Reducing Inbound Logistics Costs- A Case Study in the Chinese Automobile Industry

Globalization has made company competition more intense. Supply chain management has developed to enable companies to compete effectively. Logistics supports competitiveness of the supply chain as a whole by meeting customer demand both timely and at a competitive cost and inbound logistics cost management is considered to be a priority in reducing costs. As the Chinese automobile industry is China���������������¢��������������������������������s pillar industry, and China is believed to be a high logistics cost country, the researcher attempts to find out ways to reduce the inbound logistics costs in this industry. A case study is applied to address what aspects reflect the high logistics costs in the Chinese automotive company. The reasons which cause them are analyzed in detail and more importantly, implications on how to reduce the logistics costs are offered one by one. Inventory control is focused on, as it is the most effective way to reduce costs. Such recommendations as VMI, reducing uncertainty of demand, increasing shipping frequency, improving communications with suppliers, reducing safety stock, etc. are made to reduce inventory. Reduction of local parts transportation costs is considered. 3PL management is addressed to reduce warehousing cost and line stoppage cost, and optimizing material flow and improvement in company management skills are considered to reduce the material handling costs

Ongoing initiatives in China to enhance prescribing efficiency : impact and proposals for improvement

Pharmaceutical expenditure is currently rising by 16% per annum in China, greater in recent years. Initiatives to moderate this growth include drug pricing regulations, essential medicine lists and encouraging generic prescribing. These measures are principally concentrated in hospitals as they account for over 80% of total pharmaceutical expenditure. However, no monitoring of prescribing and perverse incentives enhances irrational prescribing. Review the influence of recent measures on subsequent utilization and expenditure of high-volume classes in China to provide future guidance. Principally a narrative review of published studies of the proton pump inhibitors (PPIs), statins, renin–angiotensin inhibitor drugs and traditional Chinese medicines (TCMs) between 2004 and 2013 in the largest teaching hospital group in Chongqing District. Appeciable increase in drug utilisation including TCMs. Generics typically only 30% to 34% of total utilisation for the molecule for CV medicines, with decreasing trends in recent years. Greater utilisation of generic PPIs; however, this includes generic injectable preparations with considerably higher prices. Prices decreased over time, with appreciable reductions for some generics. Overall, considerable opportunities to save resources without compromising care. Restricting the formulary to just one statin, angiotensin receptor blocker or PPI based on the cheapest one would have saved 50-84% of total accumulated expenditures. Encouraging to see high utilisation of generic PPIs and low prices for some oral generics. However, real progress will only be made by addressing current perverse financial incentives. Potential reforms could include limiting the number of available medicines in a class to enhance the quality and efficiency of prescribing

Initiatives to improve prescribing efficiency in China and their influence : cardio-cerebral vascular medicines as a case history to provide future direction

Background: Pharmaceutical expenditure has grown by 16% per annum in China during the past decade. This has been enhanced by increased coverage as well as incentives to physicians and hospitals. Hospital pharmacies dispense 80% of medicines in China, with medicines currently accounting for 46% of total hospital expenditure. Hospitals currently rely on revenues from procurement of medicines for their sustainability. Principal measures to moderate growth in drug expenditure include initiatives to reduce procured drug prices. However, to date no formal pricing policies for generics in China similar to Europe and limited demand-side measures to enhance appropriate prescribing, e.g. no universal measures to monitor the quality of prescribing. Current incentives have led to irrationality in prescribing; e.g. high use of injectable drugs, antibiotics and traditional Chinese medicines (TCMs) despite the development of essential medicine lists. Objective: Assess current utilisation and expenditure of CV medicines including TCMs between 2006 and 2012 and compare the findings with Western European countries. Methods: Uncontrolled retrospective study of prescriptions to treat cardio-vascular disease in one of the largest hospitals in Southwest China. Results: Utilisation of CV drugs increased 3.3 fold during the study period, greatest for TCMs. Procured expenditure increased 4.85 fold. Variable utilisation of generics at 29% to 31% of the total for each molecule in recent years among high volume pharmacotherapeutic products. However, low prices for generics have been achieved through multiple supply-side measures, matching those achieved among some European countries. Continued irrationality in prescribing is seen with high use TCMs despite limited evidence and the utilisation of drugs dropping significantly once low prices procured. Conclusion: Prices still have appreciable impact on the subsequent utilization of different CV drugs in China. Consequently, there is appreciable potential to introduce measures similar to Western Europe to improve future rationality and reduce overall drug costs. This could include robust formularies, quality targets and financial incentives. We are beginning to see improved rationality in the use of medicines with a reduction in TCMs. This will be monitored along with other suggestions to further enhance accessibility to medicines in China without prohibitive increases in pharmaceutical and overall expenditure

Analysis of the influence of recent reforms in China : cardiovascular and cerebrovascular medicines as a case history to provide future direction

Background: Pharmaceutical expenditure has grown by 16% per annum in China, enhanced by incentives for physicians and hospitals. Hospital pharmacies dispense 80% of medicines in China, accounting for 46% of total hospital expenditure. Principal measures to moderate drug expenditure growth include pricing initiatives as limited demand-side measures. Objective: Assess current utilization and expenditure including traditional Chinese medicines (TCMs) between 2006 and 2012. Methods: Uncontrolled retrospective study of medicines to treat cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases in one of the largest hospitals in southwest China. Results: Utilization increased 3.3-fold for cerebrovascular medicines, greatest for TCMs, with expenditure increasing 4.85-fold. Low prices for generics were seen, similar to Europe. However, there was variable utilization of generics at 29-31% of total product volumes in recent years. There continued to be irrationality in prescribing with high use of TCMs, and the utilization of different medicines dropping significantly once they achieved low prices. Conclusion: Prices still have an appreciable impact on utilization in China. Potential measures similar to those implemented among western European countries could improve prescribing rationality and conserve resources

