Plant level evidence on product mix changes in Chilean manufacturing

We present an in-depth decompositionanalysis using physical indicators oftrends in Carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in the cementindustry in Brazil, China, South Korea andthe United States. Physical indicatorsallow a detailed analysis of intra-sectoraltrends, in contrast to the often usedmonetary indicators. We assess thecontribution of different factors affectingCO2 emissions in the cement industry,including change in product mix, efficiencyof power generation, changes in fuel mixand changes in energy efficiency. Thedecomposition results show that in allexamined countries, increased productionwas the main contributor to the increase intotal CO2 emissions. Energy-efficiencyimprovement is the most important factorthat led to the reduction of emissionintensities for all countries except Korea.For Korea, structural change in the productmix is the most important factorcontributing to the emission intensityreduction.

Hybrid ant systems for the dynamic facility layout problem

Investment Opportunity Set, Product Mix, and the Relationship between Bank CEO Compensation and Risk-Taking

During the 1950s and 1960s American higher education underwent a major change in size and structure, with a vast expansion in enrollments and increased emphasis on graduate training and research, relative to undergraduate teaching. This chapter explores the implications of this changing product mix for our understanding of costs, subsidies, financing methods, and decision-making structures in higher education. We ask the following questions: . . . 1. How did universities finance their production of graduate training and research (G and R), which usually do not bring in enough revenues to cover their costs? 2. What differences, if any, were there in the behavior of public and private universities regarding the shift toward G and R? 3. How did this change in product mix affect relative costs in universities versus two- and four-year colleges, which still specialize in undergraduate teaching? 4. What are the implications of this analysis for our understanding of the costs and benefits of education and for future public policy? For example, to what degree do state legislators and private donors control the product mix in higher education and who ultimately gains from the resources they provide?. . . Specifically, I characterize universities as multiproduct nonprofit organizations (NPOs) engaging in the teaching of undergraduates as a profitable activity, in order to subsidize graduate training and research, which are loss-making but yield direct utility to them. Cross-subsidization by NPOs, then, is an alternative to direct government funding of socially beneficial goods such as research, under certain circumstances. With certain differences that we shall note, this characterization applies to public and private institutions, and the term NPO is used for both in this chapter. At private universities, during the 1950s and 1960s, profits were generated mainly by huge tuition increases, made possible by rapidly rising demand, as we shall see below. State universities, too, engaged in cross-subsidization to finance G and R. However, since state universities often do not control or retain tuition revenue, their main device was a decrease in teaching cost per student.

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.

There have been significant decreases in the aggregate energy intensity of industry in China, Korea and Taiwan since 1980. We decompose changes in this often-used energy performance indicator into contributions associated with industry product mix and sectoral energy intensity. In all cases, the results obtained show a large effect of changes in sectoral energy intensity and a relatively smaller effect of changes in product mix. We further decompose the sectoral energy intensity effect to identify the impact of fuel substitution. It is concluded that decreases in the aggregate energy intensity of industry in the three economies were due primarily to improvements in fuel use efficiency.

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.

This paper discusses STARsCELL, a PC-based simulator for the design and evaluation of flexible manufacturing cell (FMC) flow line systems. As a design tool, STARsCELL aids in determining the ideal number of machines, number and assignment of operators, and the size of inter-workstation buffers. The menu-driven simulator also assists in evaluating the impact on cell performance of Just-in-Time (JIT) factors, changes in product mix and demands, and different user-specified job input sequences. The paper provides numerical results for a gear workcell example to illustrate the effects of various design variables on cell performance. A brief discussion of the development, applications, advantages, and limitations of STARsCELL is also presented.

The authors see no process changes being made in the fertilizer industry (as defined herein) solely from the desire to conserve energy. The major cost components in the fertilizer industry are raw materials; investment and working capital-related costs are second; and other items such as energy and labor are usually insignificant. While changes in product mix and processes are likely over time, such changes will be the result of factors other than energy conservation. There are two areas where environmental regulations and energy conservation are in conflict. These are: the reduction of NO/sub x/ emissions from nitric acid plants; and switching from natural gas to fuel oil for firing fertilizer dryers, where emissions are presently controlled by bag filters. Other types of actions considered for further research are: determining the applicability of the new processes to control NO/sub x/ emissions from sources other than nitric acid plants; developing methods of alleviating the problems of startup, shutdown, and malfunction of the NO/sub x/ abatement equipment; and disseminating information on techniques for using bag filters in conjunction with oil-fired dryers.

