Service Level Policy Research Articles

Product Assortment With Sustainable Product Attributes: The Case of a Tire Producer

Relying on a real-life dataset collected from one of Turkey's top three tire producers, this study investigated a product assortment problem with sustainable product attributes. Since the economic aspect of sustainability predominates the environmental and societal ones, firms struggle to increase their sustainable products' market share in their portfolio. The article aims to identify the impact of sustainable consumer preferences, producer strategy for sustainability, and service level policies (SLP) on the number of assortments, profit, average sale prices, and out-of-stock level of tires. Consumer preferences based on sustainability attributes were calculated by a utility-based multinomial logistic regression. A mixed-integer linear programming model was developed to maximize profit with respect to inventory constraints and demand substitution rates under different producer sustainability targets (PST) and SLP. The results show that the producer's profitability and the number of assortments in the market tend to decrease as PST increases, which means that the producer produces a proportionally higher number of sustainable products. When consumers place their preferences according to only economic attributes, the tire producer has higher profitability and average sale prices than the consumers deciding with all-sustainability attributes. However, suppose the tire producer chooses to act proactively and aggressively launches more sustainable products. In that case, it may achieve higher profit margins than a market requesting more sustainable products in the long run. SLP of the tire producer had no significant impact on the number of assortments and average sale prices.

Waiting for inpatient detoxification: A qualitative analysis of patient experiences

BackgroundThere is limited provision of inpatient detoxification relative to other treatments for alcohol and other drug (AOD) use. This means people often need to wait prior to detoxifying. However, waiting for healthcare is generally perceived as negative and stressful. This paper aims to understand patients’ experiences of waiting for inpatient AOD detoxification to ascertain whether and how service-level policies and practices might be improved. MethodsSemi-structured telephone interviews were conducted with 32 people (20 males, 12 females; aged 25–67 years) who were waiting for inpatient detoxification. Data collection was part of a wider evaluation of a policy initiative started in 2021 to increase detoxification service capacity in England, UK. Interviews were professionally transcribed and data on waiting experiences were coded using qualitative software. Analyses were informed by new materialist thinking and undertaken via Iterative Categorisation. ResultsWe found that waiting was constituted through five dimensions: i. duration; ii. support; iii. information; iv. preparations; and v. emotions. These five dimensions were multi-faceted and operated in and through wider interacting social, material, and affective forces (e.g., professional judgements, formal and informal relationships, the availability of beds and funding, bureaucratic procedures, the utility and relevance of information, and participants’ diverse feelings, including desperation for treatment). Not all accounts of waiting were negative. The experience was complex, non-uniform and variable over time. Moreover, it affected how people felt and how they behaved. ConclusionsChanges to service-level policies and practices can potentially minimise the stress of waiting for inpatient AOD detoxification. The negative impact of waiting may be reduced if professionals more consistently engage patients in a wider range of constructive pre-treatment activities, offer regular ‘check-ins’ to mitigate any anxiety, explain changes in wait duration to help with planning and demonstrate fairness, and facilitate contact between those waiting to lessen feelings of isolation.

Dynamic congestion management system for cloud service broker

<span lang="EN-US">The cloud computing model offers a shared pool of resources and services with diverse models presented to the clients through the internet by an on-demand scalable and dynamic pay-per-use model. The developers have identified the need for an automated system (cloud service broker (CSB)) that can contribute to exploiting the cloud capability, enhancing its functionality, and improving its performance. This research presents a dynamic congestion management (DCM) system which can manage the massive amount of cloud requests while considering the required quality for the clients’ requirements as regulated by the service-level policy. In addition, this research introduces a forwarding policy that can be utilized to choose high-priority calls coming from the cloud service requesters and passes them by the broker to the suitable cloud resources. The policy has made use of one of the mechanisms that are used by Cisco to assist the administration of the congestion that might take place at the broker side. Furthermore, the DCM system is used to help in provisioning and monitoring the works of the cloud providers through the job operation. The proposed DCM system was implemented and evaluated by using the CloudSim tool.</span>

Deep-Learning-Based Blockchain for Secure Zero Touch Networks

The recent technological advancements in wireless communication systems and the Internet of Things (IoT) have accelerated the development of zero touch networks (ZTNs). ZTNs provide self-monitoring, self-configuring, and automated service-level policies that cannot be fulfilled by the traditional network management and orchestration approaches. Despite the hype, the majority of data exchange between participating entities occurs over insecure public channels, which present a number of possible security risks and attacks. Toward this end, we first analyze the attack surface on IoT-enabled ZTNs and the inherent architectural flaws for such threats. After an overview of attack surface, this article presents a new deep-learning- and blockchain-assisted case study for secure data sharing in ZTNs. Specifically, first, we design a novel variational autoencoder (VAE) and attention-based gated recurrent units (AGRU)-based intrusion detection system (IDS) for ZTNs. Second, a novel authentication protocol that combines blockchain, smart contracts (SCs), elliptic curve cryptography (ECC), and a proof of authority (PoA) consensus mechanism is developed to improve secure data sharing in ZTNs. The extensive experimental results show the effectiveness of the proposed approach. Lastly, this work discusses critical issues, opportunities, and open research directions to solve these challenges.