Data-driven supply chain capabilities and performance: A resource-based view

Despite the importance and relevance of data-driven supply chains, there has been very limited empirical research that investigates how big data-driven supply chains affect supply chain capabilities. Drawing on the resource-based view, this study explores the effect of data-driven supply chain capabilities on financial performance. The data for this study were gathered from China’s manufacturing industry and analysed using structural equation modelling. The results indicate that a data-driven supply chain has a significant positive effect on the four dimensions of supply chain capabilities. Coordination and supply chain responsiveness are positively and significantly related to financial performance

Eogenetic karst and its control on reservoirs in the Ordovician Majiagou Formation, eastern Sulige gas field, Ordos Basin, NW China

To further ascertain the origin of the Ordovician Majiagou Formation reservoirs in the Ordos Basin, the M54-M51 sub-members of the Ordovician Majiagou Formation in the eastern Sulige gasfield of Ordos Basin were taken as examples to analyze the vertical development characteristics of eogenetic karst and to discover the dissolution mechanism and its control on reservoirs through observation of a large number of cores and thin sections. According to detailed analysis of petrologic characteristics, the reservoir rock types include micritic dolomite, grain dolomite and microbialite which have mainly moldic pore, intergranular (dissolved) pore, and (dissolved) residual framework pore as main reservoir space respectively. The study area developed upward-shallowing sequences, with an exposure surface at the top of a single upward-shallowing sequence. The karst systems under the exposure surface had typical exposure characteristics of early dissolution and filling, indicating these reservoirs were related to the facies-controlled eogenetic karstification. With the increase of karstification intensity, the reservoirs became worse in physical properties

A new chromosome-scale duck genome shows a major histocompatibility complex with several expanded multigene families

BACKGROUND: The duck (Anas platyrhynchos) is one of the principal natural hosts of influenza A virus (IAV), harbors almost all subtypes of IAVs and resists to many IAVs which cause extreme virulence in chicken and human. However, the response of duck's adaptive immune system to IAV infection is poorly characterized due to lack of a detailed gene map of the major histocompatibility complex (MHC).RESULTS: We herein reported a chromosome-scale Beijing duck assembly by integrating Nanopore, Bionano, and Hi-C data. This new reference genome SKLA1.0 covers 40 chromosomes, improves the contig N50 of the previous duck assembly with highest contiguity (ZJU1.0) of more than a 5.79-fold, surpasses the chicken and zebra finch references in sequence contiguity and contains a complete genomic map of the MHC. Our 3D MHC genomic map demonstrated that gene family arrangement in this region was primordial; however, families such as AnplMHCI, AnplMHCIIβ, AnplDMB, NKRL (NK cell receptor-like genes) and BTN underwent gene expansion events making this area complex. These gene families are distributed in two TADs and genes sharing the same TAD may work in a co-regulated model.CONCLUSIONS: These observations supported the hypothesis that duck's adaptive immunity had been optimized with expanded and diversified key immune genes which might help duck to combat influenza virus. This work provided a high-quality Beijing duck genome for biological research and shed light on new strategies for AIV control.</p

Genomic monitoring of SARS-CoV-2 uncovers an Nsp1 deletion variant that modulates type I interferon response

The SARS-CoV-2 virus, the causative agent of COVID-19, is undergoing constant mutation. Here, we utilized an integrative approach combining epidemiology, virus genome sequencing, clinical phenotyping, and experimental validation to locate mutations of clinical importance. We identified 35 recurrent variants, some of which are associated with clinical phenotypes related to severity. One variant, containing a deletion in the Nsp1-coding region (D500-532), was found in more than 20% of our sequenced samples and associates with higher RT-PCR cycle thresholds and lower serum IFN-beta levels of infected patients. Deletion variants in this locus were found in 37 countries worldwide, and viruses isolated from clinical samples or engineered by reverse genetics with related deletions in Nsp1 also induce lower IFN-beta responses in infected Calu-3 cells. Taken together, our virologic surveillance characterizes recurrent genetic diversity and identified mutations in Nsp1 of biological and clinical importance, which collectively may aid molecular diagnostics and drug design.Peer reviewe

The impacts of IT capability and marketing capability on supply chain integration: A resource-based perspective

Although previous research has addressed the interface and logical association among marketing, information technology (IT) and supply chain management, there have been few, if any, attempts to investigate how IT capability and marketing capability influence supply chain integration (SCI). Thus, this study investigates the direct and interacting effects of IT capability and marketing capability on SCI. The hypothesised relationships were tested using survey data gathered from 329 firms in China’s manufacturing industry. The results reveal that both IT capability and marketing capability have a significant positive effect on SCI. Interestingly, no significant interaction effect was found, indicating that marketing IT capability and marketing capability influence SCI independently, and not synergistically. However, while IT capability and marketing capability do not interact, IT capability does mediate the impact of marketing capability on SCI