On multi-stage production/inventory systems under stochastic demand

This paper was presented at the 1992 Conference of the International Society of Inventory Research in Budapest, as a tribute to professor Andrew C. Clark for his inspiring work on multi-echelon inventory models both in theory and practice. It reviews and extends the work of the authors on periodic review serial and convergent multi-echelon systems under stochastic stationary demand. In particular, we highlight the structure of echelon cost functions which play a central role in the derivation of the decomposition results and the optimality of base stock policies. The resulting optimal base stock policy is then compared with an MRP system in terms of cost effectiveness, given a predefined target customer service level. Another extension concerns an at first glance rather different problem; it is shown that the problem of setting safety leadtimes in a multi-stage production-to-order system with stochastic lead times leads to similar decomposition structures as those derived for multi-stage inventory systems. Finally, a discussion on possible extensions to capacitated models, models with uncertainty in both demand and production lead time as well as models with an aborescent structure concludes the paper

The development of cross-border economic relationships between firms in border regions

Central question of this paper is what effects a state border has on the development of cross-border economic relationships in border regions. First the geographical spread of these relationships is analysed. Next a theoretical model is proposed to explain the pattern and the decision-process of bilateral international economic relationships. The model is mainly based on four theories: 1. the transaction costs approach on cross border economic relations under the condition of uncertainty. 2. The 'psychic distance' approach, which considers internationalization as an incremental learning process. The speed of the internationalization of a firm is determined by the experiential knowledge about the foreign country. 3. The network-approach, which considers (international) markets as networks. Firms are linked in patterns of cooperation and affiliation. Cooperation and not efficiency of transactions determine the behaviour of firms. 4. The socio-psychological approach of relations and social identity, which stresses the role of cognitive and affective aspects of cross-border relationships. These theories have lead to the model of INTERnational Formation of Autonomous Cooperation between Entrepreneurs (INTERFACE). The INTERFACE model distinguishes between different phases of relationship-building, namely contact, attraction (the choice for the partner), interaction (the negotiation about the conditions), transaction (the realization of the agreement/contract) and relationship. This relationship-development model is used to describe the process of the development of cross-border economic relationships and to explain the number and success of cross-border economic relationships. The model is empirically tested for a large sample of firms in two Dutch-Belgian border regions. The study is part of a dissertation on the development of cross-border economic relationships. The findings of the model suggests that the action-space of the firms, in terms of informal embeddedness and economic relationships, is spatially limited by the presence of the border. The factors of similarity and trust between the partners are found to be the most important determinants of success of cross-border economic relationships. The dimensions of expectations on the discrepancy in business conventions, the expectations on the success of economic relations in the neighbouring country and the strictness of the financial-economic terms of the relationship play a major role in determining the number of cross-border economic relationships. This is defined as the 'mental distance' effect of borders

The political autoimmunity of the COVID-19 response: how national borders and patents undermine a sustainable and equitable global health

* We argue that the COVID-19 pandemic response has been characterised by a Derridean ‘political autoimmunity’, undermining a sustainable and equitable protection of global health. * This self-harming immunisation politics has been driven by a coalesce of national borderism, which excludes people on the basis of national borders, and patentism, which privileges the treatment of wealthy countries and people who can afford the patented medicines and vaccines. * To globally counter these politically autoimmune strategies now and in the future, we argue to remind political leaders and patent holders of today of the classical physician’s Hippocratic oath, and to strive for a truly inclusive, pandemocratic health politics beyond national origin and income

‘Keeping on the move without letting pass’: Rethinking biopolitics through mobility"

“This is the sixth time that I am coming back to the border, in Ventimiglia, after being taken by force to the city of Taranto. I am now trying again to cross to France, I really hope that this time I make it, as I have no money and no energies left”. M., a Sudanese national who arrived in Italy in 2018 from Libya, is one of the many migrants who try to cross to France, along the coast, passing through the Italian city of Ventimiglia. Yet, most of those who try are pushed back to Italy by the French police, sometimes being held for hours in the police station at the border, without being allowed to claim asylum. On the Italian side of the border, some migrants are randomly caught by the police and put on one of the coaches and, on a weekly basis, transferred to Taranto, a city located 1200 kilometres southern of Ventimiglia. Migrants are taken to the Hotspot of Taranto and, after being identified, they are usually released few days later; the majority of them goes back to the Italian-French border, by train or by bus, despite they might be exhausted and running out money. Such a routinised police practice of internal forced transfers does not discourage migrants from going back to Ventimiglia and from trying again and again; nor are migrants taken to Taranto with the goal of detaining them for long time. And yet, they are kept on the move, forced to divert their routes and to repeat the same journey multiple times. The forced hyper-mobility of the migrants who try to cross to France from Ventimiglia is not an exceptional case study; rather, the focus on Ventimiglia sheds light on the dramatic migrants’ goose game , that is, on the convoluted geographies that they are forced to undertake due to legal restrictions, police measures, spatial blockages and ad-ministrative violence

Collective Discussion: Movement and Carceral Spatiality in the Pandemic

Various measures of mobility restrictions were introduced since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. This collective discussion examines them in relation to six different carceral techniques that govern movement: citizenship, nativism, colonialism, infrastructure, gender, and borders. We investigate how these spatializing techniques of carcerality have been modified and strengthened in the pandemic and their implications for how we conceptualize migration. Our conversation revolves around the relationality between movement and confinement to argue that they are not in opposition but work in tandem: Their meanings become interchangeable, and their relationship is reconfigured. In this collective discussion, we are interested in how to analyze movement/migration in ways that do not define the pandemic through temporal boundaries to mark its beginning and ending

Internationalisation and Mental Borders

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The political autoimmunity of the COVID-19 response: how national borders and patents undermine a sustainable and equitable global health

We argue that the COVID-19 pandemic response has been characterised by a Derridean ‘political autoimmunity’, undermining a sustainable and equitable protection of global health.This self-harming immunisation politics has been driven by a coalesce of national borderism, which excludes people on the basis of national borders, and patentism, which privileges the treatment of wealthy countries and people who can afford the patented medicines and vaccines.To globally counter these politically autoimmune strategies now and in the future, we argue to remind political leaders and patent holders of today of the classical physician’s Hippocratic oath, and to strive for a truly inclusive, pandemocratic health politics beyond national origin and income