Stock Outs Research Articles

Field Evaluation of Diagnostic Performance and Factors Affecting Malaria Rapid Diagnostic Test in Seme, Kisumu County, Kenya

Quality diagnosis is important for effective management and control of malaria. The study assessed the factors affecting the performance of malaria rapid diagnostic test kits (mRDTs) in Seme Sub County, Kisumu. The study targeted three health facilities which were purposively sampled and convenience sampling was used to select the health care workers interviewed. The RDTs were randomly sampled. Descriptive statistics were summarized using tables and charts. The study revealed that RDTs storage, stock outs, staffs training, quality assurance, lack of bench job aids and standard operating procedures are factors affecting the performance of mRDTs. In conclusion, several factors affects the performance of mRDTs. The study recommends environmental monitoring of mRDTs during transportation, storage and testing process. The study also recommends regularly training of the health care workers on mRDTs and biannual proficiency testing for all mRDTs end users.

RNN / LSTM with modified Adam optimizer in deep learning approach for automobile spare parts demand forecasting

The spare parts demand forecasting is very much essential for the organizations to minimize the cost and prevent the stock outs. The demand of spare parts/ car sales distribution is an important factor in inventory control. The valuation of the demand is challenging as the automobile spare parts/car sales demand are often recurrent. The renowned empirical method adopts historical demand data to create the distribution of lead time demand. Although it works reasonably well when service requirements are relatively low, it has difficulty reaching high target service levels. In this paper, we proposed Recurrent Neural Networks/ Long-Short Term Memory (RNN / LSTM) with modified Adam optimizer to predict the demand for spare parts. In this LSTM, weight vectors are generated respectively. These weights are optimized using the Modified-Adam algorithm. The accuracy of the forecast and the performance of the inventory are considered in the experimental result. Experimental results confirm that RNN / LSTM with a Modified-Adam works well with minimal error compared to other existing methods. We conclude that the proposed RNN/LSTM with Modified-Adam algorithm is well suited for the prediction of automobile spare parts.

Community participation in the collaborative governance of primary health care facilities, Uasin Gishu County, Kenya.

Community participation in the governance of health services is an important component in engaging stakeholders (patients, public and partners) in decision-making and related activities in health care. Community participation is assumed to contribute to quality improvement and goal attainment but remains elusive. We examined the implementation of community participation, through collaborative governance in primary health care facilities in Uasin Gishu County, Western Kenya, under the policy of devolved governance of 2013. Utilizing a multiple case study methodology, five primary health care facilities were purposively selected. Study participants were individuals involved in the collaborative governance of primary health care facilities (from health service providers and community members), including in decision-making, management, oversight, service provision and problem solving. Data were collected through document review, key informant interviews and observations undertaken from 2017 to 2018. Audio recording, notetaking and a reflective journal aided data collection. Data were transcribed, cleaned, coded and analysed iteratively into emerging themes using a governance attributes framework. A total of 60 participants representing individual service providers and community members participated in interviews and observations. The minutes of all meetings of five primary health care facilities were reviewed for three years (2014-2016) and eight health facility committee meetings were observed. Findings indicate that in some cases, structures for collaborative community engagement exist but functioning is ineffective for a number of reasons. Health facility committee meetings were most frequent when there were project funds, with discussions focusing mainly on construction projects as opposed to the day-to-day functioning of the facility. Committee members with the strongest influence and power had political connections or were retired government workers. There were no formal mechanisms for stakeholder forums and how these worked were unclear. Drug stock outs, funding delays and unclear operational guidelines affected collaborative governance performance. Implementing collaborative governance effectively requires that the scope of focus for collaboration include both specific projects and the routine functioning of the primary health care facility by the health facility committee. In the study area, structures are required to manage effective stakeholder engagement.

Key considerations on the potential impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on antimicrobial resistance research and surveillance.

Antibiotic use in severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) patients during the COVID-19 pandemic has exceeded the incidence of bacterial coinfections and secondary infections, suggesting inappropriate and excessive prescribing. Even in settings with established antimicrobial stewardship (AMS) programmes, there were weaknesses exposed regarding appropriate antibiotic use in the context of the pandemic. Moreover, antimicrobial resistance (AMR) surveillance and AMS have been deprioritised with diversion of health system resources to the pandemic response. This experience highlights deficiencies in AMR containment and mitigation strategies that require urgent attention from clinical and scientific communities. These include the need to implement diagnostic stewardship to assess the global incidence of coinfections and secondary infections in COVID-19 patients, including those by multidrug-resistant pathogens, to identify patients most likely to benefit from antibiotic treatment and identify when antibiotics can be safely withheld, de-escalated or discontinued. Long-term global surveillance of clinical and societal antibiotic use and resistance trends is required to prepare for subsequent changes in AMR epidemiology, while ensuring uninterrupted supply chains and preventing drug shortages and stock outs. These interventions present implementation challenges in resource-constrained settings, making a case for implementation research on AMR. Knowledge and support for these practices will come from internationally coordinated, targeted research on AMR, supporting the preparation for future challenges from emerging AMR in the context of the current COVID-19 pandemic or future pandemics.

