Effective medical surplus recovery

We analyze not-for-profit Medical Surplus Recovery Organizations (MSROs) that manage the recovery of surplus (unused or donated) medical products to fulfill the needs of underserved healthcare facilities in the developing world. Our work is inspired by an award-winning North American non-governmental organization (NGO) that matches the uncertain supply of medical surplus with the receiving parties’ needs. In particular, this NGO adopts a recipient-driven resource allocation model, which grants recipients access to an inventory database, and each recipient selects products of limited availability to fill a container based on its preferences. We first develop a game theoretic model to investigate the effectiveness of this approach. This analysis suggests that the recipient-driven model may induce competition among recipients and lead to a loss in value provision through premature orders. Further, contrary to the common wisdom from traditional supply chains, full inventory visibility in our setting may accelerate premature orders and lead to loss of effectiveness. Accordingly, we identify operational mechanisms to help MSROs deal with this problem. These are: (i) appropriately selecting container capacities while limiting the inventory availability visible to recipients and increasing the acquisition volumes of supplies, (ii) eliminating recipient competition through exclusive single-recipient access to MSRO inventory, and (iii) focusing on learning recipient needs as opposed to providing them with supply information, and switching to a provider-driven resource allocation model. We use real data from the NGO by which the study was inspired and show that the proposed improvements can substantially increase the value provided to recipients

Quality Management Framework for Climate Datasets

Data from a variety of research programmes are increasingly used by policy makers, researchers, and private sectors to make data-driven decisions related to climate change and variability. Climate services are emerging as the link to narrow the gap between climate science and downstream users. The Global Framework for Climate Services (GFCS) of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) offers an umbrella for the development of climate services and has identified the quality assessment, along with its use in user guidance, as a key aspect of the service provision. This offers an extra stimulus for discussing what type of quality information to focus on and how to present it to downstream users. Quality has become an important keyword for those working on data in both the private and public sectors and significant resources are now devoted to quality management of processes and products. Quality management guarantees reliability and usability of the product served, it is a key element to build trust between consumers and suppliers. Untrustworthy data could lead to a negative economic impact at best and a safety hazard at worst. In a progressive commitment to establish this relation of trust, as well as providing sufficient guidance for users, the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) has made significant investments in the development of an Evaluation and Quality Control (EQC) function. This function offers a homogeneous user-driven service for the quality of the C3S Climate Data Store (CDS). Here we focus on the EQC component targeting the assessment of the CDS datasets, which include satellite and in-situ observations, reanalysis, climate projections, and seasonal forecasts. The EQC function is characterised by a two-tier review system designed to guarantee the quality of the dataset information. While the need of assessing the quality of climate data is well recognised, the methodologies, the metrics, the evaluation framework, and how to present all this information to the users have never been developed before in an operational service, encompassing all the main climate dataset categories. Building the underlying technical solutions poses unprecedented challenges and makes the C3S EQC approach unique. This paper describes the development and the implementation of the operational EQC function providing an overarching quality management service for the whole CDS data.This study is based on work carried out in the C3S_512 contract funded by Copernicus Programme and operated by ECMWF on behalf of the European Commission (Service Contract number: ECMWF/COPERNICUS720187C3S_512_BSC). We would like to acknowledge the work of colleagues from several European institutions, the data providers and C3S, who contributed to the development of the EQC framework as well as to the QAR production. We would also like to acknowledge the focus group users, who took time to review and provide valuable feedback on the QARs, QATs, minimum requirements and the CDS quality assessment tab. The authors are grateful to the anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments that have helped for the improvement of this paper.Peer Reviewed"Article signat per 23 autors/es: Carlo Lacagnina , Francisco Doblas-Reyes, Gilles Larnicol, Carlo Buontempo, André Obregón, Montserrat Costa-Surós, Daniel San-Martín, Pierre-Antoine Bretonnière, Suraj D. Polade, Vanya Romanova, Davide Putero, Federico Serva, Alba Llabrés-Brustenga, Antonio Pérez, Davide Cavaliere, Olivier Membrive, Christian Steger, Núria Pérez-Zanón, Paolo Cristofanelli, Fabio Madonna, Marco Rosoldi, Aku Riihelä, Markel García Díez"Postprint (published version

