A bootstrap analysis to investigate the economic efficiency of the logistics industry in Italy

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La logistica nazionale: analisi dei livelli di efficienza e produttività

L’efficienza delle aziende che forniscono servizi logistici e ad alto valore aggiunto alle imprese manifatturiere risulta un elemento strategico nel possibile sviluppo futuro dell’economia italiana. Secondo numerosi studi (e.g. Confetra, Assologistica) la disparità tra costi “logistici” nazionali ed europei, risulta infatti una delle differenze che negativamente affliggono l’industria e l’export nazionale. Per tale motivo il presente studio ha lo scopo di analizzare l’efficienza delle aziende logistiche italiane, cercando di individuare eventuali criticità e proponendo possibili soluzioni al fine di incrementare la competitività del sistema paese. L’analisi si concentra sul periodo 2006-2011 e utilizza una metodologia d’indagine non parametrica (Data Envelopment Analysis - DEA) allo scopo di calcolare i punteggi di efficienza (con valutazione degli indici di Malmquist), le differenziazioni date dalla diversa dimensione aziendale, i rendimenti di scala ed il trend nel tempo di tali elementi. Le informazioni utilizzate sono derivate dai bilanci pubblicati dalle aziende stesse e contenute nel database CEBIL-CERVED. Al termine dell’analisi di efficienza, viene discussa la distribuzione spaziale delle aziende ed il relativo effetto sull’efficienza delle stesse e, quindi, vengono individuate possibili politiche atte a migliorare la situazione

Green Technologies for Production Processes

This book focuses on original research works about Green Technologies for Production Processes, including discrete production processes and process production processes, from various aspects that tackle product, process, and system issues in production. The aim is to report the state-of-the-art on relevant research topics and highlight the barriers, challenges, and opportunities we are facing. This book includes 22 research papers and involves energy-saving and waste reduction in production processes, design and manufacturing of green products, low carbon manufacturing and remanufacturing, management and policy for sustainable production, technologies of mitigating CO2 emissions, and other green technologies

Supply Chain Interoperability Measurement

Academia recognizes that although supply chains have an inherent need to be validated for their performance, supply chain performance measurement systems are still inadequate and one of the major barriers to successful supply chain collaboration. In this research, theory of Systems Architecture is used to make the first step towards an innovative supply chain performance measure defined as supply chain interoperability. Interoperability is considered a similarity metric with regard to a set of deterministic and stochastic characters (criteria) describing supply chain participants, a methodology that adapts and expands an interoperability measurement tool initially developed in and for a military context. A process that could be used to develop a set of initial supply chain interoperability characters to be included in the interoperability measurement is demonstrated based on interviews from managers of various functional roles at a single defense company in Greece. The presented measurement methodology can assist in efficiently directing resources to best improve interoperability between and among the various elements of a supply chain

Studies of strategic performance management for classical organizations theory & practice

Nowadays, the activities of "Performance Management" have spread very broadly in actually every part of business and management. There are numerous practitioners and researchers from very different disciplines, who are involved in exploring the different contents of performance management. In this thesis, some relevant historic developments in performance management are first reviewed. This includes various theories and frameworks of performance management. Then several management science techniques are developed for assessing performance management, including new methods in Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and Soft System Methodology (SSM). A theoretical framework for performance management and its practical procedures (five phases) are developed for "classic" organizations using soft system thinking, and the relationship with the existing theories are explored. Eventually these results are applied in three case studies to verify our theoretical development. One of the main contributions of this work is to point out, and to systematically explore the basic idea that the effective forms and structures of performance management for an organization are likely to depend greatly on the organizational configuration, in order to coordinate well with other management activities in the organization, which has seemingly been neglected in the existing literature of performance management research in the sense that there exists little known research that associated particular forms of performance management with the explicit assumptions of organizational configuration. By applying SSM, this thesis logically derives some main functional blocks of performance management in 'classic' organizations and clarifies the relationships between performance management and other management activities. Furthermore, it develops some new tools and procedures, which can hierarchically decompose organizational strategies and produce a practical model of specific implementation steps for "classic" organizations. Our approach integrates popular types of performance management models. Last but not least, this thesis presents findings from three major cases, which are quite different organizations in terms of management styles, ownership, and operating environment, to illustrate the fliexbility of the developed theoretical framework

Military applications of geological engineering

This work examines the premise that military engineering and geological engineering are intellectually paired and overlapped in practice to a significant extent. Geological engineering is an established, albeit young, academic discipline that enjoys wide industry and civil demand and is supported by many professional organizations. In contrast, military engineering is an ancient, empirically derived training or OJT program with practice-based trade-associations that has narrow government-only utility. The premise is formed by decades-long observation of U. S. Army military engineer officers completing a Master of Science degree in geological engineering as a complement to their practice-based training in military engineering at the Captains Career Course of the U.S. Army Engineer School. Almost everywhere has some existing data on the local geology for civil purposes, yet these are ignored, not accessible or not translated to military purposes. A description of the intersection between military and geological engineering is followed by comparison the practice of the geological and military engineer. Research and intellectual development is projected to fill current gaps in military considerations by geological engineers. Finally, steps to share these concepts and convince military engineers to adopt and extend the geological underpinnings of their profession are outlined. This work serves both a personal and professional interest. Previous personal work at the intersection of military scholarship and engineering underlie this premise --Abstract, page iv