P0597 / #857: OUT-OF-POCKET COSTS AND TIME/PRODUCTIVITY LOSSES FOR PEDIATRIC SEPSIS IN UGANDA: A MIXED-METHODS STUDY

Aims & Objectives: The primary objectives were to explore care-seeking practices including key cost drivers, and to estimate out-of-pocket (OOP) costs and time/productivity losses for sepsis-related care in Uganda. Methods: In this mixed-methods study, data were collected through four qualitative focus groups (FGs) with parents of children aged <5 years who were diagnosed with sepsis (n=29), followed by a cross-sectional household survey (n=153) in the study communities. Results: Participants in the FGs revealed key cost drivers related to primary hospitalization, re-admissions, post-discharge follow-up care, medications, laboratory tests/imaging, communication, meals, and transport. The primary admission cost an average of UGX31,856[US$9; standard deviation (SD):16]. Due to medication stock outs at the public facilities, parents spent an average of UGX53,928[US$15:SD18] per hospitalization. Of thirty children who required re-admissions, 14(47%) went to a private health facility and paid an average UGX104,750[US$29:SD40] per re-admission. Additionally, 88 children (58%) sought follow-up care from lower-level public health facilities resulting in an average cost of UGX6,064[US$1.6:SD5.9] per visit. Nearly 80% participants reported using a public transport to the health facility (average cost UGX28,055 [US$ 7.6:SD:SD7.7). Another 93% of parents purchased on average of 20 meals which cost UGS66,708 [$18:SD26]. Over 60% of parents reported missed wages which cost UGX127,767[US$35:SD72]. Also, 39(26%) parents hired someone on daily wages which cost on average of UGX37,737[US$10:SD11.7]. One-third of parents reported selling of household assets to pay for the care-related expenses (average value UGX382,083 [$US104:SD146]). Conclusions: This study concluded a substantial economic burden to families for sepsis-related care in Uganda.

ART Initiation for Infants Diagnosed With HIV Through Point of Care and Conventional Polymerase Chain Reaction Testing in Kenya: A Case Series.

We sought to understand the sequence of testing and treatment among nine infants offered both conventional and point-of-care testing and diagnosed as HIV-positive by 6 months of age in Kenya. One infant received per protocol testing and treatment. Patient-level (late presentation and disengagement), provider-level (reluctance and error/oversight) and system-level (stock outs, errors) challenges delayed diagnosis and treatment. Early point-of-care testing can streamline testing; however, challenges mitigate benefits.

Automated Dispensing Cabinet Optimization in a Level 2 Trauma Center

Introduction Opportunities have been identified regarding timely delivery of medications due to lack of ADC inventory related to stock outs or other variances in pharmacy workflow (i.e. compounding and distribution times). These opportunities for improvement impact patient care and result in both nursing and pharmacy staff frustration. Additionally, there are significant costs associated with unused medications stored in ADCs, taking up valuable real estate that would otherwise house more opportune inventory. This situation has created a need for more efficient management of the ADC inventory. Currently, research in the topic area is sparse. We hypothesize that the systematic management and oversight of ADC inventory will demonstrate a significant improvement in key performance indicators and provide insight to the current gaps in knowledge. Methods This study will be a continuous quality improvement project with a combination of retrospective data review and prospective optimization interventions of automated dispensing cabinets (Pyxis®). Interventions include review and adjustment of ADC par levels, removal of unused/stagnate medications, standardization of stock, and continual review of ADC inventory turns and associated optimization opportunities. The primary outcomes are the change in vend/fill ratio from baseline, change in medication stockout percentage from baseline. Results There was no significant difference in vend/fill ratio after the optimization phase compared with baseline [Difference 0.13 (11.56 ± 6.1 vs. 11.43 ± 5.41) respectively, (p=0.84)]. Medication stockout percentage was also found to be similar with baseline [Difference -0.05 (0.71% ± 0.12 vs. 0.76% ± 0.08) respectively, (p=0.37)]. For secondary outcomes, the change in blind stockout percentage from baseline was -0.04 [0.13 ± 0.02 vs. 0.17 ± 0.02, (p=0.004)] and the change in medications dispensed per day from baseline was 317 [2656 ± 143 vs. 2339 ± 200, (p=0.0002)]. Conclusion Optimization of automated dispensing cabinets yielded marginal improvements in vend/fill ratio and stockout percentage and significantly improved overall efficiency through an increase in the number of medications stocked in ADCs and number of medications dispensed per day from ADCs. Evaluation of more clinically significant performance indicators may better characterize the benefits from the optimization process.

