The economic and environmental performance of distribution networks: A case study from the petrochemical industry

Designing a company's distribution network is a challenging task that requires the consideration of different aspects. In this respect, especially trade-offs between, for example, operational costs and customer service are the focus of the companies' attention. However, growing concerns of governments and customers about environmental protection have raised awareness towards the environmental impact of operations. Activities associated with the distribution of products, i.e. transportation and warehousing, are not yet subject to strict environmental regulations, but this situation is expected to change soon. Companies must, therefore, start to concentrate not only on economic but also on environmental aspects in the design of their supply chain. Based on a case study from the petrochemical industry, this paper presents a way to combine both, economic as well as environmental criteria, when evaluating (strategic) distribution network design decisions. The results show a trade-off between total (distribution) costs and transport carbon emissions. (author's abstract

A newsvendor model with service and loss constraints

Actual performance measurement systems do not only consider financial measures like costs and profits but also non-financial indicators with respect customer service, quality and flexibility. Using the newsvendor model we explore the influence of possibly conflicting performance measures on important operations decisions like the order quantity and the selling price of a product. For price-independent as well as price-dependent demand distribution like in the classical newsvendor model the objective is to maximise the expected profit. But the optimal decisions are computed with respect to a service constraint - a lower bound for the level of product availability - and to a loss constraint - an upper bound for the probability of resulting in loss. For the price-independent model a condition for the existence of an optimal order quantity and its structure is presented. For the price-setting newsvendor the admissible region of the order quantity and the selling price is characterised for the additive and the multiplicative model. Furthermore, it is shown that higher variability of demand leads to a smaller admissible region of the decision variables thereby easing the computation of the optimal decisions.Constrained Newsvendor Model, Price-Setting Newsvendor

Performance Measurement for Inventory Models with Risk Preferences

In financial economics in general the objective function expresses the risk preferences of the decision maker, see for example the mean variance approach in portfolio theory. Only recently in inventory management instead of maximizing expected profit or minimizing expected cost risk-averse objective functions have been used for determining the optimal order quantity. Examples are the exponential utility function and the conditional value at risk criterion. We use the well-known newsvendor model to determine the optimal performance measures for an objective function with two risk parameters, which can describe risk neutral, risk averse as well as risk taking behaviour of the inventory manager. We provide for this approach a complete characterization with respect to the performance measures expected profit and service level. We show that a risk averse inventory manager can not dominate a risk neutral or a risk taking inventory manager. Finally, we provide a managerial guideline for selecting the appropriate risk parameters of the objective function.Performance Measurement, Risk Preferences, Newsvendor Model

"Von der Frauenzeitung bis zu #Aufschrei - Die Zukunft der deutschsprachigen Frauen-/Lesbenarchive und -Bibliotheken". Bericht über die 48. Tagung der Frauen-/Lesbenarchive und -Bibliotheken (Leipzig, 18.-20.10.2013).

Report on a conference on women's and lesbian archives and libraries in German-speaking Europe in Leipzig in October 2013

Textual Patterns for PR on City Marketing when dealing with a German and Italian speaking area

Aquesta contribució pretén explorar els models textuals i les característiques lingüístiques que porten a l’èxit en l’estratègia de màrqueting subjacent a la promoció recíproca d’una ciutat i un gran esdeveniment esportiu. Els factors d’imatge rellevants de les dues realitats que s’han de transferir mútuament, un cop definides pels promotors, requereixen una realització lingüística i textualment coherent. Generalment ja es posa atenció en els aspectes lingüísticament superficials, però sovint no s’incideix prou amb la cohesió del text quan s’informa sobre un esdeveniment relatiu a la ciutat. KEY WORDS: Mutual City and Event Marketing, Coordinated Communication, Key Image Factors to be Mutually Transferred, Textual Cohesion, Textual Patterns, Linguistic Features. PARAULES CLAU: màrqueting mutu de ciutat i esdeveniment, comunicació coordinada, factors d’imatge clau a ser mútuament transferits, cohesió del text, models textuals, característiques lingüístiques

