Maintaining and improving supplier relations with auditing– A study at ABB Sweden and Singapore

Background: In today’s globalized world, many producing companies depend on large supplier networks. Supplier relations require maintenance and a tool for that is supplier auditing. ABB is a leader in power and automation technologies that enable industrial customers to improve performance while lowering environmental impact. ABB business division Process Automation (PA) and business unit Control Technologies (CT), abbreviated as PACT, has established close partnerships with many of their suppliers. This emphasizes the importance of conducting audits, since a supplier partnership means mutual dependence between the parties. ABB PACT has to be able to rely on the contracted supplier’s performance, while the supplier has to be able to rely on ABB as a strong and long-term customer. Key actors within auditing at ABB PACT express that there is room for improvement within the audit processes. Purpose: The purpose of this Master Thesis is divided into two parts. The first part is to find out whether there is improvement potential of the audit processes and the use of audits at ABB PACT both in Sweden and Singapore. The second part is to find out how the audit processes could be improved. Research questions: By introducing generic research questions that do not focus on a specific case, this Master Thesis has potential to contribute with findings for the academy in general as well. This study will answer the following research questions in order to achieve the purpose: Frequency • What is an appropriate frequency for conducting supplier audits in order to maintain and develop supplier relations? Measurement • What is an appropriate design for a measurement system that facilitates and motivates for supplier performance improvements? vi Consistency • What is an appropriate way of administrating and documenting audits in a consequent manner in order to facilitate information sharing and communication between auditors? Competence • What is an appropriate level of competence for auditors in order to conduct efficient audits and how can it be achieved? Method: A mixture of the systems approach and the actors approach are used in this Master Thesis. The systems approach includes both qualitative and quantitative data collection and the actors approach is used since many personal opinions have played an important role in the study. Furthermore, an abductive research strategy is used, since the study results are derived from critically evaluating a combination of obvious values and observed processes. Mostly qualitative data from interviews and a survey is used. The survey and old audit material also contribute with some quantitative data. The data collection methods are a literature study, interviews, a survey, and a case study. Findings: This study proves that there is improvement potential regarding the policy for when to conduct audits, the measurement system in the audit templates, the consistency in the audit process and the level of competence among the auditors. A prerequisite for the following recommendations to be useful is a clear supplier audit organization. The following suggestions are the authors’ recommendations to ABB for how more consistent, efficient and probably better audits will be achieved: • There should be clear instructions regarding the annual supplier KPI update and the result of it should show clearly if an audit has to be conducted or not. • All audit templates should use the same scoring system with a passing level at 50% and each graded question should be commented and motivated. • Each audit guide should contain a Gantt chart clearly showing the activities in the audit process and the documents used in each step of the process. • The responsibilities pre, during and post audit should be clearly stated and communicated. • Classroom training of internal audit procedures should be offered vii The following conclusions apply to the research questions. An appropriate frequency for when to conduct an audit was not found. Instead, the findings show that the importance lies within having a well implemented and communicated policy for deciding whether a supplier has to be audited or not. If such a policy is not already implemented, it should be done and communicated clearly. An appropriate design for a measurement system was found. The same scoring system should apply for all audits, it should contain an appropriate scoring scale that notices and motivates potential improvements and it should require the auditor to comment and motivate the given scores. An appropriate way of administrating and documenting audits in a consequent way was found. The audits should contain a clear schedule for the different steps, tasks and documents used in an audit. The audit responsibilities should also be clearly communicated. The documentation of an audit should be administrated through a global database. A competent auditor should have both process and audit knowledge. However, an appropriate level of competence is hard to decide on. In the ABB case, the general opinion is that the auditors’ process knowledge is big but that the auditors lack in specific audit competence. By providing internal audit training for the auditors, the appropriate level of holistic competencecould be achieved

Историческая антропонимия сербско-хорватского языка как источник реконструкции праславянской лексики

(uk) Статтю присвячено словотвірно-етимологічному аналізу групи слов'янських особових імен, засвідчених у пам'ятках писемності сербсько-хорватської мови. Результатом аналізу виступає реконструкція архаїчних лексем, які зникли зі слов'янського апелятивного словника.(ru) Статья посвящена словообразовательно-этимологическому анализу группы славянских личных имен, засвидетельствованных в памятниках письменности сербско­хорватского языка. Результатом анализа стача реконструкция ряда архаичных лексем, утраченных в славянском апеллативном словаре.(en) The article is devoted to the word-formative etymological analysis o f a number o f Slavonic personal names, verified in the historical papers o f serbo-croatian language. The result o f the analysis is the reconstruction o f a series o f archaic lexemes lost in the Slavonic appellative vocabulary

Pitfalls in assessing stromal tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (sTILs) in breast cancer