Exploring a two-product unreliable manufacturing system as a capacity constraint for a two-echelon supply chain dynamic problem

ABSTRACT In this paper, we investigate a two-echelon, two-product Supply Chain (SC) inspired by a real-world production/distribution firm, in which the product change-over time, necessary to switch from a product to another, induces a variable capacity in the factory. Such a varying production capacity is further exacerbated by the machine breakdowns that may occur in the manufacturing system. Since the two products share the same production system, a production planning rule has to be executed to decide the change-over, i.e. to select the product to be manufactured over time. An extended experimental campaign has been performed to investigate how the fill rate and the standard deviation of inventories vary as a series of operational and tactical parameters changes. Several ANOVA analyses revealed a strong interaction between the production planning model and the adopted smoothing replenishment strategy, which remarkably affects the performance of the SC. Interestingly, a higher value of the proportional controller negatively affects the service levels since the adopted production planning policy, under these circumstances, tends to encourage longer production runs for a certain product and, consequently, persistent stock outs for the other one.

Shortages and price variability of essential cytotoxic medicines for treating children with cancers

IntroductionLow-income and middle-income countries (LMICs) face the largest burden of mortality from childhood cancers with limited access to curative therapies. Few comparative analyses across all income groups and world regions...

Empty shelves: selected essential medicines stockouts in South Africa

Abstract Background Access to essential medicines in South Africa has been compromised by stockouts in health facilities. This study describes the occurrence of stockouts for a selection of essential medicines. Methods This cross-sectional study used secondary data retrieved from the Stop Stock Outs Project (SSP). A descriptive analysis was conducted on data from the 2013-2015 SSP case management database of routinely reported stockouts. Chi square tests of independence was conducted on data from the SSP 2015 annual telephonic survey to investigate associations between the occurrence of stockouts, the level of health facility and the type of health professional. Results 231 facilities reported 609 stockouts. Antiretroviral medication had the most stockout reports (78%; n = 475/609), followed by anti-infectives (17.1%; n = 104/609) and tuberculosis medication (4.9%; n = 30/609). The highest number of stockout reports were received from Gauteng province and the majority (71.09%; n = 150/211) of facilities reporting stockouts were in urban areas. There were more stockouts at ambulatory, rather than inpatient care, facilities however, this was not statistically significant. Conclusions This study confirms that South Africa experiences medicine stockouts for many of the essential medicines, with antiretroviral medication being the category most affected. The stockouts vary between provinces and the urban-rural divide but are an equal threat to both ambulatory and inpatient facilities. Key messages The pattern of stockouts experienced over a three-year period suggest that stockouts are ‘normal’ despite the substantive effects of treatment interruption – especially patients with HIV and/or TB. Antiretroviral therapy is at risk as a result of stockouts.

Modeling the likely economic cost of non-adherence to TB medicines in the Philippines.

SETTING: The Philippines has a population of over 90 million people and is one of the 22 highest TB burden countries in the world.OBJECTIVE: To understand the economic cost of non-adherence to TB medicines due to loss to follow up and stock-outs in the Philippines.DESIGN: Data were collected on the economic costs of non-adherence to TB medicines and a model was developed to show those costs under different scenarios.RESULTS: The model showed that as many as 1958 and 233 persons are likely to have died as a result of DS-TB and MDR-TB loss to follow up, respectively, and 588 persons are likely to have died as a result of TB medicine stock outs. The related economic impact in each case is likely have been to be as much as US$72.2 million, US$13.4 million and US$21.0 million, respectively.CONCLUSION: The economic costs of non-adherence to TB medicines due to loss to follow-up and stock-outs represent a significant economic burden for the country and it is likely that the cost of addressing these problems would be much less than this burden and, therefore, a wise investment.

