effectiveness of a return policy as an incentive-aligned coordination mechanism in a decentralised supply chain for short life-cycle products. System performance with regards to profitability and product availability is assessed with a coordinated return policy between the vendor and two competing retailers. Building on the optimal return policy coordination model for short life-cycle products, this paper evaluates individual and joint effects of competition and coordination under the four different settings of competition with and without coordination, and no competition with and without coordination. Results indicate that joint effects are largely contingent on demand structures in the supply chain, whereas individually, return policy coordination displays greater effectiveness in improving fill rates at local retailers by maintaining high stocking levels and competition commands significant impact in improving the system profitability and service level by creating inventory pooling effects between competing retailers.

Service Index Indicator of Polder System with Retention Pond using PCA Method

Indonesia as an archipelago country with 2nd longest coastal line in the world mostly has routine disaster such as flood. Jakarta as capital and economic center of Indonesia has flooding problem every year. To minimalize the impact, the government of DKI Jakarta already constructed 36 polder systems since 1973. In the future there are 11 polders planned to construct. Those 36 built up polders need maintenance to keep its function. Budgeting system of polder’s maintenance cost not yet available, so to allocating budget for polder’s maintenance based on previous amount and it found ineffective. This research analyzes indicators that can be used for indexing the service of polders as an initial research. As an object of this research, 8 polders in DKI Jakarta are chosen, they are Polder Grogol, Polder Teluk Gong, Polder Melati, Polder West Setiabudi, Polder South Sunter, Polder Tomang, Polder North Sunter, and Polder Pulomas. Probably indicator affecting polder’s capacity analyze using Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and resulted there are 24 indicators that can be used for analyzing polder system service level. Those indicators are separated into 2 aspects, technical and non-technical aspects.

A Study on the Effect of Information Service Level and System Quality on BSC: Focusing on the Mediating Effect of Work Efficiency

This study aims to empirically identify whether the higher the quality of the system, the more efficient the task and the more impact it has on the BSC items. An empirical data from the information system industry, in which various information systems are highly used, was collected and analyzed. To fulfill the research objective, we first identified the concepts of information systems and BSCs, and then verified how the information service level and quality of systems affect work efficiency and BSCs.

A Method to Establish a Trade-Space of System Requirements and Life Cycle Cost

Systems engineering traditionally approaches the design of systems through determination of requirements for and implementation of a system. The system is conceived as something to enable achievement of an effect with the tacit assumption that the system to be designed must achieve technical performance, including availability characteristics, which enable delivery of the whole of the intended effect. This approach determines the technical requirements of the system to ensure achievement of the system purpose under assumptions about how the system, or fleet, would be deployed to provide the intended service. Usually, cost is addressed after requirements, either to find the cheapest method to achieve the requirements or as one dimension of a trade-space analysis. In this paper, we explore a different philosophy for finding the system requirements; starting with the required system level service provision, but agnostic about the technical quality needed. We investigate a trade-space including the life cycle cost (LCC) of service provision as a contribution to determining subsystem requirements. We model the life cycle, for many variations of technical composition, using a Monte Carlo method, and show that a trade-space of LCC and requirements is likely to produce a cheaper solution than starting with sub-system requirements.

Service level agreement‐based GDPR compliance and security assurance in(multi)Cloud‐based systems

Compliance with the new European General Data Protection Regulation (Regulation (EU) 2016/679, GDPR) and security assurance are currently two major challenges of Cloud-based systems. GDPR compliance implies both privacy and security mechanisms definition, enforcement and control, including evidence collection. This study presents a novel DevOps framework aimed at supporting Cloud consumers in designing, deploying and operating (multi)Cloud systems that include the necessary privacy and security controls for ensuring transparency to end-users, third parties in service provision (if any) and law enforcement authorities. The framework relies on the risk-driven specification at design time of privacy and security level objectives in the system service level agreement and in their continuous monitoring and enforcement at runtime.

A Study on the Effect of Information Service Level and System Quality on BSC: Focusing on the Mediating Effect of Work Efficiency

Background/Objectives: This study aims to empirically identify whether the higher the quality of the system, the more efficient the task and the more impact it has on the BSC items. An empirical data from the information system industry, in which various information systems are highly used, was collected and analyzed. To fulfill the research objective, we first identified the concepts of information systems and BSCs, and then verified how the information service level and quality of systems affect work efficiency and BSCs.