In today's competitive semiconductor business environment, wafer manufacturers are facing continuous pressure to accurately predict cycle time and tool utilization, gauge the impact of changes in capacity available, assess the impact of changes in product mix and quantity, and determine action plans to improve operational performance. Discrete event simulation (DES) is a widely used approach to perform such an analysis. However, DES has some inherent shortcomings for these planning tasks. Analytical models, like queueing networks, have much shorter response times and additional advantages compared to DES. But due to the complexity of semiconductor manufacturing systems (SMS) queueing models were not able to model all the peculiarities of those. This paper provides an overview of the main features of the IBM Enterprise Production planning and Optimization System (EPOS), a queueing network based system, which closes this gap. EPOS has been in use in the 300 mm fabrication of IBM in Fishkill for more than 2 years and has turned out to be an invaluable tool to analyze the trade-offs of cycle time and capacity within this complex environment.

In today?s competitive semiconductor business environment, wafer manufacturers are facing continuous pressure to accurately predict cycle time and tool utilization, gauge the impact of changes in capacity available, assess the impact of changes in product mix and quantity, and determine action plans to improve operational performance. Discrete event simulation (DES) is a widely used approach to perform such an analysis. However, DES has some inherent shortcomings for these planning tasks. Analytical models, like queueing networks, have much shorter response times and additional advantages compared to DES. But due to the complexity of semiconductor manufacturing systems (SMS) queueing models were not able to model all the peculiarities of those. This paper provides an overview of the main features of the IBM Enterprise Production planning and Optimization System (EPOS), a queueing network based system, which closes this gap. EPOS has been in use in the 300 mm fabrication of IBM in Fishkill for more than 2 years and has turned out to be an invaluable tool to analyze the trade-offs of cycle time and capacity within this complex environment.

With the growing interest in dealing with the volatile demand fluctuations, there is a renewed interest to enhance responsiveness in capacity planning and, in particular, to address the dynamic changes in product mix. However, with traditional MRP-II and ERP systems, capacity planning assumes that all machines in the work system are either the same or completely different. Similarities among products and resources (such as production equipment) are not a part of the consideration. As a result, inherent flexibility of the system is lost in the planning process. In this paper, we propose a new representation for the capability by characterizing critical capability drivers and their range. With a more refined representation, overlapping and non-overlapping capability regions can be identified, and their inter-relationships with respect to capacity can then be applied for improving the match between the capacity and production orders. Thus, better planning and capacity utilization can be achieved. An example is presented to demonstrate the proposed approach and to compare it with traditional MRP-II planning.

The effect of new and continuing prescription drug use on cost: A longitudinal analysis of chronic and seasonal utilization

PurposeThe purpose of this article is to propose a planning process that takes into account that manufacturers of original equipment have products at different stages of the product‐life cycle, and utilizes sales and inventory information collected from distributors and retailers.Design/methodology/approachThe research paper describes the construction and testing of a planning process.FindingsTrials in a case company indicate that supply chain responsiveness can be improved in product launches using the proposed process. Supply chain efficiency in the maturity phase can also be improved.Research limitations/implicationsThe usefulness and effectiveness of the proposed process depend on the assumption that product mix changes can be modeled and point‐of‐sales and channel sell‐through data are available regularly and reliably.Practical implicationsModeling and monitoring the variant mix on the total market level can be used to improve supply chain responsiveness to mix changes in product launches. The introduction of this planning process reduces the need for planning in the sales units.Originality/valueThe paper shows how the quality of variant forecasting for an original equipment manufacturer can be improved with access to channel visibility in the market introduction phase.

It is now widely accepted that predictions of such key quantities as imports, final demands, gross domestic output and employment depend crucially on a knowledge of the technology of an economy, and in particular of the input coefficients of the technology matrix. However, many investigations have pointed out that these coefficients change over time owing to alterations in the product mix at a sectoral level, changes in production techniques, relative price changes and economies of scale. Some econometric analysts have concentrated on relative price effects (Theil and Tilanus, 1964), and very few studies have considered the impact of product mix changes or economies of scale. Any analysis of the intertemporal behaviour of input-output coefficients requires a great deal of data, both on a time-series basis and with a uniform classification scheme. Such data are obviously very scarce, and as a consequence the attention of forecasters has shifted towards the incorporation of specialist technical information into the estimation of future coefficients. In common with earlier studies, this paper concentrates on the R.A.S. method of forecasting and examines an updating of the 1959 absorption flow matrices of nine European countries to the 1965 level of technology. The updated matrices, along with various derived quantities, are compared with the corresponding figures based on the actual 1965 tables at a 19-sector level of disaggregation. The data are prepared in a standardized framework by the Economic Commission for Europe (ECE) (1971) for twelve European countries for the year around 1959 and by the ECE data tape (1977) for nine European countries. The purpose of the ECE research programme was to make structural comparisons between various European countries. Data are obviously reduced from national tables to standardized tables following a homogeneous 19-sector scheme.