Malaria Test, Treat and Track policy implementation in Angola: a retrospective study to assess the progress achieved after 4\xa0years of programme implementation

BackgroundMalaria is one of the main causes of death in Angola, particularly among children under 5 years of age. An essential means to improve the situation is with strong malaria case management; this includes diagnosing suspected patients with a confirmatory test, either with a rapid diagnostic test (RDT) or microscopy, prompt and correct treatment with artemisinin-based combination therapy (ACT), and proper case registration (track). In 2011, the United States President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI) launched a country-wide programme to improve malaria case management through the provision of regular training and supervision at different levels of health care provision. An evaluation of malaria testing, treatment and registration practices in eight provinces, and at health facilities of various capacities, across Angola was conducted to assess progress of the national programme implementation.MethodsA retrospective assessment analysed data collected during supervision visits to health facilities conducted between 2012 and 2016 in 8 provinces in Angola. The supervision tool used data collected for malaria knowledge, testing, treatment and case registration practices among health workers as well as health facilities stock outs from different levels of health care delivery. Contingency tables with Pearson chi-squared (χ2) tests were used to identify factors associated with “knowledge”, “test”, “treat” and “track.” Multivariable logistic regression models were used to assess factors associated with the defined outcomes.ResultsA total of 7156 supervisions were conducted between September 2012 and July 2016. The overall knowledge, testing, treatment and tracking practices among health care workers (HCWs) increased significantly from 2013 to 2016. Health care workers in 2016 were 3.3 times (95% CI: 2.7–3.9) as likely to have a higher knowledge about malaria case management as in 2013 (p < 0.01), 7.4 (95% CI: 6.1–9.0) times as likely to test more suspected cases (p < 0.01), 10.9 (95% CI: 8.6–13.6) times as likely to treat more confirmed cases (p < 0.01) and 3.7 (95% CI: 3.2–4.4) times as likely to report more accurately in the same period (p < 0.01).DiscussionImprovements demonstrated in knowledge about malaria case management, testing with RDT and treatment with artemisinin-based combinations among HCWs is likely associated with malaria case management trainings and supportive supervisions. Gaps in testing and treatment practices are associated with RDT and ACT medicines stock outs in health facilities. Tracking of malaria cases still poses a major challenge, despite training and supervision. Hospitals consistently performed better compared to other health facilities against all parameters assessed; likely due to a better profile of HCWs.ConclusionSignificant progress in malaria case management in eight provinces Angola was achieved in the period of 2013–2016. Continued training and supportive supervision is essential to sustain gains and close existing gaps in malaria case management and reporting in Angola.

The extent of selected essential medicines stockouts in South Africa (2013-2015)

Access to essential medicines in South Africa has been compromised by stockouts in health facilities. This study analyses the occurrence of stockouts for a selection of essential medicines for the period 2013-2015. An analytical cross-sectional design was undertaken using secondary data retrieved from the Stop Stock Outs Project (SSP). Specifically, a descriptive analysis was conducted on data from the 2013-2015 SSP’s case management database of routinely reported stockouts. The Chi-square test of independence was conducted on data from the SSP’s 2015 annual telephonic survey to investigate associations between the occurrence of stockouts, level of health facilities and type of health professionals in the facilities. Two hundred and thirty-one health facilities reported 609 stockouts. Antiretroviral medication had the most stockout reports (77.9%; n=475/609), followed by anti-infectives (17.1%; n=104/609) and tuberculosis medication (4.9%; n=30/609). The highest number of stockout reports were received from Gauteng province and the majority (71.1%; n=150/211) of facilities reporting stockouts were in urban areas. There were morestockouts in ambulatory (level 1) rather than inpatient care facilities (level 2); however, this was not statistically significant (p>0.05). There was a significant difference in the type of health professional and occurrence of stockouts with stockouts being more likely to occur with pharmacy personnel than nurses. This study confirms that South Africa experiences medicine stockouts for many of the essential medicines, with antiretroviral medication being the category most affected. The stockouts vary between provinces and urban-rural divide, but threaten both levels 1 and 2 facilities similarly. Keywords: Stockouts, essential medicines, availability, access.