Integrated production and reconfiguration planning in modular plug-and-produce production systems

Modular plug-and-produce production systems have been proposed as promising architectures to face the challenge of evolving market requirements, large product variety and small lots. These systems enable fast reconfiguration through on-line production modules substitution. However, such capability poses challenges at planning level, as the sequencing of lots and the selection of production modules need to be performed simultaneously. This paper proposes an integrated method for production and reconfiguration planning combining stochastic lot completion time distribution analysis and lot sequence optimization to maximize the system service level. The approach is validated in a real industrial system producing hydraulic valves.

A Simulation Based Modelling Approach to Jointly Support and Evaluate Spare Parts Supply Chain Network and Maintenance System

This research aims at proposing a simulation-based modelling methodology to support the decision-making process related to the Spare Parts Supply Chain, which is a significant supporting system for maintenance operations in manufacturing systems. The proposed simulation-based modelling approach suits as a useful quantitative methodology to evaluate the performance of the Spare Parts Supply Chain along with its impact on the underlying Maintenance System. The joint modelling and performance evaluation of both the Spare Parts Supply Chain and the Maintenance System allows to support the assessment and selection of policies and strategies related to Spare Parts inventories (e.g. supplying processes, transport decisions and maintenance operations). This methodology may yield a better system costs balance between Spare Parts Supply Chain and Maintenance System, while ensuring desired system service levels. Finally, it worth to be mentioned that this proposed simulation-based approach is suitable to be embedded into a more general decision-making framework to support Spare Parts Supply Chain planning and control.

Perceptions of HIV transmission and pre-exposure prophylaxis among health care workers and community members in Rwanda.

There are too many new HIV infections globally with 1.8 million persons infected in 2016 alone. Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) holds potential to decrease new infections and is synergistic with efforts currently in place to achieve an end to the AIDS epidemic in Sub-Saharan African, but uptake is limited. Given its novelty, assessing the beliefs and attitudes of healthcare professionals and members of the community towards HIV transmission and PrEP will be helpful to inform implementation efforts. Study was a random survey of 201 community members and 51 healthcare providers, carried out at multiple community sites in Huye district, Southern Province, Rwanda and at Kigali University Teaching Hospital (KUTH). The study findings are that there are still misconceptions about HIV in the community with some respondents believing that HIV is due to punishment from God (5.4%), poverty (3.0%), smoking cigarettes (1.0%), drinking alcohol (2.0%), punishment from ancestors (1.0%) and witchcraft (1.5%), and that its transmission is by mosquito bites (10.9%), sharing food or drinks with a HIV infected person (6.5%) or as a result of carelessness (47.8%). More than 50% of respondents from both groups had insufficient knowledge regarding PrEP, but expressed some interest in PrEP (82.6% of the respondents from the community and 86.5% of the health workers). However, some healthcare workers felt that promotion of safe sex practices (74.5%), HIV testing and treating HIV infected patients (60.8%) would work better than PrEP to decrease new HIV infections. Barriers to PrEP implementation included perceived stigma, delayed access to prevention services at the health facilities while personal-level concerns included lack of family support, reluctance to take a medication daily and fear of being perceived as having HIV. This study showed that health care workers and community members are willing to utilize PrEP in Rwanda, but many challenges exist including limited knowledge about PrEP, stigma, provider and system level service delivery barriers at health facilities among others. More studies are needed to assess ways of addressing and /or eliminating these barriers.

Cherry-picking and its Negative Effect on System Service Level: Evidence from a Radiology Workflow Platform

Piece-rate compensation schemes, where workers are paid for each completed task regardless of the time spent on it, are common in practice. However, imbalances between pay and workload of different tasks could result in cherry-picking of tasks deemed to have high pay relative to workload. Using a large dataset from a radiology workflow platform that connects off-site radiologists with hospitals, we empirically investigate whether radiologists cherry-pick tasks with high pay-to-workload, and if cherry-picking has a negative impact on system service level. In the platform we study, radiologists have discretion to select tasks from a common pool, and the service level is characterized by meeting priority-specific turnaround time targets. We show that turnaround time is monotonically decreasing in pay-to-workload. More importantly, we also show a spillover effect. Namely, that cherry-picking of low priority tasks can lead to longer turnaround times for higher priority tasks, resulting in delays. Our results suggest that organizations where workers have task discretion from a common pool need to carefully align their piece-rate compensation scheme with the workload of each task. Imbalances may lead to a degradation in the system service level provided to time-sensitive customers.