Iowa Department of Corrections Annual Performance Report, FY2006

Agency Performance Repor

The South African Regulatory System: Past, Present, and Future

The drive for improved regulatory systems and the establishment of a more effective regulatory framework in South Africa has been evident for the past two decades but despite political intentions and legislative revisions success has been limited to date. Efforts to address the increasing volume of applications that have been received have to date failed and resources have been stretched to capacity resulting in the development of a significant backlog and extended timelines for product registration. The promulgation of the recently amended Medicines and Related Substance Act of 1965 triggered the establishment of the South African Health Products Regulatory Authority (SAHPRA) as a separate juristic person outside of the National Department of Health to replace the former medicine regulatory authority the Medicines Control Council (MCC). The aim of this review is to provide the historical context supporting the new regulatory environment in South Africa and the transition from the MCC to SAHPRA. Key recommendations to SAHPRA to ensure the full potential of the new regulatory environment in South Africa include: establishing a quality management system to safeguard accountability, consistency and transparency and to streamline the implementation of good review practices including quality decisionmaking practices and benefit-risk assessment; the measurement and monitoring of regulatory performance, targets for overall approval time and key review milestones to instill a culture of accurate metrics collection and measurement of key performance indicators and their continuous improvement and the employment of a risk-based approach to the evaluation of medical products and codify the use of facilitated regulatory pathways in policy and culture. The application of a risk-based approach to regulatory review commensurate with a product’s risk to patients will facilitate the application of increased resources for pharmacovigilance activities and to support the reliance and recognition of reference agencies.Peer reviewe

A BIM-based PSS approach for the management of maintenance operations of building equipment

The service-centered economy has grown considerably in the last few years, shifting from product-based solutions towards service centered offerings, i.e., Product-Service System (PSS) solutions. Such an approach is also emerging in the context of building equipment, where maintenance activities play a fundamental role in facility management. In this field, Building Information Modeling (BIM) based tools are diffusely used to improve the performances of facility management. However, few studies have addressed the above issues while considering a shift from product-based approaches in favor of more advanced servitization models. The study aims at integrating BIM based approaches in a PSS context for the improvement of the management of maintenance operations of building equipment. A general framework for maintenance management has been developed, merging the implementation of the PSS components in a BIM model for the definition of maintenance management. A first application of this methodology to a real case study concerning the elevators of an existing building has shown the efficacy of the proposed approach. The study highlighted the benefits that can be achieved, especially in terms of reduced periods of equipment unavailability, reduced costs and augmented customer satisfaction, while enhancing the information exchange between the PSS actors. Hence, although further research is still needed for its validation, the proposed approach can offer practical insights for the development of promising BIM-based PSS solutions for facility management in the construction industry

The challenges for sustainable skills development in the UK automotive supply sector: policy and implementation

Original paper can be found at: http://www.gerpisa.univ-evry.fr/rencontre/16.rencontre/GERPISAJune2008/home.htmlThe European Automotive industry is a key strategic player in the European Union with an estimated 10 million workers. The majority of these work in the supply chain (CLEPA 2005). As a major employer, the sector must work to maintain its competitive edge if it is to keep that workforce engaged.Final Accepted Versio

Work Organisation and Innovation in Ireland

[Excerpt] Innovations in work organisation have the potential to optimise production processes in companies and improve employees’ overall experience of work. This report explores the links between innovations in work organisation – under the broader label of high performance work practices (HPWPs) – and the potential benefits for both employees and organisations. It draws on empirical evidence from three case studies carried out in the Republic of Ireland, where workplace innovations have resulted in positive outcomes and where social partners played a significant role in their design and development

Education policy: process, themes and impact

Education policy is high on the agenda of governments across the world as global pressures focus increasing attention on the outcomes of education policy and on the implications for economic prosperity and social citizenship. However, there is often an underdeveloped understanding of how education policy is formed, what drives it and how it impacts on schools and colleges. Education Policy: Process, Themes and Impact makes these connections and links them to the wider challenges of educational leadership in a contemporary context