ANALISA PERBAIKAN KINERJA PENGIRIMAN PRODUK R754046 DI PT PELANGI ELASINDO DENGAN PENDEKATAN SAFETY STOCK

PT Pelangi Elasindo is one of the leading manufacturers in Indonesia specializing in webbing production, shoelaces, cords, high quality Molded Pulp, elastics and tape. As one of the vendors for leading shoe factories in the world, the accuracy of shipping goods both in terms of quantity and time is very important because this is a benchmark for calculating shipping performance. There was a delay in delivery at PT Pelangi Elasindo on the R7540460000 Molded Cardboard Shape size 2 product, making delivery performance decrease. Delivery performance in January is 93% while the minimum delivery performance standard is 95%. This study aims to analyze the factors that delay the delivery of goods to customers and improve delivery performance. Based on the results of the analysis, the factors that cause the delay in delivery are damage to the machine, manual cutting and demand variations and uncertainty of lead time. Among these factors, demand variations and lead time uncertainty are the most influential factors, so to improve delivery performance, safety stock must be prepared to avoid stock outs and delivery delays. Based on the results of the calculation of the safety stock that must be prepared is 8,403 prs per week. Key words : Delivery, performance, safety stock,improve

Programme quality indicators of HIV drug resistance among adolescents in urban versus rural settings of the centre region of Cameroon

BackgroundThe high rate of mortality among HIV-vertically infected adolescents might be favoured by HIV drug resistance (HIVDR) emergence, which calls for timeous actions in this underserved population. We thus sought to evaluate program quality indicators (PQIs) of HIVDR among HIV-vertically infected adolescents on antiretroviral therapy (ART).MethodsA study was conducted in the Centre region of Cameroon among adolescents (10–19 years) receiving ART in two urban (The Mother–Child Centre of the Chantal BIYA Foundation, the National Social Welfare Hospital) and three rural (Mfou District Hospital, Mbalmayo District Hospital and Nkomo Medical Center) health facilities. Following an exhaustive sampling from ART registers, patient medical files and pharmacy records, data was abstracted for seven PQIs: on-time drug pick-up; retention in care; pharmacy stock outs; dispensing practices; viral load coverage; viral suppression and adequate switch to second-line. Performance in PQIs was interpreted following the WHO-recommended thresholds (desirable, fair and/or poor); with p < 0.05 considered significant.ResultsAmong 967 adolescents (888 urban versus 79 rural) registered in the study sites, validated data was available for 633 (554 in urban and 79 in rural). Performance in the urban vs. rural settings was respectively: on-time drug pick-up was significantly poorer in rural (79% vs. 46%, p = 0.00000006); retention in care was fair in urban (80% vs. 72%, p = 0.17); pharmacy stock outs was significantly higher in urban settings (92% vs. 50%, p = 0.004); dispensing practices was desirable (100% vs. 100%, p = 1.000); viral load coverage was desirable only in urban sites (84% vs. 37%, p < 0.0001); viral suppression was poor (33% vs. 53%, p = 0.08); adequate switch to second-line varied (38.1% vs. 100%, p = 0.384).ConclusionAmong adolescents on ART in Cameroon, dispensing practices are appropriate, while adherence to ART program and viral load coverage are better in urban settings. However, in both urban and rural settings, pharmacy stock outs, poor viral suppression and inadequate switch to second-line among adolescents require corrective public-health actions to limit HIVDR and to improve transition towards adult care in countries sharing similar programmatic features.

Analyzing Promotion Effectiveness in Fashion Retailing Using Quantile Regression

Since the industry standard approach to judge on the effectiveness of promotion is based on the impact on expected sales it cannot grasp other impacts in the distribution of future sales. Since retailers operate with very high strategic service level targets (e.g. 98%) high quantiles of the sales distribution matter more than expected sales, which calls for quantile regression. There are more merits from this approach than forecasting high quantiles: Using real-world data from a fashion retail store i show that the impact of promotion can turn from insignificant to significantly harmful. Choosing quantile regression requires special diagnostics. The quality of forecasting high quantiles should be measured by the implied stock outs. Ideally, the stock outs would form a Bernoulli trials process with probability 100% minus service level target (e.g. 2%). This can be tested with backtests from the risk management literature as is shown in a real-world case.

Validation of in-house liquid direct agglutination test antigen: the potential diagnostic test in visceral Leishimaniasis endemic areas of Northwest Ethiopia