Developing a new health-related policy analysis tool: An action research cooperative inquiry approach.

To develop a tool for the analysis of nursing, midwifery and health-related policy and professional guidance documents. Analysis tools can aid both policy evaluation and policy development. However, no framework for analysing the content of professional regulation and guidance documents among health care professionals currently exists. This study used an action research, cooperative inquiry design. Data were generated from two integrative literature reviews and discussions held during the cooperative inquiry meetings. A set of key themes to be considered in the development or evaluation of health policy or professional regulation and guidance documents were identified. These themes formed the basis of the six domains considered by the Health-related Policy Analysis Tool (HrPAT): Context, Process, Content, Stakeholder Consultation, Implementation and Evaluation. Use of the HrPAT can assist in policy development, evaluation and implementation, as well as providing some retrospective analytical insights into existing health policies. Professional regulation documents, guidelines and policy reports should be capable of being scrutinized for their content, quality and developmental process. The HrPAT can assist relevant stakeholders in the development, analysis and evaluation of such documents, including local, service-level policies and guidelines.

A discrete bilevel brain storm algorithm for solving a sales territory design problem: a case study

A sales territory design problem faced by a manufacturing company that supplies products to a group of customers located in a service region is addressed in this paper. The planning process of designing the territories has the objective to minimizing the total dispersion of the customers without exceeding a limited budget assigned to each territory. Once territories have been determined, a salesperson has to define the day-by-day routes to satisfy the demand of customers. Currently, the company has established a service level policy that aims to minimize total waiting times during the distribution process. Also, each territory is served by a single salesperson. A novel discrete bilevel optimization model for the sales territory design problem is proposed. This problem can be seen as a bilevel problem with a single leader and multiple independent followers, in which the leader’s problem corresponds to the design of territories (manager of the company), and the routing decision for each territory corresponds to each follower. The hierarchical nature of the current company’s decision-making process triggers some particular characteristics of the bilevel model. A brain storm algorithm that exploits these characteristics is proposed to solve the discrete bilevel problem. The main features of the proposed algorithm are that the workload is used to verify the feasibility and to cluster the leader’s solutions. In addition, four discrete mechanisms are used to generate new solutions, and an elite set of solutions is considered to reduce computational cost. This algorithm is used to solve a real case study, and the results are compared against the current solution given by the company. Results show a reduction of more than 20% in the current costs with the solution obtained by the proposed algorithm. Furthermore, a sensitivity analysis is performed, providing interesting managerial insights to improve the current operations of the company.

HIV policy and implementation: a national policy review and an implementation case study of a rural area of northern Malawi

ABSTRACTMalawi is a global leader in the design and implementation of progressive HIV policies. However, there continues to be substantial attrition of people living with HIV across the “cascade” of HIV services from diagnosis to treatment, and program outcomes could improve further. Ability to successfully implement national HIV policy, especially in rural areas, may have an impact on consistency of service uptake. We reviewed Malawian policies and guidelines published between 2003 and 2013 relating to accessibility of adult HIV testing, prevention of mother-to-child transmission and HIV care and treatment services using a policy extraction tool, with gaps completed through key informant interviews. A health facility survey was conducted in six facilities serving the population of a demographic surveillance site in rural northern Malawi to investigate service-level policy implementation. Survey data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. Policy implementation was assessed by comparing policy content and facility practice using pre-defined indicators covering service access: quality of care, service coordination and patient tracking, patient support, and medical management. ART was rolled out in Malawi in 2004 and became available in the study area in 2005. In most areas, practices in the surveyed health facilities complied with or exceeded national policy, including those designed to promote rapid initiation onto treatment, such as free services and task-shifting for treatment initiation. However, policy and/or practice were/was lacking in certain areas, in particular those strategies to promote retention in HIV care (e.g., adherence monitoring and home-based care). In some instances, though, facilities implemented alternative progressive practices aimed at improving quality of care and encouraging adherence. While Malawi has formulated a range of progressive policies aiming to promote rapid initiation onto ART, increased investment in policy implementation strategies and quality service delivery, in particular to promote long-term retention on treatment may improve outcomes further.