Stromal tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (sTILs) are important prognostic and predictive biomarkers in triple-negative (TNBC) and HER2-positive breast cancer. Incorporating sTILs into clinical practice necessitates reproducible assessment. Previously developed standardized scoring guidelines have been widely embraced by the clinical and research communities. We evaluated sources of variability in sTIL assessment by pathologists in three previous sTIL ring studies. We identify common challenges and evaluate impact of discrepancies on outcome estimates in early TNBC using a newly-developed prognostic tool. Discordant sTIL assessment is driven by heterogeneity in lymphocyte distribution. Additional factors include: technical slide-related issues; scoring outside the tumor boundary; tumors with minimal assessable stroma; including lymphocytes associated with other structures; and including other inflammatory cells. Small variations in sTIL assessment modestly alter risk estimation in early TNBC but have the potential to affect treatment selection if cutpoints are employed. Scoring and averaging multiple areas, as well as use of reference images, improve consistency of sTIL evaluation. Moreover, to assist in avoiding the pitfalls identified in this analysis, we developed an educational resource available at www.tilsinbreastcancer.org/pitfalls.Stromal tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (sTILs) are important prognostic and predictive biomarkers in triple-negative (TNBC) and HER2-positive breast cancer. Incorporating sTILs into clinical practice necessitates reproducible assessment. Previously developed standardized scoring guidelines have been widely embraced by the clinical and research communities. We evaluated sources of variability in sTIL assessment by pathologists in three previous sTIL ring studies. We identify common challenges and evaluate impact of discrepancies on outcome estimates in early TNBC using a newly-developed prognostic tool. Discordant sTIL assessment is driven by heterogeneity in lymphocyte distribution. Additional factors include: technical slide-related issues; scoring outside the tumor boundary; tumors with minimal assessable stroma; including lymphocytes associated with other structures; and including other inflammatory cells. Small variations in sTIL assessment modestly alter risk estimation in early TNBC but have the potential to affect treatment selection if cutpoints are employed. Scoring and averaging multiple areas, as well as use of reference images, improve consistency of sTIL evaluation. Moreover, to assist in avoiding the pitfalls identified in this analysis, we developed an educational resource available at www.tilsinbreastcancer.org/pitfalls.Peer reviewe

Pitfalls in machine learning‐based assessment of tumor‐infiltrating lymphocytes in breast cancer: a report of the international immuno‐oncology biomarker working group

The clinical significance of the tumor-immune interaction in breast cancer (BC) has been well established, and tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) have emerged as a predictive and prognostic biomarker for patients with triple-negative (estrogen receptor, progesterone receptor, and HER2 negative) breast cancer (TNBC) and HER2-positive breast cancer. How computational assessment of TILs can complement manual TIL-assessment in trial- and daily practices is currently debated and still unclear. Recent efforts to use machine learning (ML) for the automated evaluation of TILs show promising results. We review state-of-the-art approaches and identify pitfalls and challenges by studying the root cause of ML discordances in comparison to manual TILs quantification. We categorize our findings into four main topics; (i) technical slide issues, (ii) ML and image analysis aspects, (iii) data challenges, and (iv) validation issues. The main reason for discordant assessments is the inclusion of false-positive areas or cells identified by performance on certain tissue patterns, or design choices in the computational implementation. To aid the adoption of ML in TILs assessment, we provide an in-depth discussion of ML and image analysis including validation issues that need to be considered before reliable computational reporting of TILs can be incorporated into the trial- and routine clinical management of patients with TNBC

Report on computational assessment of Tumor Infiltrating Lymphocytes from the International Immuno-Oncology Biomarker Working Group.

Funder: U.S. Department of Health & Human Services | NIH | National Cancer Institute (NCI)Funder: National Center for Research Resources under award number 1 C06 RR12463-01, VA Merit Review Award IBX004121A from the United States Department of Veterans Affairs Biomedical Laboratory Research and Development Service, the DOD Prostate Cancer Idea Development Award (W81XWH-15-1-0558), the DOD Lung Cancer Investigator-Initiated Translational Research Award (W81XWH-18-1-0440), the DOD Peer Reviewed Cancer Research Program (W81XWH-16-1-0329), the Ohio Third Frontier Technology Validation Fund, the Wallace H. Coulter Foundation Program in the Department of Biomedical Engineering and the Clinical and Translational Science Award Program (CTSA) at Case Western Reserve University.Funder: Susan G Komen Foundation (CCR CCR18547966) and a Young Investigator Grant from the Breast Cancer Alliance.Funder: The Canadian Cancer SocietyFunder: Breast Cancer Research Foundation (BCRF), Grant No. 17-194Assessment of tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) is increasingly recognized as an integral part of the prognostic workflow in triple-negative (TNBC) and HER2-positive breast cancer, as well as many other solid tumors. This recognition has come about thanks to standardized visual reporting guidelines, which helped to reduce inter-reader variability. Now, there are ripe opportunities to employ computational methods that extract spatio-morphologic predictive features, enabling computer-aided diagnostics. We detail the benefits of computational TILs assessment, the readiness of TILs scoring for computational assessment, and outline considerations for overcoming key barriers to clinical translation in this arena. Specifically, we discuss: 1. ensuring computational workflows closely capture visual guidelines and standards; 2. challenges and thoughts standards for assessment of algorithms including training, preanalytical, analytical, and clinical validation; 3. perspectives on how to realize the potential of machine learning models and to overcome the perceptual and practical limits of visual scoring