BackgroundVisceral leishmaniasis in Ethiopia is a re-emerging threat to public health, with increased geographical distribution and number of cases. It is a fatal disease without early diagnosis and treatment; thus, the availability of affordable diagnostic tools is crucial. However, due to delays caused by import regulations, procurement and late delivery of imported test kits, accessibility remains a problem in the control program. Therefore, we aimed to produce and evaluate the performance of an in-house liquid (AQ) direct agglutination test (DAT) antigen.ResultThe AQ-DAT was produced at the Armauer Hansen Research Institute, using Leishmania donovani strain (MHOM/ET/67/L82). Sera from 272 participants; 110 microscopically confirmed cases of VL, 76 apparently healthy and 86 patients who had infectious disease other than VL were tested with AQ-DAT, and standard kits: Freeze-dried DAT (FD-DAT) and rK39. Taking microscopy as a gold standard; the sensitivity and specificity of the AQ-DAT were 97.3 and 98.8%, respectively. It had high degrees of agreement (k > 0.8), with a significant (P < 0.05) correlation compared to microscopy, FD-DAT, and rK39.ConclusionAlthough further standardization is required, the in-house AQ-DAT could improve diagnostic accessibility, minimize intermittent stock outs and strengthen the national VL control program.

Supply chain pinch analysis to optimal planning of biogas production

Supply chain is essential for an organization as it helps to maximize the operations which are profitable through the production, capacity, subcontracting, inventory and stock outs optimum levels. The traditional supply chain involves high documentation cost, with data involved that are mostly inaccurate and useless. In supply chain, the system of production plays an important role. The pinch analysis concept is initially used in the approach of energy conservation, and has extended to the optimization of resources and process integration. This paper presents the application of supply chain using pinch and cascade analysis for biogas production from palm oil mill effluent (POME). Biogas falls under the renewable energy where it can be produced via anaerobic digestion of POME. POME contributes to huge environmental impact mainly due to its high organic content. Supply chain via pinch analysis is used targeting to eliminate or reduce the difficulties faced in conventional supply chain. In this biogas supply chain analysis, it aims to meet the demand in a specific time frame. Minimum production rates are determined as accordance to the demand of electricity from 2020 to 2050. The pinch points are the points where the supply and demand are at the minimum, which the optimum production rate of electricity is able to determine from supply chain via pinch analysis. Monte Carlo Simulation tool is involved in the later stage of the study. It is used in the findings of analysing the increment of more than 10% of up-scale and down-scale production demand for each year for 35 years. The simulation is done from 2016 to 2035 of every five years interval. At the end of the study, the optimization of biogas production was achieved with the application of supply chain via pinch analysis. The supply and demand of biogas to electricity projection from 2020 to 2050 is forecasted. The optimal planning of electricity production from biogas was indicated in the supply chain cascade analysis.

IMPLEMENTASI SINGLE MINUTE EXCHANGE OF DIES (SMED) UNTUK PERBAIKAN PROSES BRAND CHANGEOVER MESIN FOCKE DAN PROTOS

The setup process at the time of brand change (Brand Changeover) that often occurs in machines has an impact on small performance values ​​and the potential for delays in the distribution schedule so that in these conditions stock outs occur in the market and cannot meet consumer needs according to the schedule that has been set. So that it is necessary to pay attention and observe the brand transfer activities on the maker and packer machines so that these activities are more efficient. From the results of the analysis, it is known that the brand change process that occurs in the SPM area takes a long time. With the process of separating external and internal activities with the SMED method, and paralleling internal activities in a process, it is expected to be able to improve production performance. The average time required for the protos machine to make a brand change is 85,078 minutes and the Focke engine is 179,105 minutes. The SMED method and separating external and internal activities can reduce 27.834% Brand Change time for Protos machines and 42.243% Brand Change time for Focke machines. From the implementation of this method for 7 weeks, it can be seen that the reduction in Brand change time can increase the machine's Link Up uptime performance by 6.48%.

A dynamic inventory rationing policy for business-to-consumer e-tail stores in a supply disruption context

A core activity for achieving an efficient order fulfillment planning in the business-to-consumer (B2C) context is the inventory rationing. This activity is complex and vital once e-tailers must deal with high frequency orders, timely delivery needs, and frequent stock outs, having to employ other fulfillment alternatives such as dropshipping. Particularly, it becomes much more complex when supply disruptions occur. When some eventualities like the malfunctioning of the warehouse management system, a road blockage or a disaster occurs in an unexpected way e-tailers or supplier inventory can result damaged and the access to some geographic areas can be compromised, making hard to manage the inventory. As a consequence, some clients are hampered of receiving their products at the expected time, quantity or quality. This paper puts forward a framework for order fulfillment planning in e-tail stores, based on an inventory rationing model that splits the demand in a partial drop-shipping system. The model does consider the effects of supply disruption, filling the gap of existing models that do not include the respective constraints. Moreover, it reserves the more profitable and lesser inventory-consuming orders for the e-tailer, enabling him to diminish the consequences of the supply disruptions and achieve a profitable and service-oriented fulfillment operation.