Probabilistic modeling of multiperiod service levels

This study investigates multiperiod service level (MSL) policies in supply chains facing a stochastic customer demand. The objective of the supply chains is to construct integrated replenishment plans that satisfy strict stockout-oriented performance measures which apply across a multiperiod planning horizon. We formulate the stochastic service level constraints for the fill rate, ready rate, and conditional expected stockout MSL policies. The modeling approach is based on the concept of service level trajectory and provides reformulations of the stochastic planning problems associated with each MSL policy that can be efficiently solved with off-the-shelf optimization solvers. The approach enables the handling of correlated and non-stationary random variables, and is flexible enough to accommodate the implementation of fair service level policies, the assignment of differentiated priority levels per products, or the introduction of response time requirements. We use an earthquake disaster management case study to show the applicability of the approach and derive practical implications about service level policies.

Military Line Leadership and Tobacco Control: Perspectives of Military Policy Leaders and Tobacco Control Managers

Despite progress in policy changes, tobacco use rates are still high in the military. Little is known about the views of those who create and implement tobacco control policies within the Department of Defense. These individuals determine what policy initiatives will be developed, prioritized, and implemented. We conducted key informant interviews with 16 service-level policy leaders (PLs) and 36 installation-level tobacco control managers (TCMs). PLs and TCMs believed that line leadership view tobacco control as a low priority that has minimal impact on successful mission completion. They also identified cultural factors that perpetuate tobacco use, such as low cost and easy accessibility to tobacco, smoke breaks, and uneven or unknown enforcement of current tobacco policies.

Managing Customer Relationships through Price and Service Quality

This paper examines the ways in which a service provider's policies on pricing and service level affect the size of its customer base and profitability. The analysis begins with the development of a customer behavior model that uses customer satisfaction and depth of relationship as mediators of the impact of price and service level on profitability. Based on this model of customer behavior, the system is analyzed as a queuing network from which the properties of the aggregate population's behavior are derived. The analysis reveals the counterintuitive result that a policy that involves a decrease in prices or an increase in service level may lead to a smaller customer base. However, this policy may also lead to higher profits. The novelty of this result lies in the explanation of the phenomenon: that when the customer base decreases due to a change in prices or service quality, companies may experience gains in profit that result not from a decrease in costs associated with serving fewer customers but from an increase in revenues resulting from the indirect effects of the lower prices or higher level of service on customer behavior. The application of optimization techniques to the model developed in this paper yields optimality conditions through which managers can assess the long-term profitability of their pricing and service-level policies.

Safety Stock and Service Levels in Periodic Review Inventory Systems

The management of requirement (purchased parts and components) uncertainty in MRP systems is a serious problem for manufacturing firms. When manufacturing service levels fall below a predetermined service level, safety stock must be increased in order to adjust to the competitive environment. This paper presents the results of a set of simulation experiments in which we investigate some of the complexities of safety stock requirements, lot sizing performance and the marginal safety stock requirements associated with various service level policies. The results of the experiments have empirically shown that the marginal units of safety stock required for various service level policies follow a predictable (measurable) pattern. The research also indicates that the economic advantages of well-known dynamic lot sizing procedures are diminished by the presence of requirements uncertainty. Another important finding is the interaction between service level and ‘lumpy’ requirements. High levels of the coefficient of variation and the economic time between orders resulted in larger orders, reduced safety stock and high service levels. In general, the overall findings from this research will hopefully provide the decision maker with an in-depth understanding of the measurement and impact of various service level policies.

Safety Stock and Service Levels in Periodic Review Inventory Systems

The management of requirement (purchased parts and components) uncertainty in MRP systems is a serious problem for manufacturing firms. When manufacturing service levels fall below a predetermined service level, safety stock must be increased in order to adjust to the competitive environment. This paper presents the results of a set of simulation experiments in which we investigate some of the complexities of safety stock requirements, lot sizing performance and the marginal safety stock requirements associated with various service level policies. The results of the experiments have empirically shown that the marginal units of safety stock required for various service level policies follow a predictable (measurable) pattern. The research also indicates that the economic advantages of well-known dynamic lot sizing procedures are diminished by the presence of requirements uncertainty. Another important finding is the interaction between service level and ‘lumpy’ requirements. High levels of the coefficient of variation and the economic time between orders resulted in larger orders, reduced safety stock and high service levels. In general, the overall findings from this research will hopefully provide the decision maker with an in-depth understanding of the measurement and impact of various service level policies.