Disparities in hospital Capacities and Efficiency of Computer-based health insurance Claims Processing

Background. The Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) has adopted several computer-based systems to enhance claims processing for hospitals.
 Objectives. This study sought to determine the efficiency gains in the processing of PhilHealth claims following the introduction of computer-based processing systems, taking into account differences in hospital characteristics.
 Methods. Data were obtained from a survey conducted among 200 hospitals, and their corresponding 2014 claims figures as provided by PhilHealth. Summary descriptive statistics of hospital capacities (ownership, service level, and utilization of PhilHealth computer systems) and claims outcomes (claims rejection rates, as well as length of claims processing times for hospitals and with PhilHealth) were generated. Multivariate regression analysis was done using claims outcomes as dependent variables, and hospital capacities as independent variables.
 Results. Nearly a quarter of the surveyed hospitals did not utilize any of PhilHealth’s computer-based claims systems. Utilization was lowest for primary as well as public facilities. Among those that used the systems, most employed the on-line membership verification program. The mean claims rejection rate was 3.81%. Claims processing by hospitals took an average of 35 days, while PhilHealth required 40 days from receipt of claims to release of reimbursement. Regression analysis indicated that facilities which utilized computers as well as private hospitals had significantly lower claims rejection rates (p<0.05). The claims processing duration was significantly shorter among private facilities.
 Conclusions. Private hospitals are able to process claims and obtain reimbursements faster than public facilities, regardless of the use of PhilHeath’s computer-based systems. PhilHealth and public hospitals need to optimize claims processing arrangements.

An OpenNCP-based Solution for Secure eHealth Data Exchange

The European Commission is very focused on the development of possible solutions to allow effective cross-border healthcare provisioning with the aim of guaranteeing a uniform Quality of Service (QoS) level of healthcare systems across Europe. One of the most relevant efforts in this direction was the epSOS Project, with the release of the OpenNCP platform overcoming interoperability issues in health information exchange between nations while complying with both National and European laws. Despite the OpenNCP platform has been adopted in several Member States, allowing them to securely interconnect their eHealth infrastructures, some security issues are still partially addressed. This work shows how the KONFIDO project will address these issues by building on and extending the results of OpenNCP through a sound holistic approach to security at a systemic level. This paper describes in detail the KONFIDO project approach and how it is being deployed via a combination of complementary security enhancing technologies with the ultimate goal of increasing trust and security of eHealth data exchange.

Impact of condition based maintenance policies on the service level of multi-stage manufacturing systems

Preventive maintenance is crucial for keeping the operational condition of machines but it affects the available productive time of the system. This influences the lot completion time and the delivery dates. Therefore the choice of preventive maintenance policies needs to be taken by jointly considering the actual condition of machines and the service level of the system. In this context, the main contribution of this paper consists in showing how the completion time of a lot is significantly affected by the preventive maintenance policy. This is done by means of numerical illustrations obtained by using both ad-hoc models and a real industrial case. The second contribution relies in the presented methodology that allows the modeling of general synchronous production lines and, given a lot size, the computation of their corresponding service level. The methodology is described in such a way that its extension to different scenarios (such as different system layout and asynchronous machines) is fairly straightforward.

A Simheuristic Method for the Reversible Lanes Allocation and Scheduling Problem at Smart Container Terminal Gate

Under the constraints of limited spaces and imbalanced traffic volumes (for both in and out directions) of container gates, reversible lane layouts become an economical and practical way to improve the service level of container terminal systems and make the maximum use of the current terminal resources. Together with a consideration of minimized total costs (both construction and operating) of terminal gate system, this paper first developed an optimization model to decide the number and scheduling rules of the reversible lanes at a terminal gate. A metaheuristic algorithm was built to solve the optimal model. Meanwhile, to reflect the randomness and dynamics property of the terminal gate system in practice, parameters that cannot be calculated from conventional analytic methods are obtained through a simulation model. Finally, a hub container terminal in the northeast of China was employed to verify the effectiveness of the proposed method and provide a theoretical foundation for the construction and management of terminal gate systems.