Competence Evaluation in German as a Foreign Language for PR

This contribution presents the findings of an investigation of the competences, levels of performance and progress of students who were enrolled in German as a Foreign Language (GFL) courses within the Public Relations program at the University of Udine (Italy). Besides domain-specific, methodological, personal and socio-communicational as well as linguistic and culture-specific competences, the intercultural competence and competence awareness are highlighted. The data gathered during two academic years are performance- and process-oriented. They have been analyzed on the basis of a multi-perspective approach. The Kassel-Competence-Grid served as a diagnostic instrument for competence evaluation in professional settings. In order to assess the students’ language competence, various tools closely connected to the Common European Framework of Reference were applied

Facility location decisions with environmental considerations. A case study from the petrochemical industry

The recently growing concerns of customers and governments about environmental protection and greenhouse gas reduction have forced companies to integrate the topic of environmental sustainability into their decision making. Facility location decisions are of special relevance in this respect because of their strategic nature. Furthermore, many different trade-offs must be considered, for example between operational costs and customer service. But as soon as environmental issues are concerned, other critical issues must be considered as well. Based on a case study from the petrochemical industry, this paper extends two basic facility location models and shows the impact of distribution network-design decisions on the economic and environmental performance of the company. The results show a trade-off between total (distribution) costs and transport carbon emissions. (authors' abstract

Sustainable sourcing of strategic raw materials by integrating recycled materials

In this paper we investigate a manufacturer's sustainable sourcing strategy that includes recycled materials. To produce a short life-cycle electronic good, strategic raw materials can be bought from virgin material suppliers in advance of the season and via emergency shipments, as well as from a recycler. Hence, we take into account virgin and recycled materials from different sources simultaneously. Recycling makes it possible to integrate raw materials out of steadily increasing waste streams back into production processes. Considering stochastic prices for recycled materials, stochastic supply quantities from the recycler and stochastic demand as well as their potential dependencies, we develop a single-period inventory model to derive the order quantities for virgin and recycled raw materials to determine the related costs and to evaluate the effectiveness of the sourcing strategy. We provide managerial insights into the benefits of such a green sourcing approach with recycling and compare this strategy to standard sourcing without recycling. We conduct a full factorial design and a detailed numerical sensitivity analysis on the key input parameters to evaluate the cost savings potential. Furthermore, we consider the effects of correlations between the stochastic parameters. Green sourcing is especially beneficial in terms of cost savings for high demand variability, high prices of virgin raw material and low expected recycling prices as well as for increasing standard deviation of the recycling price. Besides these advantages it also contributes to environmental sustainability as, compared to sourcing without recycling, it reduces the total quantity ordered and, hence, emissions are reduced

Citylogistik und intermodaler Transport als Unterstützer grüner Logistik

Logistik ist ein wichtiger Eckpfeiler der Wirtschaft, ist aber mit sehr starken negativen Auswirkungen für die Umwelt verbunden. Innovative Ideen, die die negativen ökologischen Auswirkungen der Logistik reduzieren und gleichzeitig die wirtschaftlich notwendige Gestaltung der Logistik ermöglichen, sind essenziell. In diesem Artikel werden zwei Ansätze beschrieben, wie Logistik nachhaltiger gestaltet werden kann. Auf der einen Seite wird über Citylogistik berichtet, auf der anderen Seite werden die Besonderheiten des intermodalen Verkehrs analysiert. Anschließend werden Projekte, die in letzter Zeit zu diesem Thema abgeschlossen wurden, vorgestellt. Dabei wird ein besonderer Fokus auf die Rolle quantitativer Modelle gelegt

Über 20 Jahre ARIADNE. Die frauenspezifische Information und Dokumentation der Österreichischen Nationalbibliothek

1992 Ariadne was founded as women's information and documentation centre at the Austrian National Library (ANL). Since that time it has worked both at the documentary processing of the current women-, gender-related and feminist literature holdings and on the visualization of the historical collections of the ANL. In this article the position of Ariadne as a women's information and documentation centre, as part of the ANL, at the intersection to women's movement, feminist scene and Women and Gender Studies is reflected. After more than 20 years of activity the review of the history will show what Ariadne has done and where boundaries lie, which claims and concerns were the starting points for the work and why it needs today institutions such as Ariadne