Application of a risk-management framework for integration of stromal tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes in clinical trials

Funder: Breast Cancer Research Foundation (BCRF); doi: https://doi.org/10.13039/100001006Abstract: Stromal tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (sTILs) are a potential predictive biomarker for immunotherapy response in metastatic triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC). To incorporate sTILs into clinical trials and diagnostics, reliable assessment is essential. In this review, we propose a new concept, namely the implementation of a risk-management framework that enables the use of sTILs as a stratification factor in clinical trials. We present the design of a biomarker risk-mitigation workflow that can be applied to any biomarker incorporation in clinical trials. We demonstrate the implementation of this concept using sTILs as an integral biomarker in a single-center phase II immunotherapy trial for metastatic TNBC (TONIC trial, NCT02499367), using this workflow to mitigate risks of suboptimal inclusion of sTILs in this specific trial. In this review, we demonstrate that a web-based scoring platform can mitigate potential risk factors when including sTILs in clinical trials, and we argue that this framework can be applied for any future biomarker-driven clinical trial setting

Pitfalls in assessing stromal tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (sTILs) in breast cancer

Abstract: Stromal tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (sTILs) are important prognostic and predictive biomarkers in triple-negative (TNBC) and HER2-positive breast cancer. Incorporating sTILs into clinical practice necessitates reproducible assessment. Previously developed standardized scoring guidelines have been widely embraced by the clinical and research communities. We evaluated sources of variability in sTIL assessment by pathologists in three previous sTIL ring studies. We identify common challenges and evaluate impact of discrepancies on outcome estimates in early TNBC using a newly-developed prognostic tool. Discordant sTIL assessment is driven by heterogeneity in lymphocyte distribution. Additional factors include: technical slide-related issues; scoring outside the tumor boundary; tumors with minimal assessable stroma; including lymphocytes associated with other structures; and including other inflammatory cells. Small variations in sTIL assessment modestly alter risk estimation in early TNBC but have the potential to affect treatment selection if cutpoints are employed. Scoring and averaging multiple areas, as well as use of reference images, improve consistency of sTIL evaluation. Moreover, to assist in avoiding the pitfalls identified in this analysis, we developed an educational resource available at www.tilsinbreastcancer.org/pitfalls

Report on computational assessment of Tumor Infiltrating Lymphocytes from the International Immuno-Oncology Biomarker Working Group

Funder: U.S. Department of Health & Human Services | NIH | National Cancer Institute (NCI)Funder: National Center for Research Resources under award number 1 C06 RR12463-01, VA Merit Review Award IBX004121A from the United States Department of Veterans Affairs Biomedical Laboratory Research and Development Service, the DOD Prostate Cancer Idea Development Award (W81XWH-15-1-0558), the DOD Lung Cancer Investigator-Initiated Translational Research Award (W81XWH-18-1-0440), the DOD Peer Reviewed Cancer Research Program (W81XWH-16-1-0329), the Ohio Third Frontier Technology Validation Fund, the Wallace H. Coulter Foundation Program in the Department of Biomedical Engineering and the Clinical and Translational Science Award Program (CTSA) at Case Western Reserve University.Funder: Susan G Komen Foundation (CCR CCR18547966) and a Young Investigator Grant from the Breast Cancer Alliance.Funder: The Canadian Cancer SocietyFunder: Breast Cancer Research Foundation (BCRF), Grant No. 17-194Abstract: Assessment of tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) is increasingly recognized as an integral part of the prognostic workflow in triple-negative (TNBC) and HER2-positive breast cancer, as well as many other solid tumors. This recognition has come about thanks to standardized visual reporting guidelines, which helped to reduce inter-reader variability. Now, there are ripe opportunities to employ computational methods that extract spatio-morphologic predictive features, enabling computer-aided diagnostics. We detail the benefits of computational TILs assessment, the readiness of TILs scoring for computational assessment, and outline considerations for overcoming key barriers to clinical translation in this arena. Specifically, we discuss: 1. ensuring computational workflows closely capture visual guidelines and standards; 2. challenges and thoughts standards for assessment of algorithms including training, preanalytical, analytical, and clinical validation; 3. perspectives on how to realize the potential of machine learning models and to overcome the perceptual and practical limits of visual scoring